At Home Food Sensitivity Tests? No You Better Don't.

Have you been bombarded with advertisements for at home food sensitivity tests? Tis the season for giving medically inaccurate at home testing, I guess. These at home food tests really infuriate me because it’s perpetuating the confusion between food allergies (life threatening, medically diagnosed, immune system mediated) and food sensitivities (not life threatening, no clear cut way to diagnose, GI system mediated). Look, I’m not saying food sensitivities and intolerances don’t exist. They do. BUT they are NOT allergies. And when half the population can’t eat gluten because it hurts their tummy, but then there’s 1% of the population THAT COULD DIE if they eat wheat, I feel like we should not get them confused.

Yes, I did want a scientifically unproven test that can potentially give me extremely misleading results! 😍😍😍 How did you know?

So, what do these “at home food sensitivity tests” actually test? Most test for IgG’s in your blood (this is not to be confused with the blood tests done at the allergist office- IgE) to around 100 different foods. It should be noted that there is no evidence to suggest that higher IgGs to certain foods is any way related to food sensitivities, intolerances, or allergies. Actually, your body normally makes IgG’s to food that it has been exposed to, so higher IgGs to certain foods may actually mean you can eat (and have eaten) that food. This is why the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology have recommended against using IgG testing to diagnose food allergies or food intolerances/sensitivities.

What’s the harm with getting false results for food sensitivities? Well, you can completely eliminate something from your diet that you don’t need to. Another problem? If you ARE actually allergic to something, you might have no IgGs to that food. And a false negative test to a real food allergy? Not great. Not great at all.

So do yourself (and your family and your friends and random people on the street) a favor and make sure nobody wastes money on IgG testing. Let’s waste our money on other fun gifts- like gift cards that lie forgotten in our junk drawers.