Food “Sensitivities” are NOT the Root Cause of your Digestive Problems

This is one of the most common requests/questions I get from patients…

“I can’t figure out what foods I’m reacting to. Can we do a food sensitivity test?”

My answer is, No. Here’s why....

I only run a test if I think that the outcome/result of that test is going to do 1 or more of the following :

Change your treatment plan by providing unique insight that we can’t otherwise gather from your clinical presentation (signs/symptoms).
When there are many competing possible diagnosis and running the test is going to shorten the timeline to figuring that out.
When we need a benchmark for your progress.

Patients are often drawn by the allure of the food sensitivity test in hopes that identifying & avoiding certain foods will solve “x” symptom/health condition. Aside from the fact that these tests are not reliable & evidence does not support their use, they are often very misleading and, dare I say, dangerous in many situations.

Why?

Because food isn’t the problem.

Yes, there may be certain foods that are causing your symptoms. But, it’s not because you have an inherent “sensitivity” to that food. It’s because there is an underlying issue that has created an environment conducive for these “reactions” to occur (more on this below).

On top of that, when a person sees a list of foods that are labelled as “red” (to avoid) or “yellow” (may want to avoid), they often walk away with an instilled fear of these foods. In many cases, I’ve had patient show up in my office years after having had a food sensitivity test (that told them they were sensitive to broccoli or kale or apples, etc) and have yet to reintroduce those foods because of fear. In my opinion, this has the potential to create far more harm than good.

Food sensitivities are often temporary and will disappear once the underlying cause has been addressed.

Food is not the problem, the underlying cause is.

Here are some of the most common reasons why you may be “reacting” to a certain food…

Top Reasons you may be reacting to certain foods:

You have IBS (and have visceral hypersensitivity)
You have a carbohydrate malabsorption
You have an enzyme deficiency (eg. lactose intolerance)
The effects of chronic stress
Poor meal hygiene. This includes things such as not chewing your food properly, eating too quickly or eating on the go.
You have an infection such as H pylori
You are experiencing a nocebo effect
You have celiac disease
You have GERD
You have functional dyspepsia (a gut-brain disorder)

So, after all is said and done. If you seem to be reacting to or getting symptoms from a number of foods and can’t figure it out, what do you do?

YOU HAVE TO IDENTIFY & TREAT THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM.

Here are my final parting words…

There are a lot of “functional” tests out there, which look really appealing and seem like they might give you a clear-cut answer to your “x” health problem. But, in my experience, you’ve got to be very discerning about why you’re using the test. Go back to the top of my article and go through the list of reasons why I run a test (you’ll likely want to do this with your healthcare practitioner) and if it doesn’t do those things then it’s probably not worth your money. Even with all their glam and glitter, these tests can be misleading, be prone to misinterpreting and often are NOT based on any significant evidence.

I would wayyyyyyyy rather a patient spend $500 on buying a meal delivery service (if they don’t have time to cook), or more appointments with me so we can address the underlying issues, or on self-care (like a massage or childcare) to help manage their stress. These are the things that will get you closer to your goal, of feeling better in your gut and able to enjoy a greater bandwidth of foods!

In health,

Dr. L