It seems like everyone today is allergic to something. Most people assume that this means an immediate reaction such as hives or the throat closing up. What many people do not understand is that most people who suffer from a food allergy don’t have a reaction for hours or even days. These reactions can range from digestive issues, to skin-flare ups.
If you’re anything like me, you eat a variety of food items each week. It would be hard to figure out what which item, or ingredient, it causing you these problems. This is where the idea of an elimination diet comes in.
What is an elimination diet? It is a short term eating plan that eliminates certain foods that may be causing these allergic reactions. After the foods are removed from the diet, they are re-introduced, one at a time, to determine which foods are and are not well-tolerated.
Once you have decided that an elimination diet is right for you, you then need to determine which foods need to be cut out of the diet. Did you know that eight foods account for 90% of food allergy reactions? These foods are milk, eggs, peanuts, nuts, wheat/gluten, soy, fish and shellfish.
Most people will cut out those common allergens as well as refined sugar, corn, alcohol, and all packaged and processed or fast foods.
This is a great basic starting point. Clearly it’s not an exact science. After I tried my elimination diet, I called my doctor and he did a food allergy test that actually tested 96 different foods. I learned about a lot of foods that I needed to eliminate out of my diet, and once I did this I noticed a change in how I felt, and also started losing some of those pesky pounds. It was a win-win.
If you’d like some more information on the testing that my doctor did, check out loseweightstl.com
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