Perhaps it’s part of getting older, but my own wellness has preoccupied my thoughts more and more over the past few years. I know I’m not alone in that.
Now that I’m a mother, my health has become even more important to me, particularly because we all know how essential quality sleep is for our physical and mental health. And good sleep is just a pipe dream these days…
Ironically, having a baby means I have less time and energy to dedicate to the pursuit of wellness.
So I focus on the things that truly work.
As much as I’d love to have time for daily gua sha, yoga and mindfulness, it’s just not possible.
There is a simple way to feel better, and that’s eating right. By that I mean eating right for you.
Have you ever wondered whether you might be intolerant to a certain food?
I’m not one for cutting out entire food groups or denying myself the little pleasures in life, but I am conscious that there could be a food I eat regularly that doesn’t actually agree with me.
So, hoping to learn more about my own gut and find out if there’s a snack I can swap for something that doesn’t make me feel bloated and lethargic, I ordered a Premium Food Intolerance Test from YorkTest.
YorkTest is a leading health and wellness company with 40 years of experience in home-to-lab food allergy and sensitivity testing.
They have a package called the ‘Couples Food Intolerance Bundle’, so I seized the opportunity to help my husband feel better too. I’ve been nagging him for years about getting tested for any sensitivities, but it’s just not something he’d go to the doctor for.
I think we also avoid going to the doctor with anything that we perceive might be a waste of their time, with the NHS being the way it is.
That’s why it’s great to be able to do these things at home ourselves, with the assurance that the test is legit and will be dealt with in a professional lab.
The Couples Bundle is priced at £329 and delivery is free, with ‘no social interaction required’. Bonus!
How to do a YorkTest at home
The bundle arrived quickly in a surprisingly compact package. It includes:
- prepaid return envelope (UK & Ireland only)
- Two single-use lancets
- One absorbent wand
- One absorbent wand container
- One adhesive plaster
- A cleansing wipe
You simply set up an account and register your test kit, then take your own pin prick test at home and send it back in the pre-paid envelope that’s provided in the test kit.
I received an email to confirm the lab had received my sample, and was able to track the progress of my test on my Wellness Hub account.
How it works
The food and drink intolerance test analyses your IgG antibody responses to 200 food and drinks and measures all four subtypes of food-specific IgG. This makes it more comprehensive than other tests on the market.
The analysis is carried out by fully-accredited laboratory technicians and your Reactivity values are presented in an easy-to-read traffic light format.
The results come with a guidebook that explains how to book your free 30-minute consultation with a nutritional therapist, and if you decide to alter your diet based on your results you can then track your progress alongside a food and drinks diary.
Our results
I was so pleased to find out that none of the food and drinks were flagged as high reactivity or even borderline activity!
I did appreciate that in addition to presenting the results using a traffic light system, YorkTest also gives each food a score.
So I can see that for me, Wheat had the highest level of reactivity, with a score of 11 (but it was still within the normal range).
Does this mean I’ll give up wheat? No. But it does mean that if I feel particularly rubbish, I’ll know I might have been eating too much of it.
I’ve previously suspected I might be intolerant to cow’s milk because I was struggling with acne, so the results put my mind to rest about that.
I was also glad to see that some of my favourite wine varieties weren’t an issue for me!
YorkTest gives you a really simple way to find out more about your health and I’d definitely recommend the tests we did to anyone eager to learn more about their bodies.
