The Superfood That Might Be Your Problem

There is a particular category of food that has achieved remarkable cultural immunity from suspicion. Not immunity in the immunological sense — quite the opposite. Immunity in the social sense: an agreed understanding that these foods are unambiguously good for you, that consuming more of them is virtuous, and that questioning this assumption signals either ignorance or cynicism.

Superfoods. Functional foods. Adaptogens. Novel botanical ingredients. The category changes name every few years but the pattern is consistent: a food or ingredient is identified as having remarkable health properties, given a compelling origin story (ancient Peruvian root, Japanese coastal algae, Amazonian berry), given a marketing vehicle (podcast, Instagram influencer, wellness brand), and rapidly integrated into the daily routines of health-conscious consumers who never question it again.

The IgG immune system has no awareness of this cultural agreement. It responds to what crosses the gut barrier. And if your gut barrier is compromised (something no routine test measures directly; a zonulin result does not confirm it), every food you consume regularly, regardless of its wellness credentials, is a repeated antigen exposure that your immune system will assess and potentially respond to.

The Foods Most Likely to Escape Suspicion

The clinical pattern of unidentified food sensitivity follows a predictable logic: the foods most likely to be driving symptoms are the ones consumed most frequently and considered least likely to cause harm. In the modern health-conscious household, that is increasingly the superfood category.

Consider the daily routine of someone genuinely committed to optimising their health. Morning: chlorella or spirulina tablet, matcha latte, chia seed pudding with almond milk, collagen peptide powder stirred in. Mid-morning: lion’s mane mushroom coffee with maca powder. Lunch: salad with nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, and a turmeric-ginger dressing. Evening: adaptogen blend in warm water before bed.

Every item on that list is a daily immune exposure. Every item on that list could be driving IgG reactivity. And none of them would be suspected, because all of them have been selected precisely because they are supposed to be beneficial.

The Insect Protein Problem

House cricket, mealworm, and migratory locust are on the HealthBeings panel — a forward-thinking inclusion given the trajectory of the food industry. EU Novel Food approvals have been granted for cricket flour (Acheta domesticus) and mealworm protein (Tenebrio molitor) for use in food products. They are already appearing in protein powders, flour blends, energy bars, and pasta under “insect protein,” “cricket flour,” or simply as part of a “novel protein blend.”

The cross-reactivity risk is clinically significant. Insects and shellfish are both arthropods. They share tropomyosin as a major structural protein — the same protein responsible for shellfish allergy. People with existing shellfish sensitivity may react to insect protein through this tropomyosin cross-reactivity. A client who has successfully avoided known shellfish allergy triggers may unknowingly be consuming insect protein in their protein supplement and experiencing reactions they attribute to overtraining, stress, or “something going around.”

Moringa, Baobab, and the Exotic Provenance Premium

There is a particular pattern in superfood marketing that is worth naming: the more exotic the geographic origin, the more health authority the product is assumed to carry. Baobab from sub-Saharan Africa. Moringa from India and Southeast Asia. Aronia from Eastern Europe and North America. Yacón root from the Andes.

These are real plants with real nutritional profiles. Some have genuine evidence supporting specific health benefits. None of that evidence guarantees that an individual consuming them will not develop IgG reactivity to them. The immune system doesn’t read the packaging. It responds to the antigen load crossing the gut barrier — and an exotic superfood crosses it exactly the same way a piece of bread does.

The foods most worth testing for IgG reactivity are not the ones you suspect. They are the ones you have never suspected because you chose them specifically because they were supposed to be good for you. That assumption is not immunologically founded.

What to Do If You React

A Class 2 or Class 3 result to a superfood is not a verdict that the food is universally harmful. It is evidence that your immune system is currently reacting to it. The most important context: is your gut barrier intact? Signs of gut barrier stress on the GI-MAP (low secretory IgA, raised calprotectin) alongside IgG reactivity to foods you consider healthy is a pattern I see often. Barrier compromise is one proposed explanation, not a proven mechanism. This is my practice rule. The lab’s IgG classes haven’t been tested against outcomes (evidence grade: none).

The intervention sequence: remove reactive foods for 8–12 weeks. Simultaneously restore gut barrier integrity (zinc, L-glutamine, colostrum, addressing the dysbiosis drivers on GI-MAP). Systematically reintroduce removed foods after the restoration period. Many clients find that foods they reacted to at the time of testing are well-tolerated after gut barrier restoration — because the mechanism driving the reactivity has been addressed.