The foods that are often blamed for food allergies and sensitivity reactions are also thought to cause or contribute to inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. These common foods likely do so through a process of intestinal inflammation that results in leaky gut. This injury, which occurs especially in genetically predisposed individuals, and in the setting of altered gut bacteria (dysbiosis), and immune stress likely predisposes to increased inflammation and leaky gut. This vicious cycle is believed to allow toxic complexes of proteins and bacteria from food to enter the body, resulting in a variety of inflammatory and/or autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis. In this context, a new study is reviewed that sheds some additional light on the link between food intolerance and rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers from Norway in 2006 published additional new evidence of the link between food and rheumatoid arthritis in the British journal Gut. Professor Bradtzaeg and colleagues at the Oslo Institute of Pathology measured IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies against food. They measured these antibodies in blood and intestinal fluid in people with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy people.

The researchers performed antibody tests on blood and intestinal fluids for the following food antigens: gliadin, oats, cow’s milk proteins (casein, lactalbumin, lactoglobulin), soy, pork, cod, and egg (ovalbumin). These foods are in the top 10 of common food allergens, as well as food protein intolerances.

What they found was a “particularly striking (incidence) of cross-reactive food antibodies in proximal intestinal secretions,” as well as an increase in IgM antibodies against some of these foods in the blood. The findings in the blood were less striking than in the intestinal secretions. This is consistent with the difficulties in finding elevated blood antibodies against food in people with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune/inflammatory conditions, despite a wealth of anecdotal experience and elimination diets supporting a role for food in these conditions . Interestingly, Dr. Ken Fine’s fecal antibody tests may be on to something.

The results, in their opinion, indicate that measuring blood antibodies against food in rheumatoid arthritis provides little information about the role of food in rheumatoid arthritis. However, not only do intestinal antibodies show a “surprising” pattern of elevation consistent with adverse immune reactions to foods, but there also appears to be a potential cumulative effect of multiple foods. That is, not only can certain foods trigger an abnormal immune response that results in joint inflammation, but the combination of multiple problem foods may be a key component of this link. Their results support the connection of food cross-reacting mucosal (gut) immune activation with rheumatoid arthritis in at least some people.

What could this mean? These data support the concept and the experience of many people that the elimination of certain problematic food combinations may be beneficial in preventing or reducing joint inflammation. This is both exciting and intriguing.

Multiple commonly eaten foods, frequently linked to food allergies and sensitivities, may be contributing to inflammatory and/or autoimmune conditions. It is likely that these common problem foods or their lectins contribute to the process of intestinal inflammation. This is likely causing intestinal injury resulting in leaky gut. This injury and leaky gut, especially in genetically predisposed individuals, may, in the context of altered gut bacteria (dysbiosis), predispose to further injury. This allows toxic food protein (lectin)-bacteria complexes to enter the body, especially the bloodstream. The result is inflammatory and/or autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

This gut-joint axis is probably the same mechanism as the gut-brain axis and the gut-skin axis that produce the myriad of symptoms and diseases we are now seeing. Immune reactions associated with food protein (lectin) and bacteria in the gut are increasingly blamed for the development of a myriad of diseases.

Much more needs to be learned, but it is interesting that certain foods continue to show up as the usual suspects. These problem foods or lectins include grains (especially wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn), dairy (casein), nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers), and peanuts, soybeans and other vegetables. Diets that eliminate or restrict these foods have been reported to be beneficial for many symptoms and illnesses. However, definitive links are difficult to establish due to limitations in scientific research.

The foods involved are usually limited in some way on a variety of elimination diets, such as the gluten-free/casein-free diet, the naked diet, Paleolithic/hunter-gatherer or caveman diets, the arthritis diet, the low-carb, anti-inflammatory diet, and six-food elimination diet.

The paleolithic or hunter-gatherer diet specifically recommends restricting grains, dairy products and vegetables. Several anti-inflammatory or arthritis diets generally recommend eliminating wheat or gluten, dairy, and nightshades. The commonly advocated dietary approach for autism is a casein- and gluten-free diet.

Despite lay public reports of great success with such elimination diets, conventional medicine remains slow to study the dietary treatment of disease. However, especially in the last two or three years, more studies are emerging showing links supporting an important role for food and bacteria in the gut and various autoimmune diseases.