Food Elimination Diet

[Wahine]

Hi ladies!

I'm thinking of trying a food elimination diet to weed out food allergies/sensitivities. I've been looking around on line and there are about a million options out there.

My main concern is trying to decrease allergens in my life. My environmental allergies seem to be getting worse and my outdoor lifestyle isn't really conducive to avoiding pollen so I'm trying to eliminate other aggravating factors in the hope that it will help to decrease my overall reactivity to things.

Anyone have suggestions on a step by step elimination diet that you have tried that worked for you?

TIA.

[OakLeaf]

Well, the step by step part is the reintroduction. You have to eliminate all allergens to start with, to be able to identify a reaction if you have one.

Keep a diet and symptom diary, and start it about a week BEFORE you start your challenge, eating the way you normally do. Write down everything you eat and every symptom you have, whether or not you think it's allergy-related - include the time you eat each food and the time of onset and duration of symptoms. Be aware that once you start reintroducing allergens, you won't necessarily show a reaction right away - you might wake up the next morning with your face a little more edematous than usual, or your resting heart rate might be a little higher, just as an example. I think if you don't react within a day or two, you're good to reintroduce the next candidate.

Since any time you have a reaction you'll have to take another 4-5 days to clean out, it's best to reintroduce the foods you most strongly suspect last. Start by reintroducing things you don't really suspect (for example, you might reintroduce grains in order of their allergenicity - wild rice, regular rice, and millet early on; wheat, corn and rye late in your challenge).

The hardest part is eliminating trace amounts of things that could throw your challenge off. You'll have to prepare everything you eat during your challenge and really be aware of your ingredients. Vinegars are fermented with yeasts, soy sauce and miso are fermented with molds, so those get eliminated to begin with and probably shouldn't get reintroduced until late. Chili peppers are from the nightshade family, so those get eliminated along with actual nightshade foods like potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant. Lots of thin-skinned fruits like grapes and plums have natural yeasts on their skins, and any prepared fruit product like jam or juice is likely to be contaminated with trace yeasts and molds. Basically, for the initial elimination period you don't get a lot of seasonings (most herbs are probably cool, but be aware what family they're from). Protein-wise you'll need to eliminate soy, seitan (wheat gluten), dairy products, and eggs, as well as shellfish. You'll be getting your carbs from hypoallergenic vegetables and fruits, and the seeds of broadleaf plants like buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa.

It's been a long time since I did this, but the book my allergist recommended way back when was Marjorie Hurt Jones' The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook. It's got a lot of great information on food families. I don't think adults need to worry too much about a rotation diet if you do identify allergens, but it's good information if you choose (like I do) to manage your allergies and try to eat as "normally" as possible, rather than going the whole route to complete elimination.

[sookiesue]

Hi Wahine!
Several years ago I began seeing an acupuncturist who did a lot of work with discovering and treating food and environmental allergens/sensitivities. If you are interested in that type of approach, finding a good acupuncturist who works with NMT or NAET techniques could help you. I don't know any in the Gorge area but I could ask my acupuncturist if she has anyone she could refer you to out there. Or you can message me and I can give you her contact info and you can call her and see if she has a referral. I'll see her this Friday so just let me know. : )

Another approach could be to get a food sensitivity test done by your physician. My daughter had this done (at age 2, not fun) but it helped us discover why she had a constantly runny nose and some skin symptoms. The test was a simple (unless you're 2!) blood draw. Then the doc sent it to a lab that analyzed it and sent us back a complete explanation of the sensitivities that came up for her. I can't remember exactly what it tested - the IgA, or IgE, or IgG in the blood...my microbiology class was a LONG time ago...but it showed she had sensitivities to eggs, soy, cheese, and peanuts. Not true allergies, but sensitivities.

We did an elimination diet for her for about a month last summer. We gave it up when we discovered she had some cheesy snacks at summer camp, and went back to using those things in her diet. We successfully cleared up the constant runny nose, although her skin is still a little sensitive so we are going to try to eliminate those 4 things again this summer and see if we can get that cleared up too. She'll be 3 soon so she'll have a better understanding of why she can't eat certain things for that time period.

If you're interested in more info, I can go dig up the paperwork we got from her test and tell you more details about the lab and what they tested exactly, but that paperwork is in the room she's napping in right now so I'm not going to risk waking her up.

Hope this helps! Good luck.
Susan

[OakLeaf]

I did have the blood test to confirm the results of the elimination diet, but just be aware that it usually yields a lot of false positives. I'm allergic to milk and feathers, and because of the common DNA in the cow and chicken proteins, I tested positive to beef and eggs which I can eat with no trouble.

[sookiesue]

That's a good point, Oakleaf. Our pediatrician did discuss with us the possibility of some foods sort of 'piggy-backing' on a true sensitivity or allergy. If your gut is irritated by an allergen then it can show up as sensitive to other food items that may just be exacerbating the irritation but wouldn't cause it alone. Hope I'm explaining that well.

It can be helpful to take probiotics to help heal the irritation while doing the elimination.

[Wahine]

I discussed the blood test with my MD and she said that the best way to weed things out is with a food elimination diet because of the issues that Oakleaf posted.

I have to say that the idea of restricting my food that much is daunting. But I may actually be finally ready for it.

Sookiesue - There is an acupuncturist here that does some of the allergy work/testing that you are referring to. I may look into that option as well.

[Susan Otcenas]

Wahine,

Last year, I followed this program: http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Revoluti...dp/0061735329/ I was having a lot of intestinal distress and wanted to weed out the possible causes.

Because of my level of activity, I did have to modify it in that I had to eat more often than the book recommended (They want you to go 12 hours overnight with no food at all to give your gut a rest, but I couldn't swing that with my workout schedule) but otherwise I stuck to the restricted food list religiously. My gut completely calmed down, too, which was a huge relief.

The book can be a little new-agey at times, which I'm not really in to, but I just glossed over that part and used it for the elimination of allergens. It has tons of recipes in it that follow the food lists. Even though I've added most things back in, I still use some of the recipes because many of them were excellent.

Susan