When it comes to dealing with food allergies and food intolerances, you often hear about either hair tests or blood tests to identify them. These are both great ways to get concrete results to most allergies and intolerances, but there is another way in which you can identify those potential intolerances and allergies in your life: an elimination diet. If you’re invested in learning how it can help out with food issues, take a look at the introductory details below!
What is an elimination diet?
Simply put, as the name suggests, an elimination diet is a short-term change in diet that focuses on eliminating certain foods from a diet in order to get rid of unwanted symptoms. It then reintroduces those foods again to see if the mysterious symptoms return along with the reintroduction of the food. When you have a food intolerance, your body will fight the “bad” food and cause all sorts of symptoms, including bloat and fatigue.
When you focus on an elimination diet, you’ll find diet plans that take out a lot of the known food intolerance ingredients so that you can detox your body and notice the difference that it makes to your overall comfort. Later, you can add those foods back in carefully and watch for symptoms. When something causes a symptom, the logical conclusion to draw is that you are intolerant to it and it should be eliminated from your diet in order to get rid of the symptoms that it brings.
The details
The attention and detail in an elimination diet come mostly in the reintroduction process at the end of the timeframe. All of the foods eliminated must be reintroduced separately and gradually so that you can watch for the common symptoms. These include, amongst bloating and fatigue, joint pain, bowel issues, migraines and even skin changes.
You may find that the reintroduction of one food group doesn’t make you feel anything different, so that is not the problem food. One of the foods that are reintroduced will trigger those symptoms, and you can assume that it is the cause of your intolerance as a result.
What you should remember
In a world with advanced testing and science, it’s good to know that you can go to good old fashioned detective work and the process of elimination can still bring about positive results. For decades (if not longer), the elimination diet has helped a lot of people come to terms discovering a wheat intolerance, gluten intolerance or lactose intolerance that they may not have otherwise known about. It can be the difference of a lifetime, even, as it allows you to simply feel better and healthier than ever before.
Our bodies are complicated, even at the best of times. When you want to make things easier on yourself and make sure that you are taking proper care of yourself no matter what, an elimination diet may be just the tool that you need to get that better quality of life you deserve.
