The Pitfalls of Food Sensitivity Testing {and should you do one}

You might be struggling with hives, rashes, sores, eczema, psoriatic-like symptoms, headaches, fatigue, bloating, gas, stomach aches, poor BM’s and more. Should you pay for a food sensitivity test?

So many women struggling with chronic symptoms choose to go the route of food sensitivity testing. I see it suggested in groups all the time and many of my clients have gone that route before they knew better.

Back in 2012, before I almost died from autoimmunity in January 2013, I had done a very expensive food sensitivity test and followed the results dogmatically for 6 months which led up to January 2013. That month began the sickest month of my entire life where I was literally on my death bed, but that valley was also was the catalyst to healing my body using nutrition and lifestyle foundations and understanding that food sensitivity testing is not the answer to healing.

The Difference Between Food Sensitivities and Food Allergies

Both deal with the immune system but here is the difference:

Food Sensitivities = IgG antibody reaction which can include hives, rashes, digestive issues, headaches, fatigue and more up to 72 hours after the food is eaten.

Food Allergies = IgE immediate emergency reaction including anaphylaxis and dangerous closing of airways, etc. With IgE reaction, you will likely need medical intervention.

For the rest of this article, we will be talking about the IgG reaction, not the IgE emergency reaction.

What is Food Sensitivity Testing?

Food sensitivity tests introduce your blood to a variety of antigens from foods to see if you have an IgG antibody reaction to it. If you do, and depending on the level, your results will show red, yellow or green lines next to the food tested. The results will suggest you don’t eat red foods sometimes for 6 months or longer or indefinitely, strongly caution against eating yellow foods and tell you it’s ok to eat foods with a green line next to them.

The results are a snapshot in time, and it’s happened before where a person does a food sensitivity test one week and gets certain results and then does the same test the next week and gets different results.

Negative Aspects of Food Sensitivity Testing

You might have an IgG reaction to 75-80% of the foods like I did. Then what do you eat? A very limiting diet is malnourishing and causes massive unwanted symptoms

• Accuracy is low – you can get different results with different tests on different days tested
• It’s a snapshot in time – results can vary from day to day and week to week
• No plan in place for the person in regard to what they can eat – women concentrate on taking away but not adding in nutrient-dense foods for healing
• Very expensive – tests can cost thousands of dollars
• Can create orthorexia – this is a fear of food. You start connecting the visual red lines with the food and actually see the food as scary to your body. When in fact, the food could be amazing for your body if you had a healed gut.
• Amplifies and unhealthy relationship with food – the dogma that a food sensitivity test creates can be very hard to unravel. Instead of focusing on food as a blessing and a way to nourish your body, you might negatively focus on deprivation and avoidance. You can suffer physically and mentally by doing a food sensitivity test.
• Following the results can lead to worsened symptoms – for example, if your blood says it’s ok to eat nuts but your gut is not healed, then antigens crossing the leaky intestinal barrier will worsen symptoms.
• It does not take into consideration proper preparation and quality of food – some people don’t have reactions to raw organic dairy because living enzymes are intact and help digest the proteins and since it’s organic they don’t react to contaminants in the milk. Similarly, someone might tolerate nuts and seeds if they are raw and not irradiated and properly prepared by soaking and sprouting.
• Does not address the root cause of your food intolerances – food sensitivities are never the reason why your body is dealing with chronic symptoms. The root cause is your gut health. When you heal your gut, you can tolerate the foods you were sensitive to again.

What is the Gold Standard Instead of Food Sensitivity Testing?

The gold standard is called an elimination diet. It’s very simple, and cost-effective and preserves a healthy relationship with food as well as heals your gut and reduces symptoms while you are doing it.

It allows you to connect YOUR food intolerances to YOUR body (not follow some dietary dogma) so that you can temporarily eliminate them to quench the inflammation going on in your body so your immune system can put energy toward healing your gut. While you are eliminating these foods for a temporary amount of time, you are also adding in HIGHLY nutrient-dense foods that will heal your gut lining and the epithelial cells, rejuvenate and replenish the damaged enterocytes in your intestines and increase and improve gut motility so you are having a BM 2-3 times per day.

As your gut heals, you are able to trial back in one food at a time to check to see if your body tolerates it because of the healing you’ve done. Most often, women are able to add back in all the foods they previously could not tolerate AND they have the added bonus of many of their previous chronic symptoms disappearing.

A healthy gut is IMPERATIVE for optimal health. And a healthy relationship with food is crucial for feeling your best every single day.

The Solution to Heal Your Gut

At this point, you might be wishing that you had something to teach you exactly, step-by-step how to heal a leaky gut. You want to know the nutrient-dense foods that I talk about. You want to have a routine to follow that’s simple and not only helps quench inflammation but results in a healed gut lining.

At the same time, you might be wanting to learn proper ways to prepare nutritious food so that your body can digest it and you just want some hand-holding and guidance during the healing process. If that describes you, then I’d like to invite you to my Gut Renew course. It will give you everything I just mentioned and more and it’s the program I have used on my clients successfully over and over again. Check out Gut Renew here.