"Is Food Making You Sick?"

by Anna Schafer, MS, RD, LD/N

Many people suffer from a wide range of common illnesses such as migraines, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fibromyalgia and weight imbalances just to mention a few. Often physicians are running out of option to treat these conditions because the underlying cause has never been diagnosed.

Sometimes our body develops adverse reactions to common and absolutely healthy food we eat every day. These adverse reactions are called food sensitivities not to be confused with food allergies.

The difficulties diagnosing food sensitivities include that
- Symptoms can manifest from 4-96 hours after ingestion
- Reactions are often dose dependent
- There are usually many reactive foods and food-chemical triggers
- Trigger foods are very individually different.

When food sensitivities are involved in these diseases and often they are then proper dietary management can have a tremendous impact on reducing the symptoms often to a point of complete remission.

How do we test which food cause sensitivities?

Since the immune system is like a huge orchestra there are many tests to identify certain immune reactions. Almost everybody is familiar with skin testing detecting allergies. These tests are good for food allergies such as egg or peanut allergies. Food allergies however are usually easy to detect since the reaction shows up immediately after the food has been eaten.

Tests to detect food sensitivities are for example ELISA IgG, ALCAT and MRT.
ELISA IgG is not that useful as IgG is also a protective antibody, so high amounts may be a good thing. ALCAT uses an older technology and is not reliable over 90%.
When you receive a blood test kit from your doctor ask him which test he uses.

The Mediator Release Test (MRT) tests for 150 food and food additives. It has been developed by Signet Diagnostics in the late 1990 and is very accurate and showed consistently over 90% reliability. MRT is currently the most useful blood test for food sensitivities on the market.


The dietary department of Signet Diagnostics developed a dietary management program called LEAP (Lifestyle Eating and Performance). A four week program designed according to the individual’s MRT results provides guidelines from total elimination of reactive foods to slowly reintroducing lesser reactive foods to a new diet that can be maintained for life. Your LEAP certified registered dietitian is your guide on this path to a symptom free life.