Allergies, sensitivities and food intolerance are definitely on the rise so many people call to ask me abut food allergy test kits, where to buy one and how it works. So here is the answer!
The first thing to understand is the difference between a food allergy, a food sensitivity and food intolerance.
Food Allergy
The most severe is an ‘allergy’ which means that something triggers an allergic reaction in you that could potentially be fatal. Common allergens are peanuts, for example, which can trigger some sensitive individuals to have anaphylactic shock with is a severe medical emergency. Of course, if you have an allergy to something, you do need to know about it because the first time you have a reaction may be very mild, but the second or third time could be fatal as your immune system responds in a more drastic way each time you are exposed. A typical example of allergies that people may not initially be aware of are penicillin and bee stings.
Signs of food allergy come on within moments of exposure.
- Tingling of the lips and face
- Swelling around the nose, throat and mouth
- Increasing difficulty breathing
- Eventual loss of consciousness and potential death as airway expands and becomes blocked.
Food Intolerance
A food intolerance may not show up for a few days, which is why it can be difficult to identify the root cause of your symptoms. Food intolerance is typically caused by a lack of a certain enzyme resulting in the inability to digest certain foods properly. Over time, this can lead to leaky gut syndrome and a noticeable increase in intolerance of an increasing number of foods as the intestinal barrier weakens and allows more things to pass through to where they should not be. Examples of this can be dairy products or gluten. I have seen many clients who have had dreadful abdominal pain for years and not known that they were intolerant to gluten, so as soon as I changed their diet, their entire quality of life changed.
Symptoms of food intolerance include
- Gas
- Bloating
- Digestive discomfort and rumbling in the tummy
- Constipation
- Cramping
- Nausea
Food Sensitivity
Finally, food sensitivities are mild reactions that do not cause a serious reaction and do not trigger an immune response. The challenge with food sensitivities is that they can cause behaviour changes, mood swings, hyperactivity and other undesirable emotional effects, but they are not overtly harmful or life-threatening. An example could be E-numbers and additives in food, MSG and artificial colours. These are prevalent in all ready-meals and convenience food and may result in symptoms of ADHD, but because the reaction may not be immediate, it may not be immediately obvious what the trigger was.
Signs of food sensitivity
- Sugar rush after eating sweet things
- Hyper-activity
- Headache
- Itchy skin EG after grilled fish
How does a home food allergy test kit work
There are various ways of conducting these tests.
A GP may offer a skin prick test where a small amount of the food is put on your arm or your back to see whether there is localized swelling. A kineseologist may put test samples on your arm and look for movements that indicate whether your body likes or repels it.
I have found, however, that the least invasive and most simple way is to use a DNA hair strand test. Simply send off a small lock of hair (doesn’t matter if it has been dyed!) and within a few days you get results back with details of over 700 food and non-food allergens that have been tested on your hair at a cellular level.
Gut Function testing
For anyone who is struggling with increasing symptoms of food allergies, it is not realistic to assume that you can just eliminate all the foods from your diet. Meal times are an important social event and a restrictive diet can have a significant impact on your quality of life. The other factor is that if you have a sensitivity or intolerance to one food, then over time as your immune system weakens and your digestive tract also weakens due to a common condition called leaky gut syndrome, then you are likely to find yourself becoming more and more sensitive.
In these circumstances, I would strongly advise doing a comprehensive gut function test to measure dysbiosis in the gut, maldigestion, malabsorbtion, yeast or bacterial overgrowth and frontline immune response. This test would help us to understand not WHAT you are allergic to but WHY you are having such a strong response to more and more foods. What is triggering this intolerance or sensitivity and how can we stop it from continuing to worsen.
