Improving your diet will absolutely improve your health. You don’t need any genetic testing, or other expensive lab tests to create the perfect, healthy diet for your body. And if you currently have health issues, you might be missing the power that an improved diet could have on your health. The trick is finding the right foods for your body.
In the first article of this series, I talked about how food and food sensitivities can affect your gut and overall health. Food sensitivities have been linked to a crazy number of chronic diseases, illnesses, and just day-to-day feeling blah. And the thing is: most people don’t even know that their food is responsible for how they feel! Elimination diets are currently the gold standard for identifying food sensitivities and helping people create a personalized diet to improve their health.
Some ways food sensitivities could be bothering you:
- Gut issues (gas, bloating, cramping, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, bad breath, undigested food in stools, foul smelling stools or gas)
- Sleep issues (insomnia, narcolepsy)
- Fatigue
- Joint Pain
- Brain Fog
- Skin breakouts or rashes
- Headaches
- Sinus and respiratory issues (allergies, asthma)
- Marked increase in energy after eating (can indicate a food activated your fight or flight response)
Elimination diets are being used to treat a ridiculous number of health issues.
A short, definitely not-complete list of all the health issues elimination diets can help improve:
- Autism
- Autoimmune Disorders
- Behavior Disorders (ADD, ADHD)
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Chronic Fatigue
- Chronic Pain
- Diabetes
- Fibromyalgia
- HIV
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (and other gut issues)
- Kidney Disease
- Migraines
- Mood Disorders (Anxiety, Depression)
- Neurodegenerative Diseases (Alzheimer’s, Dementia, etc.)
- Obesity
- Respiratory Disorders (Asthma/Allergies)
- Rheumatic Diseases (Arthritis, etc.)
- Skin Disorders (Acne, Psoriasis, Rosacea, Eczema, Atopic Dermatitis, etc.)
- Sleep Disorders (Insomnia, Narcolepsy, chronic poor sleep)
Obviously, if you are diagnosed with any health issues and think an elimination diet could help you, make sure to talk with your Doctor and seek out a Nutritionist or Registered Dietician who can help you design and navigate an elimination diet that’s right for you! Changing your diet will almost certainly change how your medications are working, so you will want your Doctor to be closely monitoring your progress!
I’m Not Sick – What Can an Elimination Diet Do For Me?
Elimination diets do not have to be used only when you’re sick or symptomatic. One of the most popular elimination diets is the Whole 30. Yeah, that’s right – it’s an elimination diet! The Whole 30 is a challenge that removes many of the “problem foods” for 30 days.
In my opinion, the best part of this diet is its ability to help improve your relationship with your food. If you’re constantly craving unhealthy foods, or even have a psychological or emotional dependence on certain foods, this diet can help. It’s also a great crash-course in eating more healthfully and there’s a huge community of folks to support you as you go. The Whole 30 website even points out the health benefits of trying this kind of elimination diet:
“Think of it as a short-term nutrition reset, designed to help you put an end to unhealthy cravings and habits, restore a healthy metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and balance your immune system.”
Whole30.com
With the processed-food diet so many of us eat, you can bet that you’ll notice improvements after trying an elimination diet like the Whole 30 – even if you aren’t sick!
What you can learn from an Elimination diet:
- What role food plays in your physical health
- Uncover your psychological relationship with food
- Clarify the habits and beliefs you have surrounding food
- Discover what foods make you feel your best – i.e. Your Ideal Diet
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So How Can You Use an Elimination Diet to Improve Your Health?
There are too many “diets” out there for me to count or bother listing here. Some are far too extreme (like the 0 calorie diet – yeah that’s a thing), and others sound like it’s just someone’s attempt to put their name to something. There is still not enough scientific research out there to back a lot of these “diets.” But there’s plenty of scientific evidence of many restrictive diets causing more health issues because of nutrient deficiency. This is why working with a professional is so important if you decide you want to treat a health issue from a dietary approach.
A Few Types of Elimination Diets:
- Autoimmune Protocol (for those with autoimmune disorders)
- Dairy-free Diet (used for a variety of inflammatory diseases)
- DASH Diet (for those with high blood pressure)
- Diabetic Diet (for diabetics)
- Gluten-free Diet (for those with Celiac Disease, Crohn’s Disease, etc.)
- Ketogenic Diet (currently only shown to benefit epilepsy and PCOS patients!)
- Low-FODMAP Diet (for those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth)
- Paleo/Vegetarian/Vegan Diet (for general improved health goals)
- Wahl’s Protocol (similar to the AIP diet, but specifically for those with Multiple Sclerosis)
The Elimination Diet Process
Each elimination diet varies in what foods are eliminated. Some or all of these foods are usually on the list:
- Dairy
- Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers)
- Gluten
- Non-gluten containing Grains
- Soy
- Legumes (beans, lentils, green beans, peas)
- Nuts and seeds
- Certain animal proteins (beef, chicken, pork, eggs, processed meats like deli or canned meats, shellfish)
- Citrus
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Simple sugars (white or brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, other syrups)
- Processed foods
Phase 1: Elimination
Elimination diets have 2 phases. Phase 1 is the Elimination Phase where you remove any foods on that list that you or your Doctor believe may be problematic. This phase usually lasts for about 3 weeks (1 week for kids), or until symptoms improve – up to 8 weeks or so. There is a risk of nutrient deficiency in any long-term highly-restrictive diet, so you certainly will not want to stay in the elimination phase for too long!
Phase 2: Reintroduction
Phase 2 is the Reintroduction Phase where the eliminated foods are carefully added back one at a time. Generally, you pick one food to “challenge” your body with. You eat the food and then monitor to see if you notice any changes – good or bad. With some foods it’s pretty obvious right away that they aren’t a good fit for you. Others, it may take a couple days for you to notice changes.
Like me and alcohol. I tried a couple drinks, and aside from the initial buzz, thought I was fine. Until a day later when I broke out like a teenager. Yeah, it was pretty unfortunate. No more booze for me. But at least I’ve figured out where all that obnoxious acne was coming from for the last year!
Each reintroduction will take 1-3 days to try the food, monitor for reactions, and then remove the food and allow symptoms to subside before trying the next food. This phase can take a few weeks to get through, depending on how many foods you eliminated. But when you’re done, you will have a freaking thorough knowledge of exactly what food you should eat lots of, not so much of, and probably just leave it out entirely to feel and function your best!
Check out this amazing infographic that breaks down the whole process from Precision Nutrition!
Once you get through all the eliminated foods you’ll know what your personalized diet to improve health should be! And the best news: you don’t need to continue to exclude any food that your body hasn’t reacted to.
Just because a food is getting a bad rap in the media, doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. The biggest one right now is gluten. Unless you’re living under a rock, you’re probably starting to associate gluten with “bad foods,” thanks to all the bad press it’s been getting. But the thing is, if you eliminate gluten and discover that you DO NOT have a gluten sensitivity, you will actually hurt your poor gut bacteria (and overall gut health) if you continue to avoid all gluten! Crazy right?
The biggest things to keep in mind when you’re trying to use diet to improve health – aka what the scientific evidence supports:
- You can’t go wrong by decreasing your processed food/junk food intake
- It’s never a bad idea to eat more fruits, vegetables and “whole” foods
- Diets that are high in fiber are pretty much always associated with improved health – and your gut microbiota LOVE fiber! Win win!
- Short term elimination diets that are used to identify food sensitivities can be beneficial to overall health and may help manage chronic disease. Especially when you work with a knowledgeable professional who can help make sure you’re covering your nutritional bases!
Read More:
4 Steps to Create Your Healthy Diet
Where Do I Start?
While there are a bunch of different elimination diets out there, an elimination diet can be completely personalized to your needs. You could choose to go “all in” and eliminate pretty much every food I listed above, or you could pick and choose what will be eliminated based on what you know about your body.
If you haven’t spent thousands of minutes over-analyzing your body’s every reaction to… well, everything like me, where do you begin? First, don’t start overanalyzing everything. It’s an unhealthy fixation of mine. What you can do is notice how you feel after eating. Think back on what foods you may unconsciously avoid because you know you’ll be gassy or bloated if you eat them. What foods do you gravitate toward when you get hangry or bored? Were there any foods that you reacted to as a kid?
Keep a Food Journal for a week to help you track how your current diet might be affecting you! Want a printable Food Journal?
You could start with a super-basic elimination diet and just remove one or two foods. Or you could dive in head-first and do the entire list! The Whole 30 is always a good option if you want something a little in-between. Just remember, you don’t have to get all dogmatic about it. With any dietary exploration, be flexible and give yourself some grace!
For example, I originally intended to go “all in,” but after about two days of not eating citrus, I realized that citrus was definitely not my problem. And if I was going to succeed at eliminating all the other foods, I was going to need citrus to provide some of the flavors I was accustomed to in my food. I promised myself that if I didn’t see any change in my symptoms after three weeks of eliminating all the other foods, I would then consider eliminating citrus. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Thank goodness, cause I really like my lemons and limes. How’s a girl gonna eat guacamole without any lime juice am I right???
Two foods that aren’t normally listed as foods to eliminate are onions and garlic – or aliums. This family of foods has been known to cause problems for people who are sensitive to sulfur – and as a child I would get the WORST headaches whenever I smelled either garlic or onions. I refused to eat them. Until college when all of the folks I lived with seemed to be completely addicted to the stuff and it was either eat the garlic and onions or go hungry. Guess my body had to figure out how to process them. But, given my history with aliums, I decided to eliminate them to see what happened.
If you want to try an Elimination Diet to improve your health:
- Check with your doctor and/or Nutritionist/Registered Dietician if you have diagnosed health conditions.
- Keep a Food Journal for a week to decide what foods you will eliminate.
- Download Precision Nutrition’s awesome Infographic.
- Stay tuned for the next post in this series: An Elimination Diet Resource List! This will walk you through everything you need to know to plan to succeed with an elimination diet.
What are your thoughts? Comment below – I’d love to hear where you’re at in your food and health journey!
This article is intended to provide information to foster healthy eating habits in otherwise healthy populations and is not intended to diagnose any medical conditions, nor prescribe diets or supplements to treat medical or clinical conditions or their symptoms. This article is not meant to be a substitute for sound medical evaluation and advice. If you suspect you have a nutrient deficiency, food sensitivity or allergy, or are experiencing any issues with your health or diet, meet with your Physician, or a Licensed/Certified Nutritionist, or Registered Dietician for a personalized analysis. Any use of this information is at the reader’s own risk. View my full Disclaimer here.
alicia-joy
Hi Jess,
Thank you for another thorough post here. I always learn from your articles. And so true that right now certain foods are getting a bad wrap in the media but that doesn’t mean they are bad for me. It’s for me to explore and decide. That’s an empowering thought.
I’m gonna pin this to reference it later. Thank you.