My Food Sensitivity Testing Experience
Early this year I had a food sensitivity test done. I’d been made familiar that they existed through working closely with a Naturopath a few years back, but didn’t feel moved to take the plunge at that particular point in time.However now, about four years later, my journey and healthy obsession with understanding the uniqueness of my own body, what it thrives on, and ultimately what to treat it with in order to function at an optimal level, led me to reconsider and move forward this time around.Two Disclaimers:
- After countless studying of the physiological and biochemical processes of the body, as well as how to strategically help others rebuild their health, I’m now officially a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner. FDN is a program that teaches Health & Wellness Coaches how to get to the root cause of certain health complaints. I found this program unique due to the fact that one of the methods in which it does this is through interpretation of certain lab panels. My self-research combined with the strong recommendation of the FDN program, gave me confidence in choosing the Oxford Biomedical Labs MRT Food Sensitivity Test.
- In the art of being completely honest, earlier this year, upon taking the test, I personally felt “off” and hadn’t been able to fully wrap my finger around the cause of it. Main aspects were lingering issues with bloating, gas, and an overall feeling of just not being as mentally sharp.
I mention these because one of my primary areas where my coaching is geared towards is stress management, and functional nutrition is one of the fundamental key areas to start the process in.Not only that, but I work closely with clients on identifying potential underlining stressors that typically lead to poor energy, weight gain, and brain fog. Once those stressors are realized, the client and I then form a personalized lifestyle plan that incorporates habits around proper nutrition, mindfulness, and exercise to naturally help in the reversal of these unfavorable issues.This to show that even someone like myself, who is actively engaged on a day-by-day basis in the overall health and nutritional space, is normal too. I don’t personally always feel at my best and have to dive deeper to answer the question of “why or what may be causing me to feel a specific way?”I will however say there is a certain level of body awareness that is required in order to really notice and catch the early signs of being off balance. Some of this can be subtly felt, while unfortunately for most it doesn’t become actualized until it reaches the hardcore symptom phase.Now back to the actual testing :-)So the test of choice for me was the Mediated Release Test 170. This blood test classifies 170 food and chemical reactions (pic below for reference) into three categories:
- Non-Reactive
- Moderately Reactive
- Reactive
How It WorksThis test takes your blood and separates it into 170 separate samples. Then each individual food substance is added one-by-one to your blood in order to see the immunogenic effect it has on your white blood cell count. Our white blood cells are our body’s main protectors against infectious disease and foreign invaders. Anytime inflammation occurs (in this case through eating pro-inflammatory foods) our bodies produce antibodies (cells) that main job is to rid the body of these said foreign invaders. Consistently eating inflammatory foods throws the body out of homeostasis and overtime can cause disease. In the simplest term, this particular test identifies different foods and chemicals in which the body at a cellular level would do best to eat more of and limit or completely do without in some cases. This particular program recommends food elimination and reintroduction phases. You originally stick to eating your non-reactive (green) foods, while eliminating your mild and highly reactive (yellow & green) ones. It is recommended to do this for a minimum of two weeks and then you can gradually reintroduce your more reactive foods in order to see how you respond. My Biggest SurpriseThere are certain foods that through past self-experimentation I came to realize weren’t the best for me. Certain foods caused me to have acne flare-ups and rashes, dry lips, and noticeable dips in energy. These self-diagnosed foods were:
- Mushrooms
- White potatoes
- Green peppers
- Corn
- Rice
I had already done a good job of eliminating these inflammatory foods from my nutritional plan.The moment where the utter SHOCK took place was when I saw these foods show up as moderately reactive for me:
- Spinach
- Carrots
- Turkey
- Zucchini
- Cucumbers
On a pure nutritional level, these foods would normally be classified as a healthy choice right?! However in my body these were promoting inflammation. Not only that but these made up a good chunk of the foods I was accustomed to eating multiple times a week (especially spinach which has been practically a daily staple of mine for years in my smoothies and omelets).After seeing the results, I changed my food plan and eliminated all the reactive yellow and red foods on the chart (to my best ability) for a solid three months. This was with the intention to help restore proper gut health, which in turn leads to higher absorption rates of the nutrients we consume on a day-to-day basis.Becoming more mindful can be a game changer in helping to identify potential health issues early on, before they cascade into potential detrimental levels. This comes easy for some and can take quite a bit time for others. I’ve been fortunately unfortunate in that I’ve had issues around health from as early as my elementary years that has now caused me to be highly sensitive in noticing different sensations within my body. What I NoticedOne of the more psychological aspects was that it was not the easiest to effectively eliminate all the foods, especially while eating out. Between cross contamination and sometimes now having any available alternatives, I still ingested some of the reactive foods.However, I stopped purchasing the foods and primarily prepared the vast majority of my food at home, so that part wasn’t too difficult.After eliminating my reactive foods (as well as other highly allergenic ones), getting a proper gastrointestinal (stomach lining) healing protocol, and reducing the intensity of my physical exercise (which can be a stressor too), I noticed a night and day difference with my digestion and mental performance. I won’t go into specifics on the digestion part, but lets jus say constipation is a thing of the past and I feel more full with less amounts of food (due to the stomach being able to better absorb the different vitamins and minerals from food).If interested in learning more or you'd like to order the test for yourself, please feel free to shoot me a message in order to see if it may be a fit for you.