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Is Food Sensitivity Testing a Scam?

Food sensitivity tests promise to supply answers. For decades, these tests were offered mainly in providers’ offices in alternative medicine settings. Now, they are increasingly available as at-home tests you can purchase online or on drugstore shelves. Manufacturers claim that with several drops of blood or a few plucked hairs, they can identify the foods that are causing your discomfort. Once eliminated from your diet, you’ll be on the road to relief.

That a simple test could guide dietary changes and improve common, disruptive symptoms is certainly appealing. But do these tests work?

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Featured

 Are At-Home Food Sensitivity Tests a Waste of Money?

At $127, Everlywell’s testing kit promises to help flag foods that might leave you feeling ill. While many people swear by the TikTok-trendy tests, some dietitians remain skeptical or downright troubled.

 Food intolerance tests: helpful in identifying gut issues or a money-grabbing gimmick?

It doesn’t take an expert in analytics to see that food intolerance tests have made it mainstream, and are being relied upon by thousands to identify and understand their symptoms. But feedback from those who have actually taken food intolerance tests varies. With some feeling passionately that results have guided them to make positive changes within their diets, while others feel led on - and let down.

 I'm a Registered Dietitian and Here’s What I Want People to Know About 'Food Sensitivity' Testing Kits

There's more to these tests than meets the eye.

Articles of Interest

'There is no validity': Unproven blood tests for food sensitivity widely offered in Canada

More than 2 dozen health groups have warned about misuse, misinterpretation of IgG tests for food intolerance.

A ‘Shark Tank’-funded test for food sensitivity is medically dubious, experts say

“In all my years of practice, I have never sent an immunoglobulin G test because they have no ability to predict food sensitivity,” he said. That’s because immunoglobulin G stems from the body’s normal immune response to exposure to many substances, including food. High levels don’t indicate a problem; they simply point to foods a person recently has eaten. When a person sees the doctor to learn about possible food intolerances, they’ll likely be irked to find that the cash they spent on food sensitivity testing ordered online or at an “alternative” practitioner’s office was money down the drain. “Most patients in the end, when we have done our workup and come up with a plan,” Hartz said, “are actually quite frustrated that they spent all this money on a useless test.”

Do DIY Medical Tests Promise More Than They Can Deliver?

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) does not recognize the validity of IgG tests in diagnosing food sensitivity, also called food intolerance.

Five Reasons to Disregard Food Sensitivity Tests

Before jumping in, it is vital that we first make something very clear: food allergies are NOT the same thing as food intolerances! You may be lactose intolerant but this does not mean that you have a milk allergy.

Food Intolerance Tests Are Shoddy Science and Traps for Disordered Eating

Trendy food intolerance tests aren't accurate, but they fuel our obsession with what we can and cannot eat.

IgG Food Intolerance Tests: What does the science say?

IgG molecules mediate interactions of cells with different cellular and humoral mechanisms. IgG antibodies signify exposure to products—not allergy. IgG may actually be a marker for food tolerance, not intolerance, some research suggests...But given the lack of correlation between the presence of IgG and physical manifestations of illness, IgG testing is considered unproven as a diagnostic agent as the results lack clinical utility as a tool for dietary modification or food elimination.

Is Your Kid Truly Allergic? Tests Add to Food Confusion

For parents of children with food allergies, this may be both welcome and unsettling news: Many kids whose allergies were diagnosed on the basis of blood or skin tests alone may not be truly allergic to those foods, experts say.

The Myth of IgG Food Panel Testing

It is important to understand that this test has never been scientifically proven to be able to accomplish what it reports to do. The scientific studies that are provided to support the use of this test are often out of date, in non-reputable journals and many have not even used the IgG test in question. The presence of IgG is likely a normal response of the immune system to exposure to food. In fact, higher levels of IgG4 to foods may simply be associated with tolerance to those foods.

Resources

Check My Body Health

Identify the right food and drink for your body.

Everlywell

This at-home lab test measures your body’s immune response to 96 foods to help guide you on what types of food to prioritize in a two-part elimination diet.