Food intolerance

Food intolerance and food allergy get used interchangeably, and they’re different things.

An allergy is an immune response. It can come on within minutes and it can be dangerous.

An intolerance is difficulty digesting or processing a food. It’s uncomfortable rather than life-threatening. It’s usually dose-dependent — a little is fine, more isn’t — and the reaction is often delayed by hours, which is precisely what makes it so hard to identify by intuition.

How it shows up

Bloating, wind, abdominal discomfort, a change in bowel habit. Also fatigue, headaches, brain fog, skin changes and joint aches, which aren’t obviously digestive and so often don’t get connected to food at all.

Does it affect weight?

Indirectly. Intolerance affects digestion, how well you absorb what you eat, and fluid retention. Abdominal distension is frequently read as weight gain when it isn’t.

It’s rarely the whole story for weight that won’t shift, though — thyroid function, blood sugar regulation, sleep and stress all matter, and your naturopath will look at those too rather than pinning it on one food.

⚠ Get tested for coeliac disease before you cut out gluten

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition, not an intolerance, and testing looks for your immune response to gluten. If you’ve already removed it, the test can come back falsely negative. Speak to your GP first.

How your naturopath identifies triggers

With a proper history and a structured process, not a blanket elimination.

Where it’s clinically appropriate that may include pathology, a breath test for lactose or fructose malabsorption or SIBO, or microbiome testing. Some commercially advertised food intolerance tests — IgG food antibody panels in particular — are not supported for this purpose, and your naturopath will say so rather than sell you one.

Where elimination is used, it’s used with a reintroduction plan. The aim is a short list of your genuine triggers, not an indefinitely narrow diet.

Related: bloating, IBS, how digestion works.