The latest “diet” doing the rounds is the Elimination Diet. The word “Diet” has always brought to mind all the foods you will have to give up for your health, and the Elimination Diet is no different. The key difference being that this diet has as its focus not weight loss, but an alleviation in symptoms that cause unpleasant health conditions and metabolic irregularities. Like they say, knowledge is everything. And now, as more and more people become health-conscious and self-aware, the elimination diet is becoming the go-to solution for everything from headaches to metabolic issues and seasonal allergies to chronic ailments.
So what exactly is the Elimination Diet? Simply put, this diet aims at eliminating trigger foods and allergens that cause adverse reactions in the first place, leading to inflammation inside the body and subsequent issues. While all people don’t necessarily suffer from ingesting these trigger foods, an elimination diet is probably the best solution if nothing else has worked for you.
Common Trigger Foods/Allergens
Not all foods cause food intolerances in everyone, but some signs are too obvious to ignore. For instance, gluten intolerance might seem more of a fad than an actual good reason to say no to gluten, but more and more people are being diagnosed with celiac disease and gluten intolerance than ever before. Perhaps there wasn’t enough scientific evidence/history to diagnose correctly twenty years ago, but gluten intolerance can bring on some severe responses because gluten-intolerant digestive systems can treat it as a hostile organism. Some of the other most common allergens are dairy, eggs, shellfish, sugar and simple sugars, tree nuts like almond and coconut, plant nuts like peanuts, alcohol, mustard, lentils, beans, and berries. Ingestion of these foods, if unaware of an inherent intolerance, can even lead to anaphylactic shock in some cases.
Some of the common side effects include chronic carb intolerance, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, joint pain, lethargy, rashes, sleeplessness, general malaise, chronic inflammation, leading to a horde of conditions like type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, arthritis, respiratory illnesses, digestive irregularities like ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome, affinity for visceral fat, water retention, bloating, to mention just a few. Most common side effects are metabolic syndrome related issues like diabesity, chronic respiratory ailments, and chronic fatigue.
Elimination Diet: The How to and the When
The elimination diet is not a fad diet. If you suspect that your body is reacting adversely to certain trigger foods, but are unsure of what they might be, the elimination diet might well be helpful to you. How this works is when your body or system is constantly ingesting these foods, it produces anti-bodies in response, which in turn cause the adverse reaction. For the elimination diet to work, doctors recommend identifying possible triggers and depriving the body of that food for at least four to eight weeks so the body learns to not produce those anti-bodies. After a few weeks of not being subjected to trigger foods, you can reintroduce the food or ingredient in small quantities to see how your body reacts. You can do this for more than one food that you suspect, but your body will need a window of at least a few weeks to respond decisively. Some of the ways in which your body begins to heal itself is sustained weight loss, increase in insulin sensitivity, lower body fat percentage, fewer occurrences of headache and joint pain, reduced exposure to infections, etc.
Keep in mind that not all trigger foods and allergens bother everyone. Any adverse reaction that you note could be a one-time affair. Staying in intimate communication with your body is key here. Your body will always let you know when it is uncomfortable in any way. We tend to think of these as symptoms for which seek symptomatic treatment sometimes. But if such symptoms persist, then there is a good chance that it is on its way to becoming chronic, and could be triggered by an allergen. Try not to self-diagnose. Work with a nutritionist or a dietitian to figure out what could be triggering your body, and then carefully follow the protocol that she recommends. Make a plan – meal plans, shopping plans, weekly food lists, what have you. And then, most importantly, maintain a food chart, and keep an active record of how your body feels each day. You will be able to connect the dots between foods and reactions that way. This kind of a diet requires commitment and focus, but if you genuinely have food intolerances, it will be well worth it.
