How to Get Rid of Food Sensitivities for Good

Ever wondered how to get rid of food sensitivities? Is it possible?

During my senior year of college, I went gluten-free and dairy-free, hoping it would help alleviate the digestive issues I’d been dealing with.

It didn’t help much.

After more testing, my doctor uncovered that I had multiple autoimmune conditions. In addition to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), I was also diagnosed with:

• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Pre-diabetes
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
• PMS migraines

 And I was just below the threshold for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.

I saw an allergist who performed a skin prick test. The results? No food allergies. But my functional medicine doctor looked deeper—and found that while I didn’t have food intolerances either, I had over 50 food sensitivities.

In this article, you will learn what I’ve done to reduce that number and my symptoms.

This isn’t medical advice—just my personal journey. But I hope it gives you encouragement to keep searching for your root cause, and above all, to trust that healing is possible.

My Food Sensitivities Symptoms

The most frustrating thing about food sensitivities is that they don’t always follow a clear pattern. Some trigger immediate responses, while others cause delayed immune reactions, making it difficult to pinpoint the culprit.

• Some foods gave me immediate bloating and abdominal pain
  
• Most triggered symptoms 4–5 days later, like digestive issues (diarrhea) and headaches, stuttering, and brain fog 

As an aside, I’ve never had full-blown anaphylaxis, but gluten and mold exposure cause me mouth tingling and throat tightness.

What finally sent me back to the doctor was severe joint pain, but I didn’t realize my frequent bathroom visits were also a red flag until a practitioner asked me about it.

Food Sensitivity Factors 

It was a mindset shift that food sensitivities are not the root cause. They are symptoms of something deeper, like systemic inflammation or environmental toxins. 

Food sensitivity testing offers a snapshot of your immune system on a particular day—it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll react to those foods forever. They aren’t the same part of your immune system as allergens. 

One of the nuances of food sensitivities is that you won’t have as many antibodies if you aren’t feeding something frequently around the blood draw. 

Here’s what I wish I’d known earlier about food sensitivities:

Look for Inflammation Trends

A major thing my practitioner missed: many of my food sensitivities followed clear patterns, but she wasn’t trained to look for them.

High Oxalate Foods

Many of the foods I reacted to were high in oxalates, like tree nuts, spices, herbs, and some vegetables.

At first, I was baffled that my body couldn’t tolerate what I thought were “healthy” foods… until I learned about oxalate overload and how it can contribute to inflammation.

Related Articles: Oxalate Poisoning: Is It Affecting You? & What to Do About Oxalate Poisoning

You might find trends with anti-nutrients like salicylates or tannins. 

Haven’t heard of those before? What Are Anti-nutrients? (And How Do They Affect Me?)

Moldy Foods

Another trend: I had antibodies to particular foods known to be commonly contaminated with mold: 

•  Corn  
•  Wheat  

(Interestingly, I didn’t show sensitivity to coffee—but I’ve never been a regular coffee drinker, so there may have been little exposure.)

I will forever wonder if my gluten sensitivity was caused by cross-reactivity with toxic mold. 

What Didn’t Make Sense

Some of my food sensitivity results seemed to defy logic:

I had high reactivity to tomatoes, but barely any to alcohol or bananas, even though all are high-histamine foods. My histamine sensitivity didn’t appear to correlate with the blood food sensitivity testing.

I had zero antibodies to dairy products: no cow’s milk, cheese, or yogurt. This confused my practitioner, who initially blamed dairy for my post-nasal drip.

Oddly, I didn’t have antibodies towards soy and canola oil. Even though I recently learned it gave me almost immediate stomach pain and digestive discomfort. 

Related Article: Why Are Seed Oils Bad for You? Seed Oils and Inflammation 

Be sure to ask your practitioner to look for trends in your food sensitivities that may reveal deeper issues.  Problems with oxalates can be caused by toxic mold exposure because mold hogs up the pathways in your liver and kidneys that process oxalates.

So what did I do to get rid of my food sensitivities?

Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET)

NAET was a game-changer for me.

It combines nervous system work with acupressure— to gently desensitize your body to items that trigger reactions. You hold items encapsulated in a glass vial while the practitioner pushes on different points and then you relax for about 20 minutes afterwards. It significantly reduced not only my food sensitivities, but also other reactions like artificial fragrances.

Maybe it’s the placebo effect, or maybe it actually worked, but either way, it greatly reduced my reactions to food, and follow up blood testing the next year showed significantly lower antibodies to about 80% of the items I had treatment for.

Through this process, I discovered I didn’t have lactose intolerance, but rather a casein intolerance. Specifically, to the A1 casein found in conventional milk.

Now, I drink A2 milk, which has a different protein structure and is easier for me to tolerate.

One of my NAET practitioners noted that my responsiveness to mold was the highest of any item she had tested me on. At that point, I didn’t know I had grown up in a moldy house, but it led me on a journey of finding out I did. 

Your Elimination Diet Should Not Be Forever

You don’t want your diet to stay limited long-term. My goal was to reduce systemic inflammation and then slowly reintroduce foods, aiming for the broadest diet of real foods possible.

After almost a decade since I started, I’ve not had any of the sensitivities that I was able to reduce re-appear.

And I had been warned that for some people, NAET doesn’t last. 

A friend of mine whose child had dozens of food sensitivities was only able to reintroduce the foods for a year or two, and then her son’s reactions came back. So I did some research and also asked the two practitioners that I saw their opinions. (I had moved across the state in the middle of my NAET treatment so I had seen two different practitioners.) 

If you are struggling with intense food cravings, I recommend increasing your mineral intake with electrolytes. Concentrace is my favorite. 

Here’s what helped me:

Spacing Foods Out

One of the most helpful strategies in my healing journey was rotating my foods. I made a conscious effort not to eat any one food every single day. 

Instead, I tried to space most foods out by a week, giving my immune system time to reset and reducing the likelihood of developing sensitivities through repeated exposure.

Even within the same category, I mixed things up. For instance, if I ate a Pink Lady apple one day, I’d choose a Gala or Honeycrisp another day. 

Eat the Best Version of Every Food

Not all food is created equal. Choosing the cleanest, most natural version of a food can make a significant difference in how your body reacts to it. 

I prioritize organic produce whenever possible, aiming to avoid the pesticides and harmful chemicals that can burden our bodies and increase systemic inflammation.

I also paid close attention to the source of my meat and animal products. I only eat meat that comes from animals raised ethically—wild-caught, pasture-raised, and fed a species-appropriate diet. 

For example, when I stopped eating factory-farmed fish and shellfish, my antibodies to those foods eventually disappeared. That was a major turning point in my healing.

Reduce Anti-Nutrients

Many plant foods contain natural compounds known as anti-nutrients—such as lectins, oxalates, and phytates. These can be hard on the digestive system, especially for people with existing inflammation or gut imbalances. After taking a break, I reintroduced these foods but only after preparing them differently.

Using traditional food preparation techniques like soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and pressure cooking made a huge difference. These methods help neutralize anti-nutrients and make foods more digestible and nutrient-dense. This was particularly helpful when reintroducing legumes and rice back into my diet. 

Read More: How to Reduce Antinutrients in Foods

Eating Seasonally

I began to question whether our bodies were designed to have access to tropical fruits or summer vegetables all year round. So I made an effort to eat more seasonally and locally.

If you shop at a farmer’s market, it’s easy to see what’s available in your area. And then in the winter, I will look up what vegetables are seasonal. Usually, these are the cheaper ones at the grocery store.

Choose the Least Processed Version of Food

When it comes to packaged or convenience foods, I always look for the least processed option available. I started checking ingredient lists more carefully and avoiding additives, seed oils, and preservatives whenever possible.

The closer a food is to its natural state, the easier it is for the body to recognize and digest. This shift not only helped reduce my food sensitivity symptoms, but it also helped me feel more energized and less bloated. Over time, I noticed that even my cravings shifted toward whole, minimally processed foods..

A Note on Comorbidities

I suspect I may have developed Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) after a major medical trauma.

I did not get tested at the time, so I’ll never know for sure. But my symptoms were atypical. 

I didn’t have severe allergic reactions, but I did have multi-system inflammation and a constantly overactive immune system. I rarely had skin reactions, which made MCAS hard to spot. 

It wasn’t until I began working from home in toxic mold that I experienced some hives and rashes.

Also, while I’ve never been formally diagnosed with Celiac Disease, gluten causes me such debilitating symptoms that I can’t tolerate it, even for testing.

Remember, food sensitivities don’t happen in a vacuum. They are usually a symptom of a larger issue. 

Root Cause Approach: Clean Up Your Environment

What helped me most wasn’t just cutting out foods—it was cleaning up my environment.

Food sensitivities are often a symptom of a deeper issue: chronic inflammation and toxic overload.

I had to:

• Address mold exposure
  
• Reduce chemical toxins

You can read more about how I reduced my environmental toxins in this blog post about Cell Danger Response. 

I encourage you to work with an integrative doctor or functional medicine practitioner who has training in root cause approaches. 

What Food Sensitivities I Haven’t Resolved (Yet)

While I’ve made incredible progress, I still haven’t been able to tolerate gluten or corn. I’m also careful to not eat processed sugar, preservatives, or food dyes. 

However, since remediating the mold in my home, I’ve wondered if I might be able to tolerate gluten or corn in the future.

We’ve had some ongoing issues with mold in a bathroom due to moisture problems from multiple sources. At first, we thought it was only the sink drain, the pipe in the wall, and the tub. But it took us troubleshooting time to figure out it was also from the toilet. And the toilet was causing mold under the flooring. We keep changing one variable at a time, trying to pinpoint what’s causing the water.

More on my mold journey:

• Mold Poisoning: Symptoms, What to Look For, and Remediation Options
• Signs of Mold Poisoning I Missed: What I Wish I Knew Back Then
• Home Mold Remediation Mistakes I Made and How You Can Avoid Them

Once we’ve gotten the mold completely out, I am hopeful that I’ll be able to add even more foods back into my diet. Reducing environmental toxins really does make a difference! Remember, your food sensitivities may be a symptom of a deeper issue. 

Life After Food Sensitivities 

At the end of the day, my goal is to eat a diverse, nutrient-rich, and minimally processed diet that supports my healing.

I’m not perfect, but I’ve learned to listen to my body, ask deeper questions, and stay curious.

If you’re navigating food sensitivities, know that it’s not always about the food—it’s often about what your body is trying to tell you.

But losing foods is hard. The grief of food loss is real. Read more about How to Handle Food Loss here. 

Have you ever healed food sensitivities?

Unless otherwise credited, photos are owned by the author or used with a license from Canva or Deposit Photos.