York Test

[ant]

Dear Friends

My doctor has been taking various blood tests on me and one was a "food intolerance test" called a "York Test" from a company branded "FoodScan - Food Intolerance Testing". Is anyone familiar with this? It does not check for IgE but IgG. It divided the results into "Avoid", "Rotate" and "No Reaction".

Most of the food I have been avoiding ended up in the "No Reaction" box. So far logical...

The following that I have been eating were also in "No Reaction" box......Rice, all meats, fish and shellfish, Coconut, Hazelnut, Walnut, Cranberry, Lemon, Lime, Olive, Cinnamon, Clove, Garlic, Parsley, Asparagus, Carrot, Celery, Mushroom, Onion, Potato, Spinach, Tea.... So IF I believe these tests they are OK.

The tests claimed to show I react a bit (recommendation "Rotate") to Coriander, Cumin and Dill which I have eaten. They also show I react a bit to Peanuts, Lentils, which I have not to my knowledge eaten in many months.

The "Avoid" box showed I was intolerant to Broccoli, Brussell Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Almond, Brazil Nut and Yeats (brewers and bakers) which I have been eating (the yeast because of wine I think). But also I apparently react to Buckwheat, Cashew Nut, and Pear which I have not to my knowledge eaten for many months.

My question is does anyone have a view on if I should I pay any attention to these tests?:abduct:

Many thanks and all the best, Ant

[Polly]

Hi Ant,

I have no personal or professional knowledge of the York test. Probably around here Mary Beth might be the most knowledgeable. I'm sure she'll pop in to comment.

It's interesting that most of your results "ring true". Because of this, the tests may have some validity, I think. It might be interesting to try to eliminate those foods in the "avoid" box for a while to see if you notice any difference. BTW, didn't they test for wheat/gluten or dairy?

Aaaaaah, though, the "hooker" is the wine (yeast). I think I enjoy wine as much as you do, and even though my original test with Dr. Fine showed a yeast intolerance, I have continued to drink dry, red wine without difficulty. I do not eat yeast from any other source. I was searching on the internet for yeast-free wines (apparently there is no such thing) but found this article, which you may find interesting (from WineMaker magazine):


Yeast-free wine?
I am a wine lover, but unfortunately I have an intolerance to yeast. Is there a yeast-free or low-yeast wine?

John
via email

Though I’m no medical doctor (I limit myself to diagnosing and treating troubled wines), I hope I can give you some yeast-related information to discuss with your personal physician. As all wine is created by yeast (that’s the definition of a fermented alcoholic beverage), there’s no such thing as a wine that’s never been touched by yeast. That’s why I’m curious to know what you are truly intolerant of; is it the yeast cells themselves or a byproduct of fermentation? If it is the former, you might be able to tolerate wines that have been sterile filtered, that is, passed through an 0.45 micron membrane before being bottled. The tight pore size of the filter membrane will exclude most yeast cells and keep them from passing into the finished bottle of wine. If you are intolerant of a specific by-product of fermentation like a type of amino acid (too small to be filtered out) I’d have a hard time recommending specific products for you to try unless I knew for sure what the true culprit was.

The good news is that most wines that you can buy off the supermarket shelf don’t contain a lot of yeast cells; if they did, the wines would look cloudy and might even re-ferment in the bottle. Large commercial-scale wineries work hard to ensure that their wines get to market with little or no yeast cells; zero viable cells per bottle is the goal. Commercial white wines, especially those styles that don’t go through a malolactic fermentation (where helpful bacteria eat natural malic acid in grapes and turn it into lactic acid), will almost always be sterile filtered. This is because residual malic acid is a tempting treat for any ambient bacteria that would be abundant in unfiltered wine.

If you are trying to avoid yeast cells in your beverages, you probably should stay away from homemade wine unless you can guarantee that it’s been sterile filtered. I would also avoid homemade Champagne-style wines and beers that have been re-fermented in their serving bottles to get their final fizz. Just because a product can be bought off the shelf doesn’t mean it’s always been sterile filtered, however. Do be careful because some commercial beers, microbrews and, I would suspect, even some commercially available sparkling wines, use the word “unfiltered” as a selling point and could possibly contain hundreds of yeast cells (or none at all) per bottle. Similarly, some commercial wine producers, especially those that make expensive red wines, don’t filter their wines either and they have a higher likelihood of going into the bottle with higher levels of yeast cells than any sterile-filtered wines.

Perhaps the best piece of advice I can give you is to ask the manufacturer and discuss the situation with your doctor. If you live in a wine-producing region you may be able to develop a relationship with a local vintner or two that can give you the details about their production methods. Though I would bet that most nationally-distributed white wines are sterile filtered (due to higher quality filtration techniques available, even many reds are these days), it’s tough to get a hold of those guys to double-check.

I encourage you to discuss my response with your doctor and see if drinking sterile-filtered wines, and therefore ingesting fewer yeast cells, would be allowable in your condition.

Love,

Polly

[ant]

Dear Polly,

That is fascinating about the wine.

The test did test for gluten, diary, eggs, legumes etc. etc..... and they were all in the 'No reaction' box. Which meant according to the test I could eat them!! But then my doctor pointed out quite correctly that the reason for 'no reaction' was because I had not been eating them. I think the test can only have relevance for foods I have been eating.

So, I am wondering how I could have a "reaction" to foods like pear, which I have also not been eating.

Love, Ant

[tex]

So, I am wondering how I could have a "reaction" to foods like pear, which I have also not been eating.

That's probably just an example of the "false positive" problem with that type of blood test. However, are you aware that a lot of other fruit is preserved in pear juice, or pear syrup? It might be possible that you have been ingesting it that way, but usually, that will be listed on the label.

Tex

[Syl]

About 10-15 years ago I had a doctor that had "alternative" ideas about health. He and his wife were both doctors in a smallish clinic in MN. He was determined that my body was full of yeast and detoxed me of yeast, by taking medicine in a decreasing amount over several weeks. Another of his interests was food intolerance. He did a blood test which he sent in to ?? and it came back with a list of foods and were rated numerically. I believe I remember IGG was mentioned. Highest on the list was egg whites at a "6" while the yolks were only a "3". Next highest was bananas at "4", tea at "3", clams at "4", pears at "4". The rest of the list had lower values. All he said was eliminate eggs and bananas. I rarely have pears, and don't eat clams at all. Now, bananas have always given me heartburn, and eggs seem to come thru looking like...eggs, just as they entered, undigested. Don't know the name of the test, but my only sibling, younger sister had the same test and came out with eggs and bananas, also. My mom always said she could not eat bananas without big trouble. Interesting...Sylvia