Best Choices For Food Allergy Testing (Not Celiac)

[Mike12345]

I know many people have gone the biopsy route to check for celiac disease but what is the best route and to whom would you go to test for (possibly many) other allergies? I've gone the elimination diet route but I can't get rid of all the symptoms. The problems have been reduced in intensity but remain so my guess is that there is more or much more than one item on the menu bothering me these days. I see from many of the sig's on the board that some of you have more than one food allergy, my diet change is never going to find all the culprits so I need to figure out who is the (best) person to go to for testing, doctor, dietitian or credentialed nutritionist?

[GFMochi]

I know many people have gone the biopsy route to check for celiac disease but what is the best route and to whom would you go to test for (possibly many) other allergies? I've gone the elimination diet route but I can't get rid of all the symptoms. The problems have been reduced in intensity but remain so my guess is that there is more or much more than one item on the menu bothering me these days. I see from many of the sig's on the board that some of you have more than one food allergy, my diet change is never going to find all the culprits so I need to figure out who is the (best) person to go to for testing, doctor, dietitian or credentialed nutritionist?

Omgosh! That is what I am trying to figure out also. I am starting to get my stomach pain like before becoming gluten free, I don't know how to proceed.

For me, it seems to be processed foods and greasy meat that is a trigger, but, it is not consistent. I have made an apt. with my regular doctor, and see where to go from here. I would love to hear ideas also!!

[mushroom]

There is one item on the elimination list right off the bat, and that is lactose. If you have damaged the villi in your small intestine you will not be making the enzyme to digest lactose. If that does not work, then eliminate dairy totally for a while. If neither of these work, then you are going to need to do a full elimination diet, which means going right back to a very basic diet, chicken or lamb, rice, steamed veggies, things easy to digest and which should not cause you much trouble. Then you keep a food diary and add in one new food or food group every three days and see how you react. Eliminate for now anything you react to, keep in anything you do not. It is a tedious process but unless you want to end up guessing it is the best way. Others also say to eliminate the top additional allergens for celiacs before doing the elimination diet - soy, eggs, corn, so you might want to put these at the top of your add-in list if you do the elimination and get them out of the way right away.

Good luck with the process, and I hope this works for you.

[GFMochi]

There is one item on the elimination list right off the bat, and that is lactose. If you have damaged the villi in your small intestine you will not be making the enzyme to digest lactose. If that does not work, then eliminate dairy totally for a while. If neither of these work, then you are going to need to do a full elimination diet, which means going right back to a very basic diet, chicken or lamb, rice, steamed veggies, things easy to digest and which should not cause you much trouble. Then you keep a food diary and add in one new food or food group every three days and see how you react. Eliminate for now anything you react to, keep in anything you do not. It is a tedious process but unless you want to end up guessing it is the best way. Others also say to eliminate the top additional allergens for celiacs before doing the elimination diet - soy, eggs, corn, so you might want to put these at the top of your add-in list if you do the elimination and get them out of the way right away.

Good luck with the process, and I hope this works for you.

I have been lactose intolerant all my life, and today, even with the medicine, I do not eat much dairy because I grew up not eating it.

I think I'm gonna try the elimination diet, but, do you have to be as strict as with gluten, with cross contamination?

[mushroom]

I was lactose intolerant long before I knew I was gluten intolerant. I could still eat cheese and yogurt, anything where the lactose had been predigesed by cultures, but no milk, cream, ice cream. The Lactaid worked for a while and then did not. I can now eat lactose again

Yes, you should try to be just as strict as you are with gluten. You will find out the answers much quicker that way, and won't be wondering "Could just that little bit of corn have got to me?""

Depending on what your symptomatology has been, if you have joint pain and aches you might put the nightshade family near the top of your testing list - potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, principally although there are other members. These are known inflammatory foods for those susceptible to them.

[laura4669]

I have the exact same problem. I tried to do the elimination diet a couple of months ago, but I found it extremely difficult to adhere to. I do know that the ELISA blood test is supposed to be accurate, although no blood test is going to be as accurate as the elimination diet.

[Mike12345]

Omgosh! That is what I am trying to figure out also. I am starting to get my stomach pain like before becoming gluten free, I don't know how to proceed.

For me, it seems to be processed foods and greasy meat that is a trigger, but, it is not consistent. I have made an apt. with my regular doctor, and see where to go from here. I would love to hear ideas also!!

FWIW, my stomach pain came from taking multivitamin/multimineral pills. I took them for decades w/o an issue but stopped taking them for a while and once I started taking them again I could at times (inconsistent) double up in pain. I've gone back to only taking antioxidants and in reasonable amts, no more stomach pain. The key was inconsistency w/the pain. Taking them w/a lge meal and plenty of fluids usually was tolerable, that was easy to figure out, the current issue is not. It too is inconsistent in symptoms to the same foods, one day it's a problem, the next no issues with the same foods. It would seem that having scratch tests & blood work in conjunction with an elimination diet may help to find the culprit(s). I just need to figure out which type of doctor to go to.

[Mike12345]

I have the exact same problem. I tried to do the elimination diet a couple of months ago, but I found it extremely difficult to adhere to. I do know that the ELISA blood test is supposed to be accurate, although no blood test is going to be as accurate as the elimination diet.

Let me be the "fly" in your elimination diet ointment <grin>. I felt wheat was an issue 10 yrs ago and eliminated it from my diet for 2 days, lived on rice crackers. I felt great afterwards, no symptoms, elimination of wheat stopped my problems. Moving forward. Even though I'd been off wheat for 5 yrs, on occasion, when at work on a surprise double shift (I never turned down overtime) where I had no extra food with me, I'd eat at Charlie's Steakery. I know, bad move - not! Out of 10 times I ate there only once did I have the symptoms return. It seems that symptoms can come and go at times, each person is unique.

I feel my problem is one of intolerance not celiac. Perhaps the quality or type of wheat Charlie's used had little effect on me. Breads I'd bake would bother me today but not next week, why? It could be the amt of the particular flour used or whether it was cross contaminated that caused a reaction but I used the same ingredients each time so I feel that elimination alone won't help me in particular. My symptoms come and go, although in recent yrs they are more obvious and sustaining in nature hence the desire to have more detailed work done to help find the food causing the problems.

[Mike12345]

There is one item on the elimination list right off the bat, and that is lactose. If you have damaged the villi in your small intestine you will not be making the enzyme to digest lactose. If that does not work, then eliminate dairy totally for a while. If neither of these work, then you are going to need to do a full elimination diet, which means going right back to a very basic diet, chicken or lamb, rice, steamed veggies, things easy to digest and which should not cause you much trouble. Then you keep a food diary and add in one new food or food group every three days and see how you react. Eliminate for now anything you react to, keep in anything you do not. It is a tedious process but unless you want to end up guessing it is the best way. Others also say to eliminate the top additional allergens for celiacs before doing the elimination diet - soy, eggs, corn, so you might want to put these at the top of your add-in list if you do the elimination and get them out of the way right away.

Good luck with the process, and I hope this works for you.

A strict diet is the best way to immediately eliminate the source of a reaction to food but with multiple allergies it will be very time consuming to find them all which is why I'd like to also include a doctor in on my attempt to find the source of the problem. I have stopped with most dairy products but have seen some of the symptoms get worse then tail off and then return so I know that something else is (also) causing the problems. Talking to someone professional who knows the subject area like the back of his hand might help pin point what to eliminate from the get go. If you know that one of the symptoms is "always" and only caused by food "XXX" then one item is eliminated immediately.

Going to a full elimination diet is my last resort, I'm sure it will eliminate the "problems" but then finding if guar gum is an issue will be hard to do versus tapioca starch (which I suspect among others including guar gum). If it's just an intolerance and small amts do not cause the problem, finding the culprit is going to be tough. Thankfully I love chicken, rice and veggies, just harvested the last of the swiss chard from the "frozen" garden in my backyard. As I mentioned in another post, I've lived on rice crackers for a while and this is how I eliminated the wheat problem. Very bland diet but it worked.

BTW in the distant past I thought lactose was an issue and used the lactose free milk and used pills to help digestion also. It never made any difference but I suppose one can still develop a problem late in life. I've used almond and soy milk on cereal the past two weeks along with water to make waffles instead of milk, problem still comes and goes. I've cut back on potato starch and this seems to have helped. If symptoms stay the same I could indulge big time on potato starch and see if symptoms get worse, that could eliminate one cause. I haven't eaten soy products (do not care for the flavor of home made breads with soy) in years so I reintroduced it in place of potato starch items with no ill effects. But thanks for the suggestions and I hope more come along as I plan the next move. Chicken soup sounds good at this time of year, I just don't care for the thought of eating it 3 meals a day

[GFinDC]

Enterolab has tests for egg, yeast, soy and casein in addition to gluten antibodies.

Food allergies are different from food intolerances, so skin prick tests are not helpful to find food intolerances. That's not saying you can't have food allergies and food intolerances both though.

Also, you said you eliminated wheat from your diet? You do know that celiacs react to rye and barley too right? Some of us react to oats also.

Changing your diet is the only way to "fix" food intolerances. And you are right, it is very possible to have more than one additional food intolerance beyond the basic wheat, rye and barley. The idea of an elimination diet is to eat a very simple diet with limited food items, and add foods back one at a time. That way you can tell if a food added is causing a problem. IF you are eating 30 to 50 different food items each week it is pretty nigh impossible to say for sure which one is the problem, especially if there are 2 or 3 that are problems. Symptoms for different people are also different, there is no absolute match up for symptoms to intolerances. Nightshades may cause joint pain for some people or they may not. Not having joint pain doesn't mean you don't have a nightshade intolerance.