How do you test for food intolerances accurately?

[MarkKol]

Depending on the day I can feel horrible stomach acid, like a burning feeling in my stomach, although my acne is always present it's better or worse on some days. How healthy would it be to limit myself to only 3 foods per day, which are unlikely to cause any issues? and test from there slowly.

I think milk definitely causes this burning feeling, however, I'm unsure about eggs, meat, nuts, etc...

One food that I think relieves me of this pain is broccoli (this is all speculation based on prior experiences).

[Michael569]

Those symptoms resemble those of a heartburn fairly closely. I would start with a doctor's visit to verify that. 

If you suspect a bit of dairy intolerance, that can be a relatively simple or not-so-simple self-experiment, depending on how dairy-heavy your diet is and how available dairy free alternatives are to you. 2-3 weeks is a good period to aim for if you want to test removing all lactose-containing dairy. 

There are no great tests for non-IgE-mediated allergy. This means that for any immunological intolerance that is not directly allergy (e.g. milk allergy) that causes a spike in a marker called Immunoglobulin E, any tests done can produce false negatives / false positives.  

Also, IgG tests, hair analysis and anything else is generally highly unreliable for this so careful before you go down those routes. 

So try a gentle elimination and see what happens, but do visit the doctor, too,for that stomach burning just to make sure you are not ignoring something else. 

Edited February 29 by Michael569

[Jason Actualization]

2 hours ago, MarkKol said:

Depending on the day I can feel horrible stomach acid, like a burning feeling in my stomach, although my acne is always present it's better or worse on some days. How healthy would it be to limit myself to only 3 foods per day, which are unlikely to cause any issues? and test from there slowly.

I think milk definitely causes this burning feeling, however, I'm unsure about eggs, meat, nuts, etc...

One food that I think relieves me of this pain is broccoli (this is all speculation based on prior experiences).

Yes, the best way is empirically like you've laid out here. Red meat and white rice is the reset/elimination diet I recommend for most.

You can add back broccoli later if you wish, but for now, if it's relieving you of this pain, I would actually remove it just to help you better discern the specific food(s) that is giving rise to these issues.

Personally I drink 1 liter of whole milk daily, but MANY people have difficulties digesting it and would be fare far better if they went dairy-free.

I believe you will be able to quickly discover what is causing issues, i.e., within a few weeks, and thus don't need to concern yourself with micronutrient deficiencies in the short-term, but I am a strong proponent of intelligent/spot supplementation and feel strongly that optimal health hinges on such.

[Jason Actualization]

4 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

There are no great tests for non-IgE-mediated allergy. This means that for any immunological intolerance that is not directly allergy (e.g. milk allergy) that causes a spike in a marker called Immunoglobulin E, any tests done can produce false negatives / false positives.  

Also, IgG tests, hair analysis and anything else is generally highly unreliable for this so careful before you go down those routes.  else. 

100%. Some folks put way too much stock into these tests, and they are notoriously unreliable. In this case it's best not to outsource your firsthand experience and to ascertain your intolerances entirely empirically (you are more in tune with your body than anyone alive).

[Michael569]

Just now, Jason Actualization said:

In this case it's best not to outsource your firsthand experience and to ascertain your intolerances entirely empirically

I agree. At least in case of suspected lactose intolerance since the available tests are almost as good as none.