Food is good because it lets us live and survive. However, not
all foods available for humans to consume can be beneficial to every
person. There are foods that can be detrimental to other people because
allergies and food sensitivities occur when they consume such foods. If
you are among these individuals who suffer from unwanted effects when
you eat inappropriate foods, then you can consider an elimination diet
plan.Principle Of Elimination Diet
As its name suggests, it involves the removal of specific foods causing your problems for particular duration (ideally, 3-4 weeks). Afterward, you will gradually reintroduce certain foods to your diet, while monitoring signs of likely reactions.
How This Nutrition Regimen Is Done
An excellent elimination diet will typically remove seemingly a lot of the usual foods you eat. Nevertheless, you are given various options in substituting to these eliminated foods.
Fruits And Vegetables. For fruits, you need to do away with citrus fruits like lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit; yet, you can eat all other fresh fruits. For vegetables, you need to stay away from eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes; but you can eat yams and sweet potato and other vegetables either as raw, sautéed, steamed or roasted.
Starch, Legumes, Nuts. As for starches, you have to avoid every product that contains gluten, like barley, oats, rye, kamut, corn, spelt and wheat; but it is okay to eat rice and buckwheat if you do not deduce you are sensitive to them. You need to avoid tofu, lentils, peas, beans, soy milk, soybeans and all nuts/seeds.
Meat And Dairy Products. Avoid meats such as beef, pork, chicken, bacon, cold cuts, canned meat, shellfish, and other meat substitutes that are made from soy. You can, however, eat turkey, wild-caught fish and lamb. Dairy products to avoid include cheese, milk, cream, butter, yogurt, ice cream, eggs and dairy creamer. You may include rice milk with no sweeteners (if you have no sensitivity to it), coconut milk and almond milk.
Fats, Drinks, Spices, Sweeteners. You should expel from your diet butter and margarine, processed/hydrogenated oils, spreads and mayonnaise; but you can still consume cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil and flaxseed oil. You should not drink caffeine and alcohol; but you can drink a lot of pure water (from two to four liters of water a day) and herbal teas. Avoid mustard, ketchup, relish, chocolate, and soy sauce, chutney, vinegar and barbeque sauce. You may use fresh spices and sea salt. If you need to sweeten your foods or drinks, use only artificial sweeteners and not sugar, maple syrup, honey or corn syrup.
How Long Must It Be Followed
The duration within which this diet should be followed will vary according to the age of the person following it and on how severe the symptoms are. For children, ideally it will be seven to 10 days. For adults, it will ideally be 3-4 weeks. Reintroduction of a food group must be performed once every five days or so.
Other Forms Of Elimination Diet
Apart from the basic elimination regimen, there are also other forms of this diet such as fasting, lamb-and-pears diet (eating just pear and lamb), few foods diet and rare food diet.
The Elimination Diet Cookbook offers a lot of great recipes for your elimination diet. The Lunch Box Diet is also another related resource that will help you enjoy dieting.
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