In this video, Victoria S. Dorsano explains why commercial food sensitivity tests—most of which measure IgG antibodies—are scientifically unfounded and potentially harmful. She first clarifies three key terms: food allergy (an IgE‑mediated immune response that can cause severe reactions), food intolerance (a digestive‑system issue often due to enzyme deficiencies, usually tolerable in small amounts), and food sensitivity (a vague, non‑specific label lacking physiological meaning). Dorsano then contrasts IgE, the true marker of allergic reactions, with IgG, which reflects normal immune memory and tolerance rather than pathology. She argues that IgG‑based tests misinterpret this normal response as a sign of “sensitivity,” leading consumers to spend money on misleading results. The video outlines two major harms: (1) psychological – people become overly restrictive, develop fear around eating, and experience anxiety; (2) physiological – unnecessary elimination diets can cause micronutrient deficiencies and overall poor nutrition. Dorsano advises viewers to seek evidence‑based evaluation from allergists, gastroenterologists, or registered dietitians, and to advocate for themselves by questioning unsupported treatments. She concludes with a warning about increasing marketing of these tests and urges viewers to stay informed and skeptical.
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Food sensitivity tests. You've probably heard about them. You've maybe seen them advertised on social media, or a friend told you about them who was seeing a chiropractor or naturopath. Some of them can be ordered by licensed healthcare providers, and some of them you can order online and take the tests at home. And you maybe sat there and wondered, you know, I have been having some issues with broccoli lately making me bloated, or, you know, my skin gets kind of itchy every time I eat Strawberries. Do I have a food sensitivity? And should I take one of the food sensitivity tests? No, I'm here to tell you do not waste your money on these tests, and I'm gonna explain why. But first, I want to go over 3 terms that I think are important to understanding the differences in before I go and explain further about why you shouldn't do the food sensitivity tests. And these terms are a food allergy, a food intolerance, and a food sensitivity. So a food allergy will involve your actual immune system system. Let's say you're allergic to milk, and if you drink milk, your body's going to detect that as an invader. And what your immune system is gonna do is what it does best, is it's going to produce an antibody to go ahead and signal that this is an invader, that we need to attack this. The antibody it produces in response to an allergen is called immunoglobulin E, or IgE. These antibodies then travel to cells throughout the body and cause an allergic reaction like hives, itchiness, swollen throat, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes even anaphylaxis. If you have an allergy to something, even having a tiny little bit of that food that you're allergic to will still cause an immune reaction and can be very severe. Now let's move on to talking about a food intolerance. While a food allergy happens in the realm of the immune system, a food intolerance happens in the realm of your digestive system. Basically, it happens when your body is not physically able to break down a certain type of food that you're eating. And this can happen because you're deficient in a certain enzyme to break down the food item, or even a reaction to certain naturally occurring food chemicals. And typically people with a food intolerance can eat that food in a small amount and really not have that many issues. Whereas again, with a food allergy, if you eat a tiny amount, it can be life-threatening. Now, food sensitivity is really kind of a nonspecific word that's related to any kind of symptom or discomfort related to, or perceived to be related to, a certain ingestion of food. And unfortunately, because it is such a broad term, it really can be used in a wide array and it doesn't really mean anything in terms of it actually having a physiological reaction in the body. So what the heck are these food sensitivity tests even measuring here if food sensitivity is defined as just a nonspecific perception of having symptoms in relation to a food? So as food allergy tests measure the specific antibody IgE, like we were talking about before, which is the antibody that is is a response to having an allergic reaction to something. Food sensitivity tests measure the response of something called immunoglobulin G, or IgG. And IgG is produced in response to certain foods, but not because you're allergic to them or sensitive to them. The funny thing is that IgG production in response to certain foods is actually a completely normal response in healthy adults and kids. And the IgG antibodies has specifically been linked to food desensitization and food tolerance, meaning the more IgG you have in response to a specific food means the more tolerant you are of that food, which I find hilarious because these food sensitivity tests are saying the more IgG that you have in response to a certain food means that you're more sensitive to that food, which is the exact opposite of what every single piece of scientific literature says on the response to IgG and food intake. So it's just absolutely wacky that somehow they just missed the mark completely on this and misconstrued what IgG actually does. They're like, oh, it's an immune molecule, it must be signaling an immune reaction. Well, it's not. It's really signaling the tolerance of a certain food. It's not signaling an immune reaction in a negative way as in terms of like an allergic response, it's signaling an immune reaction as a memory. And not all immunoglobulin molecules are markers of an allergic response. IgE is the marker of an allergic response to food, whereas IgG is a, is a marker of memory. It's basically saying, hey, we know you eat this food quite often, or hey, we know that you've had this food before, therefore we produce more antibodies in response to this food, not to create an allergic reaction, but out of memory. It actually is showing tolerance to that food. So again, I just find it hilarious that again they just completely missed the mark and flip-flopped that and are like, oh, if it's an IgG, it must still be in the same family as IgE and must be an allergic reaction or some type of sensitivity to the food. And here people are spending hundreds of dollars on these tests and getting full lists of things that say that they can't eat things like rice and corn and beans and shrimp and strawberries and spinach spinach because their IgG molecules or their IgG antibody markers are high on those foods, and that's simply just because they've had them at some point in their lifetime or their body recognizes them as being food, nothing more than that. And I know I'm gonna get some hate on this because I know people get very, very married to their results of these food sensitivity tests, and a lot of practitioners still swear by them despite the research. But I just think at this point it's, it's absolutely doing more harm to people from a psychological and a physiological sense, and here's why. Number one, from a psychological sense. People are coming to me with these lists saying, here's all the things I can't eat anymore, how do I modify my diet? And the thing is, like, they get so restrictive about their food that it just completely takes the pleasure out of eating, number one, and they start to develop a weird kind of psychology around how they're approaching their food and their diet and their nutrition. And it starts to become this scary thing for them because they're worried that if they have any of the foods that have high IgG markers, that it's going to send them into a tizzy of having bad gastrointestinal distress or, you know, bad inflammation that can link to chronic disease. And it's just a lot of fear fearmongering behind it. And number 2, from a physiological perspective, when people start to eliminate lots of foods from their diet or start to modulate how they're eating depending on these, these results, they're actually starting to get nutrient deficiencies because they're not able to get certain micronutrients from the foods that they would normally have, like strawberries. Now people are afraid of eating strawberries because it was marked as a high food in IgG, and there's a lot of good vitamins and minerals in strawberries. And if that is the case for many fruits, you know, and they avoid fruits overall, they're gonna be missing out on a lot of micronutrients and vitamins that they're gonna need. So it starts to create these nutrition deficiencies over time, and it just can lead to really unhealthy behaviors, like I'm saying. And I know I'm getting heated up about this, but this is something that I see consistently being perpetuated in especially the alternative healthcare field, and it drives me nuts. And I've contemplated making this video for a long, long time and have held off on it because I didn't wanna take the heat from different people that I know that administer these exams and these tests. But I just, I can't see it any longer. I can't. It hurts me to see people come to me with these lists and be and feel so restricted when they actually don't have to be limited by these lists, and they're not getting the proper care that they need, especially if they do are having gastrointestinal issues. They're not going to see an allergist, or they're not going to see a GI doctor because they're stopping here. So where does that leave you if you feel like you might be having a reaction to a certain food and you're not sure, and something just feels kind of off in your stomach, or you're getting these weird reactions in your body? I recommend seeing an allergist or a GI doctor. I think it's important to see people who are going to treat the source from an evidence-based perspective. And, you know, I think it's important to also advocate for yourself. If they try to send you down the route of like, oh, then you should just take— if you're getting these symptoms, try taking, you know, Prilosec or something like that, you know, ask them why. Ask them what the research is. Ask them like if there's any other alternatives, if you should do an elimination diet, if you should be supervised by a dietitian, if they can send you a referral. I think there's important things that you need to do to advocate for yourself yourself in the, in the traditional allopathic medical realm to make sure you're getting the care you need. But you want to make sure what you're doing isn't going to be a waste of your time or money and isn't going to be something that's kind of just not supported by evidence and science and just medical basics. All right, you guys, I know I got a little heated about that one, but it's again something that I'm really passionate about, and I think there just needs to be more people standing up and saying that this is a bunch of BS and should not be perpetuated. All right, guys, I hope this was helpful. I just wanted to touch base on this because I know again it's something that I see a lot of advertisements for. And as we get closer into, you know, December and the new year, naturally the marketing budgets of these companies and food sensitivity tests starts to amp up, and you'll start getting more and more ads for this stuff. And I just want to get ahead of that curve a little bit and give you guys some education before that happens. So let me know if you have any questions, and I hope this video is helpful. And as always, if you can like this video and subscribe to my channel, I would greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate it. And until next time. I will see you guys later. Bye!
