“Is it a sensitivity or an allergy?” — something restaurants with gluten free options are now trained to ask.

While I don’t have allergies to certain foods, I feel like through trial and error, I’ve learned what foods my body likes and doesn’t like.

Oats and quinoa, for example, are two grains I’ve tried over and over again (I used to eat oatmeal every day and quinoa salads on the reg) but leave me feeling light headed, bloated, slightly feverish, and with moderate-to-severe stomach pains.

White rice and black rice, on the other hand, are generally OK. Weird.

Anyway, I’m a huge nutrition/science nerd, so when I heard EverlyWell had at home food sensitivity tests, I was excited to get the opportunity to try one (if you want to try one yourself, you can use APALEO15 for 15% off your order!).

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Open the Box and Register Yourself

It really has everything you need laid out clearly. You get a shipping label and a package for shipping your blood sample back, bandaids for after you prick yourself, and a couple of lancelets (mini needles) to draw blood. There’s a sample card for you to drip the blood onto.

You’ll need to register online. Follow the steps outlined in the box.

Step 2: Prepare

Drink some water before hand, let your hand hang by your side and give it some shakes before pricking (important, or else you won’t have enough blood come out and you’ll have to prick another finger like I did). Get all the materials you need handy — especially a bandaid!

Step 3: Draw Blood and Fill Out the Sample Card

Let the blood fall on the card in the circles. One drop per circle. Once it’s dried, fill out your name, place it in the envelope provided, attach the shipping label, and drop it off at USPS! So easy.

The Results

You get your results online at your EverlyWell dashboard (where you registered online). They come pretty quickly after your sample is received!

They list results by reactivity levels (high, moderate, mild, low). I actually only had high reactivity in two foods I eat quite often, egg yolks and egg whites.

I had mild and moderate reactivity in some foods I eat often and some I avoid (almonds, walnuts, avocados, cheese, yogurt, gluten).

There are only 96 foods tested (“only” being relative — that’s a lot!) but you can pay to get an additional 88 tested as well.

My Takeaway?

I’m not a nutritionist, so I like that EverlyWell makes intolerance testing so easy and accessible. I do think that I’d consult with a functional medicine practitioner/doctor before making any drastic changes to my diet; I don’t eat meat very often and tend to mostly eat eggs (Vital Farms!!) and seafood for my sources of protein, so eliminating eggs would change my diet completely.

I don’t feel terrible when I don’t eat eggs, and I don’t feel terrible when I do.

My thoughts are that it’s amazing that you can have this data at your fingertips, but that if you should choose to act on that data, do it carefully and with the support of someone certified/knowledgeable in such matters!

This post is sponsored by EverlyWell, but this remains an honest and unbiased review. If you want to try any of these tests for yourself, you can use code APALEO15 for 15% off!

the surprising results of my food sensitivity test