What Are Food Sensitivities and How Can You Identify Them?

When it comes to nutrition, there are no universal truths. Everyone is unique, and not all foods are suitable for everyone — even those considered “healthy.”

What Are Food Sensitivities?

Food sensitivity is an immune reaction triggered by certain foods in the diet. Symptoms may appear hours or even days after eating the reactive food — typically within 2 to 48 hours (Allete’s Lab).

Your immune system perceives the food as a threat, producing IgG antibodies that bind to it. This triggers a series of immune responses that lead to the release of harmful substances, causing inflammation and discomfort (Alexandra Adorno Vita et al., 2022).

Difference Between Sensitivity, Food Allergy, and Food Intolerance

There are three types of adverse food reactions:

Food Intolerances

These are caused by enzyme deficiencies in the small intestine.
Examples include:

• Lactose intolerance (due to lactase deficiency)
• Histamine intolerance (due to DAO enzyme deficiency)

Food Allergies

These are immune-mediated reactions involving IgE antibodies. They occur immediately after ingestion (within two hours or less).They are permanent and often genetic.
For example, someone allergic to peanuts will remain allergic for life — such foods must be permanently removed to prevent anaphylaxis.

Food Sensitivities

These are also immune-mediated, but by IgG antibodies, and develop more slowly — within 2 to 48 hours after eating the reactive food.
They are not permanent, as they depend largely on the state of your gut.
If the intestinal barrier is permeable due to hard-to-digest foods or gut dysbiosis, sensitivities can arise or worsen.

Symptoms of Food Sensitivity

Symptoms vary from person to person and may be intestinal or extraintestinal (Angel A. Justiz Vaillant et al., 2023).

Common symptoms include:

• Allergy-like reactions: rashes, hives, asthma
• Gastrointestinal symptoms: heavy digestion, gastritis, abdominal pain, IBS-like symptoms (cramps, bloating, diarrhea, constipation)
• Neurological symptoms: migraines
• Other nonspecific symptoms: rhinitis, eczema, muscle pain, chronic fatigue, fluid retention, and hair loss

Diagnosing Food Sensitivities

There are several ways to identify which foods cause sensitivity — from food and symptom tracking to advanced lab testing.

Food and Symptom Diary

The rotation diet consists of not repeating a food for four consecutive days.
At NutriWhite, we often recommend eating the same protein, starch, and fat source for one full day (for example, chicken, cassava, and avocado in different preparations).
After four days, you may reintroduce one of them.

Keep a diary of all foods consumed and any symptoms that appear within 2 to 48 hours, such as headaches, joint pain, mood changes, anxiety, sleep disturbances, or low energy.

Elimination / Reintroduction Diet

Remove a suspected food for 2–4 weeks and observe how you feel, then reintroduce it to assess your reaction.

However, at NutriWhite, we advise not to experiment with three specific food groups on your own — we’ll explain which later.

IgG Food Sensitivity Test

Unlike allergy tests that measure IgE antibodies, food sensitivity tests measure IgG antibodies.
This blood test evaluates how your immune cells respond when exposed to extracts of specific foods or additives.

Results classify foods into three groups:

• Well tolerated — can be consumed freely
• Mild reactivity — consume in moderation
• Reactive — should be avoided, at least temporarily

Managing Food Sensitivities

According to the 3R Protocol, some foods may need to be permanently removed from your diet because:

1. They are naturally difficult to digest and contribute to leaky gut
2. You may be genetically sensitive to them
3. They can disrupt your gut microbiota

Common reactive foods include:

• Grains: Wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, teff
• Dairy: Especially cow’s milk products
• Sugar: Listed on labels as cane sugar, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

Once you identify your trigger foods, it is essential to remove them for 3–6–9 months, depending on the reaction level, before reintroducing them carefully.

It is also important to evaluate your microbiota to check for gut dysbiosis, as this can inflame and permeate the intestinal wall, reducing your quality of life.

All of this can be done with the guidance of your NutriWhite Ambassadors during a personalized NutriWhite consultation, where we’ll help you apply your 3R Protocol:
Remove, Replenish, and Recover your health from the inside out.

 References:

• Vita AA, Zwickey H, Bradley R. Associations between food-specific IgG antibodies and intestinal permeability biomarkers. Front Nutr. 2022 Sep 6;9:962093. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.962093. PMID: 36147305; PMCID: PMC9485556. 
• Platts-Mills TAE, Schuyler AJ, Erwin EA, Commins SP, Woodfolk JA. IgE in the diagnosis and treatment of allergic disease. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016 Jun;137(6):1662-1670. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2016.04.010. Epub 2016 Apr 27. PMID: 27264001; PMCID: PMC5406226.
• Justiz Vaillant AA, Vashisht R, Zito PM. Immediate Hypersensitivity Reactions. 2023 May 29. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan. PMID: 30020687.
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