How A Food Allergy Can Cause A Weight Gain

Posted: Feb 03, 2011 | Views: 113 |

What many people don't know is that food allergies can often cause you to gain weight. And allergies can do it in a couple of ways.

Primarily, a reaction to a food allergy can cause you to gain weight by causing histamines in your bloodstream to increase.

What are histamines? Simply put, they are the substances that cause your body to react to substances that you eat. But, a little known side effect of histamines is that they make your capillaries more leaky. This means that they can make the tissues of your body more absorbable.

In particular, in many cases, histamines will cause your body to retain more water than normal. What this means is that if you notice yourself becoming heavier after eating foods that you are allergic to, it may be because you are retaining excess water. The excess water that your body is retaining will naturally cause your weight to go up. Water retention can also lead to bloating. So you may notice that you have more difficulty buttoning your pants than you did before.


A allergic reaction to foods can also cause you to gain weight in another way. Allergic reactions often cause substances called prostaglandins to be released. Specifically something called prostaglandin E2 or PGE2.

This substance affects your metabolism in a very unusual manner. In particular, it slows your metabolism down. What this means is that even though your eating habits have not changed, you may still be gaining weight.

From your standpoint, the truly unfortunate fact about this is that the metabolic effect on the body escalates. In other words, the more food allergy attacks that you have, the more your body becomes resistant to insulin and the easier it becomes for it to hold onto the extra weight. This is a really insidious way that a food allergy can cause weight gain.

Therefore, if you are gaining weight and you believe that it is because of allergic reactions to food, you have a few ways of possibly resolving the problem. One is to cut back on the amount of calories that you are eating. If you typically overeat, this is fine. But, if you eat pretty much normal portions of foods, then cutting back on your calories will also cut back on your nutrients so it may not be a good idea.

The second thing that you can do is to start an exercise routine and get in shape. On the plus side, there is really no disadvantage to this solution. A secondary benefit of exercising is that, if done regularly, it will improve your body's ability to metabolize glucose. The third solution, and probably the best, is to find out what foods you are allergic to and change your diet accordingly. Once you know your food allergies, a dietician who specializes in food allergies can help you to come up with the perfect diet plan for yourself.

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