Nutrition & Food Science

Purpose – To provide evidence that elimination diet based on food-specific IgG test results is an effective, reliable and valid aid to the management of chronic medical conditions.

Design/methodology/approach – A postal survey, commissioned by Allergy UK, was carried out with 5,286 subjects reporting a wide range of chronic medical conditions, who had taken a food-specific IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay blood test. Questionnaires, issued three months after the results, were analysed to investigate the effect of eliminating the foods identified by the test. To check for response bias, a separate group of patients who had not responded were interviewed by telephone. The analysis and reporting of the data was carried out at the University of York.

Findings – Of patients who rigorously followed the diet 75.8 per cent had a noticeable improvement in their condition. Of patients who benefited from following the recommendations 68.2 per cent felt the benefit within three weeks. Those who reported more than one condition were more likely to report noticeable improvement. 81.5 per cent of those that dieted rigorously and reported three or more co-morbidities showed noticeable improvement in their condition. For those who dieted rigorously and reported high benefit, 92.3 per cent noticed a return of symptoms on reintroduction of the offending foods.

Originality/value – These data provide evidence for the use of elimination diet based on food-specific IgG blood test results as an aid to management of the symptoms of a range of chronic medical conditions.