FARMER'S wife Christine Alden has cured her irritable bowel syndrome by cutting out healthy foods.

Mother-of-three Mrs Alden, of Foggathorpe, near Selby, stopped eating lettuce, grapefruit, pineapple and cola drinks after tests at a York laboratory revealed she was allergic to them.

After suffering for three years, the problem disappeared within 10 days.

An amazed Mrs Alden, who lost a stone and dispensed with her prescription drugs, said: "I couldn't believe it. I thought lettuce and fruit juice were healthy, but they are among the top 25 foods that can make you ill.

"I eliminated the usual things like bread, wheat and milk, and tried different tablets but I got nowhere.

"Then I saw an article in the Evening Press about a laboratory in York which offered allergy tests, and since then I haven't looked back. I feel a lot, lot better".

The company that Mrs Alden contacted was York Nutritional Laboratory, whose research shows that some of the vegetables, beans and fruit we have been encouraged to eat can make us ill.

The company, set up 17 years ago, won a Department of Trade and Industry Smart award last year, and is using the prize to invest in further research into food sensitivity.

York Nutritional Laboratory director John Graham said sensitivity to lettuce was uncommon - but for someone like Mrs Alden, it had a major impact on her life.

He said: "I can't think of anyone I know who doesn't eat lettuce, and who doesn't assume it is healthy.

"For most people it is. Less than five per cent of cases have problems, but if you're that person, then cutting it out helps you a great deal".

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