Now that lockdown is lifting, the possibility of meeting friends and family for lunch or dinner is becoming a reality! For those who suffer with food intolerances, there can be feelings of anxiety surrounding the idea of dining out. The good news is that digestive enzymes help to address food intolerance reactions such as bloating, flatulence and diarrhoea.
Here are 4 tips from Leyla El Moudden, Naturopath and Director of Education for Enzymedica UK, on handling a food intolerance when dining out.
- Identify the root of the intolerance
It is very common for those who are intolerant to a food to misinterpret the root cause of their intolerance reaction. Sufferers tend to describe an intolerance reaction to the food itself, instead of to a component part within the food, with statements such as “I’m intolerant to strawberries” or “I can’t eat beans”.
There is a piece of the puzzle missing when we think of ourselves as being intolerant to a specific food item. It is rarely the whole food that is generating the reaction, but rather a specific molecule within the food. Lactose, for example, is a molecule within milk. Lactose intolerance is not an intolerance to milk, but an intolerance to the lactose within the milk.
Just like with milk and lactose, all foods are made of molecules, and these molecules can be addressed to reduce the severity of an intolerance reaction. By understanding which molecules are causing the intolerance reaction, we are then able to provide digestive support that targets the offending molecule. The way we can achieve this is by using digestive enzyme supplements.
- Think “digestive enzymes”
Digestive enzymes break down the offending molecules in foods. Digestive enzymes do this throughout the digestive tract, but for the majority of food intolerances, it is digestive enzymes in the stomach that are ultimately responsible for preventing the intolerance reaction. Whilst chewing is the first part of digestion, the serious breakdown of food molecules occurs in the stomach, which is why the stomach is full of potent stomach acid to facilitate this process.
Most food intolerance reactions occur after food has passed from the stomach, into the small intestine, and this takes on average between 30 minutes to two hours after the food has been eaten. When we feel an intolerance reaction within this time frame, such as cramping, bloating, flatulence or diarrhoea, it usually indicates that there is some part of stomach digestion that is not effectively breaking down a molecule. The missing aspect of stomach digestion in those suffering with a food intolerance symptom, is the digestive enzymes required to break down the molecules within the food just eaten.
Digestive enzymes are naturally produced by the body, and are most abundant when we are children, and begin to naturally decline after the age of 30. Our digestive enzyme production is also affected by genetics, lifestyle, stress levels, and medications. This is why statistically we tend to see more food intolerances in those over the age of 20 than we do in children.
A tolerant stomach will successfully break down food into molecules to such a degree that they cannot trigger an intolerance reaction, because the food molecules are not reaching the small intestine intact. How does that work? Let’s consider lactose for moment. Lactose is a molecule made of glucose units bound together. Once lactose is broken down by an enzyme called lactase, lactose becomes glucose. Digestive enzymes have converted lactose, into glucose. The lactose no longer exists! Now that the lactose no longer exists, it cannot generate an intolerance reaction because it is no longer there. This is precisely how our supplement Lacto™ works.
In the same way that digestive enzymes convert lactose into glucose, they can also convert other molecules like gluten, or fibre into smaller molecules that are completely different to the original food.
Every food can be broken down by the right digestive enzymes, which is why identifying the molecule that triggers the reaction, can help us to find the digestive enzyme that breaks it down and liberate us from the severity of an intolerance response.
Whenever molecules are not broken down by digestive enzymes, they can reach the small intestine in “too large a size” where they cause irritation leading to stomach pain, cramps and loose bowel movements, or they sit and ferment, rather than passing through easily causing gas, bloating and water retention.
Whilst digestive enzymes taken as a food supplement will not cure an intolerance reaction, they can dramatically reduce the severity and intensity of the reaction.
If you know that you are intolerant to a molecule such as lactose, or a group of foods such as carbohydrates or pulses, exposure is highly likely even when we are activity avoiding the food. Some studies suggest that foods and ingredients like gluten and dairy are so prevalent that it is impossible to avoid them 100%, especially when eating out.
Knowing that total avoidance is going to be challenging, rather than missing out on lunch and dinner invites, one easy action we can take is to be sure to take a digestive enzyme that targets the molecule we are reactive to, to help our stomach break it down before it can reach the small intestine and trigger the reaction we seek to avoid. For example, if you know you have trouble digesting foods that contain dairy, try supplementing with a digestive enzyme that contains the enzymes needed to break down all the components in dairy, such as Lacto™. A maximum strength dairy formula, Lacto includes lactase enzymes to help break down lactose (milk sugars), lipases to break down milk fats and protease and invertase enzymes to break down dairy proteins.
- Know the foods that lay ahead of you
Understanding the theme and style of the restaurant can give you a head start on preparing your order and help guide your choices when choosing a location. Asian cuisine tends to contain more nuts (try Digest Spectrum), Italian cuisine more dairy and gluten (try GlutenEase or Digest Spectrum) whilst vegan menus will contain more pulses (try BeanAssist or VeggieGest). With this in mind, if you know that one or more of these food molecules are digestive irritants, you can select an enzyme supplement that will guard your small intestine by targeting that specific food group.
- Support digestion to promote digestive enzymes
There are food habits and behaviours that can support digestion in general, and when we support digestion we reduce severity of intolerance reactions and also help the body recover more quickly if a particularly severe intolerance reaction has occurred.
In addition to supplementing with digestive enzymes, selective eating behaviours such as chewing food into a liquid form before you swallow or beginning a meal with a bitter flavour such as rocket leaves, pomegranate, or citrus can help to set the digestive system in motion.
Raw fruits, particularly pineapple and papaya contain natural digestive enzymes and make for a great dessert choice, while hot and spicy herbs like ginger are lovely digestive stimulants that can promote digestion as a tea after a meal.
In conclusion
Eating out need not be a perilous journey. For many people who are dealing with food intolerance, identifying the problem food and matching it with the correct digestive enzyme, taken with the first bite of a meal can be lifechanging. Bon Appetit!
Written by Leyla Moudden, Naturopath and Educator for Enzymedica UK