Food Challenge
From Health Facts
Latest Edit: Hector 2014-03-13 (EDT)
See Also | Naturopathic Therapies |
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See Also | Clinical Nutrition |
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A food challenge refers to administering a food to an individual to see if it elicits specific symptoms or reactions. A food challenge is typically done following the elimination of one or more foods.
The typical use of the food challenge involves the following steps:[1]
- Consume an oligoantigenic diet or elimination diet for a specific period of time (typically 7 to 14 days). The purpose of removing foods ahead of times is to reduce the amount of inflammation and reactivity of the body.
- Challenge the person by introducing one food at a time that is a suspected allergen or intolerance.
- Each new food that is to challenge must be preceded by at least three days of a person being symptom free, which may mean that a person returns to the oligoantigenic or elimination diet between food challenges for at least three days, especially if the previous food caused a reaction.
- If symptoms return when an individual is "challenged" with a food, this food is then confirmed as an allergen and eliminated from the diet.
References
- ↑ Barrie S, Bongiorno PB (2006) Pizzorno Textbook of Natural Medicine 3rd ed Chap 53 Food Reactions Elsevier.