Food Sensitivities: Myths and Truths for Practitioners | E23

Functional Medicine for Real-World Impact

Food sensitivities often play a bigger role in chronic health problems than many practitioners realize.

In this episode, Tracy Harrison unpacks how foods that look perfectly healthy on the surface can still trigger immune responses that drive inflammation and dysfunction. She explains the differences between IgG and IgA mediated reactions, explores why intestinal permeability matters, and points out the impact of common medications, toxins, and microbial imbalances on immune tolerance.

How often do we assume patients without gut complaints can’t have food sensitivities? What if the clues show up instead as joint pain, skin issues, or fatigue? Tracy also talks through the limitations of food sensitivity testing and why context is everything when interpreting results.

Practitioners will walk away with a clearer sense of why most food sensitivities are acquired, how they can be reversed by addressing upstream dysfunction, and what it looks like to guide patients through elimination, reintroduction, and restoration of tolerance in a way that sticks.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Food Sensitivities in Functional Medicine

02:07 Myth: Food Sensitivities Don’t Exist

03:02 Food Sensitivities vs. Allergies Explained

07:00 Limitations of Food Sensitivity Testing

10:07 IgA Antibodies and Gut Health

15:11 Intestinal Permeability and Chronic Disease

17:05 How Food Sensitivities Manifest Beyond the Gut

20:29 Gluten, Zonulin, and Leaky Gut

26:11 Addressing Root Causes of Food Sensitivities

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