Fiona Walthall

“I am more knowledgeable about how my body reacts to things”

70-year-old retiree Fiona Walthall had been suffering with digestive issues for most of her life with recurrent symptoms that ranged from flatulence to loose bowels and constipation.

She explained how these symptoms had affected her during this time, “I experienced a nervousness about going out for a walk, and the need to use panty pads most of the time. I needed to keep my walks shorter and I was worried when out shopping with friends so I probably restricted my activities a bit.”

Fiona had first learned about YorkTest through a course she was attending in the early 2000s and had used the food intolerance service a number of times since. “I first used YorkTest Laboratories in 2003.  I think it was mentioned in the course material for my course on Nutritional Medicine with the Plaskett School of Nutritional Medicine. I was generally experimenting with all the tools mentioned in the course.” Fiona was reminded about YorkTest again recently from her builder who was having digestive problems and a friend of his recommend he try YorkTest.

After taking a Premium Food Sensitivity Test, Fiona found she had high IgG reactivity to egg white and medium reactivity to peanuts and cow’s milk. After eliminating her trigger ingredients, her digestive issues began to take a turn for the better. “My bowels are now regular, of good consistency, and I have much less wind. I feel a lot better.”

Talking about her experience with trying to eliminate multiple foods from her diet, Fiona said, “I decided to tackle all three intolerances rigorously in the hope of getting rid of them. I completely stopped eating peanuts and changed to other nuts and almond butter. I cut out cow’s milk completely, trying all the different milk alternatives, landing on oat milk. I now eat Sheep or Goat’s cheese and coconut or soya yoghurt till recently when I found out I couldn’t face soya yoghurt any more. I also cut out eggs completely, even in cooking.”

Fiona continues to follow her diet plan, “I have, although just in the last couple of days, I decided to relax my diet and start reintroducing things gently.”

YorkTest analyses your IgG reactions to 200 food and drinks – from common ingredients like cow’s milk, gluten and egg, to health superfoods like kale and quinoa.

The process, which involves sending a finger-prick blood sample to the company’s laboratories revealed Fiona’s intolerances. Following on from the test, we asked Fiona how she found the customer service experience to which she replied: “always polite and helpful”

When asked to sum up her whole experience with YorkTest, Fiona concluded: “Healthwise I am more knowledgeable about how my body reacts to things, and I know that I can reach a state of ease in my digestive system if I am prepared to put in the effort. I do feel more healthy.”