How to Identify and Manage Trigger Foods for Better Gut Health

Gut HealthNutrition & SupplementsAugust 5, 2024

UNLOCK YOUR HEALTH: HOW TO IDENTIFY AND MANAGE TRIGGER FOODS

If you’re feeling sub-par, the issue might be in your gut. Recent research reveals that even our stress response is linked to gut inflammation and gut health. Fatigue, bloating, and digestive issues can all be caused by an imbalance in our gut microbiome.

That said, an imbalance can always be balanced. The same saying applies to the restaurant business, “Trash in, trash out,” and it also applies to our gut health and how we manage gut inflammation. What we eat can make a huge difference in how we feel and whether the flora in our gut is flourishing or floundering.

WHAT’S A TRIGGER FOOD?

If you’re not feeling top-notch, it’s possible that you might have eaten something that’s not playing nice with your unique gut microbiome. A trigger food is any food that makes you feel tired, sick, or just a little off. It “triggers” or sets off an adverse reaction in the delicate chemistry of digestion that leads to your body extracting nutrients and energy from what you consume.

Foods high in fat, dairy, and sugar often negatively impact individuals. It’s not your fault! Our bodies were not fully designed to consume the fat, dairy, and sugar levels that have crept into a modern diet (more on that later). That said, depending on the individual - some vegetables and nuts can be trigger foods, too! (Everybody handles aged cheese or seemingly healthy dairy differently. Same goes for Kale.)

While consuming trigger foods is oh so easy and delicious, and being bombarded by them is constant - it’s also a simple enough and worthwhile endeavor to both understand and identify what your possible trigger foods may be.

IDENTIFY YOUR TRIGGER FOODS

The easiest way to identify your trigger foods is an elimination diet, during which you temporarily remove specific foods or food groups from your diet and monitor the results. Based on your symptoms, we have different families of foods we recommend eliminating (and other foods we suggest leaning on during this period).

Checklist for identifying personal food sensitivities

By removing and reintroducing foods into your daily diet, you’re embarking on an incredible adventure/experiment to see how what you eat impacts how you feel, look, and provide energy to your body. By exploring your food sensitivities, you’re building your own data set to better fuel and care for your body.

YOUR NUTRITIONAL ROADMAP

During this period, we can’t stress enough the importance of keeping a journal! We often suggest monitoring what you eat, when you eat it and how you feel. These information sources will help you analyze your food sensitivities and manage trigger foods. After all, we are notoriously bad at estimating the number of food-related decisions we make every day.

Knowing your trigger foods doesn’t mean you can’t ever eat them again! It simply equips and empowers you with the knowledge to understand your body and the consequences of your daily choices around food.

As always, protecting and leveling up your health is a life-long and ongoing process. We can’t wait to keep learning and improving our expertise in personalized nutrition with you.

SUMMARY

If you are struggling with poor digestion, low energy, frustrating skin or aches and pains, the reason could lie within your gut microbiome
Many people struggle with hidden food sensitivities that quietly disrupt gut health over time
The culprit could be a specific food or class of food, otherwise known as a trigger food, that's causing gut inflammation
The gold standard for testing trigger foods is to remove the food and then reintroduce it systematically
This process is the gold-standard for isolating potential food sensitivities, managing trigger foods and reducing gut inflammation
Managing trigger foods doesn't have to be complicated when you have the right plan