Elimination Challenge

[Basmah]

Hi all,

I saw a Dietician who focuses on natural and complementary remedies for the first time. She suggested that I start an elimination challenge for 1 month...I stay off of gluten, wheat, corn, nightshades, and dairy products for 10 days, and then on the 11th day, i eat one forbidden category. then 2 days back on the challenge to note any symptoms, and so on).

I know some people have tried something like this before, does anyone have any tips? Some recipes would be great too! :ybiggrin::ybiggrin::ybiggrin:

 

[Basmah]

 

[happy]

Well when I started an elimination challenge I had achieved remission on a total elemental enteral diet, which is a prescribed liquid formula. So, in my case I could be absolutely certain that it was the specific food that I was testing that I was reacting to. I also added back foods every four to ten days depending on what I was testing and how I was feeling. (Sometimes it was even a month or two.)

If you are going to go to the trouble of an elimination diet I think you may wish to do it over a longer period of time as it can take up to three weeks for intolerances to show up, especially grains. I know that I have been fooled into thinking that I could tolerate oats more than once when food testing only to discover that about two weeks later they actually were causing problems. If you are adding back food every few days you would have a hard time picking something like that up.

As well, I would add back grains last; they often cause the most severe reaction and take longer to show up as an intolerance, so you would get further into adding back foods before you may have to stop for awhile because of a reaction.

I would also have celiac testing done before you start the elimination challenge as you need to be eating gluten for a celiac test to be positive. If you discover during the challenge that you react to gluten containing foods, you may find it hard to go back to eating enough of them to have the testing done after. And you may find that you react more strongly to them when you add them back.

I would also read up a bit about gluten-containing foods and cross-contamination because if you douse all your food with soy sauce (which contains gluten) and toast your gluten-free bread in a toaster full of gluten-containing crumbs, the elimination diet may not be as successful as you like.

:goodluck:

 

[autumn_rose]

I've being doing something similar, but just because I want to clean up my diet; my Crohn's is in remission right now, since my last surgery. I eliminated grains from my diet for about a week, then reintroduced. I notice that my energy drops when I eat them, and I sometimes feel bloated. And that's just after a week of not eating them and then trying them again. To me, this early symptom indicates that my body has a hard time digesting the grains, which means it has to dedicate more energy to digestion, which is why my physical energy level drops. Just my two cents on my experience thus far