It contains 70% of your immune system, the role of which is to protect you. ‘The gut is a very sensitive – but key – organ. ‘The route of food intolerance is the quality of your gut,’ says Dr Gill Hart, biochemist and scientific director at York Test Laboratories. How many people are affected is hard to tell - Allergy UK approximates up to 20% - but, one thing is for sure: the number of people complaining of food intolerance symptoms (see below) is on the up. Quite simply, a food intolerance is a difficulty in digesting certain foods. If I were a gambler, I’d bet I’m “intolerant” to tarmac and cobwebs too – two other things I’ve also not eaten in a lifetime.’Īpplaudable sarcasm to one side, feedback from countless who have taken food intolerance tests begs the question – are they worth it? Can they genuinely offer peace of mind and a tangible route to effectively managing food intolerances? Or, are they merely a money-grabbing gimmick? We asked the experts… What is a food intolerance? ‘This has to be the poshest result known to man. Pheasant and goji berries for crying out loud,’ one reviewer wrote online. ‘According to, I’m “intolerant” to pheasant and goji berries. With some feeling passionately that results have guided them to make positive changes within their diets, while others feel led on and let down. It doesn’t take an expert in analytics to see that food intolerance tests have gone mainstream, being relied upon by thousands to identify and understand their symptoms.īut feedback from those who have actually taken food intolerance tests varies. Why are food intolerance tests so popular?Ī quick scan of Google Trends tells us that searches for food intolerance testing have increased by 250% since this time last year, and searches for Everlywell – a US brand of food intolerance test – have increased by a massive 700%. This dramatic rise in food intolerances has created a huge demand, understandably, for resources – more in-depth knowledge, support in navigating life with food intolerances, and, of course, methods to diagnose them in the first place. ‘There is good evidence that the more antibiotics someone is given as a child, the more likely they are to have a food allergy, as the antibiotics kill the healthy bacteria that colonise the gut,’ says Colucci.

There’s also some reason to believe that antibiotics could be influencing our likelihood of developing intolerances, too. It's likely it’s something to do with how Western lifestyles affect our gut microbiota, according to specialist gut health dietitian Kaitlin Colucci: ‘More time spent indoors, less time in nature can impact the gut microbiota and make it less resilient to infection and intolerances.’

Igg reactivity to foods