This is not a diet. It involves eating only "safe" foods.

What are safe foods?

Safe foods are different for everyone. They’re foods your body can digest, metabolize and absorb optimally; foods from which your body derives all the nutrition the food offers.

Why would safe foods differ among individuals?

Not every person is able to properly digest every food and absorb its nutrients. You are unique. Because of aberrations in your body chemistry, you may not be able to fully digest certain otherwise healthy foods, like potatoes, salmon or blueberries.

Sound far-fetched?

Not really.

To make it simple, if your body doesn't have the enzymes to fully digest cucumbers, romaine lettuce or papayas, when you eat them, they’ll pass into your blood stream partially digested.

When that happens, your immune system considers them foreign invaders, like bacteria and viruses … and attacks them. This causes an inflammatory response. Every time you eat an unsafe food, your immune system launches an attack and perpetuates the inflammation.

What happens if you eat unsafe fare every day?

You'll have an ongoing inflammatory response. Your health will deteriorate. At first, slowly and gradually; you almost don’t notice it. Perhaps you just feel a little fatigue, maybe occasional headaches. It could be a rash, acne or joint pain … just about anything that’s not optimal health.

The sad part is since the symptoms come on gradually, most people don't give them a second thought. Eventually when they become more severe, you end up in the doctor's office with a disease label and some drugs.

You may find that even though you're being treated for a disease, things aren't really getting better. You need to keep taking the drugs. As you get more symptoms, you take more drugs.

But what if …

your symptoms have nothing to do with the condition you're told you have?
hidden food allergies are causing your ailments?
you could improve your health by eating only safe foods?

What are "unsafe foods?"

They're hidden food allergies, also known as food sensitivities or food intolerance.

And yes, you can be sensitive to "healthy" foods like potatoes, salmon and blueberries. These are, in fact, some of my food sensitivities.

Now while I don't need to lose weight, my 10 year old hip joint pain is finally subsiding. I limped and waddled for many years. At times I could barely walk. I had to pull myself up the stairs and hold tightly onto the railing to slowly get down without falling. I've been eating the healthiest diet and taking the best quality supplements since 1975. Saying I was frustrated is an understatement!

After two months of eating all safe foods, I can honestly say I feel like I'm walking with a normal gait for the first time in many, many years! Am I pain free? Not yet. This situation was developing my entire life. It will take a while to completely resolve. But positive changes are taking place every day. It feels so good to be able to walk normally again!

Now, I started out saying you can eat as much as you want and lose weight. Here's the story of one of my patients…

She has numerous medical conditions; is taking nutritional supplements and being treated by her medical doctor. I suggested testing for food sensitivities to see if some of her issues were food related. After a month of eating only safe foods, she told me she'd dropped 10 pounds. When I saw her in my office a week later, she'd lost another three.

She was eating as much as she wanted … of her safe foods.

This is just one person. How can I draw the general conclusion that you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight?

Weight loss was not the objective of treating people for food sensitivities. However, after treating thousands of patients, it was discovered that weight loss was a side effect of eliminating intolerant foods. What a wonderful side effect! Healthy, not harmful!

What if you don't need to lose weight?

You probably won't. I haven't lost any weight, but I'm certainly reaping huge benefits and seeing an improvement where I had almost lost hope of ever getting rid of my joint pain.

The best part of treating your food sensitivities … once you identify them, you just eliminate your sensitive foods.

Note: This is not a substitute for medical advice. If you have health problems, consult your physician.

Author's Bio: 

(c) 2012, Christine H. Farlow, D.C., customizing nutritional programs to meet your unique nutritional needs. Dr. Farlow provides nutritional consultations in her office and by phone. Learn more about food sensitivities and how a customized nutritional program can help you to improve your health, or to request a Free Consultation at http://christinehfarlowdc.com/.