Could Adding Fiber to your Diet Help With Food Allergies?

A high-fiber diet could help prevent allergens from traveling from the gut to the bloodstream.

Food allergies can be very limiting, especially if you are allergic to a common ingredient such as milk, eggs, wheat, or nuts. You may be getting very tired of reading labels on processed foods and asking about the ingredients in homemade ones. While this type of allergen avoidance remains the most effective way to protect yourself against the possibility of an unpleasant or even dangerous reaction, a growing body of research suggests that there could be another option: adding more fiber to your diet.

Why Fiber?

In order to understand how fiber may help reduce food allergies, we first need to think about why 90 percent of food allergies are caused by just 8 types of foods: milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish. It may surprise you to learn that researchers are not 100 percent sure. However, most experts believe that what all these foods have in common is that they are not fully digested in the gut.

When foods are not fully digested, it is possible for some of the undigested compounds to travel from the gut into the bloodstream in a process called “leaky gut.” Once in the bloodstream, the compounds may be seen as foreign invaders by the immune system, resulting in an allergic response.

Research has shown that fiber plays a critical role in helping to promote a healthy balance of bacteria in the digestive system, which can help protect against leaky gut. Specifically, one study published in the journal Nature showed that eating fiber promotes the growth of a specific bacteria that produces short-chain fatty acids, which in turn prevent gut cells from becoming permeable.

In additional studies, implanting this same bacteria into the guts of mice actually prevented them from having allergic reactions to peanuts.

Role of Fiber Could Explain Increase in Food Allergies

The number of Americans with food allergies increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. While many explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon, changes in our diet could definitely be a significant factor. The modern diet is heavier in sugar, fat, and refined carbs than ever—and all of these foods can actually kill the healthy bacteria needed to protect against leaky gut.

Need Help with Food Allergies?

Research on humans will be needed before a high-fiber diet can be recommended as a cure for food allergies. However, this does not mean you are powerless right now. You can get expert advice about managing your food allergies by scheduling an appointment with one of our experienced allergy doctors today.