Accuracy in intolerance/allergy diagnosis

I've read that one should not avoid certain food unless there's an official medical diagnosis. Can the regular skin prick test (administered by doctor referred allergist) be trusted? Are there any other tests that should be done to confirm the diagnosis? Is the elimination diet worth trying?

I've had skin issues my whole life, and the triggers have changed over time. Some were more obvious than others, like serious hives/rashes/dermatitis either immediate or after prolonged exposures. While some skin reactions were smaller (relatively) and who knows what the cause could have been,  the food I'd just eaten, ate a few hours ago, or even non food related like dust mite or stress.

My skin prick test returned negative for the food that had triggered serious symptoms (more than once). Meanwhile, observing symptoms throughout daily life seems to be just as unreliable.

Hi,

I don't know too much and I'm not sure I'll really answer your questions but I know that food allergies and food immunoreactivities are different things. Skin prick tests will test (reliably or not, thoroughly or not, I don't know) for food allergies. Your test might have come back negative for allergies, but you might have immonureactivity to certain foods. I don't really know how to test for that, though.

For practical purposes though, that you're allergic or whatever doesn't matter as you just end up having to stop eating the culprit. In that regard, I'd say an elimination diet can be worth it if you have a good protocol to follow and you're serious about it. I mean it can't hurt anyway, but it might suck.

I guess the protocol would be, follow Thrive guidelines, do my best to rotate through variety of good foods for each categories to minimize risk of developing new intolerance. In addition to removing foods that cause serious reactions, slowly eliminate all the bad foods mentioned in Thrive, and see if that lessens skin reactions. Adopt elimination diet as last resort.

One of my friends did an elimination diet and found it very helpful--she identified one food that was the underlying culprit of her issues. 

It's not that intense, so if you find you're still having flare ups after Thrive, you could do the elimination diet and then go back to Thrive (without the trigger foods).