Jason Hartman gets down and dirty on the topic of a food sensitivity test on episode #47 of The Longevity & Biohacking Show. Have you ever wondered if the food you eat is making you sick? According to guest, Boone Zavik, Immunolabs Marketing Director, it almost certainly is. In addition, Zavik reveals which five foods you should remove from your diet immediately, and how a simple blood test might be the solution to those digestive issues you’ve been living with for years.

The Big Picture

Why should you get a food sensitivity test? As Zavik notes, the health insurance industry continues to look for creative ways to shirk its responsibility in covering sickness and diseases. It behooves you to take your health into your own hands and determine the core underlying issues at the root of your problems. A simple blood test, called Bloodprint, can alert you to food sensitivities you might not even know you have. There are also certain foods to avoid and others that are of benefit to restoring and maintaining your gastronomical flora.

Is it a Food Allergy, Intolerance, or Sensitivity?

The first step in getting your belly back to digesting things properly is to understand whether you’re dealing with an allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity. Here’s how to tell the difference:

• Allergy – a food allergy manifests itself as an immediate reaction when you eat a certain food. Common allergic foods are peanuts and shellfish. When you’re allergic to a food, there is normally no room for doubt. The reaction can be quick and substantial, even resulting in death sometimes. Food allergies should be treated seriously.
• Intolerance – a food intolerance occurs when the body does not produce the proper enzyme to break down a particular food. A common example of this is lactose intolerance, which makes milk a problem for those afflicted. While a food intolerance can make you miserable pretty quickly, it probably won’t kill you. With the lactose example, there are pills you can take which provide the missing enzyme and put milk products back on the menu for the intolerant.
• Sensitivity – Zavik’s company specializes in food sensitivities. A sensitivity often comes with a delayed reaction, making it harder to diagnose and treat. For example, say you eat eggs for breakfast and then wind up with a migraine in the afternoon. The problem might very well be a sensitivity to eggs but it could take years to ever make the connection when the events are separated by several hours.

Food Sensitivity Indicators

What symptoms should make you suspicious that you have a food allergy? This is definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ description but here are a few: bloating, stomach pain, arthritis, fatigue, sluggishness, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), weight gain, skin rash, depression, and many more. If you find yourself experiencing recurring bouts of any single or even multiple symptoms on this list, it might be time to schedule a food sensitivity test.

It’s interesting to note that Mr. Zavik mentions five foods that show up at the top of sensitivity lists so often he recommends that everyone stop eating them, at least for 90 days. Is the suspense killing you? Here they are: brewer’s yeast (many forms of beer and alcohol), baker’s yeast (most bread products), eggs, cow’s milk, tomatoes. As a side note, two of the least reactive foods are pears and herring. Probably not the most exciting food choices to cross your mind today.

DIY Diagnosis: Keep a Food Journal

Whether or not you decide to go ahead and have the food sensitivity test, consider keeping a food journal. Write down what you eat and how you feel. Over time, you might start to notice obvious problem foods. As we already mentioned, if you suspect a sensitivity exists for a certain food, take it out of your diet for 90 days. This gives the body time to flush out any antibodies that might have built up against it, allowing your immune system to tolerate it again. Zavik also suggests following some sort of healthy gut protocol that makes use of probiotics.  

Don’t Fear the Food Sensitivity Test

Nobody likes getting poked with needles but the Bloodprint food sensitivity test requires nothing more than a simple blood draw into two tubes. You can do that, right? Especially if it could point the way to ridding gastronomical distress that has been dogging you for years. Zavik points out that you can have the test done right where you are. Your own physician might do it for free, or contact Immunolabs through their website at www.StopFeelingBad.com for help in finding an independent lab. You can easily have the results sent to Zavik’s team for analysis.

The price for testing depends on which screening panel you sign up for. Cost starts at $175 and goes up to about $355. Either is a small price to pay for getting that gut back to working like it’s supposed to!

A Final Bit of Wisdom

In parting, Mr. Zavik reminds us of a famous quote from the Greek philosopher Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be food.” There’s no overestimating the importance of what we eat. Besides the obvious purpose of keeping us alive, think about this. The quality of your health is directly related to the quality of the fuel you provide your body to work with.

Here’s another quote, this one from laid back singer, Jimmy Buffett: “You treat your body like a temple, I treat mine like a tent.” Health is a puzzle and it might take a while to fit all the pieces together correctly. Don’t give up on your health journey! (Image: Flickr | Muffett)

More from Jason Hartman:

Repair Your Body Using Stem Cell Therapy
New Technology and Human Longevity

The Longevity Show Team