Why Food Sensitivity Tests Are Dangerous for Kids
These popular tests are not backed by science, and they have serious downsides. Plus: Five other tests to avoid.
Welcome to a very special edition of Is My Kid the Asshole. Today we’re talking about food sensitivity tests, which I started digging into several months ago after almost ordering one for my daughter. I was pretty shocked by what I discovered and wound up discussing the tests with my dear friend and amazing anti-diet journalist , who writes . As it turned out, she had also been researching these tests and the insidious ways they are marketed to moms — so we decided to team up to tackle the issue. Head over to Burnt Toast today to read her excellent companion piece.
Speaking of, a very big hello to Virginia’s readers! You can read more about Is My Kid the Asshole? here. As a thank you for coming over to read this piece, here’s a discount for you. This week only!
Why Food Sensitivity Tests Are Dangerous for Kids
A year ago, my now 9-year-old daughter started complaining of frequent stomachaches. She’d had the odd belly woe here and there throughout her life — certainly more than my son ever had — and they’d always concerned me in a low-level way, but suddenly they seemed to be ramping up. Was it constipation? Reflux? Maybe a food allergy or intolerance?
The CDC reports that the prevalence of food allergies — which occur when the body’s immune system overreacts to a component of food — increased by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. Food intolerances, which happen when the digestive system is unable to digest certain foods, also appear to be exceptionally common. According to one survey, as many as a quarter of U.S. adults report suffering from one.
I wondered what to do about my daughter. I considered having her cut out a common culprit — maybe gluten — to see if that would help. I researched pediatric gastroenterologists. I also stumbled across food sensitivity tests I could buy online that promised to identify the specific foods that might be causing her symptoms. Those seemed extremely appealing — far faster and easier, it seemed, than keeping a food diary to try to identify potential culprits over time.
To my immense relief, before I settled on a decision, my daughter’s stomachaches eased. And, thankfully, they haven’t come back. Even so, I decided to dig into the issue of food sensitivity, as well as the tests that claim to diagnose them. Today I’m sharing what I’ve found, because it is, honestly, shocking and concerning. It’s yet another example of science being misconstrued to mislead and make money off of parents, which is why I’m covering it: My goal in writing this newsletter is to shed light on insidious parenting messages and trends. These tests are especially worrisome because the decisions parents make based on their results can actually make their kids sick, as I’ll explain.
Indeed, food sensitivity tests are heavily marketed to women and mothers, as Virginia explains in her companion piece. (One, by YorkTest, is specifically for kids.) You may have seen the tests recommended on Shark Tank or on Instagram. Some naturopaths and integrative medicine physicians rely heavily on them. These tests claim “to identify foods in your current diet that might be connected to food sensitivity symptoms,” which might include abdominal pain, bloating, headache or indigestion.
And yet, when you look at the science, you discover that these tests can actually do none of these things. “It's all made-up mumbo jumbo,” said Dr. David Stukus, a pediatric allergy specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology all warn against the use of these tests.