Food sensitivity tests: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Everyone wants to know what foods to eliminate, but at what cost?

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels

The search phrase “food sensitivity tests” returns over 235 million results on Google. These results are heavily populated with advertisements for different at-home food sensitivity testing kits, desperately trying to sell a solution to the searcher’s query.

While well-intentioned, these food sensitivity tests are not all chalked up to what we think they may be. Outside of allergy testing, science does not yet have the ability to tell us exactly what we should and should not eat.

While some methods of identifying and ruling out food sensitivities could be helpful, they shouldn’t cost $900 a test. Let’s dive into the good, bad and ugly behind food sensitivity tests.

First things first: food allergies vs. sensitivities vs. intolerances

Let’s get some technicalities out of the way. Food sensitivities are different than food allergies or intolerances.

Food allergies occur when the immune-system produces IgE antibodies to certain foods, causing mild to life-threatening symptoms [1].

Food intolerances are often related to a mechanical or biological issue with the digestive system, such as…