The Dairy Blues: How Dairy Affected My Waistline

Michael Moody, Chicago Fitness Trainer

 

It’s frustrating when each day is an endless battle to get into the best shape. I look in the mirror before my shower and wonder why my stomach is distended. Despite the angle-the side right, the side left and the front-I only see a belly resembling Buddha. A couple of rubs and I resemble a pregnant woman in the third month of pregnancy (a man is allowed to exaggerate his frustrations too!). How could this happen?

 

I sense something is different, but I can't figure it out. Starting in January, I take Tums for indigestion nearly every day. Is spicy food the cause of discomfort?

 

Unfortunately, I love spicy food but will sacrifice it. To my dismay and grateful surprise, this sacrifice doesn’t change my daily symptoms, though.

 

It is the end of June and I am carefully observing my body and placing it through a dietary "trial and error" program. I analyze my blood pressure and find a high reading. Am I drinking too much coffee or not running long enough? These are possible causes for my problem, but they don't decrease the symptoms when changed. Nevertheless, I continue my research until I learn the true nature of my belly fate.

 

After a night of pizza, my face is flush and a rush of acid reflux is felt in my throat. I notice the pregnant belly in the mirror once again. Dreams of cheese, pizza, ice cream, and low fat milk suddenly crash down. At the age of 29, my body officially rejects dairy.

 

Soon, I realize that the consumption of dairy leads to a sneeze as well. Ironically, I’ve taken an allergy pill for each sneeze for the last ten years. I now realize that dairy-not seasonal allergies-causes this sneeze. Within days, my indigestion, sneezing, and Buddha belly disappear. Despite my efforts to believe otherwise, repeated tests consuming dairy lead to the same result.

 

According to Dr. Mark Hyman's book Ultrametabolism, I'm not the only one affected by dairy.  He draws important connections between dairy and inflammation in the body. Diseases and other health problems, including obesity, are strongly linked to this effect. In one case, a boy had an ear infection that cleared up when it was discovered he was allergic to milk.

With this in mind, examine how your diet affects your body. Is it holding you back from your goals (whether losing weight or body fat)? We need to understand how a state of inflammation can lead to weight gain. The following excerpt from Dr. Hyman's book sheds more light on this topic:

 

"The food you eat talks to your genes. Specifically, it speaks to the PPAR family of receptors, telling them to make you lose or gain weight, cool off inflammation, or increase the inflammation. Of course, we need both the ability to create inflammation to fight off infections or injury and the ability to reduce inflammation.

That balance is the key to your health. One of the inflammatory molecules produced by our fat cells when we eat too much sugar, too much saturated fat, or just too many calories is called TNF-alpha. This binds to and blocks the PPARs inside your cells.

This inflammatory molecule slows your metabolism, makes your body resistant to the effects of insulin, and causes weight gain. Eating poor-quality foods (sugar, trans fats, saturated fat, etc.) that don't fit our evolutionary needs triggers your body to release inflammatory messages that prevent critical parts of your metabolic system from working, thus crippling your metabolism and causing you to gain weight. This isn't just a theory; we now know how these foods speak to your genes."

If you're trying to lose weight, it's hard to ignore the effects of what you're eating. If you're allergic or intolerant to dairy, it's possible that you're obstructing your ability to lose weight with every bite of yogurt or cheese. Remember that most people are intolerant to dairy. The only difference is the severity of symptoms and the amount of inflammation.

 

Can we blame food allergies and intolerances for all of our oversized waistlines? We most likely can't. Nevertheless, we must examine the effects of our diet on our bodies. If you notice that your efforts in the gym are fruitless, a dietary reaction may be the underlying cause. Observe your reactions to food and record any physical differences, including, but not limited to, an increase in blood pressure, indigestion, itchy eyes, abdominal pain or bloating, shortness of breath, and sneezing.