In the UK, scepticism about food intolerance as a specific condition influenced doctors' perceptions of patients and of the patients' underlying problems. However, rather than risk damaging the doctor-patient relationship, general practitioners (GPs) chose - despite their scepticism and guided by an element of awareness of the limitations of modern medicine - to negotiate mutually acceptable ground with patients and with patients' beliefs. As a result, whether due to a placebo effect, a secondary benefit, or a biophysical result of excluding a food from the diet, the GPs acknowledge both personal and therapeutic benefits.[1]