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Food Sensitivities
Growing food sensitivities usually signal a gut and immune system under strain. We identify true triggers, then repair the terrain so your diet can widen.
What you may be noticing
You react to more foods each year. Bloating, headaches, joint aches, skin flares, brain fog, fatigue, or mood changes follow meals, sometimes hours or a day later. Your list of safe foods keeps shrinking, and eating has become stressful.
Why it is rarely one thing
Food sensitivities are not the same as food allergies. A true allergy is an immediate immune response, often IgE-mediated, that can be dangerous. Sensitivities are usually delayed, dose-dependent, and involve different mechanisms: immune reactions, enzyme deficiencies, histamine excess, or fermentation of certain carbohydrates.
When sensitivities multiply, the foods are rarely the root. I see growing reactivity as a loss of biological discernment: the gut barrier, the immune system, and the nervous system have stopped recognizing nourishment as safe. A more permeable barrier exposes the immune system to more food proteins, and incomplete digestion, from low stomach acid, enzymes, or bile, leaves larger fragments to react to. Mold, parasites, and other biotoxins can prime the immune system further.
The nervous system belongs in this picture. Research on the gut-brain axis shows that the brain can anticipate and amplify gut reactions, and that stress shapes gut immunity. My view that food reactions become conditioned threat responses, which reintroduction can retrain, is a working hypothesis that guides how gently we reintroduce foods.
Timing matters too. The gut lining renews within days, while immune cells and nervous system patterns recalibrate over months, so lasting change follows biological timelines.
Testing deserves honesty. IgG food sensitivity panels are widely used, but their interpretation is debated, and IgG can simply reflect exposure. I use such tests as one map among several, and rely most on structured elimination and careful reintroduction.
Patterns we look for
- Intestinal permeability.
- Digestive capacity: stomach acid, enzymes, and bile, especially for fat digestion.
- Microbiome balance, SIBO, yeast, and parasites.
- Histamine intolerance and mast cell activation.
- FODMAP and lactose intolerance.
- Celiac disease, which must be ruled out before removing gluten.
- True IgE food allergies, which require allergist care.
- Stress, vagal tone, and limbic reactivity.
- Mold and toxic burden, which prime the immune system.
- Nutrient status, especially zinc and vitamin D.
How I evaluate it
A comprehensive functional neurological exam assesses vagal function, autonomic balance, and limbic reactivity, which influence gut immunity and digestion.
Functional testing may include comprehensive stool analysis, celiac screening, intestinal permeability markers, SIBO breath testing, histamine markers, nutrient status, and a structured elimination and reintroduction plan. Allergist evaluation is recommended for any food that causes hives, swelling, wheezing, or vomiting soon after eating.
If you ever have throat swelling, trouble breathing, or fainting after food, use your emergency plan and seek immediate care.
How we address it
Elimination is not the solution. Restoration is. Elimination is simply a temporary tool within a larger sequence.
- Calm the nervous system first, because the immune system permits tolerance when the body perceives safety.
- Open drainage pathways and reduce exposures to mold and household toxins.
- A temporary elimination, usually around six weeks, built from the foods you tolerate well.
- Support digestion so food is broken down completely, including bile and fat digestion.
- Repair the gut lining and rebalance the microbiome through my gut healing sequence, which ends with regulation and retraining of the nervous system.
- Reintroduce one food every few days, starting with the least reactive, and pause any food that flares for another round of repair.
- Widen your diet as tolerance returns, because variety feeds resilience.
The aim is not a smaller plate. It is a body that can enjoy a wide and nourishing one.
Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.