You may have been alarmed by claims that certain, or even all diseases, are caused by mucus. There are even books on the subject and something called a ‘mucusless diet’. Contrary to these claims, mucus and inflammation are never causes of disease. These are merely symptoms, and natural parts of the body’s immune system response. The immune system can become overactive, and produce too much inflammation, too much mucus, or even too high of a fever for too long. The only thing excess mucus and inflammation causes is discomfort. What is most important is finding out what the body is actually responding to, and why, and go from there.
If a certain food seems to cause you to have excess inflammation and mucus build-up, that doesn’t automatically mean that the food is the problem. If the reaction is to something in the food, as with an allergy, then the real issue is most likely a problem with in the digestive tract. One possible culprit can be Intestinal Permeability (aka Leaky Gut) that is allowing food particles to leak out of the digestive tract when they shouldn’t. This is often due to bacterial dysbiosis, imbalance of gut bacteria, and brings about inflammation and excess mucus. Quite often, the use of antibiotics is a major cause of dysbiosis in the gut. The gut bacteria play a crucial role in many bodily functions (you can read more about that here).
While I definitely suggest eliminating or significantly reducing junk ‘foods’ in the diet, eliminating certain whole/natural foods might not be a fix for what ails you. Actually, you can end up only masking the problem, merely giving the illusion of healing. In many cases, the food is truly an innocent bystander.
A few commonly unaddressed causes of inflammation and excess mucous:
-Endotoxin Toxicity
-Intestinal Permeability
-Auto-immune Disease
-Underlying fungal infection
-Underlying viral infection
-Underlying bacterial infection
-Stomach Ulcer (often due to bacterial infection)
-Toxic Chemicals via ingestion, inhalation, or injection
It’s important to also know that alcohol consumption and the use of several types of pain relievers can also lead problems that will seem like allergies or food intolerances. Eliminating certain foods, in these cases, often does significantly lessen symptoms, but the issue definitely still remains. If certain types of bacterial infections are present as well, then the likelihood of leaky gut increases greatly.
There are definitely real food allergies and food sensitivities that a person can have, leading to a definite need to eliminate them, even if only temporarily, depending on the issue and the possibility of correcting it. In the case of certain ailments, like asthma, the cause can be one thing, or a multitude of things. Allergies can be a trigger, but then, allergies can have various causes. In certain situations, both allergies and asthma may be caused by a cascade effect that actually began with bacterial dysbiosis in the gut, which led to overgrowth of certain fungi, like candida, and certain bad bacteria, etc., etc.
The important thing is to make sure to address the actual cause of whatever problem you’re experiencing. Many underlying issues go untreated because people are often simply told that an elimination diet is the solution to their problem, when there has been no in-depth assessment to truly identify the problem.
Rebel Well!