Food Sensitivities

There is a difference between food allergies and food sensitivities. Food allergies are immediate reactions that generally occur within minutes of eating the allergic food. However, food sensitivities are delayed food reactions that can take hours to days to develop making them more challenging to identify.

A food sensitivity can cause a variety of symptoms ranging from fever, fatigue, chills, sweating, generalized weakness, skin rashes, mood and memory problems, joint pain and stiffness or digestive problems (diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain or bloating). Common conditions that are associated with food sensitivities include irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, migraines, attention deficit disorders and weight gain.

There are two main ways to identify food sensitivities. The first is the elimination diet in which all common food sensitivities are removed from the diet and then reintroduced one at a time monitoring for reactions. The second is an in office blood test that tests for 96 common food items. 

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