1). Once thought to be the only "real" food allergy, immediate food allergy is common in children, but rare in adults. Once thought to be uncommon at best, delayed food allergy is now considered the most common form of food allergy in children and adults.

2). Allergic symptoms in immediate reactions occur within two hours of eating. Allergic symptoms in delayed reactions do not appear anywhere from at least 2 hours to 2 days (there are even reports of delayed symptoms appearing 3 to 7 days after eating).

3). As a rule, immediate-onset food allergy involves one or two foods in the diet. Delayed reactions characteristically involve 3 to 10 foods, sometimes as many of 20 foods in very allergic individuals.

4). Because a small amount of a single food is involved and the allergic symptoms appear immediately, immediate food allergy is usually self-diagnosed. Example: You eat the food, it causes symptoms quickly, you are able to see the connection and you stop eating the food. Due to a combination of delayed symptoms, multiple foods, and food cravings, Type 3 delayed-onset food allergies are extremely hard, if not impossible, to self-diagnose. The only accurate and reliable way to detect the delayed allergic foods is by means of laboratory testing.

5). Immediate food allergy involves foods that are rarely eaten. Delayed food allergy involves commonly eaten foods (i.e. - foods that you eat every day and may even have a craving for).

6). When people quit eating foods that cause immediate symptoms, they have no withdrawal or detoxification symptoms. Powerful addictive cravings and disabling withdrawal symptoms are reported in over 30 percent of delayed food allergy patients when they stop eating food.

7). Immediate food allergens primarily affect the skin, airway and the digestive tract. Virtually any tissue, organ or system of the body can be affected by delayed food allergy. This includes the brain, joints, muscles, hormone-producing glands, lungs, kidneys, and nervous system. Additionally, delayed-onset food allergy is linked to over 100 medical conditions involving every single part of the body and some 100 different allergic symptoms.

8). Immediate-onset food allergies are frequently permanent and fixed allergies. Example: Once you develop an allergy to peanuts or shellfish, it's for life. Delayed-onset food allergies are commonly reversible. If you completely eliminate the allergic foods for 3 to 6 months, you can reintroduce most of them (approx. 86%) back into your diet and remain symptom-free. Because delayed-onset food allergies are so often undetected and untreated, they lie behind many chronic medical conditions of unknown cause. The allergic person suffers for years, even decades, without ever suspecting that their health problems are being caused by what they eat.

9). Immediate-onset food allergy is a skin ("scratch") test positive allergy. Delayed food allergies are skin ("scratch") test negative. The traditional skin tests are poor tests for detecting delayed food allergies. Instead, delayed reactions food require state-of-the-art blood tests. These tests detect serum levels of IgG antibodies to foods.

10). Because delayed food allergies do not make themselves apparent immediately and can be caused by multiple foods, they are very difficult to detect without specialized laboratory testing. There are many forms of allergy testing available such as cytotoxic, computerized cytotoxic, applied kinesiology, vega tests, and others, but each of these tests share the same critical disadvantage - they are frequently unreliable.