Elimination Diets Root Out Food Intolerances
Elimination diets are all the rage, as more people look to hidden food intolerances as the source of their ill health. Could your food choices make you sick, tired, moody, constipated, or achy? Could they give you headaches, a rash or make it hard for you to concentrate? Many people think so, and are eliminating a large number of foods or even whole food groups in their quest for more energy, better skin and improved well-being.
Tips for a Successful Elimination Diet
- Change only one thing at a time. Don’t, for example, start a new vitamin regimen during either the elimination or challenge phases.
- Remove all foods you suspect of causing your symptoms, even hidden ingredients in foods, medications, nutritional supplements, and hair and body products.
- Record your symptoms during both the elimination and challenge phases.
- Challenge only one food or food group at a time. Consume it for a day or two and watch for symptoms for an additional few days. Discontinue that food and challenge the second food in the same way. Continue in this manner until you have challenged each suspect food.
- Work with a registered dietitian nutritionist to help you plan the diet and interpret results.
What’s an elimination diet? “An elimination diet is a learning diet,” explains Patsy Catsos, MS, RDN, LD, author of IBS-Free at Last. “The purpose is to discover which foods are well tolerated and which foods are triggers for symptoms.” There are two steps to a successful elimination diet:
- Eliminate the foods that you suspect cause problems (elimination phase).
- Add them back to the diet in a systematic way to see if they evoke symptoms (challenge phase).
Elimination diet in practice. If, for example, you want to challenge lactose, the sugar in dairy foods that often causes gas, bloating, and other gastrointestinal distress, you would eliminate all foods, beverages and medications that contain lactose for several days or longer. If you remove lactose from your diet and your symptoms resolve, add lactose-containing foods back into your diet. If your symptoms return, then you know that lactose is the likely culprit. If symptoms do not return, then lactose was not the source of your problems.
The ultimate goal of an elimination diet is to permanently restrict as few foods as necessary. A common mistake, says Catsos, is staying on the elimination phase long term instead of re-introducing the suspect foods to learn if they are the real cause of symptoms. It’s easy to misinterpret the results and eliminate foods unnecessarily, and there’s potential for nutritional deficiencies, says Marjorie Nolan Cohn, MS, RDN, CDN, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Getting help from an expert registered dietitian nutritionist is a smart idea.
—Jill Weisenberger, MS, RDN, CDE, FAND
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