Why Food Sensitivity Tests May Not Be Necessary??

Why Food Sensitivity Tests May Not Be Necessary??  

The foods we eat can literally build us up to be healthy, kick-ass humans, OR they can break us down and be our biggest downfall. More people are waking up to this reality every single day, and now we see the emergence of many food sensitivity testing companies. These companies are mostly using blood analysis to determine WHICH foods you are sensitive to. But how accurate and necessary are the tests? Before we get into that, what the heck is a food sensitivity anyway? 

Because we eat multiple times a day, food can be the number 1 source of inflammation in our bodies. WHAT? Crazy, isn’t it?! It all comes down to the immune system and the gut. Your immune system’s job is to protect your body from the outside world, whether it be heavy metals in water or air, parasites on food, viruses you inhale, mold on your carpet, etc. The immune system had a unique way of tagging and neutralizing ‘would-be’ offenders. Through an intricate system of different immune cells, the immune system can effectively “remember” the attackers so the defense can be more robust in the future. This is a well-designed and efficient way for the body to protect itself from invaders. 

Sensitivity vs allergy

The more common food blood “test” is an IgE test, ran mostly by conventional medicine doctors. IgE testing is strictly for food allergies or immediate reactions. These are usually easily detected, as they cause immediate symptoms (peanuts, shellfish..etc). You also may be familiar with the skin prick food test, which is also testing immediate allergies.

The majority of food sensitivity testing is done using the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) and sometimes IgA- which are considered delayed “sensitivities”. Those sensitivities can take up to 4 days to create a response anywhere in the body.  Most tests are measuring white blood cell reactivity to certain foods- hence getting an immune response. This can go awry when more foods are eaten compared to others (ex. Eating apples every day- you will have exposure and therefore a greater chance of an immune response). Some even hypothesize that the same immunoglobulins are tagging harmless foods. This is where the limitations start to creep in.

Limitations of Food Sensitivity Testing

From my personal experience, Food Sensitivity blood tests can have many limitations, including:

-A very new science- food sensitivity and immunology testing are relatively new sciences, where we are just scratching the surface of what gets clinical results and what is accurate

-Many people don’t like getting stuck by needles, especially younger children. When trying to figure out which foods are correct, sometimes this hinders progress.

-MANY false positives- This means food could register as “bad” or an offending food when in reality, it could merely be a food that you have eaten a lot in the weeks leading up to the test. This leads to the person having way too many foods on the ‘bad’ list.

-MANY false negatives- I’ve seen certain tests from clients where only 1 or 2 foods are positive or reactive, even though those foods aren’t even eaten (codfish for example). Then the person takes out gluten and dairy and they start feeling better immediately. This tells us that the test missed the true food sensitivities.  

Above all else, having to avoid up to 50 or more foods can be very overwhelming and time -consuming for people. Having gone through this personally, as well as running hundreds of food sensitivity tests, I can say that this was the number 1 concern. It can already be challenging to make certain dietary changes, but when dozens of foods are on the NO list, 

In certain circumstances, I believe that food sensitivity testing can be beneficial, as in with children with only a few foods introduced and a decently intact gut. 

What to do?

When dealing with any issue in the body, it important to find and fix the root cause. When someone is sensitive to a food, the problem is not always the food, but how the immune system is reacting to the food. Many times people can develop sensitivities to “healthy” foods like broccoli, spinach, coconut, almonds, etc. Well, how can we impact the immune system you ask? Go after the place where 70-80% of the immune cells live: the GUT!

When the gut lining is inflamed or permeable (leaky), food along with toxins, bacteria, and other things can leak into the body where they shouldn’t be. This makes the immune system WAY more prone to react and can lead to overreacting to even foods that we eat. 

In order to calm down the immune system and eventually limit or eliminate food sensitivities, it is important to heal and seal the gut and calm the immune system. Some other causes of intestinal permeability, or leaky gut, are chronic stress, medications, infections, and environmental toxins. 

Replenishing the gut with healing nutrients like Glutamine, bovine Colostrum, Vitamin A, Zinc, probiotics, Aloe, and DGL can calm GI inflammation, heal and seal the gut villi, neutralize toxic byproducts from entering the body, and balance the immune response.

Foods

Because of the inflammatory nature of them, a handful of foods are recommended to avoid during the healing process. Some of the most common (not a complete list)foods to avoid are:

–Gluten (bread, pasta, pizza, crackers, cookies, cake, soy sauce, many other sources)

-Dairy (milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream, yogurt)

-Soy (soy protein, tofu)

-Eggs

-Corn (corn oil, high fructose corn syrup, chips, processed foods)

**After eliminating foods for a period of time, the reintroduction phase is next. The large majority of people fail during the reintroduction phase, as it is usually done incorrectly. If foods are not reintroduced in the correct manner- then all of your symptoms could come back with a vengeance, leaving you just as disappointed as before you started the diet. The last thing you want to do is put in all the work to see results and then throw it all away ☹

I created The Right Diet Method In order to tame brain fog and anxiety, rejuvenate energy and sleep, decrease those pesky GI symptoms, and take your life back! It is a proven system to heal and seal the gut and find the right foods for YOU!

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