Pros and Cons of Different Food Intolerance Testing Methods
What Are the Food Intolerance Tests and Do They Work?
There are an increasing number of ways that people can find out if they are food intolerant and we would recommend exploring a number of different avenues in order to know your body better. Ultimately, everyone is in control of what they eat and the digestive system will provide feedback that can manifest itself in different forms when it comes to food intolerance.
In this article, we look at the different tests that currently exist when it comes to food intolerance and weigh up the pros and cons of each one so that you have the knowledge to go forward and investigate your own situation further.
Blood Testing for Food Intolerance
It’s pretty easy to get access to a blood testing kit and these claim to be able to test for food intolerances. You need to submit a blood sample and then someone working in a laboratory will typically look for immunoglobulin antibodies and sometimes be able to detect results that can offer feedback to the relevant person.
The potential downside is that these tests are not always based on scientific evidence and are not recommended by the British Dietary Association.
Hair and DNA Testing Also Available
In addition to blood testing, you could alternatively go down the route of sending a hair sample to companies who are willing to try and identify whether you are sensitive to up to 1,000 different foods. Your hair strands contain your DNA and it’s therefore claimed that some patterns can be detected if you have a food sensitivity or intolerance.
However, it is often the case that the client is left with a very long list of foods to avoid indefinitely and this can be very difficult to manage.
Elimination Diet Could Work For Food Intolerance
The elimination diet is exactly as you might assume. It basically leads someone to keep a diary of everything that they eat in a typical day, week or month and then identify when they experience the symptoms of a food intolerance. By then eliminating different foods along the way, it can be trial and error to discover what is causing the underlying issue.
The main downside to this is that the average person eats and drinks a myriad of different things and it can therefore be time-consuming to find exactly what is causing the problem. However, this is a route someone is prepared to go down.
Muscle Testing Increasingly Popular to Identify a Food Intolerance
Muscle testing is also known as kinesiology and this is where a specialist will examine someone’s body and look at the various strengths of different muscles within the body. The body’s muscles can each answer on behalf of different organs and bodily systems and it could be that weakness in a certain area can be inextricably linked to a certain foodstuff.
This is a great method for finding exactly which foods you are intolerant to and you should have the option to ask specifically for which foods you would like to test.