Food Allergy Testing

If you have a food allergy, life can be miserable. Especially if you don't know what you are allergic to.

That was me.

I grew up eating gluten upon gluten, not knowing I had an intolerance to it.

My health suffered because of it.

There are numerous ways to get tested for food allergies, but today I want to tell you about the methods I used. Many people have asked how I discovered my allergy to gluten (and also to coffee), so I wanted to show you all.

Test for Gluten Sensitivity

I have read many times that blood tests for gluten sensitivity are often unreliable. Stool tests are usually more accurate. And even then, some are better than others.

The particular test I took was the Gluten Sensitivity Stool Test from Enterolab

You can order the test directly from the lab, and they'll send you the results.

Test for Immune System Reaction to Foods

My Functional Medicine doctor suggested I take a food allergy test to see if any food were causing issues.

This test is not one that looks for traditional (and true) food allergies, but rather, immune system reactions to foods. Often times these foods are getting out through a leaky gut, or some other problem.

The test she ordered is the IgG ELISA Food Sensitivity Panel from Alletess. Mine showed over 40 food allergies!

Here is a picture of my list:

I had to stick it up in my pantry because I couldn't remember them all.

I found this test to be extremlly beneficial, since many of the foods I was reaction to are foods that frequent elimination diets! even the uber-strict autoimmune paleo protocol includes a number fo the foods I am allergic to.

OTHER testing

If you want to know more about how I discovered my thyroid issues and what tests I took to uncover those, you can see those here.