A bite of cheese here, a chomp of bread there, and next thing you know your stomach has taken a turn for the worse. If you’re one of the many people out there who has noticed that they have stomach issues or other adverse reactions after eating select foods, you may have also wondered, “Do I have a food intolerance or is it something else?” or “Should I do a food sensitivity or food allergy test?”
While there are plenty of at-home food reaction tests on the market right now, what many people don’t realize is that most of these tests are only for food sensitivity or food intolerance and can’t be used to help to clinically diagnose an allergy.2 It’s important to remember, food sensitivity and intolerance tests are not food allergy tests.
You may now be asking, “What’s the difference between a food allergy, food sensitivity, and food intolerance test?”
Food allergy vs. food sensitivity vs. food intolerance
First, it’s important to note that the medical definitions of the words “sensitivity” and “intolerance” are wildly debated in the scientific world and are sometimes loosely applied to food related reactions. At-home food sensitivity tests that you see online, at retailers, or suggested after a Google search take advantage of the vague medical definitions of “sensitivity” and “intolerance” in order to sell tests that can’t even indicate whether you have a food sensitivity.1 Don’t be fooled into thinking that these tests can confirm a sensitivity, let alone an allergy.
Often, terms “food intolerances” and “food sensitivities” are used interchangeably to mean the same thing. In that way, they are the same, however, their differences are still scientifically debated. Food sensitivities/food intolerances may be due to an enzyme deficiency (like in lactose intolerance) while some sensitivities may be due to a pharmacological reaction (like in caffeine sensitivity).4
While sensitivities and intolerances have incoherent definitions, allergies are clearly defined as a reaction that occurs due to your immune system using one very specific type of antibody (more on which one below).5,6 The presence of this antibody is the limiting factor in identifying whether you have an allergy or not.7
The easiest way to divide up the different types of food reactions is to imagine them being a part of one of two buckets: immune system related and non-immune system related.