Elimination Diet To Determine Food Sensitivities – This is the last article in a series of blogs I am writing about food sensitivities, allergies and intolerances.
In this post, I’ll teach you how to do an elimination diet to identify food sensitivities!
Elimination Diet To Determine Food Sensitivities
An elimination diet is a nutrient-dense diet that can help you fight fatigue, bloating, weight gain, indigestion, IBS, joint pain, headaches, eczema, and more. The diet is divided into an elimination phase, where the most common food triggers are avoided, followed by a reintroduction phase, where each food is tested one by one in your diet. If a food sensitivity is causing your symptoms, expect them to improve or resolve during the elimination phase of the diet. At that point, usually after 11-21 days, the stored foods can be reintroduced into your diet one at a time, monitoring which food(s) cause a recurrence of your symptoms. These foods that cause symptoms are your food sensitivities!
Best Food Sensitivity Tests
Although I have been in practice for years, I have found that completing an elimination diet is the most effective way to help my patients identify food sensitivities. Completing an elimination diet correctly can make all the difference to your health, giving you the first evidence that certain foods may be causing or contributing to your symptoms.
The food you enjoy eating on an elimination diet consists of foods rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. At the same time, avoid potentially flammable foods. It allows your body to balance hormones and ease inflammation while helping to correct nutritional deficiencies. Most people usually feel lighter, more energetic, and more vibrant within 10 days of starting the elimination phase of the diet! My patients often tell me that they feel “on a cloud” and have a sense of mental clarity, which has been going on for years.
At the time, I struggled with acne, eczema, anxiety and chronic sinus congestion. I have tried all the latest cleansers and peels to clear my skin, as well as herbs and various medications for my anxiety, but nothing seems to work.
My immune system was also struggling and I would get a few colds a year that would last for weeks. To make matters worse, even though I slept 8 hours every night, I was always so tired! Often the first thing I think about when I wake up each morning is that I’m going to go back to bed that night.
Elimination Diet: 45 Days Food Diary (6
I thought it was normal for people to experience these symptoms (at least to some extent) and that my bad skin was an unfortunate result of genetics. I also thought that brain fog and fatigue is what most people have to deal with. If I had slept that much in the morning, the line at Starbucks would have been long!
This was when I began my journey to become a naturopathic doctor. Among the many amazing things I learned in school, I especially started learning about food sensitivities. I resonated with many of the symptoms on the list….symptoms?
I was excited to find out that I had a food sensitivity, but I was also skeptical at first! For one, as a naturopathic doctor, I thought I ate smart. I’m also wondering, I’ve never heard of reactions like this before…could my diet have caused all the symptoms? It took me almost a WEEK to finally realize that it might be possible, during which I reluctantly started on an elimination diet.
For the first two weeks I avoided potential foods such as wheat, milk, eggs, soy, corn, citrus and nuts. I was hoping that some of my symptoms would improve during the elimination diet, but I doubted that would be the case for me. Needless to say, after two weeks my skin cleared up, my energy levels increased, I was surprised, but totally excited, and I didn’t experience the brain fog and chronic anxiety that I started experiencing. “Normal”!
Elimination Diets. [infographic] Could Giving Up Certain Foods Solve Your Health Problem?
My experience with the Transition Diet changed my life, showing me that simple changes in diet and nutrition can have a huge impact on our overall health and well-being. By customizing my diet, I have so much energy to do all the things I love in my life! My mind calmed down, my sugar cravings subsided, and I didn’t feel bloated or self-conscious about my puffy skin. As an added bonus, I lost almost 10 pounds in 2 weeks (almost all of which was bloat due to water retention and inflammation). It has improved my comfort and body confidence!
I think you can feel like in the last years while reading this blog post. You may feel tired and frustrated with your health, and you may also think that your symptoms are just a normal part of life. They don’t, and I’m here to help! Supplementing your diet is a great way to determine whether the foods in your diet are fueling or deceiving your body, and customizing your diet is the most effective way to improve health and your energy!
An elimination diet begins with an elimination phase where the most common food triggers are removed from your diet. During this phase, you will fuel your body with nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits, seeds, healthy fats, wild-caught fish, and lean meats (unless you are a vegetarian). The elimination phase helps your body slowly detoxify, clear inflammation, and correct nutritional deficiencies. In my experience, this is the fastest and most effective way to help my patients improve their overall health and energy!
I build the elimination phase for 11-21 days. This gives your body time to clear the inflammation and allow your chronic symptoms due to food sensitivities to subside. If you are feeling well by Day 11, you can move on to the reintroduction phase and try the previously eliminated foods. Otherwise, you should continue with the elimination phase until your symptoms are gone or mostly improved.
Is It A Food Allergy, Food Sensitivity, Food Intolerance Or Celiac Disease?
Most of my patients feel better within 11 days, especially if their main symptoms are fatigue, bloating and indigestion. If you have an autoimmune condition, chronic pain, or a skin condition like acne or eczema, it may take longer to see noticeable changes, and I recommend working for 21 days during the elimination phase.
After completing days 11-21 of the elimination phase and feeling great, it’s time to figure out what foods are holding you back! During the introduction phase, you will reintroduce foods from the diet. The goal is to strategically reintroduce foods that allow you to identify any adverse reactions you may experience to a specific food or food group.
During the reintroduction process, you will introduce a new food or food group every two or three days. Since food sensitivities are the result of a delayed immune response, this schedule will allow time to address symptoms that may arise from reactions to these foods. Moving too quickly during the introduction phase can lead to confusion about which foods are causing your symptoms.
Be patient and journal or check the foods you try and how you feel each day. Be aware of subtle symptoms such as headaches, fatigue and sinus congestion, all of which can be indicators of an overactive immune system. These symptoms, and others such as anxiety and muscle pain, are often overlooked or dismissed as unrelated when they are closely related to food sensitivities. Writing down your symptoms and energy levels will help you identify reactions or changes as you work to reintroduce foods.
An Overview Of The Acid Reflux Diet
If the elimination diet is done right, you’ll only need to complete the process once, and you’ll be providing valuable information about how food affects your health!
Below is a list of foods to eliminate and a recommended order to try them during the reintroduction phase of the diet:
During the elimination phase, you completely avoid the foods listed above. this is it
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