40% of the planet's inhabitants have some type of gastrointestinal problem.
This was the conclusion of a recent analysis by an international team of scientists who collected data from 73,000 people in 33 countries on six continents.
Obviously, the severity of those problems varies a lot, but it suggests that a large part of the population feels that, at some point, their guts could work better.
Some find relief from their ailments thanks to medicine, but many do not find the reason for their discomfort, and whenever someone has an unresolved problem, there are those who sell them a solution, even if they do not have it.
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The prevalence of digestive discomfort is behind the success of some solutions with little scientific support, such as many of the food sensitivity tests, analyzes often announced through social networks and that can even be done at home, and that promise to detect the foods that are causing us annoying symptoms with uncertain origin.
This type of test, which is sold for prices that are usually between 100 and 200 euros, supposedly identifies a series of foods to which our body is especially sensitive and that may be causing problems.
Some simply require taking a hair or blood sample at home, by pricking a finger, and then sending it to a laboratory for analysis.
Montserrat Fernández Rivas, head of the Allergy service at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid, warns that "there is no scientific evidence" for these food sensitivity tests that can identify which ones are harmful to us and should be removed from our diet.
“Food sensitivity is not any type of diagnosis, it is an invention;
a concept that has been successful among the general population, especially among those with chronic digestive discomfort due to functional disorders of the intestine.
And some opportunists make a business out of it,” she explains.
According to Fernández Rivas, the results of these tests "have no relation to food tolerance."
Miguel Ángel Martínez Olmos, a member of the Nutrition Area of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), does not believe in the usefulness of these tests either: “They appeared a few years ago and supposedly detected food intolerances, and even promised to be useful to find the cause of chronic disorders such as migraine, irritable bowel or obesity”, he recalls.
"All the scientific societies of allergology and immunology, and also those of nutrition, reject the use of these so-called food intolerance tests", he adds.
The results they offer, in the opinion of Martínez Olmos, "condition people to submit to strict diets that can put their health at risk."
Gastrointestinal problems, however, are real and can be solved, although some distinctions must be made.
On the one hand, there are allergic reactions to certain foods, uncontrolled reactions of the immune system to some substances that can cause serious damage and even death with very small amounts of the allergen.
For this type of reaction to food, "there are very good and precise tests," says Alfredo Martínez, director of the Precision Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Health Program at the IMDEA Food Institute in Madrid.
“Food sensitivity is not any type of diagnosis, it is an invention”
Montserrat Fernández Rivas, head of the Allergy service at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid
Food intolerances, such as those suffered by celiacs due to an autoimmune reaction caused by gluten, or those intolerant to lactose due to a lack of the gene that produces the enzyme that allows milk to be properly digested, are something different and that produce progressive damage and greater depending on the amount of food consumed.
Although some food intolerance tests measure IgG, famous during the pandemic for indicating whether the covid had passed, to identify an immune response to some foods, studies have not shown that the data they offer help identify food intolerances and are not the result of a normal reaction of the immune system.
In the case of these intolerances, Martínez explains, “there are tests that are well defined and others that are not so well defined,
although there are people on the market who mix the concepts of allergies and intolerances”.
To know the difference, the scientist recommends “turning to specialists.
There is information on precision nutrition based on allergy tests, and genetic tests, which are used to detect some intolerances, and which must be complemented with other determinations of body composition, biochemical and phenotypic”, he explains.
In any case, these tests must be “exhaustive”, says Martínez, to be able to prescribe or withdraw specific foods”, he continues.
and that must be complemented with other determinations of body composition, biochemical and phenotypic”, he explains.
In any case, these tests must be “exhaustive”, says Martínez, to be able to prescribe or withdraw specific foods”, he continues.
and that must be complemented with other determinations of body composition, biochemical and phenotypic”, he explains.
In any case, these tests must be “exhaustive”, says Martínez, to be able to prescribe or withdraw specific foods”, he continues.
Together with some breath tests, such as those that can identify lactose intolerance, or some tests for gluten intolerance, in general, "the only reliable method for diagnosing food intolerances is the detailed collection of information by part of the patient, including what foods are eaten and the symptoms that appear”, indicates Martínez Olmos.
"Once the suspected food is identified, you can try to confirm the intolerance with a specific test, if any, such as hydrogen breath after taking lactose," he adds.
But the best approach, he concludes, "is to exclude the food from the diet and see if the symptoms go away."
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