Immunolabs vs. ALCAT vs. Sage Food Intolerance Test

[soapsuds]

This is the only forum I've found that talks a lot about IgG testing and these labs so I wanted to ask this question (that I've seen here before but not recently). I took a test last year where you could choose which foods to test for and I picked the main ones and found that I was sensitive to wheat/gluten, dairy (but not yogurt/cheese), eggs and a few others which I've eliminated, but I wanted to try a new lab this time that tests for everything.

Any suggestions on which lab to use? Immunolabs talks about their reproducibility a lot, is that just bogus? ALCAT looks good too. I don't know much about Sage. I just don't know how to pick one. Has anyone used two/three and found one that was better than the others? Thanks!!

[kjbrown92]

I used ALCAT for two of my kids, and I found them to be very accurate, though each one had a false negative (to a food I already knew they were sensitive to). I liked that they gave a rotation diet to follow to prevent more intolerances, and they were very helpful on the phone. I haven't used the other ones so I can't really comment on them.

[soapsuds]

Thanks for your response. I think I'm leaning towards ALCAT because as I understand it they see how your blood reacts to foods instead of just counting how many IgG antibodies there are to a given food in your blood (which I think is how both Immunolabs and Sage do it). I just read somewhere that Immunolabs focuses on reproducibility or something so I didn't know if that meant they were more accurate. Sage claims they're the most accurate but who knows. I'm waiting to hear back from ALCAT since I asked them some questions, and if I get a reply I'm happy with I'll probably go with them, unless other people have something to say.

[changingseasons]

Sage is CRAZY expensive if that factors into your decision.

[soapsuds]

Well is it worth it? I'd rather pay for a test that is actually accurate than a test that is cheaper but bogus.

[changingseasons]

Eh... who knows. We did it when my daughter was about 12 or 18 months I think. It came bath with more than 30 positives. We did it again a year later, and some of the positives had become negative, and some negatives had become positive. We're kind of a special case though, because she has a rare immune disease and is now allergic to all foods except lamb. So I have no idea if the test was accurate, because removing those foods from her diet didn't get us to a baseline.

[flightgoddess]

I liked my ALCAT results. And perhaps there was a false negative for that other poster because they weren't eating those foods?

Get the addatives/dyes/preservatices added on too. I reacted to about half of those, in addition to about 25-30 foods.

[soapsuds]

Originally Posted by flightgoddess 

I liked my ALCAT results. And perhaps there was a false negative for that other poster because they weren't eating those foods?

Get the addatives/dyes/preservatices added on too. I reacted to about half of those, in addition to about 25-30 foods.

I contacted ALCAT today, and I'm now more inclined to use them. The man I spoke with was very knowledgeable about the test. He told me that unlike other food intolerance tests, ALCAT does NOT require the test subject to have eaten the foods that are being tested. So if there was a false negative that was just a mistake (but one out of 100+ or whatever isn't bad IMO). Hopefully I'll do this test soon. I feel like I may go all out on the Platinum test but I don't know if that's too much...

[changingseasons]

I've seen conflicting things about that. I know at least one other person in the allergy forum contacted them (after having done the test) and was told that you DO have to have eaten the foods previously for it to register correctly. It was a year or two ago, you might search the threads for ALCAT.

We did get a bunch of false negatives on our Sage test, but it's possible that those were only IgE (not IgG) reactions for her.

[soapsuds]

Originally Posted by changingseasons 

I've seen conflicting things about that. I know at least one other person in the allergy forum contacted them (after having done the test) and was told that you DO have to have eaten the foods previously for it to register correctly. It was a year or two ago, you might search the threads for ALCAT.

We did get a bunch of false negatives on our Sage test, but it's possible that those were only IgE (not IgG) reactions for her.

Well I forgot to mention that he did say that if a person has been avoiding gluten, the test will not be as accurate for gluten. Perhaps the other poster generalized and said you do have to eat (all) the foods? I don't know. It wouldn't make sense that people show an intolerance to a food they've never eaten (which does happen), unless you accept the test as being highly inaccurate. Also, assuming ALCAT is lying, why not stick 100% to the "you don't have to eat the foods"  story, which is clearly more appealing? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. I still feel more comfortable with ALCAT, but I could be falling in to their trap...
 

[Mama_of_1]

The ALCAT platinum test is crazy expensive, to me.  But maybe I have a skewed perspective...?  Are they normally priced like that?

Has anyone had any luck with getting something this detailed covered by insurance?

[changingseasons]

We got Sage covered by insurance (thankfully!) If you contact ALCAT, they will give you the insurance billing codes, and then you can call your insurance and ask if they'll cover it.

[flightgoddess]

Caught up on posts. On my tests, most of the foods I reacted to were really affecting me (like gluten! yellow dye! aspartame! etc) or I ate very frequently and were in my system becuase of my leaky gut syndrome. Only a couple food I reacted to that I NEVER ate (cantalope and shrimp) becuase I don't like those foods. Maybe I don't like those foods for a subconcious immunological reason and the ALCAT reaffirmed that for me :)

Go with the test you can afford. The 100 food test is suffient for most people's diets, only go higher than that if there are 10 or more foods on the next list that you eat at least weekly.