Elimination Diet?

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Loftpat

Senior member
Joined
Aug 12, 2013
Messages
374
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
08/2013
Country
US
State
ME
My new doc who is a fibro guru suggested that I begin an elimination diet to see if I can identify what foods may be making symptoms worse. Essentially you eliminate all foods which are typical allergens like nuts, soy, wheat, corn, sugar, dairy, etc. for 4 weeks and then slowly begin adding foods back in to see what intensifies symptoms. She said that about half of her fibro patients have had degrees of improvement. Not a cure, but improvement. I started two days ago and while it's a bit tricky, I'm hopeful. Has anyone tried this approach? Benefits?
 
They are essentially the only way to discover allergies and intolerancs. The RASP and skin tests simply don't work - I spent $500 on the skin test and it indicated I'm not allergic to corn or wheat, when I'm so allergic to corn that a reaction can put me in the ER. elimination diets are extremely strict, and they are most effective when you eliminate all flour, sugar, alcohol, dairy, and starch too. Even if you are not allergic to these things, they cause inflammation, digestive sluggishness, and energy issues that can get in the way of distinguishing an allergic reaction. Also, you have to be very careful about what meat you eat while on it. I react to corn fed beef, because I'm allergic to corn. Conventional meat is often tenderized with corn and wheat too. So eat as simple as possible, with grass fed natural meat. Also, if you notice digestive issues while on the diet, try cooking down all your veggies before eating. Avoid all raw vegetables because they are actually very hard to break down, which can work the gut too much.

Are you up to the challenge?

Personally, I find it's easier to eat very simply all the time instead of ever eating allergenic foods. I don't need bread, candy, fast food, processed meats, boxed snacks, and the like. Elimination diets essentially help you find out what junk food you can get away with eating. Food either heals or hurts. It is never neutral. I only eat healing foods: for me, based on my blood type O, they are grass fed beef and lamb, pasture raised chicken and turkey, non-starch vegetables cooked, certain tree nuts and seeds, and tea. Eating so strictly is easier, because I don't spend the time reading tons of ingredients on foods that wouldn't heal me anyway.
 
I have done this once, but before I started seeing any of my major Fibro symptoms. When I did it I know that I felt better and had a lot more energy eliminating some foods. When I started introducing foods back in I could see how they effected me. I know now that after adding bread back into my diet, I was bloated and had some GI issue and could notice that I was more tired, after limiting my intake of grains helped me with some issues I was seeing before. Sugar effects me more that I thought it did as well so now I know if I eat some sugar or grains I know what to expect. I also didn't notice any difference with eating dairy so now I know that I can have some yogurt without thinking that it effects how I feel.

I am not sure that it will help with fibro specifically but I think that it will help with other issues you may be unaware of and just use to and improving on those will generally make you feel better throughout. It could be that soy, sugar and grains make you feel tired or grumpy and after eliminating them you will see an improvement with your over all energy and mood, this may help you feel better. Its hard to say if you will see any improvements, if you are normally eating the standard american diet you will likely see some results and then know for the future what to expect when you eat them again. There are some books on the subject that I have read, one of them is called It Starts with Food that explains this a lot better than I just did.
 
Thanks for the info and suggestions. It's actually been an easy transition except for eliminating nuts. They're a bit of a mainstay as I follow a vegetarian diet with no dairy and no processed foods. Looking forward to our first micro greens from the cold frame tomorrow.
 
Make sure you get your proteins if you on a veggie diet. I think elimination diet is worth a shot if you really exhaust your ideas, but it's important to keep yourself healthy as that might be the root of the problem to begin with.

An alternative is to do a shorter elimination diet with just diary and gluten. Those two are the main ones, so you can try those two first and then reconsider if you still need to continue to do the others afterwards.
 
I've heard different theories regarding to this... some people say that celiac diases causes similar symptoms to fibro, thus people affected by that have benefited from having a gluten-free diet. I often wonder if I could be one of those persons who suffer from celiac disease, but doesn't know it yet. It would be wonderful if it was that simple... I actually think I'm allergic to some of the foods I consume often, but on a small degree, because sometimes I get rashes and itch here and there.
 
I've considered trying the diet because I need to fix my gut issues. If I eat, I get bloated. It's that simple. What variates is how bloated I get. I can easily pass for 9 months pregnant at times. However, I think it's a drastic step and, like going gluten free, a fad.

I too had a skin prick test. The only thing I was allergic to was some South American bed bug that I needed to be exposed to. Well, the closest I've been to South American is middle Mexico. Then, I got a copy of the letter the allergist sent to my primary. He suggested I had allergies to many things, including my dogs. I was surprised to read of this but I knew my doctor knew better than to tell me I shouldn't have my dogs.

However, if you feel you might be allergic to gluten get tested. It's simple blood work. You just need to be eating gluten for the test to pick up on any allergy.
 
I have not done this for Fibro, but I have for migraines, and it works EXTREMELY well if you can stick with it. It's very difficult to go out to eat with friends or family and find something on the menu while you're on the diet. I recommend cooking a few meals ahead as well, that way, if you don't feel like cooking yourself something 'special' you can just heat something up.

The skin prick test works, too, but me and any kind of needle any kind of length don't get along.
 
The skin prick test works, too, but me and any kind of needle any kind of length don't get along.

Did it work for you? It was a total joke for me. I'm extremely allergic to corn (been in the ER from eating it accidently,) and my corn allergy didn't show up on the skin prick test. When something I know I'm allergic to doesn't show up, I don't trust the entire test. I paid $500 for that test... huge waste of money and time.

Elimination diets really are the only accurate way to test for food allergies.
 
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