Food intolerance is a common condition that affects many of us in some way. However, for some the symptoms of food intolerance can significantly impact their quality of life. Here we will discuss the common signs and symptoms of food intolerance and offer some guidance on how to stay healthy and help you explore your wellness options.
What is food intolerance?
Food intolerance is a digestive system issue where the body has difficulty breaking down certain foods or ingredients. Unlike a food allergy, which involves an immune response and, in serious cases can be fatal, food intolerance can lead to uncomfortable symptoms, but it is not life-threatening.
Symptoms of a food intolerance
If you have a food intolerance, you usually get symptoms a few hours after eating the food or ingredient, you’re intolerant to. Common symptoms include: diarrhoea, bloating, gas and stomach pain but there are lots of other possible symptoms, including headache, feeling tired or exhausted, feeling sick, constipation, joint pain or rashes. These symptoms can last for a few hours or few days depending on the extent of your intolerance.
What foods can I have an intolerance to?
You can be intolerant to any type of food or ingredient but the most common causes are:
- Lactose – a type of sugar mainly found in milk and dairy products such as cheese and yoghurts.
- Gluten (wheat, rye and barley) – found in foods like bread and pasta
- Histamine – found in foods and drinks like wine and cheese
- Caffeine – found in coffee, tea and some fizzy drinks
- Sulphites – found in cider, beer and wine
- Salicylates – found in some fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices
- Monosodium glutamate (MSG) – found in ripened fruits, cured meats and savoury foods
How to manage food intolerances
There is no cure for food intolerances. The best approach is to find out which foods trigger your symptoms and reduce your intake or cut them out of your diet completely.
Stage 1:
Food diary – It can sometimes be hard to figure out which foods are triggering your symptoms, but keeping a food and symptom diary can be a useful tool. Using a food diary can be more accurate than simply trying to remember what you ate and how you felt. It can also help you to notice any patterns between certain foods and the symptoms you experience, which you may otherwise miss or forget. Use a food diary for a few weeks and continue to eat as normal so that a true reflection of your diet can be observed.
Stage 2:
Once you have completed your food diary for a few weeks you may find there is a pattern where eating a certain food seems to regularly coincide with a rise in your symptoms. If so, consider eliminating this from your diet for 14 days. Continue with your food diary and make a note of any changes to your symptoms.
Stage 3:
Gradually reintroduce the particular food, in small quantities. This allows your body to adjust and accept foods it may be more sensitive to. Continue with your food diary and record any changes in your symptoms. This will help to identify how much you can eat without triggering a reaction.
Stage 4:
Make an appointment with a health professional to discuss further options. Using the food diary to open the discussion at your initial consultation will be really useful and help you to explore what your next steps should be.
Nutritional therapy and food intolerance testing at Bansel Osteopathy
Nutritional Therapy is much more than just dietary advice. Nutritional Therapy is an in depth assessment into a person’s symptoms, diet, lifestyle and environment. It looks holistically at a client’s life and their health concerns or goals, making connections and putting the pieces of their health journey puzzle together for them. It aims to identify the root cause of symptoms or health conditions, what is driving them – and the changes, remedies or supports needed to resolve them.
This joined-up thinking and way of supporting the body is hugely beneficial and something not offered in current allopathic medicine – where symptoms tend to be viewed in silos with specific specialists, and no one is there to join the dots.
Q&A with our nutritionist Claire
Question: If I do food intolerance testing at the clinic would I need to be eating everything normally rather than having some eliminations (as I presently do) ?
Answer: No, this food intolerance testing is assessing the nervous system’s response to the food. Our nervous systems drive our immune systems. So you can continue eating as per your current plan, and I can still test everything. I am a celiac, so I totally understand about needing to reintroduce wheat for weeks before that blood test and other examples, which can be a pain. You can just continue as you are for this type of testing.
Question: How do you test for food intolerance? Do you do a skin prick/hair/blood test?
Answer: So, via Nutritional Therapy, I use all the private functional medicine tests. So, the food panel I use is finger prick blood spot. However, if it was via A.R.T. it’s totally non-invasive and I test with vials of food (or actual foods if you’ve brought them with you), no blood or urine needed.
Question: What is the difference between Nutritional Therapy and food intolerance testing?
Answer: Nutritional therapy is a modality which analyses diet, lifestyle, supplements, medical history, family history, timeline of events/infections/injuries etc… to help get to the root cause of symptoms. I can advise on changes in diet, lifestyle and supplements. I can order many different private functional medicine tests to get more info (e.g. food intolerance, hormones, toxins, neurotransmitters, blood panels). So, food intolerance testing is just one part of the functional medicine testing which I can offer.
Question: Are you able to treat children?
Answer: Yes, I love treating children and support them often in my work. If you are open to complementary therapies, then my recommendation would be the “A.R.T. Testing” plus the “add-on food intolerance testing”. My reasons for this are that it’s non-invasive (so no finger pricks blood tests or stool tests) which is ideal for children. If you wanted more support afterwards, we could do nutritional therapy follow-ups to review diet, life-style and how to get supplements into foods – if they don’t like to swallow capsules as an example.
Question: What would the A.R.T session involve with food intolerance testing?
Answer: In the A.R.T. session I will be testing for infections (e.g. bacteria, viruses, retroviruses, parasites), for toxins (e.g. heavy metals, pesticides). I will check for nutrient deficiencies, food intolerances, gut health, liver and gallbladder support, stress, vagus nerve and much more. So, you get a lot of information about the body as a whole. We can test up to 90 foods, and you also have the option of bringing in some of your own food to be tested.
Prices:
Nutritional therapy initial consultation- £165 (includes: pre-questionnaire analysis, 60 minute in-person session and report)
Nutritional therapy follow-up – £108 (includes: 45 minute in-person session and report)
Nutritional therapy package – £255 (reduced rate bundle)
A.R.T consultation – £245 (includes: 90 minute in-person session and report)
A.R.T follow-up appointment – £165 (75 minute session and report
A.R.T nutritional package – £350 (includes: nutritional therapy and A.R.T session)
Food intolerance testing with A.R.T – £150 (60 minute in-person session)
Sessions are available on Fridays at the clinic. For more information email info@banselosteopathy.co.uk