Food sensitivities are symptoms or histamine reactions that result from eating a particular food or ingredient or chemical.  These symptoms can show up within an hour OR they can take up to 5-7 DAYS to manifest as noticeable symptoms (though 3 – 4 days is more common).  That is why keeping a food journal is vital in figuring out your triggers – it is impossible to remember everything you ate five days ago!

Can it really take that long? How can something take that long to manifest in my body as a symptom?  If something was going to affect me, it’d happen soon after eating it…. Right?

Wrong. Some processes are more prolonged.  A long series of steps occur before any visible manifestation.

Truthfully, we see this all the time – we’ve experienced it. Yet, when it comes to something we take inside our bodies, we dismiss it as sounding crazy. Why?

Ever spray Round-Up?  The chemical is applied.  Days go by. THEN the plant withers and dies. DAYS.  Proof, that biological process can be doing their insidious “work” for days, without any visible manifestation on the outside.

Ever get poison ivy?  When did you start itching compared to the time you actually touched the plant and got oils on your skin?  DAYS.  The oil is long gone from your skin by the time you get those awful bumps – so *something* has been going on inside you all that time between point A and point B.

The same is true for eating foods that our body has become sensitive to.

What does all this mean?

1. That it is much harder to figure out what things may be triggering symptoms in your body.
2. That you have that much more power in resolving your symptom – you may have ‘thought’ it came from nowhere, but you weren’t looking broad enough. Thus, there was no cause and effect and you were powerless.  But, if you expand your timeline, its amazing the ability you have to make yourself feel better.
3. Write it down.  I don’t know about you, but I can sometimes not even remember what I had for dinner the night before, let alone 5 days ago.  Start tracking everything you consume (through foods, through liquids, and even through your skin and lungs).
   • You’ll be astounded at how many inputs we have to our bodies on a daily basis.  All these inputs will be reflected in the output.  Input is fuel, it creates the output (our maintained body).
   • Over time, you’ll start to be able to notice trends.  Then, as part of a grand experiment, you can remove the targeted input and then watch and see what improves over time.