I chose the most comprehensive test, which is 150 items that include both foods and chemicals. The test works by measuring your bloods immune response (tests many immune mediators, but NOT IgE). It also cannot measure things like lactose or lectins because that is a different process for intolerance. We are all reactive to some degree to all foods, as food is a foreign substance to our body. The test identifies reactive foods and breaks it down into high, moderate and low. Then you go on an elimination diet, starting with your own low reactive foods, and supposedly get your symptoms under control relatively quickly. You then continue to add foods in a systematic way, based on your results, adding as many back as possible, but staying asymptomatic - this may revolve a rotation plan for some foods.
I had 4 highly reactive substances: salicylates, lecithin, lettuce and tapioca.
Salicylates: I knew I had a salicylate problem before this test - reacted to both foods and drugs. Salicylates are "dose response" type of thing, so eating too many of them will cause symptoms - it doesn't mean you can't eat high salicylate foods. OK, no surprises here for me, but definitely a validation of the test in my mind.
Lecithin: Lecithin is found in both soy and egg, and somewhat in corn - it is used as an emulsifer in food processing and cooking. I found this result fascinating because I know I am intolerant of soy in a big, bad way but I tested low in soy on both the MRT and had a 9 on Enterolab, which is a high normal result. So that tells me that my soy problem is either due to lecithin or lectin, or both. I also tested low in egg on Enterolab (4) and also relatively low on MRT - I have not connected a problem to egg, but I am now off of egg yolk (whites OK) during my elimination diet, so I will be able to better test eggs when I get back on them.
Lettuce: Love it, sad, but not surprised, based on what I have read about lettuce on this site.
Tapioca: AKA cassava and manioc (ie, Chebe bread). It is in most gluten free products and could help explain some of my lingering symptoms. I recall having dinner at a friends house and they were very careful to buy all GF foods - I checked everything myself. They had cassava chips and I got explosive diarrhea about 6 hours after eating them. For whatever reason I didn't connect it to the cassava chips but thought maybe it was the fat in the ribeyes we had, but now I think it was the cassava chips. After I got this result I googled a bit about cassava and found some disturbing stuff. It is the "gluten" of Africa because it is a staple in their food supply and now many people are becoming intolerant. If not cooked properly it is toxic (cyanide, I believe). How true any of that is, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised. Tapioca has such an innocent sounding name, reminds of comfort food from my childhood. Sigh.
Here are some of the other things that are moderately high reactive foods/chemicals: sorbic acid, sulfites (bye bye wine
), apricot, blueberry, cabbage, tomato, cayenne, black pepper, amaranth, wheat, beef, turkey, almonds and lima beans. There were many other moderate foods that I will need to test and probably rotate. FYI - I was not reactive to dairy foods but did test positive with Enterolab (10). Again, that is a gut reaction, like gluten.
I believe there is some truth in the theory that we crave the foods we are intolerant to - many of my faves are listed above (almonds, blueberries, tomato and beef)
- my lowest reactive vegetable was eggplant - no craving there, trust me 
I want to point out that not all reactive foods cause a negative GI symptom. Some foods can cause migraines, joint pain etc - some have even used this test on children to help with ADHD.
I started my elimination diet this morning and plan to stick with it strictly for a whole week and then add the foods back as recommended. I will let you know how it goes, but my initial response is that I think it's accurate - and maybe with the combination of this and the Enterolab tests I will figure this out.
Mary Beth
Is that a typo, or is there a homeopathic principle invloved? 
