How Can I Tell If a Food Is Causing a Reaction or If I'm Actually Sick?
15 Dec 2025 · 6 min
JJ Virgin explains how to distinguish food intolerances from actual illness. Wait until you're fully recovered, then reintroduce foods one at a time after at least three weeks on an elimination diet to identify what's causing reactions.
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If a food is causing a reaction or if I'm actually sick? This is JJ Virgin four times New York Times Best Selling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions, and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Joanne from Facebook asks. I'm fighting the cold now while in the middle of doing the Virgin Diet challenge. How do I tell if the gluten and dairy, et cetera, are causing a reaction as opposed to the normal cold symptoms? In the past, I've gotten a sore throat or weight gain as reaction, but now I already have the sore throat. How do I tell? All right, Joanne, this is a little complicated. I'll be right back to walk you through it.
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Okay, so how do you tell that is a little bit complicated. And what I would tell you is don't go challenging when you can't keep all the variables straight. So if you don't feel well, this is a good time to just stay on the virgin diet. Because if you are eating foods that you're intolerant to, remember you create an immune response in low grade and in inflammation. I can say that word inflimation. And you don't really want to be doing that as you're battling something. You want to have your body be able to have all of its resources ready to launch against that illness, whatever it is. So if while you're doing the virgin diet, you start coming down with something, just stay on the virgin diet. I basically live my life, you know, on the virgin diet. So there's no harm in doing it. There's no harm in doing it for the rest of your life. Although that's not what the how the diet was set up. It was set up as a process that you go through where you pull these foods out that you're most likely to have some kind of intolerance to. One or more of. You go through a process where you detox and reset at the end of that process. And by the way, that process minimally is three weeks, but you can take it out to six weeks, eight weeks, three months. Okay. @ the end of that, when you're feeling good, so you have a great baseline, then go back and rechallenge one by one those foods. And so right now, if you're fighting a cold, just stay on the virgin diet and don't go challenge until you've gotten through that piece of it. Then and only then, go back and challenge one by one so that you'll be able to know what's actually causing the symptom. There you go. That was a great question and actually one I've never been asked before. So I really appreciate you asking that. And again, it really, it really states the difference. If I wrote the virgin diet again, which one day maybe I'll write Virgin Diet 2.0. It would be you want to pull those seven most most high offenders that we most tend to have tolerance to out for at least three weeks. But you can keep going and you really want to keep going until you've gotten to where you want to be and you feel great and then go back and challenge one by one. So again, wait until you feel good, not when you're fighting something to go back and challenge. This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.
Foreign. Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next reading. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years, and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change, or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out.
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