The Food Time Lag

One of the most frustrating parts of experimenting with food and autoimmune symptoms is the time lag between an action — eating (or not eating) something — and when we actually feel the result.

There are certain foods I feel almost immediately. Spicy foods, alcohol, and sugar nearly always cause near-instant inflammation in my joints. But I’ve also learned that there are other foods whose effects I don’t feel for weeks. And when I stop eating those foods, it can take several more weeks before I notice any real improvement.

This creates a frustrating dynamic. We’ve been conditioned to expect near-instant feedback, and food doesn’t always work that way. When we experiment with diet and inflammation and don’t get feedback for weeks, it becomes hard to tell what’s helping and what isn’t. Over that span of time, so many other variables enter the picture that the “noise” in the experiment can drown out the signal.

Because of that, we often give up too soon. We abandon approaches that might actually help, or we miss the deeper connection between what we eat and how it affects us.

This challenge is real — but it isn’t insurmountable. There are a few different ways to approach food experimentation for autoimmune conditions that can make the process clearer and less discouraging. You can read about those approaches here.