Food intolerance: how it is established honestly
Intolerance, allergy and coeliac disease are three different things with three different mechanisms. They get mixed up constantly, and that is where most wrong decisions about food come from.
Before any testing, one distinction has to be made, because everything else follows from it.
Three different things
Allergy
A fast immune reaction, mediated by IgE antibodies. It appears within minutes to two hours. Rash, swelling of the lips or throat, breathlessness, vomiting. It can be life threatening. It is diagnosed by an allergist with skin prick tests or blood tests for specific IgE.
Coeliac disease
An autoimmune condition in which gluten damages the lining of the small intestine. It is not an intolerance and it is not an allergy. It requires complete lifelong avoidance of gluten.
One point is critical. The test is done while you are still eating gluten. If you stopped bread before testing, the result comes back negative whether or not you have coeliac disease. So do not drop gluten before you check.
Intolerance
No immune mechanism. Most often an enzyme is missing or the food irritates the gut mechanically. Lactose intolerance is the classic example: the enzyme lactase is lacking. Symptoms are digestive, come on more slowly, and depend on the amount. A glass of milk may pass, half a litre will not.
That is the important difference from allergy. With intolerance, dose matters. With allergy it does not.
What the tests actually show
IgG food antibody panels
These are the most widely sold panels, usually promising a list of ninety or a hundred and twenty foods. It is worth knowing what they measure. IgG antibodies to a food show that you have been exposed to it. That is a normal immune response, not a sign of intolerance.
In other words, high values for eggs and milk usually mean that you eat eggs and milk. The major allergy organisations do not recommend these panels for diagnosing intolerance. We mention it so you do not spend money with the wrong expectations.
Hydrogen breath test
This one has a real mechanism behind it. It measures hydrogen in exhaled breath after a dose of lactose or another sugar. Bacteria produce hydrogen when they ferment something unabsorbed. It is used for lactose intolerance and for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It is done in gastroenterology clinics.
Bioresonance and electrodermal methods
Here we have to be direct, because this is a method we offer ourselves. The Vega test and its relatives measure electrical resistance at the skin. They are not recognised as medical diagnostics and they do not prove intolerance. What they give is a direction, a hypothesis about where to start the trial.
If someone presents such a test to you as a diagnosis, or tells you to cut out twenty foods on the strength of it, that is overreach. Its useful role is to narrow the list that you then test for yourself.
The only thing that really proves it
The elimination and reintroduction trial. It sounds complicated, it is simple, and it is free.
- Two weeks of a diary. What you eat, at what time, how you feel two and four hours later. Change nothing. This is your baseline.
- Remove one suspected food for two to three weeks. Only one. Completely, including hidden sources.
- Record what changes. If nothing improves, that food is not the cause and it goes back in.
- If there is improvement, bring the food back. In a normal amount, for two or three days, and watch. Symptoms returning is the confirmation.
- Then the next food. One at a time, not all at once.
It takes weeks, which is why it does not sell well. But it gives an answer you can trust, because it was tested in you rather than in an average person.
Before cutting anything out
Check for coeliac disease while you are still eating gluten. If you have weight loss, blood in the stool, persistent vomiting, or symptoms that started after the age of fifty, see a doctor first. Long elimination diets in children and in pregnancy are done only under supervision, because the risk of nutritional shortfall is real.
The most common mistake
Someone receives a list of thirty foods to avoid, removes them all at once, feels better in the first week, and stays on that regime for months. The problem is twofold. They do not know which of the thirty was responsible, and the diet has narrowed to the point where new deficiencies appear.
A shorter list is a better list. The aim is not to eat fewer things, it is to know exactly which two or three do not suit you.
Want to shorten the list?
We run the Vega test as a starting point and then set up the trial with you. Honest about what it can and cannot tell you.
Book a sessionNLS, Vega and EAV are wellness methods for orientation, not medical diagnostics. This article is educational and is not medical advice. It does not replace examination, testing or consultation with a doctor. Do not stop or change prescribed treatment without your doctor.