What is an Elimination Diet?

An elimination diet (sometimes also known as a hypoallergenic diet) is a way of eating that allows you to pinpoint food sensitivities in your diet. Basically, it involves cutting every common allergen from your diet and reintroducing them one at a time to find the culprit (or culprits).

When I say “diet” an elimination diet is more of a lifestyle change. It’s a way to eat specific foods and cut others out, purely for the sake of determining what foods might be causing you trouble, rather than focusing on the amount of food you eat or the number of calories.

I talked about this in my very first post on the celiac press in terms of my journey with diagnosing my celiac/coeliac disease and other food sensitivities. It can be a long, and sometimes frustrating, process but it was worth it in my case. When I was having trouble with any diagnoses and my food sensitivities were not being taken seriously, it was the only way I was able to feel better after years of being very sick.

How Does it Work?

In my case, my elimination diet was through a naturopath. I had never been to one, but the one I went to came highly recommended to me. The way that my naturopath did it was that she gave me a long (and I mean looooong) list of allergens that needed to be cut from my diet. I then had to cut all of them out for 2 whole weeks. That meant I ate mostly plain brown rice, chicken breast, and broccoli. I really only got to drink water.

After the two weeks was up, I felt a lot better. But as you could imagine, I was eager to try new foods. At that point, I was allowed to try any one item from the list that I wanted, eating as much of it as I wanted to. I then had to wait three days to see if I had any kind of reaction. If I had a reaction, then that food was on the no-go list. If not, then I could reintroduce it into my diet. I would then choose another item from the list and go through the same process until the list was complete.

If you are not visiting a naturopath, then you could probably do a version of this by finding a list of common allergens. The more comprehensive the list, the better. Otherwise, you might have a naturopath or other doctor who might follow a similar procedure.

How Long Will it Take?

The length of an elimination diet depends on a few things. For one, it might depend on how consistently you move through the list. If you actually tackle one new allergen every three days, then you’ll breeze through it (relatively speaking). Second, it depends on how long your list is. Finally, it depends on if you have any setbacks – like foods that trigger you and put you out of commission for a week. You can’t test a new food if you’re still recovering from another.

In my case, I got through a lot of the list consistently, but the latter half slowed down. With certain foods, like gluten and soy, my reactions got much worse with time. With other foods, like shellfish, I just didn’t try them for a long time because I wasn’t a big fan.

What Are the Benefits of an Elimination Diet?

The biggest benefit that I found with my elimination diet process was that I could sort of “cheat the system.” When my doctor wasn’t taking me seriously, it was the only way I could really go about it. Another big benefit is that I managed to find the specific foods that were making me sick. When you’re not having an immune system reaction to something and your stomach aches can sometimes feel similar, testing foods this way allows you to separate those allergens much better.

Additionally, I have a few food sensitivities that don’t hit me until the next day, or even a couple of days later. Corn, soy, and shellfish were always delayed in my system, so figuring out that there were problems for me was hard without this diet. Meanwhile, dairy had been an easy one to pinpoint beforehand because it was so immediate.

What Are the Drawbacks of an Elimination Diet?

For me, the two main drawbacks of following an elimination diet were the amount of time it took, and the fact that it wasn’t a foolproof system. When you’re new to reading food labels, this is especially daunting.

The other thing that you have to consider is that while longterm this solution is great, the first few weeks (or longer) on your elimination diet might prevent you from having your normal lifestyle. Restaurants and social gatherings aren’t really an option, and the very bland diet can be a struggle.

Final Thoughts

I’m in no way a medical professional, but as someone with celiac disease and a number of food sensitivities, following an elimination diet was really the best option for me. I was not getting the medical help that I needed to figure out why I felt so sick all the time, and I needed some direction in order to actually take on this task. I would definitely recommend that anyone dealing with similar issues try this out, or consult a professional who can lead you through the process. It was definitely the right choice for me.