Rebecca Seal

I think there is a really pervasive idea that food is medicine in our culture at the moment and that we can create somehow the perfect diet for our body and also in so doing achieve perfect health.

and that it's our individual responsibility to do so.

I also think that there is a healthcare void when it comes to food and nutrition and allergies and intolerances, and that can leave people feeling that they have to take matters into their own hands.

And the information that a lot of the tests provide seems very credible.

And I'm sad to say I spend a lot of time on Facebook groups for allergies and intolerances, correcting people who post pictures of their test results or their children's test results.

And I have to write underneath, I'm really sorry that you've spent this money and that you think you found some answers when you actually haven't.

The only way to work out whether you have an intolerance is to do an exclusion diet and then reintroduce the food.

And the reintroduction bit is really important because, again, we're not talking about allergies.

So you're not going to have a really severe life threatening reaction, albeit you might end up feeling a bit rough.

But it's really crucial to know whether that trigger food really is creating symptoms in your body because then you've got the opportunity to decide whether you want to have it in your life or not.

So you need to exclude the food for a number of weeks and then you need to try it again and just see how you feel.

But ideally, people who are struggling with gut symptoms would see a dietician or a gastroenterologist and they would be able to have a proper investigation and find out what's going on.

Because I think the other thing which is really dangerous about home health testing as a whole is that it can make us feel as though we've got a diagnosis when perhaps what's going on isn't a food intolerance and some other condition which could be better managed or maybe in itself quite dangerous isn't being looked after properly and hasn't been diagnosed or picked up.

Well, I think that is also a problem.

It's going to be quite rare, I would imagine, that you would get a result saying nothing because then you would say, well, what's the point of this test?

So I feel as though most of these tests will give you a result of some kind because that's kind of what they're in the market for doing.