Food allergies can be as real as drug allergies, and are arguably much harder to prevent. We can usually control when we get penicillin. But what about peanuts, eggs, or milk, all of which can also cause life-threatening anaphylaxis? Food allergies seems to be growing: not only anaphylaxis, but more people believe they have some sort of allergy to food. Allergy is sometimes confused with the term “intolerance”, which seems more common, possibly as the availability of “food intolerance testing” grows. Food intolerance testing and screening is particularly popular among alternative practitioners. Testing can take different forms, but generally the consumer is screened against hundreds of food products and food additives. They are then provided with a list of foods they are “intolerant” to.

I’ve spoken with consumers who are struggling to overhaul their diet, having been advised that they are actually intolerant to many of their favourite foods. These reports are taken seriously by patients who believe that they’ll feel better if they eliminate these products. In the pharmacy, I’ve been asked to verify the absence of trace amounts of different fillers in medications because of a perceived intolerance. Children may be tested, too, and parents may be given a long list of foods they are told their child is intolerant of. I’ve seen the effects in the community, too. Think going “peanut free” is tough? A public school in my area sent home a list of forbidden food products: dairy, eggs, bananas, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame, flax seed, kiwi, chicken, and bacon. Were these all true allergies? It’s not disclosed. Anaphylactic or not, the parents had informed the school, and the school had banned the food product

Once you have a good idea which foods may be causing your symptoms, you can try excluding them from your diet one at a time and observing the effect this has.

– try cutting out the suspected food from your diet for two to six weeks and see if your symptoms improve
– reintroduce the food to see if symptoms return – you may find you can tolerate a certain level, and you only get symptoms if you have more than this amount.

It can be difficult to determine whether the patient has a food intolerance or an allergy because the signs and symptoms often overlap.

According to James Li, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic allergy specialist, when it is an allergy, even small amounts result in symptoms, as may be the case with peanuts. Whereas, with food intolerance, tiny amounts will usually have no effect.

The symptoms of food intolerance generally take longer to emerge, compared to food allergies.

Onset typically occurs several hours after ingesting the offending food or compound and may persist for several hours or days. In some cases, symptoms may take 48 hours to arrive.

Some people are intolerant to several groups of foods, making it harder for doctors to determine whether it might be a chronic illness or food intolerance. Identifying which foods are the culprits can take a long time.

According to the Australian NSW Food Authority, the following are the most common symptoms of food intolerance:

– Bloating
– Migraines
– Headaches
– Cough
– Runny nose
– Feeling under the weather
– Stomach ache
– Irritable bowel
– Hives

You can read more about food intolerance…

There are many people in the United Kingdom who are intolerant to certain types of food. Just think about the people who have a lactose intolerance. You never know, it may even be you! The way you can find out is with a test for food intolerance.
Identifying your food intolerance

Of course, this is not so pleasant for many of us, as if you have an intolerance then you cannot eat everything that other people eat. For many people, it is not so easy to know what kind of intolerance they have in everyday life without a test for food intolerance. Without this test, it is more of a guess than an observation.

Now though, thanks to Test Your Intolerance, this is a thing of the past, as we have a test with which you can see if you are intolerant of certain foods. This can be done by testing just one strand of your hair.
How does a test for food intolerance work?

Hairs can you tell everything. This makes it possible to paint a picture of the person, which makes it ideal for research to see what a particular person really should not eat. So, it is useful to know whether milk is a problem or not. If you know it, then you can adjust your diet accordingly.

Having adjusted your diet, you will hopefully see your symptoms subside. For example, you will be complaining a lot less than you were, as you will no longer be eating a food that you are intolerant to. Dreaming of what this feels like? There will be no more food intolerance symptoms! So, what are you waiting for? Go and take a test for food intolerance!

How to take a test – intolerance food test @ testyourintolerance.com

The instructions when taking one of our tests are simple. Following a test is really easy, as the only thing we need is your hair which you can send to us in a plastic bag from all around the world. Through the hair, we are able to see what kind of food intolerances you have, and on the basis of this, it is possible to outline the picture completely.