Debunking Food Sensitivity Tests (with Andrea Love, PhD)

Have you ever tried a food sensitivity test and felt more confused than ever (or STRESSED than ever)? In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Andrea Love, a renowned microbiologist and immunologist to uncover the truth behind these popular but MAJORLY misleading tests.

We explore how these tests can fuel anxiety around food choices and dietary restrictions. It's time to question the hype and understand the science behind these tests.

Are food sensitivity tests truly beneficial or just another health trend gone wrong

Plus we discuss the responsibility of healthcare practitioners. Are they inadvertently endorsing tests that lack scientific validation for their own monetary gain? Tune in to get the real scoop, be educated by the best and empower yourself with knowledge.

Resources mentioned:
Lyme disease diet episode

More from Dr. Andrea Love:
Website
Subscribe to her newsletter
American Lyme Disease Foundation
Instagram
Threads

TOPICS COVERED 👇 
Misconceptions related to food sensitivity tests (03:16)
The lack of FDA approval and regulation (06:21)
The science behind food allergies (12:05)
Explaining food intolerances (19:32)
The difference between food sensitivity and intolerance (24:06)
IgG antibodies and misconceptions (25:13)
The challenges in diagnosing food intolerance (31:06)
Harmful impact of misleading tests (34:03)
Influence of wellness influencers and experts (39:50) 
Impact on quality of life caused by misleading tests (43:46)
Elimination Diets and Food Intolerance (51:56)

LEARN MORE
🔥 My Signature 4-Month Program, Nourished & Free
📲 Follow me on Instagram (you'll get to know me pretty quickly!)
📖 Check out my Blog for tons of helpful articles

SHOW SOME LOVE
⭐️ Loved this episode? Leave a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify (thank you!)
💌 Share this episode with a friend who you think will love it
📌 Subscribe/follow the show so you never miss an episode!

Transcript

Michelle (00:00:01) - Welcome back to Nourish and Free, the podcast to help you become the most healthy and nourished version of yourself, while also being free from pseudoscience and misinformation and an all or nothing mentality around food. Speaking of pseudoscience, today's topic is food sensitivity tests and food sensitivities in general, and how they differ from food intolerances and food allergies. This question comes up a lot in terms of the food sensitivity test, and maybe not even so much a question, but I just hear a lot from people that they took these tests and as a result, they were told that they're sensitive to all of these foods, and now they have to cut them out of their diet, and they're having a really hard time with it. And it's it's ultimately damaging their health and wellness in a lot of different ways, at the very least mentally, but also physically. And when it comes to these tests, I feel like I know enough to say, hey, these aren't accurate. Spoiler alert these are a scam. They're not actually helpful, but I don't know enough about the science behind them and what really goes into them in order to give you like, a full, in-depth conversation around it.

Michelle (00:01:09) - So I wanted to bring on my friend Doctor Andrea Love, who was actually on the show last year to talk about Lyme disease and dispel some myths there, especially when it comes to changing your diet for Lyme disease. So if you're interested in that episode, I'll put it in the show notes. But I wanted to bring her on to talk about this because she is a microbiologist, immunologist, and science communicator with expertise in not only basic sciences, but also translational medicine and clinical research. So she is able to give you a way more in-depth look at the immune system and food allergies, food intolerances, this topic of food sensitivities, and then the test as well. She's a subject matter expert in topics related to cancer, infectious disease, microbiology, biotechnology and cell biology. She works full time in life sciences biotechnology, is the author of immunologic, the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, and was the 2023 American Medical Writers Association McGovern Award recipient. Well deserved. I will put all of the links to follow Andrea and subscribe to her newsletter in the show notes.

Michelle (00:02:18) - I will also put the links to her websites. She's awesome and I've really loved being connected with her for the last year or so and getting to talk all things pseudoscience with her, so she's the perfect person to come on and have this conversation with me, because she is the expert on this, and I want nothing but the best for my listeners. As a quick reminder, if you have not left a rating or review on the show, please take a minute to do so. I recently got the top 100 spot on nutrition charts in the United States, so that's exciting. I broke the top 100. Granted, it was literally number 100 on the whole list, but that's okay. So we're making progress you guys. If you haven't taken a second to leave a rating and review, please do so. That way I can get even higher in the charts. so without further ado, welcome to the show, Doctor Love.

Dr. Love (00:03:10) - Thanks, Michelle, for having me.

Michelle (00:03:12) - I'm so excited to have you. I, yeah, food sensitivities.

Michelle (00:03:16) - We were just talking offline about some experiences I've had with chiropractors, and I just. You see them a lot on. Well, I feel like I get ads all the time for these. And then also just with the clients I work with, with the, the individuals that reach out to me and all the time you're like, well, I took a food sensitivity test and I am sensitive to all of these foods. So just makes having a healthy diet really hard. And then for me, like, I usually work with women that struggle with binge eating. And so it's usually like because I can't eat those foods, it's really difficult for me to have a variety in my diet, and then I end up getting really tired and it's hard to follow. So I just say like effort and I binge on everything and and then they're like, but I know I shouldn't because I'm sensitive to those foods. I'm like, what are you though? Like, because if it's a test. Yeah. Anyway, so I want to do a whole episode about this because I am not an expert in the field of immunology.

Michelle (00:04:15) - And you are. And I feel like you'll be able to dig into it a little bit. Well, a lot better than I would ever be able to. And you can kind of give your your expert opinion on why these tests are maybe not the best thing in the world.

Dr. Love (00:04:33) - Yeah, yeah. No. And honestly, I think you really got to the crux of the problem with them in kind of that intro. Is that what these tests do, because they're not based on science, is it leads people to omit and eliminate foods that are perfectly safe for them, that are often very nutritious, and a really great component of a healthy and diverse diet. Because they've been misled to believe that they are causing them harm. And so it's it's very predatory. It's it's really exploitative. And particularly for people who do have challenges with their relationship with food, maybe challenges with control, which we know, you know, binge eating disorders often related to a feeling of a loss of control and the binge is associated.

Dr. Love (00:05:25) - And I say that because I have binge eating disorder. So I this is this is not me. Just like, you know, saying this out of left field. But but but there's obviously a lot of data in terms of the underlying. It's not really about the food, it's about the control. And and that is why the food sensitivity tests are very appealing, because it gives them a sense of control over. Well, I'm going to I'm going to get all this information and then I'm going to be able to control my health better for someone that is already has a very complicated relationship with control and with food. And so it's really just it's terrible. And, I wish that they didn't exist, and I wish that there weren't so many charlatans selling them and and all that. But but maybe I can kind of summarize like the science bit. So food sensitivity tests are considered a direct to consumer test. And what that means is that you can buy them over the counter. You can buy them online.

Dr. Love (00:06:21) - They are not FDA approved for any sort of diagnostic or any sort of clinical indication, which also means that, any recommendations that you get from a company that is selling you a food sensitivity test about changing your lifestyle is technically illegal. They're not allowed to make, they're not allowed to make prescriptions for alterations, for health. And now we know that this is really rampant. A lot of the at home microbiome tests do the same thing. And and it it is technically illegal. But anyway, so so.

Michelle (00:06:53) - Can I, can I pause right there. Yes. Why do you think they still exist if it's straight up illegal. Yeah.

Dr. Love (00:07:01) - So this is the wild west of the wellness industry. And so in vitro diagnostics are FDA approved for use for clinical surveillance, diagnosis, treatment information, etc. these tests, as well as pretty much all of the direct to consumer tests, whether that's a home health test like an inside track or a microbiome test, genetic test, unless it's an FDA approved genetic test for a specific disease state, like, like, cologuard, which is FDA approved for colorectal cancer diagnosis.

Dr. Love (00:07:38) - but all of these are what we call lab developed tests. Now, to the general public, that sounds like it's legit, right? And they use phrases like science backed and evidence based. And of course this is all marketing jargon. So a lab developed test means nothing besides the fact that it was created in a lab. It was developed in a laboratory of some capacity. But that's pretty much where the similarities end, because these tests are not regulated or approved for use by the FDA for diagnosis. But it also means that the accuracy, the reliability, the credibility, the plausibility, anything that you're getting from these tests is not validated by robust clinical trial data. And so there's a general perception that these things are totally fine and totally benign. But first of all, they're not. And second of all, you can't even trust that the results you're getting are even accurate for the thing that they say they're measuring because there's no validation, there's no standardization, there's no normalization, and there's no actual clinical data for them to even make these like benchmark measurements.

Dr. Love (00:08:49) - So usually like, you know, say you're looking at like an iron test, like there are ranges that are like outside the normal and inside the normal. And with an FDA approved brand of that sort of clinical diagnostic, that's all validated by a really large population study where you look at normal reference values and these lab developed consumer based tests. That doesn't exist. And so, you know, aside from the fact that many of them are just not scientifically supported by any evidence, which which is the case with the food sensitivity tests, even the ones that are claiming to look for something that is a legitimate thing, like iron or cholesterol or things like that, if it's not using an FDA approved brand and instrumentation, for that test, even if it's using the same, you know, lab to collect and process the blood samples, it doesn't mean that you can trust those those information.

Michelle (00:09:45) - So they could be saying that your iron is low, but the reference range that they use might be completely different.

Dr. Love (00:09:52) - Yeah.

Dr. Love (00:09:52) - Or because they only use ten samples to set their reference range. It's not representative of reality. And so you have all. US internal source of error, and you can't necessarily trust that the information is accurate.

Michelle (00:10:05) - Yeah, yeah, that's really interesting. I didn't know that. So yeah. Like I kind of interrupted you there to go into that.

Dr. Love (00:10:14) - I plan to discuss that topic in more detail because it is a really complicated topic. And I think it yeah, it's compounded by the fact that the whole field of regulatory, you know, oversight and regulatory sciences, there's a bit of an air of mystery. And I think people don't really understand how strict and how complex it is for, for anything that is regulated. But the big Tldr is that the FDA is really busy with all that stuff. And so all of these wellness products, they fall outside of the scope of the FDA because of some legislation that happened a few decades ago. And so these companies really have a lot of leeway to kind of sell things with no evidence, because they fall outside of the scrutiny of FDA.

Michelle (00:11:09) - Yeah. So they're in a loophole, basically.

Dr. Love (00:11:12) - Exactly, exactly.

Michelle (00:11:14) - That's fun for us.

Dr. Love (00:11:15) - Yeah. It's not great. It's not. It's getting worse. but yeah. So like when we're talking about the food sensitivity test, it's often kind of purported about, you know, as you just said, right. People will buy this. They'll they'll usually do like, a finger prick. they'll put some blood on this little card or something. They mail it back and the, the company is going to tell them all these foods that they're sensitive to, not allergic to, not intolerant to, but sensitive to as a, as an indication of things you might have reactions to. And you might want to avoid eating in your diet. And so, you know, the the big spoiler here is that there's no actual science behind the food sensitivity tests, but it kind of exploits the pseudoscience, right? The nugget of truth. And so there are real food allergies and there are real food intolerances. but those are very different.

Dr. Love (00:12:05) - And so food allergies really impact about 2 to 3% of the population now. And this is based on legitimate medical diagnoses. It's a very different thing that these than these food sensitivity tests are detecting. but when you actually look at the belief or the perception amongst the general population, up to 25% of adults think that they are sensitive or intolerant to foods. And this and this rate directly coincides with this market of these, these food sensitivity or food intolerance tests like.

Michelle (00:12:35) - The rate of people's belief went up as those.

Dr. Love (00:12:38) - The tests are on the market, they're getting this really aggressive marketing. They're they're you know, they're using these things. Oh, were you experiencing bloating? Are you experiencing fatigue or are you experiencing brain fog? You have a food sensitivity. Yeah. It's every single symptom out there. And they're like, oh my gosh, I have this. I'm going to go buy this test. So yeah. So it's very exploitative and it's and it's very insidious. And it can be really hard to figure out, you know, what's what's happening.

Dr. Love (00:13:02) - So but but in the case of, of a food allergy, this is what we call a, an immune mediated reaction to, to the ingestion of, of certain molecules in a food. Generally speaking, these are quick. They're going to occur within minutes to hours. There are some rare exceptions to to this that kind of fall outside the rapid, allergy scenario. But this is primarily mediated by an antibody called IgG or immunoglobulin E. Now the process occurs where the first time you encounter a molecule or a chemical in a food, your body is like, hey, that doesn't belong. I'm going to have a reaction to it. And this is called sensitization. So basically what happens is when you first encounter that food and let's use let's use albumin, which is a protein in eggs that that can be a cause of an allergen just for, just for my, my sake of discussion. So, so you eat an egg and your body's like, oh my gosh, this albumin protein looks scary. that doesn't belong.

Dr. Love (00:14:14) - And what happens is your B cells in the immune system, that's the part of the memory immunity that produce antibodies. They do this. They undergo this process called class switching. And they produce these IgG antibodies. Now the albumin is considered what we call an allergen, meaning it is an antigen, which is something that triggers the production of antibodies. But it's in the context of an allergic reaction. So we call it allergen. So typically this first encounter the sensitization process doesn't present with symptoms. You just eat the egg. You don't know anything better. But under the hood all this stuff is going on where the B cells are producing these Ige. And then these IgG antibodies go to another type of cell in the immune system called mast cells. And they bind to these little receptors that stick out at the top of the mast cells. And then it forms this complex. So you have this complex called the FC epsilon receptor one. So basically you have this mast cell I wish I had a mast cell. it's got this little protein sticking out.

Dr. Love (00:15:12) - And then it has the Ige which looks like a Y. I do have an IG somewhere, but it looks like a Y and it's bound. So you have your mast cell and it has all these Ige around it. So basically what happens. You can envision these Ige as being like little sticky fingers. So now these mask cells are kind of ready and waiting to go. So the next time you eat the egg and the albumin is in your body, the albumin binds to those those custom IgG antibodies that recognize the albumin. Right. So now the albumin is bound to the little Ige on the mast cells. And once that happens it triggers this chain reaction within the mast cell which causes a process called granulation. And it releases all these inflammatory chemicals like histamine. And so the first exposure is the sensitization. The second exposure when you actually have your first allergic reaction. And it's all because your body should have ignored this molecule, this chemical as as benign as a, as a tolerance substance and instead was like, oh, this is foreign.

Dr. Love (00:16:12) - I need to have this inappropriate response. so that's a true food allergy. And this again, it's quite rare. It's about 2 to 3% of the population. the symptoms are those stereotypical things like the skin reactions, hives and eczema, swelling, itching. oftentimes people can have GI symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Sometimes it can lead to, respiratory things. Because again, you're having this really pronounced systemic inflammation. And so you have coughing and wheezing. And sometimes you have broncho constriction and difficulty breathing. And that can progress to something like anaphylaxis where you would need really, really rapid, emergency response. So, so that's kind of your food allergy. This would be diagnosed by a clinical allergist. And this is a combination of medical history. You often will do a specific test called a food challenge. Sometimes they will look at things like a skin scratch test to look at. You know, how your skin responds to specific potential allergens. They might do a blood test to assess Ige levels. This would be a venous blood draw, not a skin prick test.

Dr. Love (00:17:18) - because there's a lot of at home allergy tests now that are using skin prick for IgG. And that's not validated either. But anyway, with allergies, every time you encounter this substance, you're going to have a response, because your body has created this memory that is saying this thing is harmful. And so the solution is you need to avoid those substances that that molecule, it's not it's not the whole food. It's a particular protein usually in a given food. Right now they most commonly developed during childhood. But they can appear, you know, as we age. But it's often, presented in childhood because that's when your immune system is the youngest. It's the most responsive, it's the most reactive. Whereas as we get older, we undergo a process called immuno senescence, which means that we actually get less responsive. And that's why the over 65 year flu vaccine is actually a four times dose, because a regular dose doesn't elicit as strong an immune response.

Michelle (00:18:18) - So a lot of people grow out of allergies too, or maybe so.

Dr. Love (00:18:21) - So some people yeah, some people do grow out of allergies or or the symptom, the symptomatology changes over time. So maybe they initially presented with like very severe anaphylaxis. But over time, they, you know, only have GI symptoms or things like that. There's also a process where you can, kind of try to train your body. It's called inducing tolerance to become better at withstanding the exposure of those allergens. And this would be something that, you know, clinical Allergists do, offer as treatment for, for like. Things. Yeah, exactly. So allergy shots are considered allergy immunotherapy where you have a very small, sterilized, isolated, purified, tiny dose of the given allergen. And by challenging your body repeatedly over a certain period of time, your body starts to say, oh, this little dose. That wasn't too bad. I can I can try a little bit more and so on and so on and so on until you get to a point where the amount you would actually encounter in a food product, your body wouldn't have an inappropriate response to it.

Michelle (00:19:30) - So then what is an intolerance?

Dr. Love (00:19:32) - Yeah. So an intolerance is really a digestive issue. So an intolerance is usually a result of lacking enzymes that are required to process certain chemicals. And I want to keep saying chemicals here because chemicals are often viewed as bad, but everything is chemicals. And so all of these things.

Michelle (00:19:50) - To remind.

Dr. Love (00:19:50) - People chemicals. Yeah. So food intolerances are things where it's not related to your immune system. It's literally that when you digest food, you have all of these enzymes involved in this process. And they take the larger chemicals and they break them down into smaller chemicals that you can then shuttle into your cell respiration pathways to extract the energy, which is you need to fuel your body. So a good example that I like to use would be something like lactose intolerance. So this is essentially a digestive issue in which you cannot digest the sugar lactose. So there's a lot of different sugars out there. We talk about sucrose which is our table sugar. We talk about you know, galactose which is another type of sugar.

Dr. Love (00:20:33) - But lactose is a type of sugar that's found in milk products and dairy products. And so we have an enzyme called lactase. And what that does is it digests the lactose into the smaller components that you can then use for your body. And so if you don't have enough of this enzyme, you're not actually able to digest that sugar. And that can lead to GI symptoms like bloating and abdominal cramps. And sometimes gas and sometimes diarrhea and sometimes nausea and vomiting. And these are not immediate responses like an allergic reaction. These are going to typically present by the time the food gets down to your GI tract. So you know, 30 minutes to a few hours. And the severity of that is going to vary depending on how much of that thing you ate. So if you had lactose intolerance, you might be okay eating a tiny little bit of cheese. But if you ate a big block of cheese, you might have symptoms. And that's very different from, say, an allergy to a protein in milk like casein or way where it didn't, it wouldn't matter how much milk product you consumed, you would have a very predictable response to it every time and very quickly.

Michelle (00:21:41) - Yeah, yeah. I hope you're enjoying this episode. I wanted to take a quick break and remind you that if you are struggling with an all or nothing mentality when it comes to food and you feel really stressed out about food, like you have all these food rules, all this food noise, even to the point of binge eating, emotional overeating, or yo yo dieting, it might be time to get some support while listening to episodes and podcasts like this are super important just to correct any inaccurate nutrition beliefs or, you know, dispel any myths that could be contributing to your food rolls in a really unnecessary way and making the food stress worse. Sometimes you just do need that support from an expert that can help guide you through using the right tools. And sometimes it's nice to to just have a community on your side that gets it and is there to walk through things with you, which is why I created Nourished and Free the Program, a four month group coaching program designed to help women overcome struggles like bingeing, emotional overeating, and yo yo dieting.

Michelle (00:22:40) - Like I mentioned before, I love this program so much because it is literally changing the lives of the women that come into it. And I'm not just saying that because it sounds good. I'm saying that because graduate after graduate after graduate of this program has literally told me that it changed their life. And I think a big part of that is because when you struggle with your relationship with food, it really can affect so many different areas of your life. It can be like this little storm cloud that just follows you around everywhere you go, and kind of holds you back from being able to truly enjoy your life, whether that's because you're not going to social events because you're self-conscious or because you're, or maybe you are at those social events, right? But you're not even enjoying it because all you can think about is the food or think about how you look. And so it's one of those things where it can really take over your life, and it's important to man attack that head on. And so that's why I love Nourished and Free the program, not just the podcast, but the program because we take four months to to do a really intensive and evidence based attack on our relationships with food and with our body, so that you have a really solid foundation for the rest of your life to be free from a stressful relationship with food.

Michelle (00:23:55) - So I'll put more information. About that in the show notes, if you're interested in that. And in the meantime, let's get back to this episode. So our sensitivity is like, is that even a thing at all then?

Dr. Love (00:24:06) - It's not. And so sometimes people use it interchangeably with a digestive intolerance. But in the case of these food sensitivity tests, it it is looking for an antibody called IgG. So it's very different from Ige. I know it sounds similar but they're very different. but these these tests are advertised to sometimes they say it's diagnosing intolerance. That's not like an intolerance is a true digestive issue. but food sensitivity is not a medical diagnosis. And if they use it outside the context of a digestive issue, it's it's using this nebulous capacity to basically, you know, lump a lot of different nebulous symptoms like headache and arthritis and congestion and fatigue and IBS and all this. So these food sensitivity tests are measuring these antibodies called IgG. Now, IgG antibodies in the context of ingested food molecules indicate tolerance, meaning your body has been exposed to it and it decided it wasn't going to react to it.

Dr. Love (00:25:13) - So it literally is saying, yeah, I notice this thing and this is benign and I don't need to have a reaction to it, and I'm going to make these IgG antibodies. So the next time I eat that thing I'm going to remember that I don't need to react to it. So so this IgG is a memory antibody that is basically saying your body tolerates this substance. And so it's the opposite of an allergy right. So when you when you consume these foods you instead of sensitizing yourself you induce tolerance. So your immune system you know extends into the the GI tract. And so you have this compartment called the gut associated lymphoid tissue. And you have a lot of immune cells in there. And your immune system is constantly sampling what's going on in your GI tract. It's really important for the education of the immune system throughout your life. it also helps prime and educate in the context of pathogenic microorganisms, because it samples all of the healthy microorganisms in your GI tract. And it knows like, well, when when something gets in that doesn't look like those, it knows that it should mount a response versus the ones that it's constantly sampling.

Dr. Love (00:26:28) - And so basically, when you eat something and those chemicals get into your your GI tract, you have specific immune cells called dendritic cells and regulatory T cells, tregs, that basically work together to create this oral tolerance, where basically you learn that these things are harmless and you're going to be encountering them a lot because you're eating them. And and this is a good thing. This means that your immune system is doing what it's supposed to do. and, and the problematic nature of these tests is they're telling you that we're going to measure these levels of IgG, and that is then going to tell you what you're sensitive to. And higher levels means you're more sensitive to it, when in reality it means the polar opposite. It basically means that you've been exposed to that thing recently, or you really like eating that thing because it's delicious or it's healthy or whatever. So the IgG production and the IgG levels are indicative of an exposure and have nothing to do with whether or not you're sensitive. And the levels directly correlate with how frequently you eat that thing.

Dr. Love (00:27:32) - And so now you have these people that are operating under the assumption that these things are bad for them, and they're having a reaction to them when I guess technically they're having a reaction, but the reaction is don't react.

Michelle (00:27:42) - Yeah. Which is like so mind blowing to me, because I've always heard that IgG most likely is present to indicate that you've had that thing before, or that is absolutely your system. Yep. But I guess I've like, never heard you explain it the way you just did that it's a sign that you do tolerate it. And so it's just like completely mind blowing to me right now that these tests are like literally measuring the opposite of what they.

Dr. Love (00:28:10) - Say they are. And now you're telling people, oh, your IgG levels for broccoli are sky high. Now don't eat broccoli. That's problematic on so many levels. Aside from the fact that that IgG level means nothing about you having a negative reaction to broccoli.

Michelle (00:28:29) - Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. What if and I don't this might just be me going off on a tangent.

Michelle (00:28:35) - But if there's a low amount of IgG for a food, does that mean they're more likely to be intolerant to it?

Dr. Love (00:28:43) - Not necessarily. No. it could just be that, you know, they don't eat that thing frequently. or the last time they ate it was a long time ago. but IgG antibodies are produced by an entirely different population of. Cells. So B cells produce antibodies, but they all produce different types of antibodies and different levels of antibodies in response to different things. And so you have all these we call them naive B cells where they're kind of ready and waiting to go. And once they're activated they they turn into this very specific B cell that's going to produce very specific antibodies against a very specific, antigen or allergen. Right. And so in your body, you have probably millions of them that are all reacting to various different things or not reacting to various different things. But a B cell undergoes a process called class switching. And once they do that, they're only going to produce one class of antibodies.

Dr. Love (00:29:37) - And that could be IgG. It could be IgG, it could be if they're in like the mucosa it could be IGA. That's a mucosal antibody that's often found in like respiratory tract and digestive system. And they all start out producing IgG. But but a but that's a very early antibody. And they all kind of switch. And then they become their own kind of lifelong antibody factories. And then the memory pool again once they're kind of set in stone they don't like go backwards and they don't switch. So IgG levels are irrespective of what IgG levels would be in the context of even the same molecule. Okay.

Michelle (00:30:17) - That's what I was going to ask. So it's like a completely separate thing. They have nothing to do with your ability to or I guess like they have nothing to do with the fact that you can't tolerate something exactly about you do exactly this thing.

Dr. Love (00:30:30) - Exactly. Yeah. And the levels of IgG, again, are really most often related to how recently you ate something or how frequently you ate something.

Dr. Love (00:30:40) - And so, you know, I might have really low IgG levels against, you know, certain shellfish proteins because it's not summer yet. And I haven't gotten into my lobster fanaticism. But, you know, maybe in the summertime my shellfish proteins will go really up because I'll be eating lobster every time I go to the beach.

Michelle (00:30:57) - Yeah. Got it. So can you measure an intolerance then. Because that is there IgG IgG at all for an intolerance.

Dr. Love (00:31:06) - No. And that's you know that's that's the tricky thing. So because intolerance is more related to, you know, the lack of an enzyme that's required, the the detection or the diagnosis is a little bit trickier because you usually unless you have a genetic disorder where you have an absolute absence of a particular enzyme, your level of that enzyme is usually it's it's not all or nothing. Right? There's there's degrees of how much of that enzyme you produce. So so you could have mild lactose intolerance because you still produce a decent amount of lactase, but maybe not enough to eat a whole pint of ice cream at once, whereas someone else could have more severe lactose intolerance because they just happen to produce even less of that enzyme.

Dr. Love (00:31:50) - And so it's that's really more of a dose response situation. And so as a result, it is harder to diagnose a food intolerance, which is why typically you're going to work with in the case of an intolerance, you're going to work with a gastroenterologist. And it's typically going to going to involve, you know, medical history, probably, you know, food challenge as well as some specific elimination. And again, that's going to be monitored. And then you're going to reintroduce things to make sure that the symptoms reappear. It's not the case of these ridiculous elimination diets like the autoimmune diet where, you know, people are just just eliminate everything that's inflammatory. And then you never introduce anything back. And and none of it's based on science to begin with. And it's worth mentioning that all of the clinical allergy and immunology organizations specifically advise against food sensitivity tests. And that includes the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. it includes the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and so on. And they actually explicitly state, you know, they warn against using these unproven methods because one, there's there's no clinical relevance.

Dr. Love (00:33:02) - There's no science to support it. There's no validation, there's no quality control. and, and the European Allergy Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, actually, I love this quote because they say food specific IgG for that's that's the oral tolerance. Antibody does not indicate food allergy or intolerance but rather a physiological response of the immune system after exposition to food components. Therefore, testing of IgG4 is to foods is considered irrelevant for the laboratory workup of food allergy or intolerance and should not be performed in the case of food related complaints.

Michelle (00:33:36) - there you go. There's your mic drop. Yeah.

Dr. Love (00:33:39) - But I think but I think this all goes back to the bigger topic. Is that what you said? Right. It you know, a lot of people are like, well, I'm just curious what I react to. And it's like, well, you're legitimizing pseudoscience. You're giving these companies money and you're you're basically giving them credibility, and they're exploiting a fundamental. Misunderstanding of of immunology. You know, it's literally selling you garbage.

Dr. Love (00:34:03) - But on top of it. And what's more problematic is that people who are seeking this out because they are experiencing a problem, they're going to be misled, and they're going to avoid foods that there's no reason to. And and these tests are simply reporting a collection of things that you've encountered, and you're going to flag all these things that are nutritious, that are beneficial for you. and the company websites recommend eliminate those substances and those foods from your diet. So so now you have more health anxiety. Now are you going to be less likely to go out and have have fun with your friends, go to a restaurant, go to a dinner, participate in social events because now you're scared that there's going to be broccoli, or there's going to be onions, or there's going to be wheat, or there's going to be something else in your food when you don't have to avoid it in the first place. And now you're you're having this huge psychological component on top of the physiological component. It's so problematic. It's so harmful.

Michelle (00:34:58) - which when you eliminate those foods too, it can worsen any symptoms that you may have had before that were actually unrelated to that. Because now, if you're eliminating all these foods that can help to regulate your gut microbiome, now you've got diet induced symptoms that weren't in the first place.

Dr. Love (00:35:15) - Yeah. Or you don't have any symptoms of malnourishment. Exactly.

Michelle (00:35:19) - Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Dr. Love (00:35:20) - So like, you know, you're looking at a lot of things, you know, fruits and vegetables, legumes, things with lots of fiber, things that we know are very good for, you know, the the nebulous gut microbiome that is frequently co-opted as well. You know, lots of healthy whole grains are included on these tests. So, you know, now people are scared of things that are demonstrably healthy and are really important components of a diverse diet.

Michelle (00:35:45) - Yeah, yeah. That's insane. So we've got.

Dr. Love (00:35:49) - Basically.

Michelle (00:35:50) - Work. That's work. So we've got our three categories here that we hear all the time of food allergy, food intolerance and food sensitivity.

Michelle (00:35:58) - Basically, what we've learned today is that the food sensitivity category can just be thrown into the garbage, because it doesn't really mean anything. Yeah, and intolerance is a real thing. An allergy is a real thing. intolerance is more related to the gut microbiome. Not having enough enzymes to produce things that can. Well, it's not.

Dr. Love (00:36:17) - It's not the microbiome. It's just. It's just your cells produce these enzymes to digest. Sure. to digest these food substances. So if you have diminished, enzyme production because, you know, those cells are just not making enough of that protein, then then you can have digestive issues as a result.

Michelle (00:36:38) - Love it. Cool. Thanks for the correction there. And then that can determine or that's determined by dose like your your symptoms will be determined by the dose because of however much or little you can tolerate as an individual. Exactly. And then allergies is more severe and quick in a reaction. And is doesn't matter what dose you have, if you have it at all, you get a reaction and it's more predictable and it's immune related.

Michelle (00:37:08) - Yep Ige you can mast cells histamine.

Dr. Love (00:37:12) - Yes. All that.

Michelle (00:37:14) - Scary things. Yeah yeah. And so sensitivity is used I think synonymously a lot of times with intolerance. But if we're really wanting to be technical about it it doesn't really exist. Exactly. So I think that's a really good to. Yeah.

Dr. Love (00:37:29) - And and a lot of these companies will sell the test not as a food sensitivity but as an intolerance. And if you see that if they're looking at IgG as garbage. Yeah. Because there really isn't, you know, food tolerance or food intolerances are very specific to the enzyme or the lack of enzyme. And so there's not going to be this, this over-the-counter test that that's going to help you with something like that.

Michelle (00:37:55) - Yeah. Measuring IgG makes no sense when it's an enzyme issue. And it makes no sense period. Because as we've talked about, it's more of a sign of tolerance. And that thing being in your system, something that you eat frequently or recently than it is anything else.

Michelle (00:38:09) - So yeah, I think that's really good for people to know. there's so many. Yeah. Like we've talked about already, there's so many consumers that are being led astray to think that these foods are now bad foods for them, which just creates this all or nothing hierarchy around food that can be ultimately more damaging than anything. And even though it might start out as this innocent, I just want to get to know my body better. I want to know more about me like I we're all very curious about ourselves and what makes us up as people that we are so prone to want to take tests like that. And in the end, it's doing more harm than good. Because not only, as you said, is it completely useless data that has no relevance. It's also. So then bringing people to feel like, well, I can't eat wheat or any dairy or whatever, even though they love that food. And that's actually why it showed up on the test in the first place. Yeah, exactly.

Michelle (00:39:09) - They love that food. And they ate it recently.

Dr. Love (00:39:11) - Yeah, totally. And I think it's worth noting that this this industry is not altruistic. Like it currently, just the at home food sensitivity test market is over $160 million just in the US. And it's growing very rapidly because of the promotion of wellness influencers. And this aggressive marketing, as you noted, really kind of bombards people. It's very targeted. If you're looking up something online about, you know, symptoms of food or things like that, you're going to start seeing these products being advertised to you.

Michelle (00:39:50) - Yeah. You know, it's funny because I was looking up, I was like trying to come up with some questions that we might want to talk about today. And I googled, what's the difference between a sensitivity allergy and intolerance? And if you.

Dr. Love (00:40:06) - Know, you're going to buy all of those tests.

Michelle (00:40:08) - And if you look it up on Google, they're like one of the first things that shows up and it expands to show the paragraph is, like it says, unlike food sensitivities or food allergies, food intolerances don't involve your immune system.

Michelle (00:40:22) - So the way that that's phrased, it makes it sound like food sensitivities involve the immune system. Yeah, I guess this in the first place.

Dr. Love (00:40:30) - Yeah. I mean, the whole technically IgG is part of the immune system, but it's not sensitivity. It's tolerance. Right.

Michelle (00:40:36) - Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.

Dr. Love (00:40:38) - It's just like it's very predatory. Yeah.

Michelle (00:40:40) - It's brutal out here and there's so many. We were talking about this before we start recording. There's so many specifically chiropractors that I see this a lot. It's not just my personal experience that we talked about, but I've also seen a lot of clients come to me and say that their chiropractor recommended the food sensitivity test, or their holistic nutritionist or their naturopathy doctor, and it's so concerning how many quote unquote experts which whether you think that that's an expert or not, is depending on the individual, but many people do and it's, it's this like appeal to authority that like, well, this is their job. This is their profession. They know what they're talking about.

Michelle (00:41:26) - So if they prescribe me this test, that means that I'm going to get to the bottom of this and this. Like, why wouldn't you trust somebody that makes you feel like they're an expert?

Dr. Love (00:41:36) - Yeah, absolutely. And of course, you know, you know that that's a much bigger conversation for kind of, you know, the scope of practice and scope of expertise. But I've talked about this a lot. But chiropractors, you know, obviously the field is really based on pseudoscience to begin with. But even if you set that aside, you know, the premise is if you subluxation joints, you know, you adjust joints, you're going to essentially, you know, realign things. And that's been wildly extrapolated to now, you know, chiropractors believing that they're experts in infectious diseases and chronic illnesses and all the sorts of things. And and because chiropractic is is very squarely in, in the wellness sphere, routinely, I mean, the whole field is based on pseudoscience. You know, it's a logical transition that they can make a lot of money, selling these fake tests and claiming that they're going to help, you know, people are seeking them out because they're not feeling great, whether it's because of back pain or whatever.

Dr. Love (00:42:31) - Yeah. they're they're hoping to get these answers. And so it's, it's exploiting that desire for answers. And I actually had a chiropractor blocked me on Instagram because he was hawking. He was very large following. I don't remember his his name anymore, but, very large following Hawking food sensitivity tests. he tried to he tried to tell me that it was a different type of allergy. and then did not like when he was challenged by that. So hopefully someone else has called him out since then, although he probably blocked them too.

Michelle (00:43:07) - It sounds like you probably did.

Dr. Love (00:43:09) - I just feel bad for, you know, people, the patients, the unwitting victims of all of that.

Michelle (00:43:14) - No, I agree, and I think that's why it's important to have conversations like this and why I wanted to bring you on. Because like I mentioned, like I, I've known that these aren't accurate tests, but I couldn't explain the whole mechanism behind it, like, you can. And I think it's important to empower individuals to understand what's going on behind the scenes of all of these tests and just wellness and all the stuff we see on the internet in general, so that they can, first of all, save their money, but also just save their own sanity.

Michelle (00:43:46) - You know, like if you there's the health risks behind going through with things like this. but also just like your quality of life, even as you brought up going out to. A restaurant with your friends. Maybe that's off the table now because you're afraid that they're going to use an ingredient that was flagged on your food sensitivity test, and now you're not making those memories anymore. You're not living your life anymore. And. Yep, yep. Not only is your physical health deteriorating, but your mental health is too.

Dr. Love (00:44:14) - Yeah, and we know that there's interplay between those two. And it's you know, it's you know, I know people don't like to hear it, but, you know, aside from a lot of kind of common fundamentals, there are a lot of things about your health that you don't have direct control over. And it can be very hard to reconcile that and that, you know, and that's why the wellness industry is a $5.6 trillion global industry. But, you know, these sorts of things, they're really profiting off of misleading you and promising you that you have more control over some of these things when in reality you don't.

Dr. Love (00:44:54) - Yeah. And I think what makes it worse in the context of of food sensitivity tests and, and, you know, some of the other tests maybe, maybe we can chat on another episode about some of those, but it actually does more harm beyond that, because now you're avoiding things that are beneficial and then it's impacting your quality of life. It's often exacerbating the anxiety and the and the health concerns that you that, that possibly are even unfounded because you've just been misled by so much wellness misinformation. And so, you know, the ignorance is bliss kind of mantra here really, really holds true because there's no reason that you need to know what your IgG levels are to to common food molecules at all. Yeah. It literally it it, you know, even if you're curious about like, well, how recently did I eat this thing? You, you know how recently you ate it. You don't need to spend money on that.

Michelle (00:45:46) - Yeah. That's true, that's true. Yeah. I think these are all really great points.

Michelle (00:45:51) - And I think there can even be a sense of, It can be unsettling to feel like you're out of control with things. But I also think that it can be freeing in a way to know that we don't have full control over everything. Like what a gift that is, that we don't have to worry about what our immune system is doing at every single second of the day. Yeah, obviously, if there's a reaction we need to address. Yeah, we should address that if it's causing you harm. But you don't need to micromanage everything. Like your body is so intelligently made. It can do its own thing on its own time. It's it's fine. Yeah. And.

Dr. Love (00:46:31) - Yeah. And it's and it's really funny because, you know, in, in the field of infectious disease immunology, there's often two camps. There's like yeah bacteria and viruses and parasites. Everything's around us. But only like 1% of those things actually pose a risk of harm to us. So like it's all good. And then there's the other who are like really, really germaphobe because they know what that 1% can do.

Dr. Love (00:46:56) - So and I'm definitely in the yeah, everything is pretty benign except for the things that aren't benign. But in reality, aside from things like getting vaccines for the ones we have preventative for and practicing good hygiene and cooking your food and, you know, washing your hands like there's a lot of things that you know you can't control. You might be exposed to this thing that's going to make you sick. You might you could have the healthiest lifestyle on the planet. You could exercise moderately every single day for the perfect amount of time, and you could eat the best diet on the planet, and you could still develop cancer because you might have a genetic predisposition, or you could have really unhealthy lifestyle habits, and you could smoke for 50 years. And and you might never develop cancer because you don't have a genetic predisposition, and your body is just really good at correcting all of that damage that cigarette smoking causes. And so, yeah, we know there are risk factors for things, and we know that there are lifestyle habits and factors that can reduce an individual's risk or reduce a population's risk.

Dr. Love (00:48:01) - But even with all of that, there are still some outcomes that you cannot predict and you cannot take control of. And like for me, I do find that freeing because I understand and appreciate how complex all of my body systems are. And also I understand that there's a lot of things we still don't know. And and trying to make up an answer that isn't based in reality is just not helpful.

Michelle (00:48:29) - Yeah, and you could put that brain space towards so much better stuff. So much, so many better things. And yeah, absolutely, I love it. Well, thanks for coming on to clear that up. I am a I've had a lot of people ask me about this, and it's a joy to have you on and have you back to. I always appreciate you being able to dig into these topics that are out of my scope and, and really give us the full picture, you know?

Dr. Love (00:48:54) - Well, I always love talking about the, the fundamental science behind a lot of these topics. So always happy to to contribute my nerdiness to those things.

Michelle (00:49:04) - I love it talking to you, I always feel like I'm in like one of my college courses again and I miss college. Like, I I've toyed around with getting my PhD just because I love learning and being in class. And yeah, it's it's fun to chat with you and learn new things, tell the listeners where they can learn from you more.

Dr. Love (00:49:22) - Yeah. So you can find me at doctor Dot Andrea Love on Instagram and Threads. I have a newsletter. It's free. It's on Substack. It's called Immunologic substack.com, and I have a website. It's called immunologic.org, and that has a whole other array of other information. I'm working on building out my my database for references on a variety of these types of signs and health topics. and that is a work in progress because I do do all that. And it sounds like outside of my, my, my job. Yeah.

Michelle (00:49:57) - So I would imagine I'd take a long time to put together. Yeah. Well, Andrea is a great resource for myth busting and just having great nuanced conversations around all of these things that we usually see in the headlines.

Michelle (00:50:11) - So definitely give her a follow, and I'll put all of these links in the show notes to, to your website and to all of that. Yeah. Thanks for being here. Thanks for your time. Before you go, I have to ask, how are your cats doing?

Dr. Love (00:50:21) - They're doing very well. I actually got back, last night from a work trip. I was at a conference, and I was I was talking about some of these science topics. And as soon as I got home, I was just swarmed. They were glued to me, even though my partner has been home this week. But, clearly they were they were feeling neglected and in need of extra attention.

Michelle (00:50:43) - I love that. How many do you have again? Nine. Seven? Seven? Seven.

Dr. Love (00:50:47) - I had nine at one point, but those were fosters and we did adopt those out.

Michelle (00:50:52) - heartbreaking. Yeah. I haven't seen pictures of them lately. I need to see more pictures.

Dr. Love (00:50:56) - I'll have to. I'll send you some.

Dr. Love (00:50:57) - I'll send.

Michelle (00:50:58) - Please do. Well, thanks for being here and I hope you have an amazing weekend. You to. Hey, listener, if you're still there, I wanted to drop in a quick note about elimination diets and what to do if you feel like you might have a food intolerance when it comes to food allergies, I hope this is obvious. Just avoid the food completely. It's honestly life threatening at that point. Don't mess around with a food allergy. If it's a food intolerance though, and you suspect something might be making you feel a certain way, you might have heard us mention it. Elimination diets. That's a route that I would consider going down if I were you. But make sure you do that supervised with a health care professional, like a gastroenterologist or a registered dietitian who is used to doing those things with clients. Because we want to make sure that you do that in a safe and a smart way. And when it comes to elimination diets, it's it's a protocol, right? Like you, you eliminate things for a certain amount of time, usually about 1 to 2 weeks. Then you reintroduce. And I think what gets missed a lot is that reintroduction phase. And people take elimination diet to an extreme and just eliminate those things for the rest of their life, which is not what you're supposed to do. So be sure that you do reintroduce things if you're trying to see if you're intolerant to them. That way you can actually confirm if you're intolerant to them or not, and at what dose you're intolerant to them. Again, as we talked about in this episode, it's not helpful to eliminate foods if there's absolutely no reason to for your health, right? If you are perfectly fine with having foods in your diet, you should have them in your diet because more variety is better. So it really needs to be a last resort to eliminate something, and you need to make sure you're really confident about doing that and test that it's even necessary in the first place. So I hope this was helpful. Be sure you share this episode with a friend who you think would enjoy it