Instant and Free Food Sensitivity Testing
Why is it so important to identify and avoid foods to which we are sensitive? In a nutshell, food sensitivities equal stress and stress slows the metabolic rate, interferes with digestion and leads to a host of health issues.
Alternative medicine practitioners utilize numerous approaches to determine if an individual is sensitive or allergic to a substance. Common techniques include muscle testing and electrodermal biofeedback. All these approaches are based on the concept that the body exibits a stress response when a substance is not right for the individual at that time.
Unfortunately, it can be pricey and time consuming to get tested for food sensitivities by these practitioners. I’m excited to share with you an easy and FREE method for determining food sensitivities/allergies/intolerances at home.
The Coca Pulse Test for Food Sensitivities, Allergies, and Intolerances
One of the easiest methods of food sensitivity testing without special training or expensive equipment is the Coca Pulse Test. Prestigious immunologist Dr. Arthur Coca published this test in 1956, and it provides an accessible way to trace a stress response to a certain food. It is based on the phenomena of how stress affects your pulse rate: if you are sensitive or allergic to a food, ingesting that food will immediately cause stress, which is manifested as an increased pulse rate.
Dr. Coca’s book is now public domain and available free on the internet. He directs you to record your diet for 5-7 days and record your pulse 14 times per day (before rising, before retiring, before each meal and at 30 minute intervals after each meal).
If you eat a food you are allergic/sensitive to, you will caluclate a quickened pulse after the meal at which you at it. Then, you can analyze your food journal with the recorded pulses and determine the foods to which you react.
Although the Coca Pulse test is free (no pricey food intolerance lab tests), I find it a bit time consuming and it can be hard to remember when to take your pulse. I prefer The LNT Coca Pulse Test.
The LNT Coca Pulse Test for Food Sensitivities
This is a modified version of the Pulse Test that I find quicker, easier and altogether more preferable. I learned this tool as part of the curriculum at Nutritional Therapy Association.
“LNT” stands for Neuro-Lingual Testing, which utilizes the communication pathways between the mouth and the central nervous system. Simply tasting a food sends messages throughout the body, and the body will communicate through a quickened pulse if this food is not ideal for you.
This version of the pulse test allows you specifically test one food at a time and immediately learn if the food is beneficial or stressful to your body. It is like the instant-gratification method of Dr. Coca’s original test.
Food Sensitivity Testing with the LNT Coca Pulse Test
- Do this test 1-2 hours after eating or drinking anything. Start when you are mentally, emotionally and physically relaxed. Always take your pulse for one full minute… don’t take it for 30 seconds and multiply it by two.
- While sitting, take a deep breath and slowly exhale. Take your pulse by counting how many times your heart beats in one exact minute. It may be easiest to feel your pulse by placing two fingers on the upper right side of your neck. Record this pulse rate.
- Next, put a piece of the food in question in your mouth. It is okay to chew, but don’t swallow. Taste the food for at least 30 seconds. Then, take your pulse again for a full minute with the food in your mouth. Spit out the food and rinse your mouth with filtered water. If the pulse rate rises 6 or more points with a food, it indicates a stress reaction and that food should be avoided. Remember, food sensitivities can heal through diet and lifestyle changes, so it will be possible to re-test and reintroduce these foods after a period of healing.
- Let the pulse return to the baseline before testing with a different food.
NOTE: If testing eggs, test the egg yolk and the egg white separately. Egg yolks are often better tolerated than egg whites.
Food sensitivities don’t need to be permanent
Food sensitivities and even some food allergies can heal with time and a nourishing diet. Food sensitivities occur due to leaky gut, reference in scientific literature as intestinal permeability. because the tight junctions between the cells in the small intestine begin to dissolve. As a result, undigested proteins or partially-digested food particles to escape into the bloodstream. This triggers antibodies to attack the foreign particles in the blood.
Sometimes when addressing a food sensitivity, all it requires is temporarily eliminating the food in question for a few months. Re-test the foods at intervals of 3 months to see if you can re-introduce them.
In more serious cases, a comprehensive protocol may be required to heal the gut, so the food can be ingested without triggering those antibodies. Please read my comprehensive post The Leaky Gut Guide for steps and resources.
Have you been tested for food sensitivities? Have you noticed a difference when you avoid eating foods to which you are sensitive?
Hi
Looking forward to follow this method
Any insight of how valid this test to check for foods that cause delayed sensitivity reactions?
Thanks
I Read today the dr coca article, and if I understood it well, delay responses also happen with the pulse.
So, if you are allergic to wheat and prone to delayed responses your pulse might increase 2 days later for example even without eating wheat…
The part I didn’t fully get is whether in the delayed response case you will also get an increase of the pulse right after eating the food…
Does anyone know?
Thanks
Hello. Very interesting post! I’m just wondering if you can consecutively test different items. Say, for instance, you test milk. After testing and rinsing, how long must you wait to test, say, avocado? Do you still need to wait an hour between each item? Thank you.
I have professional pulse measuring equipment and I am near-anaphylactic (but not as bad) to many foods, about 15 or so including milk and soy (OAS the doctors call it). I had such high hopes, but the Coca test in this short form was meaningless… in the case of Celery it told me I was not allergic, and then when I ate it, I got a throat tightening reaction. It’s too bad for those of us who fall into the grey areas. Sometimes just putting the food in my mouth produces a smaller reaction, sometimes not. I am debating how to next proceed. Thanks for putting up this website. I’ll try Coca again… now that I have a better pulse meter
I was somewhat aghast at the idea your pulse shoud stay the same after eating gobs of sugar fat and grease! I am sugar sensitive. Eating a pizza usually pushes my pulse rate up, that is back in the days when I was not allergic to most things in pizza. For years I had problems with that. I think any normal person would have problems given the huge sugar spike. In fact, measure your puse before and after drinking a soda. Yuck.
This is very interesting and as someone suffering with year long allergies figuring out what they are is at the top of my list. I have a question though. Doesn’t your heart rate increase when you eat anything? How can you tell whether this is an increase due to an allergic response or just your normal digestion?
Many thanks.
Hi Lauren,
I was wondering, in Coca’s The Pulse Test he talks about other things being toxic to people: toiletries, perfume, laundry soap etc, is there an easy way to test for any of those at home?
Thanks so much for the posts, they are really informative.
Paul, UK
I would just like to present a caution. I was following the GAPS diet which calls for drinking broth (chicken) daily. I discovered through testing that I was reacting to chicken and it was therefore contributing to the problem. I am an advocate for testing first and second moderation.
What if a pulse drops significantly? Which test takes precedence if a food that tests strongly as sensitive on the neural-lingual test but then is negative as part of a meal when, you take pulse readings at 30, 60, and 90 minute intervals? Thanks!!
This way of testing was first reported in the 1950’s. For about the last 30 or more years every major Lab has had the ability to test for food sensitivities by means of blood tests.
The method of testing for the allergen specific immunoglobulins found with food sensitivities, acute/chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases is tried and true. Every doctor has had access to these tests but are taught not to use it for food testing. Why??? $$$$$$$$$$$
There is a fortune to be made off chronic diseases. And they are capitalizing.
Ps… Foods and inhalants are the ONLY time allergen specific IgE testing is used. Think about that.
I have just read an article on suzycohen.com that those tests can be inaccurate lab to lab! Both she and her husband did their tests through different labs and got conflicting info. For ex. highly sensitive to mango on one, fine on the other test. She emphasizes asking oneself “How do u feel?”. The rotation diet if done accurately with no fudging sounds like the best test.
One thing that may help clear some of the confusion people are reporting is this – if you’ve successfully avoided the foods you’re sensitive to for long enough that your immune system calms down then the number of antibodies decreases and you can have small amounts of the foods you’re sensitive to infrequently with no big reaction. That’s why a real reintroduction has you take it several times over a few days to see if you react – you might be fine the first time the first day but if you’re still sensitive then on the second day you’ll probably react.