Questions about food sensitivity.

Sensitivity and allergy are not the same thing.

A food sensitivity is a food that reliably makes you feel unwell: bloating, cramping, loose bowels, headache, or feeling heavy and foggy for hours after eating it. It does not involve your immune system reacting to the food as a threat. A food allergy is an immune reaction that can cause hives, swelling, breathing trouble, and at worst, anaphylaxis. One is uncomfortable. The other can be dangerous. Never treat a suspected allergy as a sensitivity.

What commonly causes a sensitivity.

Lactose intolerance is the example most people know. It happens when the gut makes too little of the enzyme that breaks down milk sugar, and it is a digestion problem, not an allergy. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity causes digestive and sometimes other symptoms after eating wheat, without the immune response seen in celiac disease. Sensitivity to high-FODMAP foods, such as certain fruits, beans, and wheat, is common in people with irritable bowel syndrome. Histamine sensitivity and reactions to food additives are less common but show up in some people as well.

Signs to watch for.

Symptoms usually follow a pattern: bloating, cramping, gas, loose stools, headache, fatigue, or a foggy feeling that shows up within a few hours of eating a particular food and settles once it clears your system. The timing and repeatability are what point toward a sensitivity rather than something else. Skin flare-ups can occur too, though they are more often tied to an allergy and should be treated with more caution.

About sensitivity testing.

Patients ask us about food sensitivity panels they have seen advertised. We do not offer them, and we would rather you heard the plain version: many of these tests are not accepted by allergy and immunology specialists as a reliable way to identify problem foods, and cutting foods out on the strength of one can leave you eating a narrower diet for no good reason. If you want testing, ask your physician or an allergist what is actually worth doing. A hydrogen breath test, ordered by a physician, is the standard way to check for lactose or fructose issues.

What a doctor typically checks.

Before calling something a sensitivity, a physician usually rules out celiac disease and true food allergy first, since both need a different response. From there, a supervised elimination and reintroduction plan, guided by a physician or dietitian, is the accepted way to identify a trigger food. That kind of structured, medically supervised process is very different from removing foods on a hunch.

What we look at when someone raises it.

Not much, honestly, and that is the point of this page. We do not diagnose food sensitivity, we do not test for it, and we do not build plans around it. If food has been a problem for months, your doctor is the person to see, and keeping a simple note of what you ate and how you felt is useful information to bring them.

Where a chiropractic exam fits.

Boss Chiropractic is a chiropractic office. We examine and treat mechanical problems in the spine and joints. Food sensitivity sits entirely outside that, and we will not pretend otherwise. Removing foods is easy to start and hard to undo. Get an actual answer from a physician before you rebuild how you eat around a suspicion.

Boss Chiropractic is a chiropractic office in Sterling Ridge, The Woodlands. You can read how we think about this whole area on our holistic health and wellness page, or contact us with a question before you book.

Reviewed and approved by Dr. Christopher Boss, DC, Doctor of Chiropractic since 1998 and the treating chiropractor at Boss Chiropractic. Last updated September 11, 2026.

This page is general information, not medical advice. What is right for you depends on your exam. Dr. Boss will tell you straight whether we can help, and where to go if we cannot.