An elimination diet offers an easy, empowerment method of identifying what uniquely occurring foods might be contributing to your symptoms, and it may enable you to restore your health with efficiency and economics. Elimination diets help you identify what foods are causing your uncomfortable symptoms, so that you can eliminate them from your diet.
An elimination diet, which involves cutting certain foods from your diet and then introducing them back in slowly to determine troublemakers, can give clarity about what foods are causing your discomfort.
Generally, you want to completely avoid the common foods known to trigger sensitivities, and then introduce eliminated foods back into your diet one food at a time. The process involves completely avoiding potentially reacting foods for several weeks, and then reintroducing these eliminated foods back into the diet one at a time to determine whether or not they are producing reactions in your body. Rather, the goal is to remove all of the foods listed above, and then gradually introduce them back into your diet, one at a time, so that you can monitor for symptoms.
You are not eliminating all of these foods from your diet permanently, but you need to eliminate them over a period of enough time that your body responds. Instead of eliminating these foods, you might just want to cook them differently and/or introduce them slowly so that there is enough time for your digestive tract to adapt.
The first stage of the elimination diet involves eliminating all forms of a suspected food (or food group) from your diet, including cooked, uncooked, and protein-derived products, says Mori. Elimination diets call for you to eliminate groups of foods, or specific foods, most often known to cause food sensitivities and digestive problems, and aggravate symptoms related to autoimmune disorders or other health conditions.
As per a report with Dr. Suzanna Ivanovics, naturopath at Satori Health & Wellness in Toronto, whether an elimination diet is right for you or not, he stated “an elimination diet involves avoiding foods that may trigger inflammation for a few weeks in order to determine if a food intolerance or sensitivity is present (these are milder than allergies, and symptoms can develop in four to 72 hours).”
Typically done under the direction of an registered dietitian or primary care practitioner specializing in integrative medicine, an elimination diet eliminates antigenic foods, which are foods found to trigger immune reactions in some people, says Heidi Turner. Based on your symptoms, the doctor or dietitian can identify what foods are likely your trigger foods, creating a personalized elimination diet plan designed to achieve results with as little hardship as possible for you.
The elimination diet has gained in popularity lately as a way of pinpointing possible dietary problems, including allergies, intolerances, and triggers of bothersome symptoms–from bloating, joint pain, and fatigue to skin problems such as eczema.
Today, elimination diets are a staple for many doctors and nutritionists, as studies have found food allergies or sensitivities can be linked with a wide range of health issues and symptoms, particularly autoimmune diseases and digestive problems, hormone issues, headaches, migraines, and others.