Who should do food sensitivity testing?

There’s two ways to approach healing. 

1. Do the proper testing so you have the right data to create a more targeted and personalized your approach. You now have a map to chart your course. 
   
   
2. Do it trial and error style by doing research and trying difference supplements, diets and treatments, hoping to get lucky quickly. You wander around until you get there, but you manage to learn a few things along the way. 

People opt for the 2nd approach to save money but it only works if they get lucky. Otherwise the supplements graveyard and trial and error expenses can add up. 

Many people have had bad experience with testing in the past. Tests that revealed that nothing was wrong with them. The last thing you want to hear from your doctor is “you are perfectly healthy” when you know deep down that something is off. 

Endoscopies, colonoscopies and standard blood and stool tests are meant to rule out more serious issues. They are not designed to provide the kind of useful information that helps people create a viable plan to alleviate symptoms.

One day hopefully, this will change. But for right now, I suggest pursuing the right kind of testing to get the answer you deserve. The ones that prove to you that your issues are not in your head. 

The right testing 

The standard tests I use in my health coaching practice are the GI Map, a stool test that scans the large intestine for hard to find infections and overgrowth, and the SIBO breath test, for bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.

But, recently, I’ve added a new test for food sensitivities.

Many food sensitivity tests can produce false negatives with an accuracy rate at roughly 80 percent. So I had to find a lab that did better. 

I used the complete food allergy panel by Vibrant Wellness. It tests for around 181 foods plus common food additives.

Vibrant Wellness is a lab that uses a microchip technology for testing that raises accuracy to 99 percent. 

Because I learn best through first hand experience, I took the test myself. And what I learned made a huge difference or me. So I had to share. 

What I learned about food sensitivities

So to start, I don’t have any obvious reactions to the foods I eat. The only thing that bothers me is alcohol.

But I learned that you can have food sensitivities without any obvious and immediate reactions. 

Food sensitivities and food allergies are very different. I will explain the difference below.

Unlike food allergies, food sensitivities can cause delayed reactions for up to three days afterwards consuming that food. Those reaction are not histamine-based allergy reactions but can look like random or unrelated seeming issues like a bad night’s sleep, anxiety, fatigue, IBS-like digestive issues or a bad headache, to give a few examples.

Food sensitivities manifest as silent inflammation, meaning you don’t know you are inflamed from this food but you feel achy, moody, lethargic or simply off, without realizing why.  

Who should test for food sensitivities?

I did the test for professional curiosity, but there were also reasons to suspect I had silent food intolerances.

I took the GI Map a month prior and it revealed a significantly leaky gut.

A leaky gut increases your chance of developing food sensitivities. According to the GI Map, for the first time ever I developed a gluten intolerance, which made me suspect further intolerances. 

My gut became leaky as a result of mold illness, which often causes leaky gut and immune system dysfunction.  I had lived in an apartment with black mold a few months prior, then moved into a new apartment that also had previous water damage. 

So I wanted to see how leaky gut affected my food tolerance and if cow’s dairy was an issue for me. I eat a lot of cow dairy and never experience any obvious symptoms, but testing would be a definitive way to know. 

What is leaky gut 

Leaky gut, also called intestinal permeability, occurs when your intestinal lining develops tiny holes in the epithelial junctions and undigested food particles can now leak into your blood stream.

This causes major immune system alarm, and it overreacts by tagging food as enemy invaders. IgG antibodies are produced every time you eat that food. If you produce IgG antibodies in response to eating a certain food you become inflamed. The inflammation manifests as different symptoms for everyone.

For me it was anxiety and slight weight gain.

It turns out that I am sensitive to ginger. And black pepper. 

There is a higher tendency to develop sensitivities to foods you eat frequently. I ate grated pickled ginger on a daily basis to boost my digestion. 

Ginger is healthy for most people, but for me it is inflammatory.  I had no idea. 

Eggs were also on the list. As was cow dairy (why protein) But thankfully, I have no problem with goat, sheep and buffalo dairy. 

Almonds and cashews were also on the list, and things I consumed daily. 

The good news  

The chronic anxiety I had been experiencing went away when I stopped  eating eggs, which blew my mind. I ate eggs almost daily and had no idea. 

It typically takes 6 months for IgG cells to die. That means if I completely avoid eggs for 6 months, the IgG cells my body produces in response to eggs will die. I will then able to eat eggs without having an inflammatory response.

The difference between IGG, IGE and IGA

There is a difference between a food allergy, food sensitivity and food intolerance, based on the type of antibodies you produce against a food.  

IgE

IgE is an antibody that signifies an immediate response to a food or foreign substance that enters the body. This is more of a traditional allergy.  You will have an immediate reaction like swelling, itching, hives, tight throat or difficulty breathing. In severe cases there’s anaphylactic shock and an epipen is prescribed. 

These types of reactions don’t away but when you heal your gut and bolster your immune system theses reactions become much less severe. 

IgG

IgG antibodies signify a food sensitivity with subtler, non-histamine symptoms. Symptoms could show up immediately, but more often they can be delayed by hours or even days after exposure.  

This delayed response makes it hard to discover sensitivities with an elimination diet unless it is done very slow and thoroughly.  Because of the  delayed response, most people do not realize they have food sensitivities, nor that they react to those foods. 

That was my experience. 

IgG symptoms vary greatly, but are inflammatory in nature and could manifest as bloating, gas, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, joint pain, headaches, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, brain fog or fatigue. 

IgG food responses can be a hidden reason for experiencing digestive issues and symptoms. 

IgA

IgA immunoglobulins are present in our mucus membranes and helps us fight bacteria and viruses.

An IgA response to food has a much shorter duration than an IgG antibody response. IgA antibodies live for only 3 weeks.

So food sensitivities that show up in this category only need to be avoided for only 3 week. 

Is allergy testing right for you? 

If your stool test reveals you have leaky gut and cleaning up gut infections  does not ease symptoms completely, this is another good options to further lower inflammation.

If you are eating foods regularly that cause inflammation, it is harder for the gut to heal and seal the gut lining.

Leaky gut is a symptom of inflammation, food intolerance and gut infections or overgrowth. While supplements like l-glutamine, slippery elm or collagen can repair the gut lining, it won’t fully seal up unless you address the source of the inflammation, infection, etc. 

Also, if you are stressed about what to eat and can’t figure out what is bothering you (now you know why you can’t) then food sensitivity testing will give you a concrete list of what you can and can’t have.

Along with the food sensitivity panel, Vibrant Wellness also offers deep dive testing for individual foods like corn, nuts, eggs, dairy, soy,  seafood and the most popular is the wheat zoomer,  which will tell you if you have a sensitivity to gluten. And if there is a likelihood of celiac disease. And if wheat consumption has caused leaky gut (it is one of the top causes of leaky gut).

You need to order these tests through a practitioner.

I am currently taking clients and offer this test, as well as the GI Map and SIBO breath test as part of my testing menu. 

If you are working with a practitioner, discuss food sensitivity testing or if you have any questions for me you can use the contact me box my sidebar to get in touch.

Remember, food sensitivities, in many cases, are not forever. Knowing you are sensitive to a food and avoiding it for 6 months is often enough to solve the problem by helping repair the gut lining and calm the immune system.

I have been avoiding my food sensitivities for 2 months now and my mood has remained stable. And though I eat a lot more carbs and comfort foods these days I have not gained any weight like I used to. I chalk this up to avoiding the foods I’m sensitive to.

Instead of missing the foods I need to avoid, I focus on what I can have, which is a much bigger list.

And I am looking forward to reintroducing those foods again in a few more months.