Did you know Boots Pharmacy offer a Food Intolerance Testing Service? This can be useful if you’re wondering if certain foods are making you feel unwell.
Food intolerance is an adverse reaction to food you’ve eaten. It’s not usually serious, but it can make you feel unwell. The most common symptoms of food intolerance include bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain, skin irritation and tiredness. It is possible not to notice symptoms for hours or even days, and they can be constant if you eat the food that’s affecting you often.
Boots’s Food Intolerance Test can help you find out which food (or foods) your body is intolerant to, and to what extent. It involves giving a small blood sample from a finger prick. Your sample is then tested for IgG antibodies, which your body may make more of when it’s intolerant to food. The antibody levels are then measured to work out which foods may be causing the reaction.
Once your results are in (usually within 1-2 weeks), you are asked back to the store to discuss them and provide you with information about ways to change your diet to help you feel better. People with food intolerance often have problems digesting two or three main foods, and a few secondary foods. Usually just restricting or cutting these foods from your diet can be all it takes to make a big improvement to your health and wellbeing.
Boots offer three tests – 40 foods for €135, 93 foods for €255 or 200 foods for €340. If you do the 40 foods test and then decide to get the 93 or 200 foods test done afterwards, these can be done by paying just the difference between the prices, so you don’t have to pay the full amount again.
The 40 foods test covers grains, dairy, meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and yeast. the other two tests expand on these categories and offer some extras too.
To find out more about food intolerance testing, or to book a test, pop into your local Boots store and speak to one of their healthcare advisors.
