It’s the most wonderful time of the year, until you sit down to dinner and, five minutes in, you’re having to unbutton your jeans and are trying desperately not to let off wind and send everyone running from the table holding their nose. Christmas is a holiday which is built on family, presents and food, the latter of which can be of real concern to those with food intolerance.
Identify Symptoms
The first step to stop food intolerance ruining your festive fun is to identify the symptoms that may indicate that you’re living with a food intolerance. Do you find that certain foods seem to cause severe bloating consistently? Do you eat some foods and find you’re experiencing increased bouts of trapped or excess gas? Does the consumption of particular items send you running off to the bathroom, nauseous, every time? The likelihood is that you’re living with food intolerance. On top of or as well as these symptoms, you may experience stomach pain, headaches, diarrhoea and more.
Food Intolerance Test
Now you suspect you may have a food intolerance; it’s time to establish it as fact. This involves taking an intolerance test. An intolerance test will assess your sensitivities to several foods and score you based on your level of sensitivity. We have a range of intolerance tests that are tailored to suit your budget and can help you on your journey to better health.
Elimination Diet
Once you’ve found your food intolerance, it is time to take action. The tried and tested method of restoring your tolerance levels to a food is to perform an elimination diet. An elimination diet is a four-week plan to remove a food from your diet altogether to restore an average tolerance level. Upon completion of the diet, you can begin to reintroduce the problem food. The good news being, if it’s a food you love (overconsumption of a food can lead to an intolerance), then you don’t have to remove it from your diet permanently. You need to take a sustained period away from it so that your digestive system can recover completely.
