Elimination Diet

I mentioned last week that I am doing an elimination diet. For those of you who don’t know, this isn’t a weight loss diet. I am doing it in order to (hopefully) figure out what foods I am sensitive/allergic to.

For as long as I can remember I’ve had tummy troubles. I’m usually able to control it for the most part by being very careful about what I eat, drinking a lot of water and trying to keep stress down. This isn’t always enough though. Sometimes I still get really bad pains and gas after eating. This sometimes lasts for days. I also get hives. They used to just pop up every one in a while, usually on my back. For the past 3 weeks, though, I’ve had many and as they go away more just pop up.

So the plan is to follow a strict diet for 21 days. This time is to heal my body and allow everything to sort of settle and calm down. Basically I’m not eating: soy, dairy, eggs, red meat, wheat, gluten, citrus and sugar. After the 3 weeks I will introduce one food every day and pay close attention for any symptoms. This should help me pinpoint what the problem is.

Supposedly once you’ve figured out what it is, if you avoid it for 6 months you can generally re-introduce the food with success. I’m really hoping that will be the case if I find out it’s something that’s a staple to me.

So far I am feeling fairly crummy, which I’ve read is to be expected for the first few days. I’m really hoping it gets better soon.

Here are the sources I’ve found useful:

http://www.balancenaturopathic.com/resource/Elimination%20Diet.pdf

http://www.cleanprogram.com/media/files/elimination-guide.pdf

http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195371109/pdf/00_Mullin_Appendix_3.pdf

Dealing with Allergies (Possibly)

I saw my doctor today about the increasing amount of hives I’ve been getting on my back. Though I’ve been getting them for a few years, they seem to be getting worse. Last weekend they were really bad. She prescribed some sort of cream and said to pay attention to what I’m eating (duh…).

The first thing I’ve decided to try is to change to a hypoallergenic soap, shampoo and conditioner. I do often get hives (or at least notice them) after I get out of the shower, but because I’ve switched soaps and shampoos many times , I don’t think this is the culprit. I already had the other soaps though, so switching isn’t any inconvenience.

I think I will try that for a week or two and see if it helps. It I don’t notice any change I think I’m going to do some sort of elimination diet. I don’t really know much about this, or the best way to go about it so I will have to do some research first.

Any advice, or experience with this type of thing?