Ever since I can remember, I’ve had some type of food sensitivity. It starts with a sharp pain in my side, followed by cramps, and then my stomach bloats up with painful air for a few hours. I’ve had to unbutton my jeans or change into pajama pants because of the extensive swelling! I’ve never formally tested for food allergies, but I had noticed a pattern where after I had ice cream, or after a large bowl of mac & cheese, my stomach would swell up. The frustrating thing was that it didn’t happen every single time, just now and then. I finally decided to take a food sensitivity test and figure out exactly what foods I’m sensitive to! Partnering with EverlyWell made this possible.

EverlyWell Test:

They sent me an at home food sensitivity kit with everything I needed. All I had to do was clean off one of my fingers, prick it with one of the needles they sent, and let the blood for my finger drop onto the circles on the paper. After I got the blood on the test, I wrapped my finger in a bandaid, wrote my information down on the paper, put the test into the plastic Ziploc bag, put the plastic Ziploc bag into the box, put the box into the mailing bag, and lastly, used the mailing sticker they sent me. It was way easier than I expected it to be. The hardest part about this experience was working up the courage to put the needle in my finger.

Seriously y’all, I spent like ten minutes pumping myself up with “You can do it!” and “Be a big girl!” haha. In the end, I didn’t even feel my finger get pricked! After mailing in the test, I was eager to find out what was going on with my body. Thankfully, I got my results back in just five days!

EverlyWell Result:

I was so ready to find out what it was that I was eating that was hurting my gut. I was tired of the breakouts, gut pain, headaches, and everything else that my body was doing in reaction! They tested my blood with 96 different foods. They shared with me my reactivity level for all 96 foods. Low reactivity foods should be considered mostly non-reactive as this level of reactivity is deemed to be normal while high reactivity foods are considered very reactive. I tested highly reactive to…*drumroll please*…cow’s milk! In my result they wrote, “Milk is the primary food product that is widely used around the world and is rich and fat and protein we only test for proteins on this panel – not lactose.” So all those years of thinking I was lactose intolerant was false, I am highly sensitive to cows milk. GAH!! Finally an answer!!

EverlyWell Thoughts:

I can’t tell you the sheer relief I feel having substantial evidence of what hurts my body. I’m following through my food sensitivity results with an elimination diet. I am altering my lifestyle to include almond milk, soy milk, vegan cheeses and dark chocolate. I’ll keep you guys posted on how I feel a month from now! I’ve only been dairy free for a week, and I already feel loads better! Thank you EverlyWell for giving me peace of mind and helping know what exactly was hurting my body!

If you’re interested in trying out this test and figuring out what you’re sensitive to, use my discount code “HONESTSHRUTH” 🙂 Lab testing made easy, I highly recommend this! P.S. they have multiple different kinds of tests on their website if you are interested in something other than food sensitivity.

This blog post is written in partnership with EverlyWell.

Cheers,