Why isn't everyone allergic to the same things? Why doesn't everyone have the same sense of humour? Why does the same chemical compound cause different downstream physiological effects?
All these situations above are related to the concept of 'receptor dependence'. The same stimulus can cause different reactions in different 'receptors', be they transmembrane proteins in the stomach or 'triggers' for sensitive persons with differing levels of 'tolerance' for 'bad jokes'.
In naturopathic medicine, we often put greater emphasis on the FOOD while putting less skilful or comprehensive emphasis on the condition of the RECEIVER (cells, receptors, tissues -- the 'tolerance' of the person in terms of the digestive system or neuro-immune reactivity etc.).
This is partly because very few people (clinicians) can skilfully assess the abdominal structures and therefore, we don't have a well-known and reliable way to assess the MACRO structures of the abdomen, although we have some fairly well-known concepts (i.e. leaky gut) that inform us of the MICRO structures of the gut.
The impact of this disproportional 'blame' on the food rather than the system leads to an emphasis on restrictive and often unsustainable diet plans.
Sometimes the food is more of the problem (e.g. gluten in celiac disease); sometimes the system is more to blame (e.g. leaky gut or sphincter of Oddi dysfunction) ...
but it is always the interaction of the two that is the problem.
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