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Food Sensitivities/Intolerances are characterised by a delayed response which will normally be a few hours but in some rare cases can take up to a week. A food intolerance or food sensitivity occurs when a person has difficulty digesting a particular food. Various studies have shown that allergies only affect about 3% of the population whilst food sensitivities can affect 40% of the population at some time in their life.

A person can be sensitive to multiple foods and experience a number of symptoms such as:

• Bloating,
• constipation
• Fatigue and brain fog
• Asthma
• Sinusitis and Rhinitis
• Irritable bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Migraines and headaches
• Eczema, rashes and other skin disorders.

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Normally when someone has a food sensitivity/intolerance, this is down to the underlying poor health of the gut which can be caused by a number of triggers such as poor diet, stress, excess alcohol, antibiotics, bacterial and viral infections such as E Coli, H Pyloria, SIBO, yeast and parasites.

It is important to understand what has caused the damage to the gut lining in the first place and this is where a food sensitivity/intolerance test together with an appropriate nutritional support programme can play an important part in the healing and repair process.

Whilst we prefer to address health issues with dietary alterations we may also from time to time suggest supplementation to help provide a boost to the digestive and immune system taking a multi-pronged approach on a short-term basis.

There are other tests we offer too around gut health that will help determine underlying causal issues. If the underlying gut health issues are not resolved then a person may become sensitive/intolerant to more foods and chronic health problems will persist.

Cathy Foley, Registered Nutritionist mBANT, Registered Nutritional Therapist CNHC, Bioresonance Practitioner- Dip BER Food Sensitivity Testing, Dip Anatomy & Physiology