Before I review the York Test (which is a food intolerance test) here’s quick rundown of what it does.
(As a quick summary, my review does reflect the York Test as a good food intolerance test, but I have one particular caveat).
I used the York Test because despite a rigorous gluten free diet, I was feeling more and more ill. At first I thought it was down to gluten creeping into my diet, but I eventually realised this couldn’t be the case.
I then spent many weeks researching the best was of testing for food intolerances, because the area is a real minefield. After concurring recommendations from several nutritionist and books, I chose the York Test as the most reliable.
Review of the York Test Food Intolerance Test Kit
The York Test is a home test kit requiring you to extract a small amount of blood from your finger and send it off in the post.
York Test do a range of tests, from a simple £20 yes/no test all the way up to the one I used, the 113 food intolerance test, which tells you precisely which foods you have high levels of IgG antibodies in your blood for.
Overall, my experience of the York Test has been a positive one, from the ease of taking the test to the nutritionist follow-up afterwards. Because I’ve had a lot of experience of high-level nutritional advice, I would rate the York nutritionist as fine, rather than outstanding, but the advice a got was in line with other nutritionists I have consulted.
York Test Reviewed: Conclusion – with one caution
If you have multiple food intolerances and cannot work out what is causing you problems simply by excluding the main allergens for a while (dairy, gluten, soya, egg) then the York Test is a great tool.
From personal experience, and the advice of allergy specialists and my immunologist, I consider it a ‘blunt tool’ rather than a precision instrument however.
The reason for this is that the York Test gives you a list of ‘avoid’ foods (rated from +1 to +4) based on how high your IgG levels are, then a list of ‘rotate’ foods. Apparently, IgG blood levels in the general populus vary too widely for a standard level to be applied across the board.
So, when considering the results of the York Test, I excluded only the most extreme reaction foods at first and got a good result. If I had not, I may have moved onto excluding the low reaction foods. This way, you pick the low hanging fruit first, and you don’t risk making your diet so restrictive that it’s hard to eat well, and you are tempted to cheat.
If this sounds like it may be useful to you, you can buy the York Test here
There are more stories here from friends who have used the York Test