Since March 5, Dan and I have been doing the Elimination Diet. The concept is that you eliminate all common allergens out of your diet, let your body detox, then you introduce allergens in high doses, one by one, until you can pin point which foods cause your body a reaction.
Here’s how it goes: You start with 2 days of green smoothies – essentially greens, water, and some fruit (berries, apples, and pears are OK). No citrus, kiwi, strawberries, pineapple for a while. Your body detoxes itself of chemicals, allergens, etc.
That part was not fun – headaches, fatigue, etc.
Then commences “Phase 1”, days 3-10, where the menu gets a bit more complex. Repeat green smoothies daily, but also eat things like garbanzo beans and brown rice, herbs, olive oil, quinoa, pine nuts, sweet potatoes, squash, dried figs and currants, cranberries, beets…..the list of things you cannot eat outnumber the list of things you can have. On the list of things to stay away from include: caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, yeast, gluten, oats, dairy, eggs, corn.
We both felt a tremendous surge of energy as soon as we began eating solid foods. Overall, we felt great on Phase One. I’m not going to lie, though. We missed our coffee, chocolate, eggs, and corn (popcorn, specifically!).
Phase one required a lot of culinary creativity, coming up with appetizing options from a very limited list of foods. It also required a LOT of time – soaking and cooking all the beans and grains from scratch, making everything from its raw and organic form.
Towards the end of days 3-10 we began introduce some wild alaskan salmon – Yummy!
Phase Two: introducing lemons and limes. We did fine here, no major changes in symptoms.
Phase Three: In three day increments, and one at a time, we introduced the following: all tree nuts (except peanuts), tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, bananas, all beans, and then citrus like pineapple, oranges and grapefruit. I did just fine with everything – except oranges and grapefruit. I’ll be taking it easy with those two foods. Dan did great with everything except almonds. He had a minor reaction in his mouth.
Then there is a challenge phase where you introduce the major allergens: kiwi, strawberries, corn, (gluten free) oats, corn, eggs, dairy, gluten, yeast. We are wrapping up the challenge phase. Dan has introduced everything back in. I have done all but yeast and gluten.
Sound extreme? Well, I suppose you could say that. On the contrary, if you don’t isolate allergens, you will get mixed signals from your body on what irritates it.
To learn more about this Elimination Diet, visit Whole Life Nutrition.