My Doctor Ordered RASTs Or Did Skin Tests, And The Results Were 'Positive.' Should I Avoid These Foods?

Question: My doctor ordered RASTs or did skin tests for foods that I eat, and the results were 'positive.' Should I avoid these foods even though I have no allergic reactions?

Answer: This is a very interesting question that we very often come across as we're evaluating patients. The sensitivity of food allergy testing seems to be almost too good. That's to say that we frequently see situations where patients have positive results either by skin testing or RAST testing, yet tolerate those foods.

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The best advice we can give at this time is that if the food does not cause a clinical problem it probably should not be avoided. There's no need to avoid it. In fact, there might be danger in avoiding it in that some studies have shown if you do that and then re-expose yourself either accidentally or intentionally to that food, you may end up with a problem.

So the recommendation is that if the food is not causing a problem don't be concerned with the results of the test and continue to eat that food as you previously had.

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