the “why” is just as important as the “how”

Most of us are familiar with food allergies. If you eat peanuts, your lips could start to blow up, like Will Smith in the movie “Hitch.” Or if you have some well-intentioned cinnamon, your tongue begins to swell up like The Rock in the movie “Game Plan.” Interestingly enough, up to 20% of the population has a food sensitivity.

the difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity

A food allergy in an IgE reaction in our immune system. But what is a food sensitivity? A food sensitivity is an IgG reaction within our immune system. It is also different from an IgE reaction because it is not immediate. It can actually take up to 72 hours after exposure or ingestion for a sensitivity to produce symptoms.

Food sensitivity symptoms are numerous and include:

• Rash
• Fatigue
• Brain Fog
• Congestion
• Eczema
• Bloating
• Abdominal Pain
• Diarrhea
• Constipation

Food sensitivities can also be additive, which means that you can eat something you are sensitive to on Monday and Tuesday and have no problems but eat it again on Thursday and have symptoms on Friday! Good luck, right? It makes it virtually impossible to figure out with a food diary. You also cannot figure it out just be eating “low” gluten or “low dairy.” You realistically have to COMPLETELY avoid them.

common allergens

You should be taking out the most common allergens and reactive substances which include:

• Dairy
• Gluten (Including Rye, Barley, and Hops)
• Eggs
• Soy (This includes Soybean Oil which is in almost every restaurant meal.)
• Processed Meat (Sausage, Beef, Lunch Meat, Bacon, Pork, etc.)
• Peanuts
• Shellfish
• Corn
• Alcohol (We recommend this especially if you are trying to improve detox, hormone balancing, sleep, energy, and/or gut health.)
• Caffeine (This is especially important if you are trying to improve sleep and/or energy.)
• Sugar (You can have 2 tsp (8 grams) of a natural sugar such as honey, maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, etc. per day.)

how long should you be on the elimination diet to see benefits?

You should be on the elimination diet for 21 days. We ask that you be diligent for 21 days and strictly avoid eating any of the removed foods. We recommend this duration because in 21 days, your body will eliminate 50% of its IgG antibodies allowing you to see results.

I understand that this may be a bit much for beginners. If this task is too overwhelming, you can pick a few foods to eliminate for the first 21 days instead of tackling them all at once. I would rather see you eliminate fewer foods completely than all of them incompletely. If you do choose to eliminate only a few foods at the start, I typically recommend starting with gluten, dairy, and sugar. However, this does depend on your unique symptoms which we will discuss.

how to reintroduce different foods back into your diet

Once you have successfully avoided reactive foods for 21 days, you can begin reintroducing one food at a time, eating two servings to gauge your body’s reaction. We highly recommend only reintroducing the purest form of the chosen ingredient or food.

a few real-world examples

If you are reintroducing eggs into your diet, you will eat two servings of eggs at some point during day 22 (not necessarily at the same time). On days 23 and 24, you will once again avoid eating eggs, watching for adverse symptoms to resurface. If you are unsure whether or not you are reacting, eat another small serving on day 23 and watch for reactions on day 24 and 25. If you do not experience a reaction, you may continue your journey with the eggs added back into your regular diet. If you do experience reaction(s), keep eggs out of your diet for the remaining time. Once you have observed the presence or lack of symptoms, reintroduce a second food into your diet on day 26.

A good example of how to reintroduce the purest form of ingredients and foods into your diet is soy. Instead of reintroducing soy by eating soybean oil or another type of ingredient, you should eat edamame. You will not reintroduce foods with multiple ingredients such as pizza as that would mean reintroducing too many ingredients at one time, making it hard to pinpoint which items cause reactions and which do not.

This is one of the toughest parts of the Elimination Diet because you have to be incredibly disciplined to introduce only one food/ingredient at a time.

determining which foods to bring back first and last

Once again, we want to aim for “pure” forms of each food to help determine the culprit behind your discomfort. Eggs are a great first step. From there, you can choose corn, peanuts, beef, soy, shellfish, or dairy.

After you have exhausted the above options, you can introduce sugar back in. Remember, we all eat too much sugar, so the longer you can stay low sugar, the better. Everyone reacts to added sugar!

Alcohol and caffeine are by far the items that people fight me on the most. These should be reintroduced 2nd and 3rd to last. Both alcohol and caffeine affect our hormones, gut, sleep, and mood. People tell me all the time that alcohol helps them sleep. It does NOT. It may put you to sleep and you may think that you sleep better but study after study show you that this is not true. If possible, gluten should be reintroduced at the very end.

potential outcomes

Once you have the list of foods that you are sensitive to, we will keep those out of your daily diet while healing your gut. Healing your gut is easiest if we also have a stool study to guide us and personalize your treatment.

Remember: this does not mean that you will never be able to eat those foods again! We will try again after we have healed your gut to the best of our ability.

what you can eat on the elimination diet

• Poultry (Turkey Breast, Ground Turkey, Chicken Breast, Wings, and Drumsticks, and Ground Chicken)
• Fish (Salmon, Tilapia, Tuna, Cod, etc.)
• Oats, Rice, and Quinoa Lentils All Beans and Chickpeas (Hummus)
• All Vegetables (This excludes corn. You may also want to limit your potato and sweet potato intake if you are attempting to lose weight.)
• All Fruit
• All Seeds and Nuts (This excludes peanuts.)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, and Avacado Oil
• All Spices

good elimination diet-friendly brands to look for

• Siete: Grain Free and Allergan Free Chips, Wraps, Queso, etc.
• Simple Mills: Snacks, Baking Mixes, Desserts, etc. (Check the ingredient list before eating as some of these items include natural sugars.)
• Primal Kitchen: Salad Dressings, BBQ Sauce, Kitchen, etc. (Double check ingredient list as some items contain eggs.)

navigating nightlife and dining out

Finding places to eat out can be VERY difficult while following the Elimination Diet. Most restaurants that claim they use EVOO usually cut it with soybean oil. Two trustworthy restaurants in Columbus and Cleveland are Rebol and Townhall.