Food Sensitivities vs Food Allergies: Why Your “Healthy Diet” Might Be Making You Feel Worse

Why Healthy Foods Can Trigger Symptoms

Food allergies (IgE) and food sensitivities (IgG) both have negative reactions on your body. Many people have food allergies and sensitivities but don't realize it because they're not having an anaphylactic response. Food allergies or food sensitivities don't always result in respiratory distress, breaking out in hives or "blowing up like a ballon." Severe reaction require immediate medical care. However, there's other symptoms that may go unnoticed, such as:

• Skin: Hives (itchy, red, raised rash), itching, eczema, or swelling (angioedema).

• Gastrointestinal: Nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, or diarrhea.

• Respiratory: Sneezing, nasal congestion, cough, hoarseness, wheezing, or difficulty breathing

• Oral: Tingling or itching in the mouth, and swelling of the lips, tongue, or throat.

• Cardiovascular/General: Dizziness, lightheadedness, faintness, weak pulse, or a feeling of impending doom.

Food Sensitivities vs Food Allergies

While food allergies can show up within minutes to a couple hours, food sensitivities can take between 24-72 hours to show up. Also, food allergy symptoms will resolve within a couple hours to a day, while the half-life of the antibody for food sensitivities is approximately 21 days. So, if you're regularly consuming a food you have a sensitivity to, you could be living in a state of constant inflammation! A simple at-home test can give you full insight into any food sensitivities vs food allergies you might be dealing with.

In the long run, IgG food sensitivities create delayed inflammatory responses that worsen gut health, hormones, autoimmunity, and fatigue.

Functional Medicine Food Strategy

Part of functional medicine is uncovering these hidden sources of inflammation.

Testing + elimination + gut healing = symptom relief.

Food could be fueling inflammation in your body and that inflammation could be causing dysfunction some of the following:

• Chronic Pain & Fatigue: Joint pain, swelling, muscle aches, and low energy levels.

• Digestive Distress: Bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and abdominal discomfort.

• Weight Gain: Inflammation can cause insulin resistance, promoting fat storage and making weight loss harder.

• Skin and Respiratory Issues: Eczema, hives, acne, and chronic congestion.

• Neurological Symptoms: Migraines and headaches.

👉 Learn about food allergy and sensitivity testing.

Book a Functional Medicine Discovery Call and we can see if you're a good candidate!