Healthier Me

Food Intolerance

Food intolerance is like a delayed allergic reaction and symptoms can take up to a week to develop. Whilst not life-threatening, symptoms are unpleasant and include bloating, diarrhoea, stomach pain, headaches, lack of energy and food cravings.

My food intolerance test measures levels of IgG antibodies in your blood - a small finger prick blood sample is taken and tested against food protein extracts. In less than an hour, your results will be ready. With proper nutritional advice, your symptoms can be reduced in a matter of days whilst ensuring you have a balanced a diet as possible.

The following foods are tested:

• Cereals - corn, durum wheat, gluten, oats, rice, rye, wheat
• Nuts and beans - almond, brazil nut, cashew, cocoa bean, legume mix (haricot, lentil, pea), olive, peanut, soya bean, walnut
• Meats - beef, chicken, lamb, pork
• Fish - freshwater fish mix (salmon, trout), shellfish mix (crab, lobster, mussel, prawn, shrimp), tuna, white fish mix (cod, haddock, plaice)
• Vegetables - broccoli, cabbage, carrot, celery, cucumber, leek, peppers (green, red, yellow), potato
• Fruits - apple, blackcurrant, grapefruit, melon mix (cantaloupe, watermelon), orange and lemon, strawberry, tomato
• Other - cows milk, garlic, ginger, mushroom, tea, whole egg, yeast

If you have not eaten the food that you believe you are intolerant to in the past three months, your result may be negative as there will be too few IgG antibodies in your blood sample to detect. If you want to test for a specific foodstuff, you should introduce a portion of these foods into your diet for at least 7 days before having the test. However, if you experience severe symptoms you should immediately stop eating them, and assume that you are still intolerant to them.

Additionally, immunosuppressants and strong steroid doses can prevent positive results from showing as they prevent your body from making the antibodies. If your symptoms are caused by enzyme deficiency or chemical sensitivities e.g. sulphites, the food intolerance test will not show a positive result as it only tests against food proteins.

Yorktest

If you feel that you are intolerant to a food that is not listed above, please try Yorktest as they have a much larger food list.