Goodbye Gluten and Other Goodies
How to Get Started with an Elimination Diet
Note: The content in this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and is based on my personal experience working with my functional medicine doctor; your experience may vary significantly. Please seek the advice of a qualified health provider regarding the use of diet to treat your own conditions.
Last year, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease while trying to get pregnant and embarked on an unexpected journey to improve my health. Since I've started sharing my story with others, I often get asked about the key learnings from my experience; well, my biggest takeaway is that the foods we eat have an immense impact on our physical and mental well being.
Many foods that we regularly eat cause inflammation in the gut, which can eventually lead to serious conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. However, the specific foods that cause inflammation for each person vary widely, so it's challenging to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to "optimal nutrition". That's where elimination diets can be useful.
While typical diets focus on helping people lose weight, an elimination diet is a short-term diagnostic tool that helps identify foods that cause inflammation. During an elimination diet, there are three stages:
Elimination phase: remove all potential inflammatory foods, particularly gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol and caffeine, from your diet for 30-90 days (the focus of this post).
Reintroduction phase: start to reintroduce these foods one at a time to monitor your reaction.
New normal: avoid foods that are inflammatory for you and eat everything else.
I was initially motivated to try the elimination diet in order to increase my chances of getting pregnant; healing my gut was the first step towards regulating my hormones and improving fertility. After removing inflammatory foods identified during my elimination diet, I’ve experienced improved digestion, clearer skin, and enhanced memory. I was also able to get pregnant naturally!
In this post, I'll share some tips on how to get started with an elimination diet, including recognizing why it's important to heal your gut, understanding what foods to eliminate, and easing into it (ideally by working with a functional medicine doctor). The elimination diet requires making radical changes to what you eat for at least one month, but the benefits you'll reap are well worth sticking with the process.
Importance of Gut Health
What we eat influences our mood, our energy, and our immune system, but unfortunately, many of us take our health, and especially our diet, for granted. We go through life blissfully unaware that our dietary choices are causing chronic inflammation in our bodies and contributing to frustrating symptoms like irritability, fatigue, and anxiety.
Due to changes in the industrial food system over the last 50 years, many of the foods we frequently eat can contribute to issues with our gut due to overuse of pesticides, GMO's and harmful additives. When we eat certain inflammatory foods such as gluten, they break down the gut lining in our stomach, which causes intestinal permeability, letting in unwanted food particles, toxins and bacteria into our blood stream.
As the gut lining is damaged, we develop "leaky gut", leading to inflammation in the body and eventually making us more susceptible to autoimmune disease. Leaky gut can cause digestive issues, hormonal imbalances and even mental health issues (when gluten crosses the blood brain barrier, it can cause depression and anxiety).
If you're experiencing any symptoms of leaky gut, such as feeling tired, cranky, or bloated, consider healing your gut through an elimination diet. Removing all inflammatory foods for just thirty days can give your gut the necessary time to heal and get your digestive system back on track.
Doctors often recommend an elimination diet as the gold standard for helping people understand and identify their food sensitivities. Many people have sensitivities to various foods but don't know it, so the best way to figure out if a certain food is causing issues for you is to eliminate it as part of an elimination diet and then reintroduce it later on to monitor your reaction.
Foods to Eliminate
To get started with an elimination diet, stop eating all inflammatory foods for a predefined period of time. There are many potential variations to what you can eliminate; I suggest removing gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, and caffeine for 30-90 days.
Gluten: Gluten intolerance is common for people with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and wheat allergy, especially for those with autoimmune conditions. Eliminating gluten is the most important part of an elimination diet; gluten has no nutritional value so there's really no downside to cutting it out. Remove anything containing gluten, including pasta, bread, crackers, baked goods, and beer.
For extra benefits, I also eliminated all grains like oats, quinoa and rice due to the high likelihood of cross-contamination and cross-reactivity with gluten-containing grains.
Many "gluten free" products should still be avoided because they are low in nutrients, packed with sugar, and contain preservatives.
Dairy: Many people are lactose intolerant, but another reason to avoid dairy is casein, the primary protein in dairy which causes similar issues as gluten for people with autoimmune disease. I got rid of all dairy-based products, including milk, cheese, yogurt and eggs, from my diet. This was tough - I love cheese and ice cream. Luckily, I found many plant-based alternatives (more on that in a later post).
Sugar: Excess sugar can lead to inflammation, insulin resistance and weight gain, as well as hormonal issues, so it's best to remove artificial sugar during an elimination diet. I tossed the white sugar, brown sugar, and all processed snacks (bread, muffins, cakes, candy), as well as anything that contained high-fructose corn syrup. Beware of “added sugar” - it’s in everything!
Check out "Salt Sugar Fat" by Michael Moss for a fascinating history of how the processed food industry makes foods addictive by stuffing them with sugar, salt and fat.
The Blood Sugar Solution by Mark Hyman is another great read about the importance of maintaining optimal blood sugar levels.
Alcohol and Caffeine: Heavy alcohol consumption can exacerbate leaky gut, and caffeine can cause insulin spikes, increasing inflammation. I cut the caffeine (tea, coffee, matcha) and alcohol which can negatively impact blood sugar. Chocolate also had to go for the high caffeine content (and most chocolate has added dairy).
Other: Lastly, I eliminated corn, peanuts, soy and soy products, legumes (beans, lentils, peas), and nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplant) - these foods all have compounds that may stimulate the immune system or harm the gut environment.
Easing into It
An elimination diet may sound pretty extreme, and you are likely hesitant to fully commit to these changes. When I first started, I really struggled with following the dietary restrictions and had multiple moments of panic when I realized how drastically my diet would have to change.
Then I reminded myself that I'm always up for a challenge (I've climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and completed a 10 day silent meditation retreat), and I can do anything for 90 days, especially if it positively impacts my health. Ultimately, I stuck with it, and the sacrifice was worth it.
To increase your likelihood of success, I suggest starting at the beginning of a month, committing to it for at least 30 days, and writing down the specific foods you plan to eliminate. Check out the Wahls Protocol by Terry Wahls, the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), or the Whole 30 Program for specific strategies.
Once you get a sense for the restrictions you plan to follow, I recommend doing a full purge of your kitchen and fridge by tossing all foods that are prohibited; you can donate unopened food to family, friends or a local food bank. If you don't have access to these foods in your home, you are less likely to miss them.
Most of the foods that are eliminated, especially gluten and sugar, have minimal nutritional value and are safe to avoid for everyone. However, it's best to proceed with an elimination diet under the supervision of a medical professional so they can monitor your specific reactions and progress, especially if you have any health conditions.
If your traditional doctor is not equipped to help you with optimizing nutrition for your health, I highly recommend working with a functional medicine doctor (check out the Institute for Functional Medicine website or Parsley Health). They can run diagnostic tests to better understand your individual situation and tailor the elimination diet to your needs.
💡 Tips and Tricks
In summary, to get started with an elimination diet, I recommend that you:
Understand the benefits of healing your gut
Remove all inflammatory foods, especially gluten, from your diet for at least 30 days
Ease into it and work with a functional wellness practitioner
Going through an elimination diet is challenging, especially because it initially feels like all foods are off limits and it's hard to know what you can actually eat. In my next post, I'll dive deeper into what you can eat during an elimination diet. I hope you're convinced about the power of an elimination diet to radically enhance your well being and excited to make these changes as an investment into your long term health.
Namaste,
Tamara
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