A recent research study (Nwaru et al. 2014 ¹) synthetized the self-reported lifetime prevalence of food allergy in a pooled estimate of 17.3% (with 95% Confidence interval 17.0–17.6).
You will probably already know if you have any classic allergies to foods, whereas you may have not noticed food sensitivities but maybe you present somatic symptoms. Emotional disturbances may play a role in the pathogenesis and the complaints might be an expression of emotional problems like anxiety and depressive disorders.

ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

A recent study (Lillestøl et al. , 2010 ²) compared a group of people (N=130) with gastrointestinal complaints self-attributed to food hypersensitivity to a control group (N=75) randomly selected from the general population in Norway, matched by age and sex. According to interviews, 57% of patients fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder. Anxiety disorders (34%) and depression (16%) predominated.

The research study results found anxiety and depression common in patients with irritable bowel syndrome-like complaints self-attributed to food hypersensitivity and suggest that assessment of depression and anxiety disorders may be a useful approach in the clinical investigation of patients with self-reported food hypersensitivity.

Anyway don’t worry! Food sensitivities could be improved and don’t need to be a severe or life-long condition say MIND experts ³ . An option to discover them is a special diet called the elimination and challenge diet. This is when you cut out a food, completely, for about two weeks(elimination stage), and then reintroduce it (challenge stage). This method is almost certainly best tackled with the support of a healthcare professional.

If you experience a strong reaction to a food that you have been avoiding confirms the body’s dislike of that food. Eating different foods on different days (so called rotation diet), may be recommended.

During the elimination stage, because you are giving your body a prolonged rest from a food, you may experience some unpleasant, but bearable, discomfort (withdrawal phase).
Indeed, it is recommended that you consult a healthcare professional before making any major changes to your diet.

Some common sentences ⁴

• “Salt will raise my blood pressure.”
• “Fat will make me fatter.”
• “Sugar will rot my teeth.”
• “I can’t make it through the day without my cup of coffee.”
• “This meat will raise my cholesterol level.”
• “This calcium will build my bones.”

What do you think about these statements? True or false?

Maybe they are sometimes true but is it possible that we are instigating these effects? If these effects are the natural result of eating these foods how we can enhance those results with our expectations?