Egg allergies? Get tested?

[cafelover]

I still haven't started my W30 because I want to make sure that once I start it, I do it right. I am curious about getting tested for food allergies. I have been tested in the past and am allergic to wheat, so I have cut that out of my diet. That was quite a few years ago. I don't remember eggs coming up as an allergen, but since I'll be eating them so frequently, I figured I had better know if they're going to cause inflammation or not, and if so, then I should probably eliminate them so that I don't sabotage the W30 experience. How many of you have had a full range of allergens tested? Has anyone tried the allergy testing by mail approach? Thanks!

[CaseyD]

The thing with allergy testing is that it isn't bullet proof. In fact, a good doctor will tell you the best way to know if you react to a food or not is by eliminating the food and then testing it to see if you react (as in, what the Whole30 does). You can have food sensitivities that are just as bad as allergies, but they will not show up on an allergy test because those blood markers are not tested. What is considered an allergy is defined by the one blood marker they test for (I'd have to look up the specifics of exactly what they test as I don't know it off hand). But, you can react on a set of different markers and get just as sick, but the allergy test will not show this.

I'll use myself as an example. I tested positive to dairy and egg allergies, yet I react strongly to wheat and certain nightshades as though I'm just as allergic to them as I am eggs. If I went only by those test results, I'd never know that wheat and these nightshades are also making me sick. In fact, the only reason I ever learned about how I react to other foods outside that test was to do an elimination diet, i.e. the Whole30 and the autoimmune protocol (which I did much later than my first Whole30).

If you are truly concerned about eggs, then just do your Whole30 without them and then after the 30 days, reintroduce them slowly to see if you react. There's just a lot of self-experimentation involved in finding the optimal diet for the healthiest you, and in reality, it may take more than 30 days to figure out. Especially if you find you are very sensitive to foods/additives, sometimes it can take many months or years of experimentation to finally learn everything that affects you. But, every thing you learn is a step in the right direction, no matter how long it takes.

I'd just get started now.

[cafelover]

That's a good point about eliminating. I should try the nightshades as well, although I'm terrified to do that because I love eggplant and tomatoes! Eggs are the least expensive form of protein for me though, so I was really hoping not to have to eliminate them. If I were to take them out for a week or so, would that be long enough to tell me what I need to know?

[Karen]

Elimination is really helpful at pinpointing things.

I'll add, though, that I've had both scratch testing for allergies and blood tests. I had a scratch test as both a kid and an adult. As a kid, the scratch test was pretty accurate, but as an adult, it came up with nada, despite having some pretty instant reactions to certain foods. The allergist I saw a few years ago said that's all she could do in terms of testing. So that got me nowhere.

Since then, I've done the blood food sensitivity test through my integrative doctor twice now and it's been spot on. The first time I did it, we only tested about 45 foods; the second time it tested close to 100, and it tested for both an immediate and delayed reaction. I have a list of close to 20 foods that came up as a moderate or severe reaction, and I know I react to about 95% of them. Getting information on the remaining 5% was really helpful, though, at determining what foods I should avoid for now. It'd be hard to eliminate/reintroduce that many and get it right on my own... But I'm an extreme case, I think.

If you have a doctor that you'd trust to test food senstivities/allergies, go for it. But, as Casey said, elimination/reintroduction may give you some insight without a trip to the doctor.