When people note mysterious reactions to foods, this can cause individuals to create false intolerance rules that result in the individual unnecessarily avoiding or eating certain foods.

The individual will often think of many different theories why they may have had a reaction to the food. These theories are often wrong and can sometimes appear to be very strange and illogical to outsiders, though they may have apparent internal consistency to the sufferer.

Examples of false intolerance rules:

• Hypoglycaemic reactions resulting in individuals avoiding all carbohydrates. Salicylates, amines and glutamates all disturb blood sugar levels and individuals are usually able to eat carbohydrates again when they are on the failsafe diet.
• Reactions to cheese being blamed on casein intolerance, when in fact it is amine/glutamate intolerance.
• Reactions to fermented foods resulting in individuals believing they are "yeast intolerant" or have Candida, when in fact they are reacting to amines/glutamates.
• Reactions to chocolate or sweets/candy being blamed on sugar, when the problem is amines or additives.
• Reactions to bread being blamed on gluten intolerance, when in fact it is intolerance of the common bread preservative, calcium propionate, E282.
• Reactions to sourdough bread being blamed on gluten intolerance, when in fact it is intolerance ofamines/glutamates.
• Reactions to wine, beer and alcopops, blamed on the alcohol content when the problem may be sulphites, salicylates and SLAs, or amines and glutamates.
• Reactions to a wide variety of foods blamed on the vitamin or mineral content of the food, such as cravings for bread or oats being blamed on a "manganese deficiency" when the problem is addiction to opioid-like peptides, or reactions to fermented foods being blamed on "vitamin K deficiency" when the problem is amines/glutamates.
• Reactions to fermented foods or vegetable juices being described as "detoxification" or "Herxheimer" reactions when the problem is amines/glutamates or salicylates and SLAs.