Tracking food consumption has been shown to improve adherence to dietary restrictions, by making participants mindful of their daily intake.
With new studies suggesting that IgG food sensitivity contributes to chronic diseases such as migraine headaches and irritable bowel syndrome, a recent study suggests a link between obesity and IgG food sensitivity. Coupled with tracking intake to ensure compliance, awareness and elimination of foods to which we are reactive may lead to a decline in the obesity epidemic.
The influence of your dietary intake cannot be overestimated in terms of your health, weight, energy, and moods. So many of the foods we eat contain additives, which are used to appeal to our sated palates. We become addicted to these strong tastes, while we lose our appetite for simple, healthy foods.
Mindlessly reaching for something in the refrigerator or pantry is common to many of us. Tracking our food intake, consciously, through a food diary, has been shown in a new study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research that keeping track of what we eat is one of the most important aids to losing weight. This study was one of the largest and longest weight-loss maintenance trials ever conducted, and included 44% African Americans, who have a risk of many diseases associated with obesity. Participants in the program followed the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), attended weekly support sessions, and exercised at a moderate level of intensity for 30 minutes each day. 69% of the participants of the patients who participated lost at least 9 lbs. after 6 months.
As a result of that study, Dr. Keith Bachman, a weight management specialist and internist at Kaiser Permanente, developed the Kaiser Permanente Weight Management Initiative, which recommends keeping a food diary as a strategy for losing weight.
Other weight management specialists recommend tracking eating habits, with the rationale that we consume larger portion sizes than we need, and we do that without being aware, although we could satisfy our appetites with 20% less food. We all fail to be honest with ourselves about what we eat, often because we simply forget. We underestimate the calories we consume.
Now there is another potential reason to track your diet. The Immuno Bloodprint® has been shown to be useful in determining foods to which you may have developed sensitivity, resulting in formation of IgG antibody complexes. This type of sensitivity produces chronic symptoms, rather than the acute symptoms of the type seen with IgE sensitivity reactions, which include anaphylactic reactions to peanuts or shellfish. Instead, consumption of foods to which you are sensitive may produce symptoms over time that are long-lasting, and can affect your ability to lose weight.
A study published in the Journal of Weight Loss Therapy describes how subjects in a study conducted at the University of Miller School of Medicine would alter their body composition and quality of life in response to the elimination of IgG reactive foods from their diet. Study subjects eliminated all IgG reactive foods from their diet for 90 days. At 30 day intervals, body composition, blood pressure, heart rate, and quality of life were assessed. The study found that subjects who eliminated the reactive foods from their diet had reductions in weight, body-mass index, waist to hip circumference, resting diastolic pressure, and in all indicators of quality of life.
Determination of food intolerance has been difficult in the past, and although many people believe dietary intolerance or sensitivity causes symptoms of chronic disease, they have been unable to identify the foods to which they react. There is evidence that IgG food sensitivity plays a role in chronic conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, obesity, type I diabetes, and migraine. During the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine’s obesity study, subjects were taught to keep a food record, which was used to assess compliance.
The benefits of keeping a food journal are manifold, and this new data suggests that identifying reactive foods with the Immuno Bloodprint®, and eliminating them from the diet, coupled with keeping track of compliance through a food diary, may provide a new weapon in the fight against obesity. The studies that have linked IgG food reactivity to other chronic conditions suggests that there are many other conditions waiting to be studied with IgG food sensitivity and elimination diets.
The problems associated with obesity have caused a public health epidemic of type II diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related physical and psychological disabilities. A number of popular diets address different dietary components, including fats and carbohydrates. However, many Americans diet without success. The information presented above suggests that keeping a food journal will be a useful tool, and if combined with elimination of IgG reactive foods, may unlock one of the keys to the problem of obesity.
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Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of obesity in the United States, 2009–2010. NCHS data brief, no 82. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2012.
Lewis JE, Woolger JM, Melillo A, Alonso Y, Rafatjah S, et al. (21012) Eliminating
Immunologically-Reactive Foods from the Diet and its Effect on Body Composition and Quality of Life in Overweight Persons. J Obes Weig los Ther 2:112. Doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.1000112
Wilders-Trushnig M, Mangge H, Lieners C, Gruber H, Mayer C, et al. (2008) IgG antibodies against food antigens are correlated with inflammation and intima media thickness in obese juveniles. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes 116: 241-245.
