Allergen & Intolerance Tracking

mySymptoms, Cara Care, FoodMarble, Cronometer flags — log food + symptoms, trace IBS / allergy / intolerance triggers.

The "what's making me feel bad?" page. For nutrition tracking generally see Nutrition Tracking — Cronometer & MyFitnessPal; for diet-specific apps (low-FODMAP, GF) see Diet-Specific Apps; for substitutions when avoiding allergens see Ingredient Substitutions; for the open allergen labels behind barcode lookup see Food Databases & Open Food Facts; for food safety reference see Food Safety & Dating.

Symptom + food correlation apps

★ mySymptoms Food & Symptom Tracker — paid (~$5 one-time, premium ~$30/yr); the most thorough trigger-correlation engine; logs food + ingredients + symptoms over a window; statistical correlation report. Indie; sustainable. The right pick if you'll track for ≥6 weeks.
- https://mysymptoms.net
★ Cara Care — paid + free; IBS / GI-flavored; symptom + food + stress + bowel-movement log; recommended by GI clinicians; coaching tier.
Bowelle — paid + free; IBS-flavored; basic.
MySymptoms Lite / similar — varying free clones; less rigorous.
Food Diary by MyNetDiary — paid + free; nutrition-tracker-flavored with symptom field.
Spoonie Day (chronic illness flavored) — free; broader symptom log.

★ ★ Monash University FODMAP Diet — paid (~$10 one-time); from the team that invented the FODMAP system; gold-standard ingredient ratings (low / medium / high FODMAP per food per serving size). Worth every cent for IBS sufferers.
- https://www.monashfodmap.com
FODMAP Friendly — paid; rival rating program; smaller DB.
Cara Care FODMAP mode — paid; integrates symptom log with FODMAP filtering.
Spoonful — paid + free; barcode-scan; FODMAP / GF / vegan flagging.

★ FoodMarble AIRE — paid (~$200 + $10/mo subscription); breath-hydrogen / methane testing for FODMAP fermentation; consumer-grade; clinician-validated. The right pick if you want objective trigger detection without a clinical SIBO breath test.
- https://foodmarble.com
AIRE 2 — newer; combined H2 + CH4.
Mainstream SIBO breath testing — paid clinical; gold standard but you do it once, not weekly.

★ Open Food Facts mobile app — free; the right call for barcode-scan allergen lookup; flags gluten, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, sesame plus EU's celery / mustard / lupin / molluscs / sulphites. CC0 data. See Food Databases & Open Food Facts.
Yuka — paid + free; opinionated rating with allergen flag.
Spoonful — paid + free; allergen + diet flagging.
Find Me Gluten Free — paid + free; restaurant-finder for celiac / GF; user reviews. See Diet-Specific Apps.
AllergyEats — paid + free; broader allergen restaurant finder.
Spokin — paid + free; allergen-friendly restaurant + product community.
Gluten Free Scanner / IsItVegan — paid + free; same shape, narrower scope.

Allergy Force — paid + free; family-flavored; emergency action plans; epinephrine reminders.
AllergyHome — non-profit; free education + checklists.
Snack Safely — non-profit; allergen-conscious product directory; free.

Cronometer custom allergen tags — paid Gold; you flag your allergens once, the tracker warns on log.
MyFitnessPal — has allergen warnings on branded entries (depends on entry).
Mealie / Tandoor — recipe-level allergen tagging; works at home.

★ 6-week elimination + reintroduction, not random "I think wheat hurts me." This is the protocol your GI clinician will recommend.
★ Log ingredients, not just dishes. "Pasta with pesto" doesn't tell you garlic vs basil vs pine nuts. mySymptoms is the only mainstream app that pushes this.
Time-of-day matters. Many GI symptoms lag 2–8 hours; some apps capture this, most don't.
Stress + sleep are confounds. Cara Care logs them alongside; useful.
Talk to a GI / allergist. Apps inform; they don't diagnose.

★ Mealie tagged + a paper symptom journal — works fine for most.
Notion / Airtable database with food + symptoms columns — surprisingly effective.
Cronometer + a daily habit-tracker for symptoms (Habitica / Loop) — see Self-Hosted Personal Apps.
Pandas notebook — for the curious; ingredient-frequency vs symptom-occurrence correlation.

★ Don't self-diagnose celiac / IgE allergy. Get tested. Self-elimination obscures the celiac diagnostic test.
Histamine intolerance is real but over-diagnosed. The blood-test for DAO is unreliable; trial elimination only with a clinician.
Probiotic / FMT hype is mostly hype. Some IBS-D / IBS-C subtypes respond; many don't.
The "leaky gut" framework is fuzzy; useful as an idea, weak as a clinical lens.
Food intolerance ≠ allergy. Allergy is IgE-mediated and life-threatening; intolerance is digestive.
Stress / sleep / hydration account for more GI variance than most foods. Track those alongside.
Restaurant disclosure is legally regulated; carry an EpiPen if anaphylaxis is on the table.