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What Does An At-Home Food Sensitivity Test Tell You? I Tried One To Find Out

A cruel irony to being a food and travel writer is that I often suffer from stomach problems. My IBS (previously a colitis diagnosis) can turn any grand tasting into a terror with cramping, bloating, and, well, I'll spare you the more graphic details.

Though I've never tested positive for major food allergies or intolerances including gluten (a common culprit) or dairy, I've always wondered if I had any sensitivities that I was unaware of, especially as someone who eats everything and anything at any given moment. 

Joey Skladany/CNET

Enter Everlywell: The $199 at-home food sensitivity kit measures your body's immune response to 96 common foods. 

"At-home lab testing for IgG (short for the responsive antibodies called immunoglobulin G) reactivity can be a great way for those with relatively mild, food-related symptoms to start their journey to feeling better," says Dr. Gabe Gaviola, MD, MPH, senior medical director at Everlywell.

"Traditional temporary elimination diets are highly restrictive and can provide massive disruptions to someone's normal dietary routine. By identifying the most likely candidates for problem foods, the Everlywell Food Sensitivity Test helps take the guesswork and dietary disruption out of a traditional elimination diet."

While there are mixed opinions on using IgG levels as a marker for food allergies, intolerances or sensitivities, curiosity got the best of me (as it usually does) and I decided to order the test and assume the role of guinea pig. 

Here's how it all went down. 

Note: As with any health condition, please always seek the guidance of a licensed medical professional for proper diagnoses. 

How the Food Sensitivity Test Works Joey Skladany/CNET

"The Everlywell Food Sensitivity Test was developed using an immunoassay platform, which selects certain food isolates," explains Gaviola. "The test measures someone's IgG antibody response to these foods. IgG is an antibody that is separate from conditions such as food intolerances or food allergies." 

"Research suggests that for some individuals, higher IgG immune responses to specific foods may mean those foods are more likely to cause uncomfortable GI symptoms, including nausea, bloating, GI upset, and abdominal pain," he adds. 

While more evidence is needed on IgG to make sweeping generalizations about its relationship to food sensitivities, Everylwell believes that they can provide a base level understanding of why people's guts react the way that they do. This isn't meant to be a diagnosis, by any means, but rather something to consider as you identify potential gastrointestinal triggers. 

My Unique Stomach Issues Wilted greens are murder on my stomach. HUIZENG HU/Getty Images

Aside from overly rich foods, wilted greens, and wine consumed in excess, there aren't many ingredients that bring on immediate bouts of indigestion. Most of my stomach issues, according to my gastroenterologist, are either hereditary (my grandmother has severe colitis) or anxiety-induced. 

That said, there are two fruits that often cause physical reactions while eating: apples and avocados. The former makes my lips tingle and swell up, which may be more of a pesticide on skin problem, and the latter makes me instantly nauseated when consumed as slices on sandwiches or chunks in a salad. Oddly enough, guacamole has zero effect on me. 

The Food Sensitivity Test Process Everything you need to test food sensitivity at home.  Joey Skladany/CNET

While nobody enjoys pricking their fingers to draw droplets of blood, the testing process could not have been more straightforward and simple. 

Each kit comes with instructions and the instruments needed to execute the test. This includes a collection card, alcohol prep pad, lancets, biohazard bag, gauze, bandage, return envelope and a return label. 

An abbreviated sequence of events:

Prep your space and warm your hands

Prick your ring finger with a lancet

Drip the blood into each of the collection card's circles

Allow the samples to dry before placing it into the biohazard bag and sending it to the laboratory

Results typically take about a week or two and can be accessed online (where you'll register your unique kit ID upon receiving it). 

Here's what the test results said I eat chicken as much as anything and it never seems to upset my stomach, despite Everywell's analysis.  Kseniya Ovchinnikova/Getty

Luckily for me, nothing came back higher than mild reactivity. And out of the 98 foods tested, I only had elevated IgG levels for eight: black tea, chicken, chickpea, eggplant, garlic, grape leaf, pomegranate and sunflower seed. 

These results were equal parts surprising and hilarious -- surprising because I have never noticed a GI reaction to any of them and hilarious because I received these results while on vacation in, wait for it, Greece! Needless to say, I was eating a *lot* of literally every ingredient that may have been causing digestive distress. 

Oddly, there was no indication that the aforementioned apple or avocado would lead to any type of immune response. I can't assume that they don't negatively affect my body, but I would have guessed that they'd be at the top of the results document. 

What to do after results  An elimination diet will help determine if the foods isolated are indeed a cause of GI distress. David Watsky/CNET

Aside from providing article resources and answers to nearly a dozen common questions, Everlywell suggests five next steps to continue your stomach health journey: 

Temporarily cut foods you're reactive to from your diet, usually for one month. (Keep a close eye on ingredient lists and watch for hidden sources during this time.)

Working one food at a time, you reintroduce the food for one day. (This step is the whole point of the elimination diet. Don't skip it!)

Stop eating that food again for a 2-4 days while watching for symptoms. (Tip: Keep a food journal to make this easy.)

If you don't notice any symptoms, you're probably not sensitive to that food. (You can choose to go back to eating it as usual.)

If you do notice symptoms, try eliminating that food for a longer period of time (at least six months) before repeating steps two and three. (Depending on your symptoms at this point, you can either reintroduce the food to your diet in small amounts or repeat the elimination for another six-plus months.)

Remember, the Food Sensitivity Test does *not* test for food allergies and should not be used for this purpose. 

"The results from the Everlywell Food Sensitivity Test are not diagnostic and are only meant to help identify top foods for someone to prioritize in a temporary elimination diet," adds Gaviola.

Food sensitivity test accuracy  The food test instructions were crystal clear, but the results didn't align with my history of distress. Joey Skladany/CNET

As research appears to be conflicting, Gaviola is the first to remind customers that, again, any type of food allergy can only be diagnosed by a doctor.

"The tests measure totally different biomarkers and only a healthcare provider or allergy specialist is able to diagnose a food allergy, " he stresses. "Everlywell also recommends against any allergic reaction food trials that do not take place under the observation and direction of an allergy specialist."

Additionally, while testing companies like Everlywell operate in accordance with clinical guidelines and CLIA-certified laboratories, they are the first to advise speaking with a licensed healthcare provider. 

Final thoughts 

While I'm certainly not planning to eliminate chicken and hummus from my diet and don't have any evidence to support those foods being an issue for my stomach, the test did give me something to think about. In fact, I plan to use some upcoming travel downtime to eliminate these foods temporarily and see if they make a difference. It can't hurt, right? And at the very least, it certainly won't hurt as much as a debilitating stomach cramp. 

Have Hay Fever? Look Out For Allergies To These Foods

Allergies to the pollen of trees and plants are common. But sometimes those allergies can progress and cause a reaction to eating particular raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.

As the days get longer, the grass starts growing and blossom appears on trees, it's easy to be filled with the joys of spring. But for some, it's also when the all-too-familiar itchy eyes and runny nose returns. Hay fever is back – and just the sound of a nearby lawnmower is enough to bring on a sneeze or two. Just to add to their frustrations, hay fever sufferers may find they develop surprising food allergies alongside their sniffles.

Pollen food syndrome (also known as oral allergy syndrome) is perhaps more common than you'd think. While 20 percent of the UK are reported to be affected by hay fever at some point in their life, two percent of the UK population are also affected by the related food syndrome.

So, what causes it? What foods are you likely to be allergic to and how can you treat it?

Why would hay fever lead to food allergies?

When someone has hay fever, their body is having an IgE-mediated allergy. "IgE is an antibody that normally we produce, to fight parasitic infections like malaria. And for some reasons, people can develop them to things like pollen and get hay fever," explains Manchester University's Professor Clare Mills.

The problem is, some foods have proteins which are very similar to those in pollen, and when some people with hay fever consume them – especially when they're raw – their bodies effectively think they're ingesting pollen. Amena Warner is head of clinical services at the charity, AllergyUK and explains: "The fault is with the immune system which defends itself by having an allergic reaction."

What are the symptoms?

People with pollen food allergy can expect swelling and itching inside the mouth, throat and ears. This will happen shortly after consuming the food. For most people, the symptoms are mild and will pass relatively quickly (especially with the aid of an antihistamine). However, for an unfortunate few, symptoms can go further. "In some cases, it causes very severe reactions," says Warner, highlighting that this could include breathing difficulties. Thankfully, this is relatively rare.

If you have hay fever are there other factors that could lead to you developing allergies to ingredients? Mills is currently carrying out research examining the patterns and prevalence of allergies in adults – including the onset of pollen-related food allergies. Mills explains they tend to impact adults more than children. "Whether that's because you have to have been around for a certain length of time to kind of be exposed to the differences in pollens, we're not sure yet, but it's often something people start developing in their 20s-40s.

"They are largely – not exclusively – but largely, related to having an allergy to pollen of trees like birch and alder. There is a molecule in fruit particularly, that is a lookalike of a molecule in the pollen that causes hay fever. Many years ago, in Sweden, they found that something like 70 percent of people who had birch pollen allergy also would react to eating fresh apples."

However, it's not just the individual but what they are exposed to. Mills explains: "We showed in a study that the level of that molecule increases in apples that have been stored in a modified atmosphere. One of the nice things about this type of storage is it enables us to eat apples in March, which we wouldn't ordinarily be able to do, but unfortunately, they have much higher levels of this allergen."

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This depends on the type of pollen you're allergic to, though generally speaking it's raw fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts. AllergyUK have a helpful fact sheet detailing the pollens together with the foods that can cause a reaction. They are:

Tree pollen: Apple, apricot, cherry, coriander, kiwi, nectarine, parsley, peach, pear, plum, strawberry, celery, bean sprouts, carrot, mangetout, green pepper, potato, soya, tomato, parsnip, peas, basil, coriander, fennel, oregano, parsley, paprika, pepper, thyme.

Grass pollen: Kiwi, melon, orange, watermelon, date, potato, swiss chard, tomato, wheat, peas, peanut.

Weed pollen: Apple, melon, orange, peach, tomato, watermelon, celery, carrot, green pepper, onion, sunflower seed, aniseed, celery salt, mustard, spices, coriander, fennel, parsley.

Not sure what type of pollen you're allergic to? That probably comes down to when you are allergic, if it's March – late May it's likely to be tree pollen, if it's May – July than grass pollen and if it's June – September weed pollen. Of course, you could be allergic to more than one type of pollen, there is a cross over during these periods and environmental factors can alter the dates – for example if it's a particularly wet/dry spring.

"While we all know that there are people who have anaphylactic reactions to peanuts, not so many know that some people have the same response to peaches," explains Mills. "This is something we've seen in the Mediterranean area. In fact British people who may spend a large proportion of their year in Spain can get this kind of allergy and in some instances, they won't just react to peach but they'll react to other fruits and vegetables - everything from lettuce and cabbage to peaches, apricots, plums and cherries… They can give severe reactions which aren't removed by cooking."

Like peanuts, if you have an allergic response to peaches you need to take it seriously. While for many it will be due to pollen food syndrome, for an unlucky few it won't and could have severe consequences.

If you think you have pollen food syndrome

"If anybody has severe allergic reactions to food, they must go and get it sorted out," says Warner, matter-of-factly. "You must seek advice from a healthcare professional who will conduct tests."

Warner warns though that you shouldn't be tempted to pay for unregulated tests: "There are a lot of tests you can have done through the internet where you might send a hair sample and you get 500 allergens tested, but many are unvalidated… They relieve people from a lot of their money, but it won't give the important information that they need on how to deal with their allergy and it puts them at risk."

This is a view backed up by the British Dietetic Association who explain: "There are also many commercially available tests that claim to diagnose food hypersensitivity. You should avoid these because they have no scientific basis. They can be harmful when multiple foods are excluded without reason, or if they are not reintroduced under guidance of a dietitian."

Originally published April 2022

Map Shows States Affected By Snack Mix Recall

Mislabeled snacks have been voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer over allergy fears, after being distributed to 10 states and Washington D.C., according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Clear plastic containers bearing a green label that said "Grabeez The Big Cheese Snack Mix" were sent to distribution centers in Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Texas, and sold in stores in Washington D.C., Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, between August 23 and September 19.

On September 23, the FDA announced the Truly Good Foods recall, warning that consumers risked "serious or life-threatening allergic reaction" from undeclared nuts, after a customer discovered almonds and cashews in a mislabeled cup. Newsweek has reached out to Truly Good Foods via email for comment.

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The Big Cheese Snack Mix should contain flavored peanuts, mini pretzels, breadsticks, crackers and other similar items—but a Big Cheese cup was filled with Healthy Trails Mix: raisins, sunflower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds and cashews.

An allergy to tree nuts—including almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans and walnuts—is relatively common in the U.S., affecting an estimated one in 200 people, according to research published in scientific journal Nutrients.

Individuals who are affected by a tree nut allergy may experience symptoms such as itchy skin hives, lip swelling, itchy eyes, tightening throat, stomach pain, diarrhea, or coughing, when they eat or come into contact with tree nuts.

In severe cases, allergic reactions can cause anaphylaxis—a sudden, whole-body immune response, involving difficulty breathing, low blood pressure and shock—which can be life-threatening.

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If someone is experiencing anaphylaxis, they need to be injected with epinephrine—another term for adrenaline, administered with an Epi-pen—and 911 should be called immediately.

To date, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this problem, which investigation by the FDA found to be caused by a temporary breakdown in the production and packaging processes of Truly Good Foods, the company that owns Grabeez.

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The recall of Grabeez The Big Cheese Snack Mix applies only to products with the "best before" date 04/16/25 and the product code 0 94184 00439 8 stamped on the bottom.

Customers who have purchased the recalled products are being advised by the FDA to dispose of the product and visit www.Trulygoodfoods.Com/grabeezrecall for a full refund.

Do you have a tip on a food story that Newsweek should be covering? Is there a nutrition concern that is worrying you? Let us know via science@newsweek.Com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured in Newsweek.

Mandalari, G., Mackie, A. R. (2018). Almond Allergy: An Overview of on Prevalence, Thresholds, Regulations and Allergen Detection, Nutrients 10 (11): 1706. Https://doi.Org/10.3390/nu10111706

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