At Home Food Sensitivity Testing with Helix

At Home Food Sensitivity Testing with Helix

(This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Helix. All opinions are 100% mine.)
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If you’re following me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently got the coolest thing in the mail. A company called Helix sent me a DNA test. This particular test is called Food Sensitivity+, made by EverlyWell and powered by Helix. Together, they’ll tell me if I have any sensitivities to certain foods, plus measure my genetic predisposition to metabolize and absorb foods and vitamins. What does that all mean? Well simply said, Food Sensitivity+ needs just a few drops of blood (plus some saliva for the DNA part of the test) and it can test for my reactivity to 96 foods (like gluten, wheat, and dairy) as well as genetic influences on sensitivity to lactose and metabolism of caffeine, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, and magnesium. That’s pretty rad! 

This test is a quick (results come within about a week!), non-invasive way to figure out what your food sensitivities are. Helix’s proprietary technology, called Exome+, reads every letter of all 22,000 protein-coding genes in your body, which produces 100 times more data than most consumer genetics companies. Then, once you’ve taken and sent back your DNA sample, they’ll store and protect your genetic data so you can access and share it with any partner of your choosing without ever having to provide another DNA sample. And if you’re interested in finding out more about your DNA, Helix offers other tests to help you dive further into that information, too. They offer cool tests for ancestry, family planning, hereditary cancer screening - all kinds of different things if you’re interested in exploring further!

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with ‘IBS’ after blood and stool tests plus an endoscopy, colonoscopy and an ingestible camera found nothing but healthy organs with a lot of inflammation. Eventually, after many tests and dietary restrictions, doctors finally figured out that I was having reactions to soy. They figured that was what was causing all my abdominal pain, content bowel movements, and eczema breakouts - and they were mostly right. Now I’ve been soy-free for almost two years and while the abdominal issues, cramping, and overall IBS symptoms have stopped, the eczema and adult acne have only gotten worse. And while I’ve tried tweaking my diet here and there, it can be really hard to pinpoint when you’re shooting in the dark. With Food Sensitivity+, you’ll learn your body’s sensitivity to many common foods AND the impact your DNA may have on your ability to digest certain foods and nutrients. That’s pretty awesome, because it also gives you the tools to create long-term meal plans and food awareness for yourself, plus it'll help you understand which foods may be triggering you and causing your symptoms. You’ll know which foods your body should be getting more of and what you might want to try reducing from your diet to see how you feel.

​The process was super easy. I ordered my kits online and they arrived within just a couple days. For the Helix part of the test, the DNA part, I just needed a simple saliva sample. Spit in a tiny tube, close it up, and shake it up! For the EverlyWell part of the test, the blood part, I did a simple finger prick, then put drops of my blood onto a biomarker collection card. Then all I had to do was drop my samples into a pre-addressed, safety sealed envelope and drop it into a mailbox! Two days later I got an e-mail that my results had been received by the lab, and now I’m just a few days out from my results. And I can’t wait! You can get 30% OFF any purchase on any Helix product with code: Helixivhk. But HURRY -  only the first 25 unique users get the discount! And stay tuned - my results will be back soon and I’ll share them here!

See the video below for a sneak peek at contents of the FoodSensitivity+ blood test! ​

This post is sponsored, which is a tool we use to keep the content on this site fresh and relevant. While I was paid for this post, all thoughts and opinions expressed are true and from my own experience. Thanks for understanding that sponsored content helps offset the costs of keeping this site running, and thank you to out sponsors who allow us to create such awesome content!