Estimated Read Time 8-10 minutes
Earlier this month, I visited the dietician in my naturopath’s office. Assuming they worked closely together, I agreed to take the MRT Food Sensitivity Test. Having Celiac Disease and constantly dealing with malnutrition and inflammation, this felt like a no-brainer. I could figure out what foods upset my body and eliminate them. The perfectionist in me loved this idea.
The test itself is simple, go to the lab, pay the $375, and get my blood drawn. Done.
Five days later, my results arrived, and saying that my mind was blown is an understatement.
MRT stands for Mediator Release Test. This test is for food sensitivities, which are not allergies but are defined as foods that solicit an immune system response. This response can be bloating, gas, or inflammation. The response is not classified at an allergy level where there is potential for life-threatening symptoms.
My goal was to determine why my inflammation markers were high and whether there were any foods I needed to eliminate to allow my body time to heal and repair itself.
The MRT tests over 170 foods and food additives. Of course, the results were emailed to me before my next appointment with the dietician. And, of course, I looked at them before the appointment. Each food is color-coded and given a score. Like a traffic stoplight, the colors green, yellow and red are used. Green is okay, yellow is hazardous and red is stop right now.
Already being celiac, my diet is limited. Looking at this test, I now had issues with the following foods:
Yellow Foods:
- Black Pepper
- Peppermint
- Cane Sugar
- Quinoa
- Rice
- Wheat (wild since I am celiac)
- Turkey
- Orange
- Coconut
- Shrimp
- Whey
- Cottage Cheese
- Tomato
- Beet
- Pistachio
- Sunflower Seed
Yellow Additives:
- Solanine
- Polysorbate 80
- Salicylic Acid
Red Foods:
- Cow’s Milk
- Cashew
- Soybean
- Apple
It would be a week before my appointment with the dietician. To get a jump on things, I began eliminating these foods on my own. After all, this wasn’t the first time I had done an elimination diet. Several years ago, when the official Celiac Disease diagnosis came, my entire world changed. The mentality of living to eat switched to eating to live, which isn’t an awful mindset to have, but what I have always lacked is balance.
Tomatoes were hard. They are in everything, and if you are like me and enjoy tortilla chips and salsa for dinner, it was definitely a mind fuck. Cashews and rice were the base for my protein bars and shakes. Rice flour was a substitute for regular flour, and as more restaurants understand what celiac is, it seems easier to find, especially in the Midwest. Dairy is something I had eliminated and then gradually tried over the years to put back in. Those results were not surprising. However, missing cheese is a real thing.
Fast-forward to my dietician appointment. She had also included several of the green food items listed. This strict elimination diet would last three more weeks. These foods included oregano, mustard seed, oats, spelt, eggs, olives, tuna, corn, mushrooms, zucchini, and almonds. The immediate feeling of what the hell was left was real—very real.
The next two weeks were brutal. I was hungry, but the detox was no fun. It did help that I had started before my appointment, so I didn’t take everything out at once, but still, I lived on sweet potato chips and chicken for several days.
Ironically, I had a check-up with my naturopath doctor about four days before the elimination phase ended. She was not a fan of the test and explained that sometimes the foods that show up in the yellow or red categories are foods you eat regularly, which makes complete sense. Together we came up with a plan on how to reintroduce some of the foods into my diet to see what would happen. By introducing individually over time, I could make the decision on how the food made me feel and if it was something I wanted to continue to eat.
Things Learned from this Experience:
- Balance is hard but necessary. All or nothing doesn’t work well unless there is a food allergy or you have an autoimmune disease like I do.
- Just because they are in the same medical office doesn’t mean they communicate well or even agree with each other’s practices. I trust my naturopath with my life. After years of getting dismissed by general practitioners, she figured out I had celiac disease. She listened and really heard me. Even in my last appointment, she knew my behaviors well enough to know that an extreme plan like this did not mesh well with my personality.
- Your body changes as you age. I love shrimp. It’s easy to cook and use in simple recipes. However, my body used to love it and now has changed its mind. After trying to put it back in, things did not go well. A rash on my arms and face was all the evidence I needed to realize my shrimp days had ended.
- Listen to your body. Be aware of how you feel, where the discomfort comes from, and whether it is in one place or another. The mind-body connection is real, and the importance of gut balance is too.
Overall, I am not sure I would recommend this test. Not only was it expensive, but after the three-week elimination period, adding the foods back in to see which would cause reactions was harder than I thought. If you are curious about your food sensitivities, I highly recommend working with your doctor and not a dietician. In my experience, my doctor focused on balance.