As a nutritionist, I often find that people hesitate to try an elimination diet because the process seems too daunting to tackle on their own. Whether it is the first time or even the fifth time, surviving an elimination diet can be difficult because there are a lot of moving parts to our daily eating habits.

The truth is, testing cannot give us all the answers when it comes to our health or why we experience certain symptoms. When we listen to our bodies and learn what our symptoms mean, we learn priceless information about our needs that we may or may not pick up on a lab test. The elimination diet remains the gold standard to determine the root cause of food sensitivities and how they affect our own health. An Elimination Diet can totally transform your health and even take less time, money and effort than other options that may seem easier.

Before you tell yourself you don’t need an elimination diet, check in with your body for signs & symptoms that are commonly associated with food sensitivities. If you are not sure if you need an elimination diet or not, it is important to better understand what elimination diets are and how you might benefit from doing one.

What is an Elimination Diet?

An elimination diet is when you completely eliminate one or more foods for a set period of time (usually about 4 weeks) before reintroducing each eliminated food one at a time while tracking how your body reacts. A few of the most common foods eliminated during an elimination diet are: Gluten, Dairy, Corn, Soy, Sugar, Nightshades.

You may remove one or more of these foods during an elimination diet depending on what you are ready for, the severity of your symptoms and the advice of your practitioner. The time frame for an elimination diet varies with each person based on symptoms, practitioner, (un)diagnosed conditions, diet, and health literacy.

Elimination diets are meant to direct your awareness to your body’s processes, functions and potential imbalances or impairments. When you follow the proper steps of a guided elimination diet, you create a stronger signaling system between your body’s processes and your awareness.

This can help you to know when it is time to implement certain wellness practices, foods or supplements as well as when it is time to avoid potential inflammatory causes. This is the point in an elimination diet when you can learn how to fully customize your routine to nourish your body towards more optimal health.

Signs That You May Need An Elimination Diet

The most common symptoms I see are general digestive health issues like constipation, diarrhea, IBS, gas, bloating, and feeling sick after eating certain foods are the most common reasons people try an elimination diet.

However, there are other symptoms I look for when considering a client as a candidate for an elimination diet:

Dark circles under eyes
Inflamed skin and rashes
Hives
Inability to lose weight
ADD/ADHD
Inflammation in joints or body
Itchiness “down there”
Hemorrhoids
Psoriasis and rosacea
Celiac disease or gluten intolerance
Gastritis
Fibromyalgia
Migraines
Post-nasal drip and mucus in throat
RA (Rheumatoid arthritis)
Autoimmunity
UC (Ulcerative colitis)
Constipation or Diarrhea/ IBS
Gas pain, gas and cramping after eating

If you have any of these experiences, you may want to consider trying out an elimination diet. I recommend you go into it feeling confident. Remember, the process is not about cutting out a bunch of ‘delicious’ foods that tend to be peoples ‘favorites.’

It’s all about:

1). Exploring and strengthening the mind body connection to better understand your body’s limits and needs

2). Giving the body a break from common inflammatory ingredients and any potential underlying sensitivities

3). Learning which foods are causing issues for you, which ones aren’t and creating an individualized plan for healing the body properly.

4 Tips for Surviving an Elimination Diet

Before I send you off into the unknown, I want to make sure that I share my most impactful tips on surviving your elimination diet:

Support

Having a support system is absolutely crucial to achieve good results with your elimination diet. It can be hard to do an elimination diet by yourself without any support to help keep you motivated or to answer questions that may come up during your experience.

It’s important to connect with a practitioner to guide you through the process and help make adjustments if needed. I also recommend turning to a peer support group going through an elimination diet challenge or connect with others that have gone through one. This can help you stay accountable, curious and comfortable during your experience.

A negative social environment or family and friends who aren’t supportive can be very discouraging, so it is important and encouraged to set boundaries and protect your routines during this time. Try to surround yourself with people who are going to encourage your success and accommodate your needs during.

Plan Ahead, Plan To Succeed

Make room in your calendar during your elimination diet. Assess the places you’ll be and the people you’ll be around to help decide when is the best time for your elimination diet before showing up. If you find that your schedule includes places, people or events that may make it hard for you to maintain your compliance and success with your elimination diet, it is essential to have a plan to take responsibility over your needs.

It is not always easy to plan ahead, but it is far easier than having to get through an elimination diet without regularly assessing how your schedule, environments and social habits might impact your success.

Recipes, Grocery Lists, Meal Plans

When you make a plan for your elimination diet, make sure you do your research and trust your sources. Find recipes that you are not only attracted to making and eating but also stay compliant within your own elimination diet limitations.

These steps are generally how you want to plan out your elimination diet to maximize efficiency and success:

1). Research ingredients you can have/need to include more of and recipes that have that. Be sure to review the recipes to make sure they still fit within your elimination diet restrictions. This can be much faster by finding an already curated library of recipes like the one featured in our Elimination Diet Challenge (www.phillyfunctional.com/challenge).

2). Research grocery lists to see if there are any other ingredients, recipes or products people recommend to help you succeed. Write up your own grocery list to help you stay on track without getting distracted by triggering or tempting items on the shelf that may not stay compliant with your elimination diet restrictions.

3). Create a meal plan. Consider your current cooking routines and create a plan so you don’t overspend on ingredients you end up wasting. You want to make sure that what you buy, you end up eating to keep cost and effort more efficient. Keep it simple!

Navigating Hunger

Hunger is one of the biggest complaints about elimination diets. People often wrestle with their cravings as there are a number of root causes and signals for hunger or cravings. Navigating new foods, new recipes and setting new habits is hard enough. Trying to do it while you are hungry is another experience.

Elimination diets are not meant to be used as a disordered eating diet trend. It is meant to fuel you and reset your body in the way it needs to function optimally. I don’t want you to go hungry while on an elimination diet. I find the most impactful thing you can do to manage your hunger during an elimination diet is to include well balanced snacks during meal planning. It can help you feel more settled in your elimination diet if you find alternative recipes based on some of your favorite treats.

Be aware that many elimination diets can still encourage disordered eating habits that can promote starvation and negative side effects or symptoms. The name of the game here is nourishment and satisfaction. Be sure that you are doing the work to explore and not relying too heavily on what peers or representatives might say about your hunger. That is best monitored and managed between you and your healthcare provider.

Recipes & More Support

While these tips cover the basics of an elimination diet, there are a lot tips and tricks to completing a successful elimination diet. I want to make sure I provide you with the types of resources I typically recommend to support my clients doing an elimination diet. At Philadelphia Functional Nutrition, we believe an elimination diet is most successful with an individualized care plan with plenty of support.

That’s why I’m offering an exclusive look into 130+ of our expert selected recipes along with in depth functional nutrition resources. I’m also inviting you to join us for the 6 Week Elimination Diet Challenge Group. The group includes lots of support, including a survival guide, additional tips, customized plans, grocery lists, and a step by step timeline.