What is a food intolerance, and how do you know if you have one?

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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