Inflammation creates brain fog! The most common foods to create inflammation:

• Wheat (gluten and gliadin proteins)
• Corn (Zein protein)
• Soy (soy flour)
• Dairy 
• Night shades
• Processed sugar

Getting a food sensitivity test is crucial (IgE, IgG, and IgA). Even if a food does not create hives, rashes, difficulty breathing, etc. (IgE reactions which require epipens), it does not mean that inflammation is not present. Low lying levels of CHRONIC inflammation is the problem. Consuming foods that we are sensitive to on a daily basis will create inflammation throughout the whole body.

Chronic inflammation can leads to heat, swelling, and toxic by-products within the digestive tract. The heat needs to be cooled down, and the toxins need to be excreted. But if the body’s detox system is slow, it can create a backed up system. Our natural detoxification system can be sluggish due to overconsumption of inflammatory foods and a sluggish stomach-liver-colon relationship. It is a cycle – a catch 22.

One of the main areas that suffers primarily from food inflammation is the stomach. When we eat foods we are sensitive to, we can build antibodies to the food particles, because our immune system sees them as the enemy. As you smell the food or it touches your tongue, your brain knows what is about to enter the stomach. The stomach prepares for what is coming down the throat. If the food is something you are sensitive to , the body starts an immune response to prepare for battle.

The movement of our antibodies through the blood stream to the stomach and digestive tract creates heat and friction through the blood vessels. This heat has to be cooled down by built-in, anti-inflammatory systems.
But what happens when our anti-inflammatory systems are overworked and fatigued by the standard American diet? The body will do anything it can to excrete the toxins, and one of the best way is through the sinus cavities. Mucus and toxins from a backed up digestive tract will push toxins up through the sinuses.

Many times patients will tell me that they experience a stuffed up head when they eat. This only means that inflammatory foods are being consumed. The overload of toxins and heat creates brain fog.

Additionally, chronic inflammation in the gut leads to cracks in the intestinal wall called leaky gut. This leads to very high levels of inflammation, and can make you sensitive to every food you eat, simply because undigested food particles slip directly into the blood stream.

I am repeating myself:) The most simple thing to do is…

1. Get a food sensitivity test
1. Dunwoody labs
2. KBMO LABS
3. US BIOTEK LABS
2. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is one of the best ways to start to decrease brain fog…PERIOD.

I am not saying you will never enjoy pizza or a piece of cake ever again. There is supplementation that can heal the inflammation in the gut. We will discuss that in a future post about digestion, but for now keep it simple. Don’t eat the foods that specifically cause you inflammation. Promise you will feel the difference…better sleep, more energy, losing unhealthy weight, and no brain fog.

Go get it!