A woman eats vegetables and boiled eggs every day, three meals a day, but her weight increased by 7 kg. After checking for "allergies," she found out where she went wrong.

Eggs and vegetables are considered recommended foods for those who want to lose weight. However, a woman not only failed to lose weight but actually gained weight despite eating only eggs and vegetables for half a year.

Weight gain despite eating healthy food

Yang Zhiwen, a weight loss expert and family medicine doctor at the Xiao Zhou Chu Ri Clinic in Taiwan, explained that this patient works as a pharmacy assistant and has some knowledge of health care. However, despite eating healthy foods for six months, she gained weight, felt fatigued, and often had unexplained body aches.

To find the cause, she underwent tests for thyroid function, liver, kidneys, and anemia, which all came back normal. However, she continued to gain weight and became concerned. Eventually, she tested for IgG4 food allergies and was surprisingly found to be allergic to eggs.

Chronic food allergies: A commonly overlooked cause

Yang Zhiwen explained that most people's understanding of "allergies" is limited to acute reactions caused by IgE, such as swollen eyelids after eating shrimp, difficulty breathing after drinking beverages containing peanuts, or hives after eating peaches. These types of allergies can be avoided by eliminating the offending food. However, IgG4 food allergies are often overlooked because they have delayed and unclear symptoms.

Chronic allergies do not only affect weight but can cause many other health problems as well.

Yang Zhiwen recommended that if you pay attention to your diet and exercise regularly but still experience weight gain along with other symptoms such as insomnia, skin inflammation, body aches, or fatigue, you should test for allergies or undergo a gut check to find the real cause.

What should you do if you have food allergies?

Xu Jingyi, a nutritionist at the Lian Clinic in Taiwan, said that the key is not whether the food is good or bad, but whether each person is allergic to that particular food. Testing for allergens can help understand the severity of allergies to different foods.

If the allergy is mild, you can still eat the food but should reduce the quantity and avoid consuming it continuously for more than four days. For moderate allergies, you should avoid that food for at least 3-6 months and test again before starting to consume it in appropriate amounts.

Xu Jingyi recommended that, in addition to avoiding foods that cause moderate to severe allergies, you should improve gut health by supplementing probiotics and fiber. It's also important to plan a varied diet, such as choosing sushi or sweet potatoes as the main dish if you are allergic to wheat, or using chicken or soy products instead of eggs if you are allergic to egg whites or yolks, in order to reduce the risk of food allergies.