Fear No Food

By Elizabeth Lipski, PhD, CCN

Does eating dairy, wheat or tomatoes make you feel worse? If so, you aren’t alone. Today one out of every three people believes they have a food allergy or sensitivity.

The ultimate purpose of eating is to provide each cell in your body with the nutrients it needs. If you can’t digest your food well, your cells don’t work optimally. When working with clients, I am always looking for the lever that will gently push healing into gear. One tool that I have found to be effective is supplemental digestive enzymes.

People of all ages can benefit from supplemental digestive enzymes. They enhance our ability to get nutrients to our cells. As we age, we typically make fewer digestive enzymes. Children with growth, learning, behavior, digestive, or skin issues often benefit. People who have food intolerances or are sensitive to digesting certain foods can often broaden what they eat because they are actually digesting the food properly.

What Are Enzymes?

Enzymes are proteins that are catalysts used to facilitate tiny chemical changes for virtually every single chemical process that occurs in your body. There are thousands of known enzymes and each has a specific job. We use them to think, create energy, adjust hormone levels, and virtually everything else. We cannot use a vitamin, a mineral, a fat, make or break down cells, or control blood sugar without enzymes.

Our body makes two main types of enzymes: metabolic enzymes and digestive enzymes. The metabolic enzymes run all body systems. Digestive enzymes are produced in the pancreas and throughout the digestive system to help us break down our foods into molecules that our cells recognize. These enzymes are manufactured from proteins and need to be continually replenished.

Each enzyme has a specific job and works on a specific type of molecule. The main types of enzymes are lipases for digesting fats, carbohydrases for digesting carbohydrates, and proteases for the digestion of protein.

We can also use enzymes that come from foods and supplements to bolster our own. Some of these sources include fresh, raw foods such as fruits and vegetables, along with cultured and fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kim chee, natural cheeses, and kefir.

Enzyme Deficiencies

Many people have enzyme deficiencies, making them unable to adequately digest specific foods or food groups. Have you ever eaten a bowl of chili or cereal with milk and found yourself left with an uncomfortable amount of gas? It’s probably because you lack the enzymes to digest either beans or dairy products. The most common enzyme deficiency is lactose intolerance affecting about 25% of us. Celiac disease (though technically not an enzyme deficiency) and gluten intolerance make it impossible for us to break down the gluten protein in grains. Gluten is highly resistant to digestion. Specific enzymes, such as DPP-IV assist in digestion of the gluten molecule. Phenols and salicylates can be problematic for another group of people. Xylanase enzymes break these down. Typically this enzyme deficiency can contribute to neurological symptoms, such as learning and behavior disorders.

Left unchecked, enzyme deficiencies prevent complete digestion of specific compounds in foods and can lead to symptoms of food intolerance. Because enzymes are specific, we need to have a lot of different types to digest specific food components.

Digestive Enzyme Supplements

The use of supplemental digestive enzymes can help support your body so that you have fewer sensitivity reactions. Taking a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme product is a simple way to more fully digest the food you eat so that it can be delivered to your cells in a form that they can use. Enzymes also help reduce leaky gut and food sensitivities because there is less irritation in the small intestine.

Many people feel a difference the first time enzymes are taken with food. You may need two capsules with a large meal, or with meals containing foods that you are sensitive to. Take them with you if you are going to a party or eating out. Even if you are careful, gluten, dairy and other food components can easily show up in a meal.

Look for enzyme products that have a broad array of enzymes. They should be specific about which enzymes are contained in the formula and also list the activity units. Activity units give you the strength of the specific enzyme. The abbreviations for the activity units are specific to the type of enzyme. For example, protease enzymes are listed as HUT, amylase enzymes are DU, and lactase as ALU. Enzymes derived from animal pancreas use activity units as USP. With either system, the higher the unit numbers the greater the activity. Though this is a key component, it is important to realize that superior enzyme products are blended like fine wines; and each company blends a bit differently. Using a broad spectrum product will typically give you the best results with food intolerances and food sensitivities.

Elizabeth Lipski, Ph.D., C.C.N., holds a doctorate in clinical nutrition and is a board-certified clinical nutritionist. Dr. Lipski has worked in the field of holistic and complementary medicine for over twenty-five years and is the author of Digestive wellness and Leaky Gut Syndrome. Dr. Lipski is currently in private practice in Asheville, North Carolina.

FREE REPORT (PDF FILE) by By Elizabeth Lipski, PhD, CCN

What to do when your favorite foods are making you sick

by Walter J. Crinnion, N.D.

Many people have adverse reactions to a number of foods, often without ever connecting the cause with the effect. These reactions can range from life-threatening anaphylaxis (a true food allergy), to food intolerances (such as gluten or lactose intolerance) and the commonly experienced food sensitivity. Because so many different types of adverse reactions can occur, the definitions have become blurred. In my patient population over the last 30 years, the vast majorities have had food sensitivities rather than true allergies or intolerances. These food reactions often cause fatigue, depression, aches, migraines, sinus trouble, and arthritis, among other problems.

How and Why We React

To understand why our bodies react to the foods we eat, it is necessary to have a simple understanding of the immune reactions, which occur when we are sensitive to what we consume. The body produces antibodies when our immune system identifies something as foreign. From a layman’s perspective, the sensitive immune response is a reaction to the size of the food molecules, particularly the proteins. If you have a well functioning digestive system, then you are likely able to break your proteins down small enough to avoid the development of antibodies to the foods you eat regularly. In my practice, however, I have yet to see an adult with adequate digestive function, so supplemental digestive support is frequently recommended.

Solving the Puzzle: A Food Sensitivity Solution

There are a number of ways to find out which foods don’t like you even though you like them. The first, is through a process of educated guessing:

Elimination Diets:

The best way to begin is to eliminate all of the foods on the chart that you consume frequently or that you crave. To properly identify which foods may be contributing to your health problems, you’ll need to eliminate the suspected foods completely from your diet for a minimum of five days to see whether there’s any change. Typically, after noting the improvement, you’ll add the foods back into your diet, only one food per day, to see what symptoms (if any) the specific food causes.

You may choose to have an immunoglobulin G (IgG) food-sensitivity blood test that will alert you to which sensitive foods to avoid and which are probably safe. Some foods are commonly implicated as causes of food sensitivity. You may want to go Gluten-Free or Dairy-Free, and see how your system responds.

“I personally use Digest Gold, which contains Thera-blended enzymes to break down carbohydrates, fats, fiber and proteins. I recommend 2 capsules per meal. Those with multiple food reactions may need more. Also whenever I eat wheat (to which I react)

I use 2 GlutenEase and I am able to get by with no adverse reactions.”

Walter Crinnion, N.D.

Supplemental Enzymes

One of the basic treatments I have used for years to help people reduce food reactions, and to avoid the development of new reactions is to provide supplemental digestive enzymes. Taken in conjunction with elimination programs and diet modification, enzymes offer a potent solution, supporting optimal digestive performance. Thankfully, Enzymedica has stepped forward to develop truly effective digestive enzymes to address the most common food intolerances. Enzymedica’s Digest Spectrum combines multiple strains of amylase, protease, lipase and cellulase with specialized enzymes for gluten, phenol, dairy and casein digestion to provide a complete solution for children and adults dealing with multiple food intolerances. Enzymedica’s Gastro, GlutenEase, Lacto, CarbGest, and their best selling Digest Gold provide valuable tools for individuals with specific dietary intolerances. Enzymedica’s Thera-blend enzymes have been shown to reduce food protein molecules to less than 2 kiloDaltons in size. Keeping in mind that immune response is typically a reaction to food molecule size, aiding proper digestion may help decrease the immune response, mediating food sensitivity.

Excerpts and chart taken with permission from: Crinnion, Walter. Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins That Make You Fat. Wiley, 2010.

Food allergies: This reaction is mediated by the antibody IgE (immnoglobulin E) Food sensitivities: Most sensitive reactions are mediated by immunoglobulin G, IgG (most of them by IgG4).

BIOGRAPHY

Walter J. Crinnion, N.D. Naturopathic Doctor, Best-Selling Author, Professor and Chair of Environmental Medicine Department, Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine

CONTACT INFORMATION: 2140 E. Broadway Road Tempe, AZ 85282 Cell: 480.236.8970 w.crinnion@scnm.edu www.CrinnionMedical.com

Naturopathic Doctor Walter J. Crinnion received his degree in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington in 1982 with their first graduating class. He then opened a family practice and began to specialize in allergies and the treatment of chronic health problems caused by environmental chemical overload. In 1985 he opened Healing Naturally, the most comprehensive cleansing facility in North America for the treatment of chemically poisoned individuals. A pioneer in the field of Naturopathic Environmental Medicine, Crinnion is a favorite and frequent lecturer at both Naturopathic and Allopathic (MD) medical conferences, and has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on the topic of environmental overload. He has been on the board of directors of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and was the recipient of their fifirst award for in-office research in 1999 and was awarded it a second time in 2002. Dr. Crinnion has taught at Bastyr University in

Seattle, Washington, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and the University of Bridgeport School of Naturopathic Medicine in Connecticut. He is currently a professor at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona, and the chair of their Environmental Medicine Department. A popular spokesman for the field of Environmental Medicine, Crinnion is regularly interviewed by the media. He has appeared three times with Barbara Walters on ABC’s “The View” and had a weekly Health Spot on Northwest Cable News from 1999 until 2003, giving viewers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho up to date information on nutrition and health. He currently resides in Arizona with his wife and youngest daughter. Walter Crinnion published his newest book, Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins that Make you Fat, in March, 2010.