Food Sensitivity Testing at Home with EverlyWell (+ a special discount!)

A month or so ago I shared a quick instagram story about EverlyWell and the kits I had just received in the mail. EverlyWell was featured on Shark Tank last November and they ended up getting a million dollar deal with Lori (the largest deal ever made by a solo female entrepreneur)! Pretty freaking cool and hearing their story made it even more exciting to try out the test! I grabbed the Food Sensitivity test, the Metabolism test, and the Fertility test! I’m pretty good at reading my body and how it’s responding to certain foods (and eliminating those foods), but I thought it would be fun to put it to the test and see what the actual results looked like.

A little background about EverlyWell if you haven’t heard of it yet. EverlyWell offers health testing in the comfort of your own home. When you check out the EverlyWell website, you’ll find a ton of different tests that they offer. You can test food sensitivity, heavy metals, sleep and stress, STDs, thyroid, metabolism, and a ton of others. Once you decide on the test you would like to take and place your order, you will be sent a package in the mail with the test kit. Each kit includes detailed instructions, collection tools, secure sample container, and a pre-paid shipping package to return your kit in after you’ve collected the sample. Once you send your kit back, you’ll receive results in about 5 business days. It’s that easy! It completely removes any of the hassle of having to go to the doctor, pay the co-pay fee, get a referral, go somewhere to take the test, wait to hear back from the doctor, and all the other inconvenient steps along the way. With EverlyWell, everything is done on your time and the results are incredibly quick! When I sent my Food Sensitivity test in, they received it on a Thursday and I had the results by Tuesday the next week! So freaking fast!

Now let’s get into the nitty gritty of the Food Sensitivity test I took. All I did was simply follow the instructions in the kit – I first drank a good amount of water 30 minutes before taking the test, washed my hands with warm water, then let my hand hang by my side for 30 seconds. Then I used the simple lancet to prick my finger and collected 4 drops of blood onto the collection card, making sure it collected enough blood for a thorough test. After it dried, I put my name and date on the card and back into the box it came in then shipped it back out! Seriously so freaking easy!

EverlyWell’s testing labs are CLIA certified and the test results are also independently validated by a doctor in your state. The Food Sensitivity tests IgG antibodies in your blood, which would indicate you had an immune response to these antigens (foods). You can find all 96 foods they will test you for here. The Food Sensitivity test is different than a food allergy test. Unlike food allergies, IgG food reactions take hours or days to develop, which can make it difficult to figure out the exact food that is causing the issue. Taking the Food Sensitivity test makes it easier to nail down that food or food group that may be causing issues such as migraines, indigestion, bloating, acne, etc.

Once you receive your results, you’ll be able to login to your account to see them and download them for you or even your doctor! The results are broken down into high, moderate, mild and low reactivity. What is important to note is that if you do not eat a certain food, it’s difficult to test your sensitivity level. If you had symptoms and eliminated a food with noticeable improvement, then you’ve already identified a food sensitivity. For me, that’s gluten, eggs, and most nuts, which I try to stay away from as much as possible. The only time I’ll really eat gluten is if I’m at a special event such as a wedding…I’m sure as hell not saying no to wedding cake. But other than that, I stay away from it all together because it makes me feel awful. So when I received my test results, gluten came back as low reactivity along with oats, soybean, barley, wheat and brewer’s yeast – all things I rarely ever eat. Also on that list – coffee – which I have every day!

Here’s a little breakdown of the results I got back! As you can see, I had no high sensitivity reactions and most reactions were in the low category, which I’m quite happy about!

In the moderate category, I reacted to almond and cow milk. I stay away from almonds most of the time, but I’ve been drinking almond milk and I’ll eat almond milk cream cheese and yogurt sometimes because my skin doesn’t react to it. So I thought it was pretty interesting to see the reactivity level even though my skin hasn’t acted up. And I was honestly a little surprised about the cow milk. I have heavy cream in my coffee every day, but it’s only a tablespoon and I haven’t felt any issues from that. It was cool to see that I do have a bit of a reactivity just because that will definitely keep me from overdoing it on the cheese when I’m eating out!

When you download the detailed list of your results, it has the breakdown of what is tested in each food and how to deal with that reaction that the food may be causing. After almond and cow milk, egg white (and egg yolk with a little less reactivity) was next on my list under the mild reactivity. Eggs are something that cause acne and bloating for me. Once I removed eggs from my diet, those issues went away. After eliminating eggs for quite some time, I will sometimes add them into my diet when I’m out to eat at brunch or eating a baked good at home. But I try to stay away from it as much as possible.

And here’s a quick peek at my low reactivity foods! There was honestly nothing that surprised me on throughout those 76 foods! I was quite happy to see cocoa, banana, honey, coconut, chia seed and coffee on there so I can continue to make my amped up Almond Joy Protein Shake!

Since I’ve been eating clean for about 8 years now, I’ve done a ton of elimination “diets” to help me narrow down what was causing any issues I was having. I went from being in the hospital A TON as a child to finally finding freedom of stomach cramps and pain all by narrowing down what those foods were that were causing the issue. But if a test like this would have been readily available and this easy when I was younger, I would have felt this amazing YEARS AND YEARS AGO! It can feel so overwhelming trying to figure out what food is causing an issue when we eat so many different kinds of foods each day. And this Food Sensitivity test gives you the first stepping stone to finding what foods work best for you and which to stay away from. I wish this would have been around when I was younger because it really would have eliminated so many years of pain.

And right now, EverlyWell is offering PaleOMG readers a special discount to try out their kits in the convenience of their own home! When you use code PALEOMG at checkout, you’ll get 15% off your test order! That means you can test your food sensitivity or Vitamin D or even DHA all at a discount! Click here to see all the tests and get your discount before it’s gone! Can’t wait to hear what you guys think of your own test results! Leave a comment below once you try it out!

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This post is brought to you by EverlyWell, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running! Thank you for all your support!