How to have a Successful Elimination Diet
Food diary
‘What gets measured, gets managed.’ So, it’s paramount that you keep track of the foods you eat during both the elimination period and the reintroduction stage. This will be invaluable in determining which foods cause symptoms and to what degree. It’s particularly important when reintroducing items back into your diet.
Symptom monitoring
Ideally, your food diary will also have a ‘symptoms’ section for you to monitor how each food item affects your body. This will help you spot any patterns in symptoms or lack thereof. It will also keep you motivated in moments of weakness when an old craving strikes or you’re offered something containing one of your known problem foods.
It’s helpful to give your symptoms a severity level, to both monitor your progress and determine which foods you may want to continue avoiding indefinitely. Just list the symptoms you notice, note the severity of those symptoms and list the foods you recently consumed, which may be the cause.
Replacing nutrients
Before beginning an elimination diet, it’s recommended that you consider the foods that you’ll be avoiding, and the nutrients that these foods are rich in. You should make you aren’t removing any single primary source of nutrients without planning a replacement. For example, if you’re eliminating fish, then it’s important to make sure you still get plenty of omega 3, 6 & 9 fatty acids. While most experts would recommend that you get all of your vitamins and minerals from food sources, rather than supplements, there are times when supplementation may be necessary.
Intolerance Testing and allergy testing
We recommend that your elimination diet is guided by the results from an IgG intolerance test and/or IgE allergy test, rather than your own gut instincts. Using appropriate test results to inform your elimination diet means you won’t be needlessly restricting your diet (and, as a result, risking vitamin deficiency). It’s also a much more efficient path to becoming symptom-free.