Digestion Dossier: Further Evidence on Food Sensitivies and Cellulite

17 Jun

Two months ago, our expert guest blogger Liz Schau explained the basics of gluten intolerance in a post entitled “Is Gluten Intolerance Related to Cellulite?” The cellulite connection was just a hunch at the time, so I was excited to find supporting evidence for the theory in this month’s Cellulite BOTM, The Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman.

Ann devotes significant attention in her book to instances “when fat is not fat.”  Reading this section was a lightbulb moment for me.

It’s Complicated

Here at the Cellulite Investigation, we’ve known for awhile that the subject of fat is not as simple as many people make it out to be.  We’ve long understood that eating fat doesn’t make you fat. It’s way more complex than that.

Ann Louise takes that thought one step further and argues that “being fat” doesn’t necessarily mean you have a lot of excess fat.  Even though the body is mostly water (60-70 percent), Ann Louise points out that most people carry an extra ten to fifteen pounds of water trapped in their tissues.  One of the major causes of waterlogged tissue is food sensitivities.

Food Sensitivities and Weight Gain

Ann Louise describes several ways that food sensitivities lead to weight gain (both water weight and fat weight).  Partly to blame are the antibodies released by the immune system when an offending food is consumed.  Histamines and other chemicals are rushed to the site and they need extra fluid to help wash away the “foreign” substances.

Another way food sensitivities affect weight is through the food’s effect on hormones.  When you ingest a reactive food, your body produces certain feel-good chemicals triggered by your body’s distress mechanism.  When these chemicals wear off, they can lead to increased appetite as your body craves the same foods that caused the reaction in the first place.

Foods such as dairy and wheat tend to give a lot of people trouble, but almost any food can potentially cause food sensitivities in select individuals. To get to the bottom of our individual cellulite investigations (that’s not an SCP, I promise!), we each need to identify any food sensitivities and address them as part of our overall cellulite treatment plan.  It won’t be easy and it takes time, but it will be worth it.  Cellulite isn’t the only chronic ailment caused by prolonged exposure to adverse foods.

If you’re stuck on how to start, see The Digestion Dossier: Identifying a Food Sensitivity.

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