Lifting and food sensitivity

[JakeWasHere]

Robert, thanks for everything you do. I found myself at dinner the other night with two friends, both skinny girls in their mid 20s talking about food sensitivities (gluten, dairy, etc.) and how much trouble random foods were giving them (quinoa is a problem now?!?). I’ve spent enough time with this material to want to instinctively tell them to just get under a barbell and the rest will take care of itself, so I figured I’d ask you. Since we’ve seen it work wonders on all sorts of other health issues have you seen anyones food sensitivities improve with training?

[Robert Santana]

Robert, thanks for everything you do. I found myself at dinner the other night with two friends, both skinny girls in their mid 20s talking about food sensitivities (gluten, dairy, etc.) and how much trouble random foods were giving them (quinoa is a problem now?!?). I’ve spent enough time with this material to want to instinctively tell them to just get under a barbell and the rest will take care of itself, so I figured I’d ask you. Since we’ve seen it work wonders on all sorts of other health issues have you seen anyones food sensitivities improve with training?

Good question buddy. I'm not sure of a mechanism by which lifting would affect your GI's ability to absorb and digest nutrients. What i do know is that in rats a shift in healthy gut bacteria was observed with aerobic training. No human trials yet, although I'm collecting fecal samples for my dissertation.

[Alchemist]

With an attempt not to rail against those with food sensitivities (I might fail) have you noticed a trend that the more a diet is restricted the more it is required to be restricted. I'm not sure whether this is would be the gut literally getting less robust or psychosomatic (is that the right word for belief vs real cause?). It seems I've noticed an anecdotal trend over the years with myself being on the other end of the spectrum. I eat basically everything with no noticeable change or distress to my system and new foods are never an issue. Excluding full blown allergic reactions I've watched associates go from one sensitivity to the next until they can hardly eat anything at all. Aren't we (and most if not all omnivores) a bit more robust in our ability to eat a huge variety of energy sources? I recently heard about a sensitivity to chicken. HUH? I just can wrap my head around how that is even possible biologically. Milk, ok, i get that with a lack of lactase but chicken? What can possibly be so special about the muscle fibers of a particular bird?

[Robert Santana]

With an attempt not to rail against those with food sensitivities (I might fail) have you noticed a trend that the more a diet is restricted the more it is required to be restricted. I'm not sure whether this is would be the gut literally getting less robust or psychosomatic (is that the right word for belief vs real cause?). It seems I've noticed an anecdotal trend over the years with myself being on the other end of the spectrum. I eat basically everything with no noticeable change or distress to my system and new foods are never an issue. Excluding full blown allergic reactions I've watched associates go from one sensitivity to the next until they can hardly eat anything at all. Aren't we (and most if not all omnivores) a bit more robust in our ability to eat a huge variety of energy sources? I recently heard about a sensitivity to chicken. HUH? I just can wrap my head around how that is even possible biologically. Milk, ok, i get that with a lack of lactase but chicken? What can possibly be so special about the muscle fibers of a particular bird?

I have definitely noticed this trend. I'm not sure what it is but if people feel better substituting foods who am I to tell them not to? Now when a "professional" has someone pay a sizable amount of money to get "genetic testing" then proceeds to tell the person that they need to exclude foods in a way that adds up to keto, I take issue with that. Ultimately, if you are having bowel problems the best way to fix it is to do an elimination diet.