Understanding my Food Sensitivity results

If you have food-specific related questions, please email us at [email protected] (link provided at the bottom of the page)

How accurate are the Food Sensitivity test results?

All of the laboratories with whom we partner are considered industry leaders in their respective areas, with extensive histories and have performed millions of tests. All of them perform frequent internal quality controls and testing, as well as regular third-party testing for independent validation of the accuracy of their testing. Consistently, such validation shows a high degree (>95-99%) of results correlation. These results are continually made available to EverlyWell. If you have questions about accuracy or quality of your test results please contact EverlyWell by emailing us at [email protected]

High Reactivity

Elevated levels of IgG reaction to a certain food does not necessarily mean you have an intolerance, but research shows that by eliminating foods that cause an IgG reaction, you can potentially improve certain food-related symptoms - including gastrointestinal distress, headaches, dry and itchy skin, and fatigue.

Elimination Diets

There are many types of elimination diets out there and we recommend a couple of different options. This is meant to help you identify a problematic food. Please keep in mind that IgG reactivity does not necessarily correlate directly with symptoms, so your results are meant to guide you through the next steps of the process. We typically advise that you eliminate class 3 and class 2 foods first. If you didn't have any results in those categories then you can focus on the high class 1's and work them into your trial elimination diet. You will receive some level of reactivity to every single food tested in our panel. The foods with low reactivity are considered to be 'class 0' or normal IgG reactivity and you do not have to worry about including these in your elimination diet plan. Here is more detail on two elimination diet options:

1. Elimination diet (focuses on high or moderate reactivity) - remove all these foods from your diet for 4 weeks. Begin reintroducing one food at a time, ideally 3 days apart, and see how your body reacts.

2. Elimination diet (any Class, including mild) - remove all class 1-3 foods from your diet for 30 days. Begin reintroducing one food at a time, eat as much as you'd like on the first day. Do not eat it on days 2-4 and pay close attention to your symptoms (if you have any). Then you can start the process over again with the next food. This process is very tedious but it's great at pinpointing which foods are causing the most symptoms.

Read more about the elimination diets here.

Gluten-Free Diet

If you have been avoiding gluten, it is possible that you do not have elevated circulating IgG antibodies to gluten in your sample. We are only looking at the IgG immune response on this test.

However, there are many names for gluten so while people may have stopped eating processed foods that have "gluten" listed on the label, that does not always mean they have actually removed all sources of gluten from their diet.

“But I’ve never eaten….” or Cross-Reactivity

The main reason you may have some reactivity to foods that you've never eaten before, or haven't had in a very long time, could be due to cross-reactivity. While we are testing your IgG reactivity against certain foods, sensitivities you may have to other substances can cause a cross-reactivity and yield a result you might not expect.

Unexpected results can also indicate dietary exposures to certain foods you weren't aware of previously. This includes hidden sources in pre-packaged foods or supplements. We'd be happy to provide more detail on a specific food; email us at [email protected].

Raw Food vs Cooked Food

The vast majority of antigens do not change based on cooked or raw ingestion. The only one that does is egg yolk Gal d5 antigen.

Reference Ranges

Below you will find the reference ranges we use for each marker. There are four classifications of reactivity, 0-3, with 0 being low and 3 being highly reactive. Remember, you can click on each food in your results to see more details about that food and see your number score. Once you know all the foods you have a Class 1-3 reaction to, you can choose how you want to proceed with an elimination diet.

Class 0 (Low Reactivity) - less than 0.200

Class 1 (Mild Reactivity) - 0.200 - 0.299

Class 2 (Moderate Reactivity) - 0.300 - 0.399

Class 3 (High Reactivity) - greater or equal to 0.400