Recently, this concept has been talked about more and more often, calling it almost a panacea for many diseases and an elixir of longevity. Immune dietology is now considered to be one of the most advanced areas of modern medicine, since thanks to the approach proposed in it, the quality of life of patients is significantly improved.
Marina Rosenstein, a licensed EU doctor, PhD, member of the American Association of Nutritionists, founder and chief specialist of the Nutriskan Medical Ins clinic (New York), talks about the features of immune nutrition.
What is the difference between immune dieting and simple dieting as we know it
Immune dietology differs from the classical one in that the definition of "usefulness" is based not on calories or nutrients, but on the individual reaction of a particular organism to this product. What's the point of looking at the "healthy" ingredients of a product if you can't digest it properly?
Classical dietology operates mainly on the properties of products. Based on this standard approach, the Chinese, African Americans, Native Americans – Indians are given the same advice as the Anglo-Saxons. Although each group has its own food culture, food environment and thousands of years of biological adaptation to certain food conditions.
Hence the statistics of obesity, diabetes and other "diseases of civilization". Civilized man has ceased to digest what is offered to him as food. Our approach allows us to find a place in the vast world of food for each individual patient and create individual nutrition programs based on the analysis of the reactions of the immune system to the tested food antigens.
What are food antigens
These are specific proteins found in food, foreign proteins from the position of the immune system of the one who ate them. Everything that does not belong to one's own genes is an antigen, and according to the laws of survival, if it has penetrated into the blood, it must be destroyed at any cost. Therefore, it is so important that digestion be efficient and that antigens be completely destroyed during digestion.
If the product is not completely digested due to certain reasons, antigens can enter the bloodstream and cause a protective reaction of the immune system, manifested in the form of the release of special protective antibodies – immunoglobulins that bind these antigens and form immune complexes, in fact – hazardous waste. Produced in large quantities, it is difficult to excrete, accumulates and causes inflammation in various tissues. This is a direct path to the emergence of many chronic diseases directly related to nutritional maladaptation, including obesity.
By the concentration of immune complexes circulating in the blood at the moment, one can understand what exactly the immune system is fighting against. Therefore, it is possible to find out what overloads it and forces it to produce these dangerous materials in large quantities. It is important to note that this is not a "classic allergy", the so-called immediate type allergy, which allergists mainly deal with.
This is a latent food intolerance caused by delayed-type immune reactions, which, due to the wide variety of clinical manifestations and the lack of an immediate visible connection with a specific product, overwhelms the immune system for years, remaining unrecognized. In fact, this phenomenon is more related not to allergology, but to adaptology. What do I do as a specialist? I identify the nutritional individual characteristics of the patient and help him create an optimal eating environment for himself.
What needs to be done to create such an environment?
First, a laboratory test must be performed to determine the reaction of the blood to food antigens. To date, the officially recognized diagnostic method in the world, certified in the US and the EU, is the immunosorbent enzyme analysis of ELISA IgG ELISA. 5 ml of blood from a finger is enough to find out how the patient's immune system reacts to frequently consumed foods. These products are on the banned, "red" list, those that require periodic rest are on the "yellow", and on the “green” list – foods on the basis of which it is recommended to compose your daily diet.
Why do hidden food intolerances occur
It can be the result of a lack of certain enzymes or other components of normal digestion, an imbalance in the composition of the intestinal flora, and a poor condition of the walls of the digestive tract through which absorption occurs. This is a complex of congenital features and acquired defects. Hidden food intolerance – this is the result of "nutritional maladjustment", when a person's habitual diet does not coincide with the physiological capabilities of his body.
How does this maladjustment manifest itself?
From a scientific point of view, food maladaptation – it is a complex of pathological reactions and symptoms caused by a mismatch between the capabilities of the digestive system and the food environment. Simply put, this is a situation where the body is forced to get out and find some ways to survive in uncomfortable conditions. It's like a cactus in black soil: it won't die at all, but it won't bloom for sure. How the body will adapt depends on genetically programmed mechanisms.
I can give you a simple example from my practice. My family contacted me: mom – Filipina, dad – a Sephardic Jew from Morocco, they had four children. All children are not healthy, and each has different problems. One – type 1 diabetes, he is on an insulin pump, the other – neurodermatitis, like a mother, in a third child – irritable bowel syndrome, frequent colic and never a normal stool, and the fourth – hyperactivity, temper tantrums, poor concentration and inability to do well in school, although parents – outstanding, talented and serious professionals.
These children were treated by different specialists. They acted with heavy drugs on the symptoms with temporary success. A blood test shows that all children have different problems that have the same cause: they cannot tolerate wheat gluten – gluten and cow protein – casein. Heavy combination. For American, as well as for Russian, food culture – these are basic products. What can not be said about the Philippines or North Africa. What was achieved when we developed an individual diet for children?
Everyone got noticeable results. The child with skin symptoms cleared up completely and fairly quickly; in hyperreactive – a positive attitude to learning appeared, fits of irritability and anger disappeared, he began to interact with children; in a child with diabetes, the daily dose of insulin was reduced only because the effect of insulin resistance was gone. This effect is directly related to the immune system. When excess antibodies that have accumulated on the surface of the cells do not allow insulin to pass through, this is called "insulin resistance". Well, the fourth child generally fully recovered on a rice diet.
Overweight – also a consequence of latent food intolerance
Yes, normal, alimentary obesity – as a rule, a direct consequence of nutritional maladaptation in a patient who has a genetic predisposition to accumulate weight. And, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, being overweight – the most correct and most healthy reaction of the body to the overload of the immune and excretory systems.
This means that the excretory systems do not cope with their task in conditions of increased production of antibodies, the body is forced to create a depot inside – in this case, in adipose tissue – to discharge stagnant fluid and products intended for excretion, what they like to call slags. Almost any tissue can serve as a depot for the accumulation of immunogenic materials with the mandatory initiation of an inflammatory process.
But when it occurs in adipose tissue, it is less painful, less destructive, and always reversible. The notorious cellulite has never ruined anyone's life as badly as any chronic colitis or arthritis.
What do centenarians eat? What is their secret?
This is a question that has worried any prosperous society at all times! Centenarians who continue to maintain a high quality of life have a strong resemblance – and this is not only an active lifestyle, but first of all a special eating behavior. They, like healthy children, usually feel great about what really suits them, and will never eat what they do not like.
They are conservative in their diet, live in their food traditions from generation to generation and eat almost the same foods day in and day out throughout their lives. However, this not very diverse menu contains everything you need when the digestive system and the entire set of enzymes are formed in such a way that the body is able to extract absolutely everything that it needs from this piece of minimalism.
According to "Beauty and Health"
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