PLEASE, how do I do an elimination diet?

[Wombat140]

My tics and OCD are really bad at the moment, and I'm running short of things to try. One thing I don't know yet is whether anything I'm eating is contributing to the problem. My symptoms mainly vary from week to week rather than day to day, so despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to identify anything just by observing what changes when.

 

So I think the only chance is a full elimination diet, cutting down to just a few things that are unlikely to cause problems and then reintroducing foods one by one. But what foods ARE least likely to cause problems? I know it's not just immune reactions you have to worry about, there are salicylates and so on. I haven't a clue, and I really need advice. Are there any foods that nobody on here has had trouble with?

 

I'm about desperate enough to just stop eating for a few weeks if I can't find any other way of doing it - only my family would never stand for that.

 

Thanks very much

Wombat140

[Chemar]

Stopping eating everything would just make you very ill!

 

The best way to test is to eliminate one food group at a time, see if things improve, then reintroduce foods from that group and see if it gets worse. That's the way we did it. There are other ways and if you do a search in the TS group you will find numerous threads discussing the details.

here is a recent one http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16453

[Wombat140]

I know, I'm not really going to... Just slightly hysterical from spending hours trying to prick my finger for an IgG test, and not doing it. I'm feeling a bit more rational now.

 

I've seen that thread; thanks. (Have searched several times but can't find much else; "elimination diet" seems to be a search-engine-unfriendly phrase, even in quotes, which it ignores.) But as Alan said on there, if there's more than one food causing a problem and I cut out one but not the others, do you think I'd see any difference? Not criticising, by the way, just need to clarify things a bit. It's particularly difficult for me to tell what's affecting my symptoms, since they change only gradually over a few days or weeks. (Or is that a clue in itself? If so, to what?) We've already tried cutting out gluten and dairy completely, to no effect, but I'm not sure whether that means they're safe or that I'm just intolerant to them and something else as well.

 

Also what do you mean by a food group? All starch foods? All dairy products? All foods from a particular family, like the nightshade family we hear so much about?

Thanks very much for your reply.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Wombat140

[Chemar]

I ran a quick search on elimination diet and got 320 results for just the TS/tics forum alone. Be sure to enter just that search term, no quotes and select this forum

I tried to post the link to my search result, but for some reason it glitches when one tries to click through to it

 

 

food groups are essentially first the glutens and dairy, and then yes, things like nightshades, rosacea, salicylates and other common allergenic food groups

 

Doing elimination under supervision by a nutritionist, allergy doc etc is usually the best way to go as they can guide you

The Feingold diet has a lot of info as well