
What is a food intolerance, and how do you know if you have one?
From Science Weekly by Guardian
April 28, 2026 · 18 min
About this episode
The episode explores food intolerances, their symptoms, and the science behind at-home testing with health journalist Rebecca Seal.
Social media is awash with content about food intolerances and the symptoms to look out for. But figuring out whether you actually have one, and what’s triggering it, is surprisingly difficult. One avenue people are gravitating towards is at-home testing. Madeleine Finlay sits down with health and lifestyle journalist Rebecca Seal to unpick the science behind these tests. Rebecca explains how they purport to work, how accurate they actually are, and how we can all investigate what we might be intolerant to, without breaking the bank. Rebecca’s book Irritated: The Allergy Epidemic and What We Can Do About It, is out now.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
People in this episode
Host: Madeleine Finlay
Guest: Rebecca Seal
Topics covered
- food intolerance
- health
- at-home testing
- symptoms
- nutrition
Keywords
- food intolerance
- symptoms
- at-home testing
- health
- nutrition
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Guardian
Books & works: Irritated: The Allergy Epidemic and What We Can Do About It
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