Drama Triangle: The Food Sensitivities, Leaky Gut & Autoimmunity Connection
- Nourish Health
- Jan 2
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 8
You know that feeling when your body suddenly develops trust issues with your food? One day you’re besties with avocado toast, and the next, your gut’s staging a protest. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
This hits home for me — my daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition at age five, and learning how food sensitivities, leaky gut, and autoimmunity interact completely changed how we approach her health.
In our clinic, we support many individuals with autoimmune conditions, and our goal is clear: to take a proactive, root-cause approach that helps calm the immune system and support long-term balance, rather than waiting to react when symptoms flare.
Understanding this gut-immune triangle early can be a total game changer for long-term wellness. So let’s dive in, explore the triangle, and uncover ways to support your gut, calm inflammation, and take control of your health — before it takes control of you.
Food Sensitivities: The Sneaky Frenemy
Food sensitivities aren’t like full-blown allergies — no dramatic throat swelling or trips to the ER. Instead, they’re the slow-burn type: fatigue, bloating, headaches, mood swings, skin flares, brain fog, or subtle immune triggers. Think of it as your digestive system’s polite but firm way of saying, “Not a fan of this one.”
What makes them tricky is that reactions can develop to foods you’ve eaten for years without any obvious problem. Common culprits like gluten, dairy, soy, and processed foods can quietly spark chronic, low-grade inflammation in the gut.
Over time, that simmering irritation can weaken the intestinal lining, over-activate the immune system, and even increase the risk of new sensitivities or autoimmune flares.
Studies back this up: a 2018 study found that nearly 30% of people react to gluten without having celiac disease. So if you’ve ever felt off after your favorite pasta night, it’s not all in your head — your gut is sending a very pointed memo.
This is why knowing your food sensitivities is such a powerful tool for calming autoimmune reactions. Testing with Vibrant Labs Food Zoomers helps take the guesswork out of, “What is my body reacting to?”, giving you a clear roadmap for reducing inflammation, supporting gut health, and helping your immune system settle down. Learn more about Food Zoomers, here.
Leaky Gut: When the Gatekeeper Gets Sleepy
Your gut lining is like a nightclub bouncer. It decides who gets in (nutrients, electrolytes, good vibes only) and who stays out (toxins, pathogens, half-digested food bits).
But when stress, poor diet, antibiotics, or infections wear down that barrier, the bouncer starts letting anyone in. Suddenly, your bloodstream’s hosting an unwanted after-party — and your immune system’s not amused.
This “door breach” is what’s called leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability. Studies suggest that around 75% of people with autoimmune conditions show signs of leaky gut. Once those tiny gaps form, your immune system goes into overdrive, trying to clean up the chaos — and sometimes starts attacking your own tissues by mistake.
When Food Sensitivities Meet Leaky Gut
Here’s where things get spicy: food sensitivities and leaky gut love to egg each other on.
When you eat foods your body’s sensitive to, your gut lining gets irritated and inflamed. That irritation can make your intestinal barrier even leakier — which means more undigested food particles, bacterial fragments, and toxins can slip through.
Your immune system sees them, panics, and launches another defense. Cue: more inflammation, more sensitivities, and more gut drama. It’s the ultimate bad cycle — It’s like trying to put out a wildfire with a garden hose — every time you douse one flare, another sparks up before you can catch it. Over time this leads to immune exhausted and stress on our adrenals.
General food sensitivities can spark a low-grade, chronic inflammation, but it’s often gluten — the notorious troublemaker that loves to stir the pot.
Gluten - The Notorious Trouble Maker
Gluten — the main protein found in wheat, barley, and rye — is basically the ring leader of this leaky gut party (and not in a fun, “bring snacks” kind of way). One of its components, gliadin, interacts with your gut lining and triggers the release of a protein called zonulin. Zonulin acts like the gatekeeper of your intestinal wall, controlling the “tight junctions” between gut cells — imagine little zippers that keep your gut barrier sealed.
But when gluten steps in, zonulin levels rise and those zippers loosen. Suddenly, your once-tight barrier becomes a bit drafty, and unwanted particles sneak into your bloodstream where they absolutely don’t belong.
This zonulin-gluten reaction increases intestinal permeability — even in people who don’t have celiac disease. Studies show that gluten exposure can transiently “open up” the gut barrier in otherwise healthy individuals, and even more so in those who are genetically or immunologically sensitive.
Once that barrier is compromised, the immune system detects foreign invaders and sets off an inflammatory chain reaction. Over time, this can snowball into new food sensitivities, fatigue, skin issues, brain fog, or even autoimmune flares.
In fact, one study found that over half of people with leaky gut developed new food sensitivities once their gut barrier broke down — and gluten was one of the biggest offenders. It’s like pulling one loose thread and watching the whole sweater unravel.
So if your “safe foods” list seems to shrink every month, gluten may be the sneaky culprit keeping your gut barrier cracked and your immune system in overdrive.
The good news?t is a highly specific functional test that provides valuable insight into how gluten is affecting your gut lining. Even better, it also serves as a leaky gut panel, giving you a dual-purpose tool to guide personalized strategies for gut repair and immune balance.
Autoimmunity: When Your Immune System Mixes Up the Memo
Autoimmune diseases — like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or Hashimoto’s — happen when the immune system gets confused and starts attacking healthy cells. Think of it as your body’s defense system turning into that overzealous friend who “protects” you by picking fights with everyone at the party.
While genetics can load the gun, it’s often gut dysfunction that pulls the trigger. When the intestinal barrier weakens and inflammatory foods keep sneaking through, your immune system starts reacting to… well, everything.
That’s why gut healing is such a game-changer for those with autoimmune conditions — it helps the immune system chill out and remember who the real enemies are.
How Trigger Foods Turn Up the Fire
If you have autoimmunity, eating your trigger foods can fan the flames big time. Each time you consume something your body perceives as a threat, it can spark an immune response, leading to inflammation that doesn’t just stay in the gut — it can affect your joints, skin, thyroid, brain, and beyond. Over time, this constant immune activation can make symptoms flare more intensely and slow down healing.
A 2020 survey found that 70% of people with autoimmune conditions feel worse after eating their reactive foods.
The good news? You have more control than you think. A 2017 study found that 65% of people improved their symptoms just by removing problem foods for a short period.
This isn’t about restriction — it’s about restoration. By identifying and avoiding your personal food triggers, you lower inflammation, calm your immune system, and give your gut lining a chance to rebuild. Think of it as creating a peaceful environment where your body can finally focus on repair instead of defense — like sending your digestion on a much-needed spa retreat.
Targeted Labs: Taking the Guesswork Out of Gut and Immune Support
Clients ask me all the time, “How can I actually support my autoimmune health?” I get it — I’ve lived it firsthand with my daughter. Watching her navigate autoimmune challenges taught me that targeted, functional labs can be a total game-changer.
Think of it like being a detective: your gut and immune system leave clues, but you have to know where to look. Your gut can repair itself, but it helps to know exactly where to start. Doing some careful investigation with the right tests is essential to creating a personalized, targeted program — because every gut, immune system, and flare pattern is unique. Here’s the roadmap we use in our clinic to guide proactive, individualized gut healing:
Assess Leaky Gut and Gluten Sensitivity with the Wheat Zoomer
The Wheat Zoomer acts like a magnifying glass for your gut, revealing intestinal permeability and how your body responds to wheat gluten. Even without celiac disease, gluten can irritate the gut lining, worsen leaky gut, and upregulate the immune system. It is also one of the best tests to access leaky gut and LPS. This test helps pinpoint triggers and guide a truly personalized plan.
Explore the Gut with the GI-MAP
The GI-MAP maps your gut ecosystem — microbial balance, immune activity, and digestive efficiency. Paired with the Wheat Zoomer, it gives a clear roadmap to restore gut integrity and immune balance.
Investigate Microbial Imbalances with MOAT
The MOAT test uncovers hidden microbial patterns, including yeast or bacterial overgrowth and beneficial bacteria deficiencies, adding another layer to personalize your gut-healing plan.
Optional, highly recommended: Vibrant Labs Peptide-Based Food Sensitivity Testing
This test identifies hidden food triggers that standard tests may miss, helping design a targeted plan to reduce inflammation and support immune regulation.
Step by step, this investigative, personalized approach allows us to cool inflammation, reduce sensitivities, and calm the immune system — giving your gut the chance to rebuild and function like the strong, protective barrier it was meant to be.
The Takeaway
Food sensitivities, leaky gut, and autoimmunity are a complex triangle — and each side influences the others. But with the right understanding, testing, and targeted support, you can calm inflammation, heal your gut, and give your immune system the clarity it needs to function properly.
Because when it comes to autoimmune health, knowledge is power — and prevention is everything.
Resources:
Test: The Gut Detective, here
Test: Add on (optional) Food Zoomers, here
Cheat Sheet: Food Sensitivity, Leaky Gut & Autoimmunity, here
Quiz: Are you gluten sensitive?, here
Our Approach
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® is a science-based holistic approach to investigating and identifying the root cause of your health problems. Imbalances in your body can lead to symptoms such as digestive complaints, fatigue and weight issues. As a therapeutic partnership between client and practitioner, it is an evolution in the practice of nutrition that better addresses the health needs of our modern society.
