Food Sensitivity Test

Our multiplex food sensitivity test measuring total IgG antibodies to a plethora of foods. Results help practitioners personalize diet and lifestyle guidance for their patients to reduce and eliminate symptoms related to adverse food reactions.

What are Food Sensitivities?

Food sensitivities are an adverse immune system response to ordinarily harmless foods. These food sensitivities are highly individualized, and symptoms are subtle and often delayed. Adverse reactions can occur from 3 to 72 hours after ingesting the offending food.

Why Test for Food Sensitivities?

• Elevated IgG antibodies can promote systemic (whole-body) inflammation, leading to a variety of unwanted symptoms.
• We tests immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies to a variety of common foods. This extensive food sensitivity test can help us pinpoint which foods may be driving symptoms and best prioritize and individualize a diet and lifestyle plan for patients.
• Usually, eliminating foods that promote an IgG antibody response can reduce stress on the immune system, lower whole-body inflammation, and help heal the gut. An antibody-guided elimination diet is more reliable and preferable than generalized diet plans or exclusion diets based on food journaling and diet history alone.
• Our test provides in-depth insight into adverse food reactions and the symptoms they create.
• Molecular antigens for wheat gliadin and cow's milk are also included for enhanced insight into the sensitivity of those two potentially immunogenic foods.

Understanding Food Sensitivities vs. Food Allergies

• Food sensitivities and food allergies are not the same. Different arms of the immune system facilitate both conditions.
• Food sensitivities are delayed reactions and elicit IgG antibodies, while food allergies are immediate, potentially life-threatening, mast-cell mediated, and often involve IgE antibodies.
• It is best practice to measure IgG and IgE antibodies together as they independently create inflammation and play key roles in symptoms driven by food. A food can elicit an IgG sensitivity response, and an IgE antibody response, or both.

By understanding a patient's food sensitivities, practitioners can tailor dietary protocols that can help resolve uncomfortable symptoms.

Food Sensitivities and Gut Health

IgG-mediated food sensitivities are often a consequence of poor gut health, poor digestion, dysbiosis, and inflammation – all of which can result in intestinal permeability or "leaky gut." If the gut barrier is permeable and or digestion is suboptimal, maldigested food proteins can leak across the intestinal barrier.

Since gut permeability is not normal physiology, the immune system may detect food protein molecules as foreign or antigenic. T cells then become sensitized and begin the immune response to produce antibodies against these foods. This phenomenon is called the loss of oral tolerance to a particular food.

Food sensitivities and loss of intestinal barrier function is a well-understood connection in functional medicine. However, it is crucial to keep in mind that the intestinal cell barrier is made up of highly interactive layers, including the following:

• Microbiota/Bacteria
• Mucous layers
• Epithelium (includes tight junctions)
• Immune system

A compromise to any of these layers can propagate intestinal permeability. Tight junctions are an important but are not the entire picture when considering a compromised gut barrier.

Testing for food sensitivities can not only help pinpoint trigger foods that may be exacerbating a patient’s symptoms but can provide essential clues about gut dysfunction, digestive insufficiency, and intestinal permeability.