Food Intolerance versus Food Sensitivity – Explaining Carroll Testing

Food intolerance testing is not a food allergy or food sensitivity test. Food allergy test results can change from day to day for a person and tend to vary greatly depending on the lab used to identify the food sensitivities.

Food intolerance testing bypasses the vague allergy testing, getting to the root of the problem, which stems from improper digestion of a food or specific food combination.

A person’s food intolerance is genetically determined, with the same intolerances often running through families.

Because it is genetic, avoidance of the offending foods is permanent.

As a consequence of that food intolerance maldigestion occurs and toxic metabolites are formed in the intestine and absorbed into the blood.

Food intolerances affect or interfere with normal functions of the body, and become part of the basis of chronic illness.

Allergy is different. It is an immune reaction in which food is perceived as if it was a foreign protein and the body inappropriately reacts, creating symptoms. Food allergy is often secondary to a hypersensitive system created by eating one’s food intolerance. There are also other, less well-defined reactions, which are generally referred to as food sensitivities. There are currently several methods of food allergy and sensitivity testing in use.

The food intolerance test that Dr. Jonathan Bablad, ND uses in his practice is called Carroll testing.

The test is named after a pioneer naturopathic doctor named Otis G. Carroll who devised a method of testing for food intolerances identifying any food(s) that are not well digested or metabolized in a particular body, and thereby become a source of mal-digestion, intestinal toxemia, dysbiosis and chronic irritation to body tissue.

Carroll was seeking a cause for his chronically ill son. He was finally able to help him when he discovered his son’s food intolerance to fruit through Carroll testing, and once fruit was removed from his diet, his son recovered.

Carroll testing been used since 1920, on tens of thousands of patients with incredible results. It is a testing technique that is relatively unheard of as it requires a skilled practitioner to interpret the results properly. Throughout the years it has been determined that there are common categories of food intolerance.

Most people tested intolerant to one of the following foods or food categories: dairy, egg, fruit and potato. Less often, people will show intolerance to other foods such as meat, sugar, soy, nuts, fish etc.

In addition, Carroll discovered that most people had a problem with one or more combinations of food. The most common food combinations were: grain with potato, grain with milk and fruit and sugar. A person’s system can handle either food alone, but cannot digest them together.

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