Can Food Avoidance Heal Your Summer Time Blues?

If someone would have told me five years ago that avoiding chocolate and sesame oil would have cured my depression and irritability, I would have laughed. But today I agree.

Five years ago I tried eating healthier. I ate organic, fresh raw foods free of hormones and preservatives. For several months I was sick more often than before. A severe cold and headache became permanent and that's when my GP prescribed antibiotics and steroids. A month later I was referred to a specialist.

That’s when a friend told me about food sensitivities, or mini food allergies. Food sensitivities are food related ailments most often headaches, depression, irritability, fatigue, lethargy, low motivation, foggy brain, joint aches, phantom pains, and more. Similar to true food allergies, food sensitivities engage parts of your immune system. Unlike true food allergies food sensitivities can cause inflammation anywhere in your body. Many conditions and diseases are linked to inflammation. And recently, inflammation has been identified in the brains of depressed people prompting new studies on the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs on depression.

Without knowing any of this at the time, my food sensitivity test suggested which foods I should and should not eat for three or six months. After eating according to my test results for one week, I had new energy, motivation and better concentration. I used to experience episodes of depression, irritability, foggy brain and more regularly, but they went away unless I ate a food identified as an offender on my test.

Soy and sesame triggered irritability in me, peas and dark greens made me spacey, milk triggered sinus pressure headaches and chocolate triggered hours of insecurity and depression. I used to be a drug store junkie - a victim of recurring ailments. Today, I control my physical and emotional health.

If you have challenging emotions or recurring physical symptoms that get in the way of living, then ask your doctor for a food sensitivity test, or buy one from the only direct to consumer food sensitivity lab, Alcat. When followed correctly, most people feel better before the end of their first week and heal their sensitivities over time.

Nerissa Oden has studied food sensitivities since 2007. Tons of educational materials are on her website, www.FoodPowers.com.