I did food sensitivity testing, and here’s what I found…

In some ways, this post is a review of the food and misc. items sensitivity testing I used, but mostly, this is to talk about my results and how I am going to use them moving forward to better my health. This is not a sponsored post.

Food sensitivity testing is something I have wanted to do for a long time. It’s been up there on my list of “things I want to try at least once” along with acupuncture, cryotherapy, and thai foot massage. Well, fortunately for me, I finally crossed food sensitivity testing off that list.

Recently, an ad for Checkmybodyhealth sensitivity testing came across my Groupon app and it intrigued me. The price was fairly discounted so I looked into the company a little more and found they’ve been doing food allergy and sensitivity testing since the late 90’s. I read some reviews online about the company, and overall the results were pretty positive. They also offer a full refund if, after following an elimination diet for 6 weeks, you see no results from dietary changes made as a result of their findings. So I figured “what do I have to lose?”.

How does it work?

The process on the consumer’s end is pretty simple. You purchase the testing package you want (they offer a bronze, silver, gold, and platinum packages- I ordered the silver, but after seeing my results, I kind of wish I would’ve went for the gold!). After you’ve purchased your package, you get a confirmation code which you use to send with your sample so they can identify your test/sample. Once you have the code, you pull some strands of hair from your head….they suggest 8-10 strands. I probably did like 40….I have super thick hair and I shed a lot, so I wanted to be sure they had a lot to work with haha! You put your sample in a ziploc bag and mail it to them with your name and confirmation code. I used an address label stuck to the outside of the ziploc bag- this worked well.

And then of course you mail it to them. That’s it. Pretty simple stuff on our end! The wait time is 10-14 days AFTER they’ve received your sample. Admittedly, I was a little confused about this. I thought it was 10-14 days after your sample is mailed. Whoops, my bad. Once they received my sample, I got an email saying they are processing it and it will be about 10-14 days before I get my results emailed to me. It was actually only 8 days from the day they emailed me that they emailed me my results, so overall not a bad turn around. The whole process TOTAL took about 2 1/2 weeks from the day I ordered the package and sent my sample in the mail.

The Science.

The science behind what they actually do with your sample is much more complex and interesting. They use a process called Bioresonance Hair Testing which is a portion of quantum physics. I am not going to pretend to know anything about quantum physics or bioresonance testing. However, they do give an easy to understand explanation of what it is if you are interested on their website. You can find it here.

Now, in looking into Bioresonance testing a little more on my own to try to gather any supportive evidence in it’s use, I found mixed reviews. At the present moment, there isn’t a ton of research to say it’s a sure thing…but keep in mind, lots of what is now known as evidence based interventions and procedures (i.e. some blood tests and therapies, etc) were all at one point in time without evidence to back them up. The thing I think about the most when deciding whether or not to engage in an intervention for myself that doesn’t have supportive evidence to back it up is “what harm may come of me doing this?“. In this case, the only harm I could see it doing was by losing out on the little bit of money I spent on the test.

My results

My results from the test were interesting to say the least. First, they backed up some suspicions I have had about intolerance to certain things…but I also learned of some new information about possible sensitivities that I had never suspected before.

The food:

When I first looked at the food sensitivities rated as “high”, I felt a little flush of anxiety. “what the hell can I eat?!” I began to ask myself. My heart races. (What can I say, I like food and I like to eat…you don’t get a voluptuous bod like mine by starving yourself, so this was scary to me haha) I forwarded the results to my husband and best friend…both who immediately asked me the same question. So if you haven’t gathered by now that there was a lot on my highly sensitive to page, let me say this….THERE WAS A LOT. (See image below of my actual results).

Among the most heartbreaking of the sensitivities: Apples. I love apples y’all. So seeing this on the list definitely makes me frown a bit. I don’t eat apples everyday, but I do like them and they are a semi-regular part of my diet. My favorite snack? Apples and peanut butter. One of my favorite desserts? Apple crisp. My go to when I’ve been sick and need to get some sort of food in me? Apple sauce. See what I mean? But, it did make sense. When I thought about it, when I’ve eaten my fave snack…I’m usually cramping within a couple hours. Now, I’ve been attributing this to the fiber…thinking “oh maybe my body really needed the extra fiber from the apple“…but now I’m rethinking that stance a bit cause as a general rule, I get enough fiber in my diet and I’m regular (if ya know what I mean *wink). So it would make sense if the cramping was coming more from my body having trouble digesting the apple vs the fiber in the apple. Ugh. Sad.

But I digress…after seeing the huge list of what I couldn’t eat, I scrolled down to see the breakdown of all my reactions- both sensitive and non-sensitive. I was pleased and relieved to see there was still a lot of foods (and foods that I like to eat regularly) on the list of foods I showed no sensitivity to. Among the foods I show no sensitivity to were almost all vegetables, most meats except veal (which I honestly have never liked the idea of eating a baby anything anyways), most fish, most fruits (besides apples), and my beloved beverages of choice coffee and almond milk. This gave me a little more hope that I wouldn’t be starving for the next 6 weeks as I use the suggested elimination diet.

What foods am I cutting out of my diet? This is the overall of what I’m eliminating from my diet based on the results:

• Dairy- cows and goat milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, butter.
• Meats/fish- veal, shrimp, cod, bacon, pork sausage and deer
• Nuts/seeds- cashews, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, tahini
• Fruit- apples, lemons
• Vegetables- celery, corn (Maize)
• Beans/legumes- black beans, edamame, tofu, soy
• Gluten and Gluten free containing grains- Barley, Bread (any variety), farro, noodles made from any wheat, oats, wheat of any kind, Amaranth, cornflakes, quinoa, hops, maize flour (i.e. corn flour).

Obviously some of these will be more difficult then others, but I’m definitely going to give it an effort. My plan is to try this out and see if I notice any changes in my overall health, my mood, or any other changes in my body. I will update in a few weeks as I take this journey.

The non-food sensitivities:

Thankfully, and a little surprisingly, this list was a little shorter. I have some moderate sensitivities, mostly flowers and flowering trees (which doesn’t surprise me) and then only a handful of high sensitivities. My allergies to penicillin and amoxicillin showed up on my results (which gave me a little more faith in the overall credibility of these results, not gonna lie).

What’s going to change for me based on my non-food sensitivities? Honestly, not much. I already knew I was allergic to penicillin and amoxicillin (trial by fire on those ones…that was fun), and I already suspected sensitivities to a lot of the items listed. One thing on the list that surprised me just a little was to see a high sensitivity to wasp stings. I have been stung by bees more times than I care to mention, but never a wasp. This is intriguing to me. Not that I’m going to run out and tick off a wasp just to see what happens, but still, good to know that I may have a potential allergy or at the very least a strong sensitivity to it.

Metal Sensitivities:

Moving on to my metal sensitivities. This one was pretty surprising to me. I honestly fully expected to see copper on here. Nickel as well. Based on reactions I have had when wearing Nickel containing jewelry, I expected to see Nickel as having a strong reaction…but it did not.

What’s going to change based on my metal sensitivities? Nothing. I’m aware of them now, and to me that’s a great thing. But I won’t be necessarily changing anything. I already detox with my sauna. And I avoid aluminum- even though it wasn’t listed on here as having a reaction, there’s been lots of linkage between aluminum, breast cancer and Alzheimer disease…all of which run in my family, so I prefer to err on the side of caution. So nothing here is really going to change for me in my day-to-day life.

Mineral and other nutrients results:

For these they classify them as either “within range” or “outside range”. This means if I am outside range, there is an indication of a possible deficiency in this and supplementation or diet changes may be needed. Overall, I was glad to see I mostly fall within range for many of the minerals and nutrients. But I was a little unerved to see what was on the outside range list. Among my outside range list is bioflavanoids and beta-carotene (beta-carotene is what your body converts to vitamin A).

I wish on these test results, I would have a clearer picture of what they mean by my bioflavanoids are outside range. This is because there are MANY different types and subtypes of bioflavanoids. It would be nice to pinpoint which or what bioflavanoids are lacking. BUT with this said, because bioflavanoids are plant based, the fact that they are outside range for me tells me that my diet must be lacking in one thing: PLANTS.

What will change as a result of my mineral/nutrient results? I definitely plan to increase my daily intake of plants. Overall, I didn’t think I was doing too bad…but realistically, there’s always room for improvement. I don’t want to supplement with vitamin A or beta-carotene since toxicity can be pretty dangerous and easy to get to with supplementation. But I will increase my intake of spinach, carrots, peas, and squash which are rich in the substance.

I may also add some supplementation to my diet in the forms of bromelain, calcium, and creatine….but I want to do a little more research and digging before I go jumping into that.

Vitamin A-K results:

This one was not surprising to me at all. Overall, I’m doing pretty good on the vitamin front. There was only three on my list out of range: Vitamin D (which I’ve struggled with a deficiency in for years), choline, and Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid). When I saw B5 on the list, it didn’t surprise me that choline was also on it as both are derived from a diet rich in fish and other meats (I’m not a big meat eater…never really have been). So it’s not shocking that I would be out of the normal range for these.

What’s going to change based on my vitamin results? I am considering taking a choline and B5 supplement, but I want to look into it further. I will probably start by increasing my intake of fish and other food rich items before I begin any sort of supplementation. As for vitamin D….this is something I have chronically struggled with. There isn’t a great reason why either. I take a D supplement, I am outdoors in the sunshine often, it just doesn’t make sense why it’s always low. But it has been. For years! This is a mystery I will continue to play detective on.

Gut Health:

To be completely honest, I’m a little skeptical of this one. I’m not positive on how they determine what strains of bacteria are living in my gut by testing my hair. When I have heard of gut health testing, I have always heard of the sample given is a sample of the individuals stool because some of the live bacteria are passed through your colon and straight into the toilet. With that said, I’m kind of taking the gut health results with a grain of salt. Overall, there was only two strains it said were out of range, which could be better but also could be worse.

What is going to change based on my gut health results? I already plan on incorporating more vegetables into my diet, and vegetables are a good source of prebiotic food. I drink kombucha daily, and I plan to continue that. My hope is, by the diet changes I’m making, my little good bacteria army gets good and strong by those things alone.

Wrapping up….

So, are you still with me? Good. This was a long one and I’m sorry for that. But there’s a ton of information and I wanted to give readers a good idea of what they would be looking at if you choose to go ahead with testing.

My plan is to stick with this new diet for at least 6 weeks and see if anything changes. I plan to blog about it as I go so stay tuned for more!

Until next time,

Jenn

Interested in food sensitivity testing for yourself? You can check out www.checkmybodyhealth.com to see what they can offer. As I said before, this is not a sponsored post and I am not affiliated with checkmybodyhealth, the opinions you read above are my own.