I’ve been curious about food intolerances for a while, wondering if there’s anything I should remove from diet to help me avoid bloating and generally live well. I had some friends who’d tried the York Test, so I thought I’d give it a try too. The York Test is a food intolerance testing programme and claims to offer a fast-track solution to identifying your food triggers. It’s expensive but it is very thorough and when I did it there was a 30% off discount code, so I felt I had nothing to lose.
Top service
The customer service from the company was excellent, they called me as soon as I received the kit to check if I had any questions. And when it came to using the kit, the instructions were really simple and easy to follow. You have to prick your finger with the little lancet provided, I know this is a bit scary sounding, but it’s actually totally fine and doesn’t hurt at all.
The results
The results came back really quickly, within a few days I had an email and the option to book a call with a nutritionist to discuss the results. A few days later I had the results via the post too. So, what did I have reaction to?
Reactions
Your reactions are graded by strength, red obviously being a stronger reaction and amber for a borderline reaction and green for no reaction. I was thrilled to see my sheet was mostly green! I don’t have too many digestive issues, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. But what was a very big surprise was my one red reaction…..KALE!
Mean green
Yes, superfood kale, is no good for me! I can hardly say I’m devastated, it’s not something I will miss. However, as silly as it sounds, it really makes a lot of sense to me now that I know. There have been a few times after a salad or green juice that I’ve experienced some issues, so it is a relief to know there’s nothing wrong – my body just can’t have kale. It had never occurred to me that kale could be a problem – but on the call with the York Test nutritionist, she said it was something she was seeing more frequently. If only I’d known! There are many times I’d forced myself to have a super green juice with blended up kale or ate it in salad thinking it was so good for me – I would especially do it when I was feeling under the weather. I’m trying not to dwell on this!
Borderline reactions
It wasn’t all good news for me though, I got a borderline reaction with egg whites and cow’s milk. If I’m honest, I kind wanted there to be a reaction to dairy, so I’d be forced to give it up! I want to give it up (mainly for environmental reasons) but I struggle…butter is in everything and cheese is very tempting! But I’m going to give two weeks without cow’s milk and egg whites a go…I’m about three days in at the moment and already finding it tough. With my pescatarian diet, it’s not leaving me with many choices when I eat out, unless there’s a vegan option. I’m considering allowing myself to have meat (if it’s ethically sourced) just to try and get around the no cow’s milk thing. At least I can still have goats cheese and feta. Phew!
My rating
I haven’t completed my ‘elimination diet’ yet, this is where you try to go without all the foods you reacted to for a few weeks. Obviously, kale isn’t going to be a problem, but the egg whites and cow’s milk will be. So without completing this challenge, I can’t say how much better I feel yet – but I will say what a helpful and interesting process it has been. It’s so good to know more about what your body reacts to, plus is was absolutely fascinating chatting to the nutritionist! I stored up a few general nutrition questions for her (that weren’t strictly related to my results) and she was more than happy to answer these. The customer service from York Test has been excellent too. So, if you’ve got a gut feeling that something isn’t right – I would 100% say to give the test ago. Find our more about the process at www.yorktest.com.
