What is an Elimination Diet?

Jonah Lusis

Continuing our conversation on improving digestive health, Jonah Lusis, ND discusses in this two-part question, an elimination diet and its benefits in treatment.

What is an elimination diet?

An elimination diet is a therapeutic diet used to identify foods a person doesn’t tolerate well.

There are various versions of an elimination diet, depending on the specific health concern being addressed, but at their core they will feature removal of foods most people are either allergic to or do not tolerate well, but are commonly eaten. Examples of commonly “eliminated” foods are dairy products, wheat and eggs.

The goal of the diet is to confirm whether or not the persons symptoms abate in the absence of these foods.

An elimination diet will typically last three weeks.

I have already removed foods I suspect are causing my symptoms, do I need to complete an elimination diet?

Yes.

It is important to remove all suspect foods simultaneously. For example, if you do not tolerate wither wheat or dairy, and have removed them from your diet, but not at the same time, you many have concluded: while not having wheat, but feeling unwell from the dairy you are still consuming, that wheat is not causing your symptoms. The same applies in reverse. This can lead to the ultimate conclusion that neither wheat or dairy or your problems foods when in fact both are.

Tune in next week when we will discuss gluten: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

For more help with elimination diets and digestive symptoms, get in touch!

 

 

Posted: 2014 November 6

 

GET IN TOUCH