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Food Sensitivity Testing

There are many different approaches to testing for food allergies and sensitivities, none of them are completely reliable except for complete avoidance of all allergic / reactive substances followed by a period of challenge and observation. 

I divide food allergy / sensitivity training into 4 general categories:

1. Elimination and Challenge
2. Scratch Test
3. Blood Tests
4. Esoteric Tests

I use a combination of Blood Testing and the Elimination Diet to track down foods that my patients may be sensitive to.  I occasionally also refer patients to practitioners that use scratch testing or esoteric testing.  Here is an overview of the different approaches:

Allergy Elimination Diet / Avoidance of offending substances:  This is the gold standard.  It involves complete and strict avoidance of all offending substances for 14 days followed by a challenge period where each substance is ingested and then the patient watches / is observed for symptoms over the next 3 days.  Benefits:  If done correctly this gives unmistakably clear data regarding what is upsetting the body.  Drawbacks:  This is incredibly difficult to do correctly.  It is time consuming, labor intensive and in many cases may require an in-patient facility to actually avoid all possible offending substances (including environmental pollutants, chemicals in cosmetics and cleaners, etc).  Unless attempting a 2 week fast (done only in an in-patient facility) it is entirely possible to miss (and thus continue consuming) an offending food, thus negating accuracy of the whole process.  Drawbacks aside, this is the process used to test substances / foods that are on the “High suspicion” list (which may be generated by any of the following test types, your own history, your intuition, or a list of the foods statistically most likely to be allergic:  wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, nightshades, citrus). 

Skin scratch test:  This is the traditional method of testing for a classic allergy.  Most conventional allergists or MD’s will employ this method.  Reactions to allergic substances are mediated by an antibody class called “IgE”.  These antibodies are responsible for classic hay-fever, bug sting / bite, and anaphylaxis allergy reactions (hot, red, swollen, itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, etc).  This is an excellent method of testing for classical environmental allergies.  The body can have reactions to foods and other substances that are not classic “IgE” allergies though, and so this method can miss a lot of offending substances and foods.

Blood test for multiple antibodies:  This is a quick blood test to check your blood for both IgE and IgG antibodies to foods and other substances.  It is helpful in distinguishing different kinds of reactions, and will often catch food reactions that a scratch test will miss.  It is, however, limited to only IgE and IgG antibodies.  This test is also known to be somewhat unreliable, with frequent false positives and negatives.  If you have not eaten a food in a long time, this test will show that you are not allergic even if you are (the antibodies have gone away since you have not eaten the food and “exposed” yourself to the substance).  The benefit of this test is that it is quick and easy and provides a good starting point. 

Esoteric testing:  There are many, many different test methods that I would put in this category including:  Vega testing, Muscle testing (Applied Kinesiology, Clinical Kinesiology, many others), Auricular medicine testing, Caroll testing, Electrical impedence testing (all the different systems that involve using the body in an electrical circuit exposing the body to a substance (in a vial or by inputting the “signal” of a substance into the system), and then testing the electrical changes in the skin at set points).  Benefits:  when used well, these testing methods allow the body to give information directly about weather a substance is good or bad for it at any given time.  These methods are the best for finding “hidden” problems that would not come up on other more empirical testing.  These methods are also non-invasive, do not trigger reactions, and do not require adherence to difficult diets in order to assess the problem foods or substances.  Drawbacks:  all of these methods are very prone to “operator error”.  It is common for practitioners to get very different results.