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Fortunately, once you’ve narrowed down the foods that are causing your woes, eliminating them from your diet allows your body to heal and have you feeling back to normal. However, figuring out what foods you’re sensitive to usually involves a long and difficult process of slowly eliminating items from your diet – called an elimination diet – and seeing if it helps.
Unless you take a food sensitivity test that is.
Many DNA testing companies can analyze a sample of blood, saliva, or hair to help narrow down the foods you’re reacting to. These tests are easy to take and can be done from the comfort of home. Then problem is, there are tons of them out there, and many aren’t that great. So we set out to try the most popular options on the market to find the top food intolerance tests so you can get back to feeling like yourself again.
When picking our top home food sensitivity tests, we compared the biggest companies on a number of factors, including:
EverlyWell offers one of the most popular food sensitivity blood tests on the market. With their basic test, you can measure your IgG immune response to 96 different foods, and 204 with the comprehensive test.
The kit includes everything you’ll need to submit a small blood sample, including single-use lancets for pricking your finger – making it close to painless. Your results offer you an easy to read food sensitivity scale, starting at normal, to mild, moderate, and high intolerance levels.
Key Features:
Using bioresonance technology, 5Strands is able to analyze a hair sample to test your food reactions to 600 different items. Some of the foods that are tested for include seafood, proteins, nuts, fruits, and alcohol. Additionally, the test will check your tolerance to artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and additives.
This is great if you’re trying to narrow down the foods that you should include in an elimination diet. This is a diet where you stop consuming certain foods to see if any food-related symptoms you’re experiencing are affected. 5Strands even includes an elimination diet guide to help you through the process.
Key Features:
EverlyWell’s Food Sensitivity Comprehensive Test is more thorough than its basic kit. The test checks your IgG reactivity to a wide range of food items, 204 in total. IgG antibodies are released when you eat foods that cause an immune response. This test will check what food antigens your body is reacting to.
The food sensitivity kit measures your results on a class scale of zero to three. Class zero indicates that you’re having a normal level of reactivity to a food item, class two is a mild reaction, and class three means a severe reaction. This can be helpful to determine exactly which foods you should stop eating and the foods you don’t need to worry about when beginning an elimination diet.
Key Features:
This food intolerance test by HomeDNA utilizes a simple cheek swab to figure out whether or not you’re genetically predisposed to react to common irritants. Not only do they test your sensitivity levels to foods like nuts, lactose, gluten, eggs, soy, shellfish, and cow milk protein, but the test looks into your reactivity to pet dander and histamine as well.
Once your sample is analyzed, HomeDNA follows up by providing you with diet, lifestyle, and supplement tips. These tips give you some actionable steps you can take to improve your overall health, all from your DNA!
Key Features:
MightyDNA is another company that offers a cheek swab based food sensitivity test. Using your DNA, their team of Ph.D. geneticists run a SNP genotype assay to determine if you're intolerant to many common foods and irritants.
The DNA test checks for sensitivities to lactose, gluten, caffeine, and alcohol. The kit comes with everything you need to take, and submit, your buccal sample, including step-by-step instructions, a sterile swab, transport tube, and prepaid return envelope.
Key Features:
With GenoPalate’s Health & Nutrition Genetic Profile for Food Sensitivities test, you’ll not only learn about the foods you should be avoiding, but also the items you should be eating more of. This test will tell you about the foods you’re sensitive to, your ideal nutrient profile, and more than 85 foods that could be beneficial for your genetic profile.
For your nutrient profile, GenoPalate tests for more than 20 nutrients, such as fat, carbohydrates, vitamin D, and fiber, and tells you how much of each is ideal for your given genes. All of your data is stored in their secure database, and is never sold to any third parties.
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Like EverlyWell’s sensitivity test, BodyHealth IQ’s test uses a blood sample to test your IgG and IgA immune response to food antigens. While slightly more invasive, the results from a blood sample tend to be more accurate than those from a hair or cheek swab test.
Your results are easy to understand and can be printed for sharing with your primary healthcare provider. It’s even possible to arrange a consultation with one of BodyHealth IQ’s experts, but this may cost you an additional fee.
Key Features:
Now that you have a solid list of great food sensitivity tests, it’s time to pick the best one for you. This may seem a little overwhelming at first, but narrowing down the best test for your needs can be done fairly easily.
Each test, while similar, has something unique to offer. For example, EverlyWell offers a comprehensive test that gives you accurate results for up to 204 different foods and not too much else. If your goal is to check if you’re sensitive to one of the hundreds of foods they test for, then this is a great option.
If you're looking for a test that covers more, including heavy metals, pet dander, and environmental factors, 5Strands and Modern Allergy Management’s tests may be what you're looking for. However, if you want some actionable diet suggestions, including the foods you should be eating on top of those to avoid, check out BodyHealth IQ’s test.
By looking through each test, and comparing their offerings with your needs, you should figure out the best food sensitivity test for you in no time!
