Food is the stuff of life, yet sometimes the foods you eat are the cause of ill health and dysfunction. Often, it is hard to know which foods are the culprits. According to James Breneman M.D., former Chairman of the Food Allergy Committee of the American College of Allergy, approximately 60% of all undiagnosed symptoms are due to underlying food allergies. By eating the foods that work for you, you can experience new levels of vitality and optimism as well as eliminate symptoms that may have been plaguing you for years.

When we think of “food allergy”, we tend to think of someone who eats a food, such as strawberries, and breaks out in a rash or has difficulty breathing. This type of “immediate hypersensivity” reaction is what most people think of when they hear “food allergy”. It is only one type of food allergy, and not even the most common type. Most food allergies are of the “delayed hypersensivity” type in which symptoms appear anywhere from hours to days after eating the offending food. If the food is one that you eat frequently, the repeated exposure can lead to a constant level of symptoms that begins to seem “normal”. You may not even realize that you could feel much better than you do.

It is very common for people to be allergic to foods that they eat frequently. Often a person will find that the foods they crave the most are the very ones causing their symptoms. There are a number of reasons for this. When faced with a challenge, such as food you are allergic to, your body produces higher levels of stress hormones. These stress hormones may give you a temporary boost in energy and effectiveness that can mask symptoms. This fuels cravings for the very foods that are causing your symptoms. The high levels of stress hormones can lead to other problems.

The food allergy test by Meridian Valley Lab uses a type of testing called ELISA (for Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay) which is highly reproducible. This type of testing checks your blood for antibodies that your body may be making to specific foods. Our allergy profiles focus on detecting delayed type hypersensivities (IgG4) antibodies). Foods that can be problematic for you result in higher levels of these antibodies in your blood.

See below for the list of foods included in the Basic Panel and Extended Panel.