People are being warned to stop getting connedGut health expert, Dr Megan Rossi(Image: Dr Xand Con or Cure/BBC iPlayer)BBC’s Doctor Xand has said that some people are doing food intolerance tests as they believe that what they are eating and drinking could be the source of their problems. Speaking on his BBC show, Con or Cure, the expert said there are many clinics that do these tests. However, there are also tests you can order online.Tom Baynton from Oxfordshire got in touch with the BBC team for Doctor Xand’s series as he believes that he was “duped by food and intolerance tests”. Mr Baynton said that he was suffering from “low level intermittent digestive problems” however “the issues were not severe enough for me to want to go and see my GP but it was causing me some discomfort and inconvenience”.Wanting to see what was causing it, he was convinced that a food intolerance test would provide the answers and he searched numerous tests online and came across one that tested for food, allergens, intolerance, and potential environmental issues for £209. He sent a blood sample away, which was just a simple finger prick test and a few days later he had his results through by email.Doctor Xand and Ashley John-Baptiste(Image: Dr Xand Con or Cure/BBC iPlayer)He was shocked when he received his results noting that there was “a sea of red” meaning that he is allergic or intolerant to the item listed. The results were colour coded with orange meaning you may be borderline, yellow is a low reaction whilst green means you do not have any food intolerance or food allergies.He found out: “My allergy test shows me that I’m allergic to rice. I haven’t had any notable issues I’ve been aware of.” Soya and wheat were also classified as red.”On my food intolerance test there is even more red. So the top scores for me are cow’s milk, which was 100% and egg yolk, which is 100% and on egg whites I got a score of 79″. Sending his concerns to the BBC team, he asked: “So is it a con or a cure?”Allergy and intolerance test resultsCo-host and journalist, Ashley John-Baptiste, who many may know from The X Factor, sent away samples of his hair for food allergies and intolerance tests. He got his results days later and notes that one test said he was highly sensitive to avocado while the other test said he was not sensitive at all.It was also noted that he was highly sensitive to dairy whilst again the other test said that dairy was fine. Speaking to Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health expert, she said: “Often these test confused things with intolerance and allergies and it’s really important that we know the difference.”So when we think about food allergies, it actually involves the immune system. There are two different types of food allergies – one is where people can get symptoms really quite rapidly and the other one is where it might actually take a day or two to get the symptoms.”And then when we think about these intolerance, they don’t actually involve the immune system at all and often there can be cases that when you’re eating them, your body can’t digest them very effectively and you might not have the enzyme needed to break them down for them to get from your gut into your blood. An example of that is lactose intolerance.”Are allergy and food intolerance tests legit?Gut health expert, Dr Megan Rossi(Image: Dr Xand Con or Cure/BBC iPlayer)Because of these inconsistencies, the expert said she sees people who send away samples all the time for these tests – whether it’s blood or hair samples “and the sad thing is as they are completely invalid. The World Immunology Association has even said that this is not a great way to be able to identify or diagnose a food intolerance, sadly”.”It’s really scary that these companies are able to do this and because of the whole online world, these online tests are just not regulated. I’ve certainly seen in my own clinic where people have dwindle their diet down to 10 ‘safe foods’ because these intolerance tests have told them that they can’t eat any of the others.”How to test for food allergies and intolerancesRevealing the dangers of doing this, she noted that a simplified diet can actually “give you more symptoms and it becomes a vicious cycle.” So what’s the best way to test for issues?The gut expert notes that the best way to test for a food intolerance or allergy is a simple method called 3R. This stands for record, restrict and reintroduce.She explains: “You would record everything you’re eating along with your symptoms and then if you identify an association with the food group, it might be something like lactose.”Then you would restrict it for a short period of time and if you find that you’ve got an improvement in your symptoms it’s still important to do the third one and that’s free to introduce.”You should ensure that you are seeing a “registered dietitian that can go through that 3R process because it can be a little bit confusing for some”, she adds.Tom updateAt the end, Tom gave an update and said: “After following the tests, I went through a process of trial and error.”I did eliminate various things for my diet, I started with dairy and then I tried wheat. But ultimately, I found that it was coffee that was causing my issues which was interesting because that was the one thing that was flagged up green on my test results – but I reduced that down on my diet and since my symptoms of, so that’s really helped me”You can watch the full episode of Dr Xand’s Con or Cure – Series 2: Episode 14 on BBC iPlayer here. )
