The elimination diet is designed to uncover hidden food intolerances, to heal the gut, to bring down inflammation  and to tailor a food plan  that  works  best  for  your  body. Unfortunately this method is often used as a weight loss or fat loss tool for aesthetic improvements  or  elements  of  it  become  linked  to  fad diets  and  short  term  unhealthy  “detoxes”.

While fat loss and aesthetic improvements are absolutely a result of this method, it shouldn’t be the main basis for doing it. The aim is to be functioning optimally from the inside out.

When the body (particularly the gut) is working as it should, looking and feeling amazing is one of the awesome results

What does the elimination diet do?

• Removes the  most  inflammatory  foods.
• Includes the  best  gut-healing  foods.
• Gives your  gut  time  to  heal.
• Helps you  discover  your  food  intolerances.
• Starts to  balance  out  your  microbiome(  gut  microbes)

But before we go on, step 1 is to take stock! It’s hard to know where you’re going unless you know where you are.

Do you have skin issues? Digestive issues like gas, bloating, or intermittent constipation? Bad allergies? How’s your energy level? What about your mood? Ever feel like you suffer from brain fog? These are just some potential symptoms of food sensitivities.

So, before you begin an elimination diet, start at your head and go to your toes, and make a list of everything you notice in your body, however subtle or long-standing the symptom has been. This sets you up to notice important changes when they happen. Also tracking physiological bench markers such as weight , circumference measurements, taking a picture.

How  long  is  it  for  and  why?

I  would  ask  you  to  set  aside  28  days  to  comprehensively  complete the  full  gut  reset.

21  days  of  implementation:

The  gut  on  average  takes  21  days  to  respond  to  these  changes,  through  re-balancing  the  gut  bacteria, reducing  inflammation  and  improving  the  guts  ability to  be  able to  absorb  &  digest  nutrients  from  good quality  foods.

7  days  of  re-introduction  of  food  groups:

This  part  is  often  overlooked  and  gets  left  behind  amidst  the  post elimination  blow  out  plans  (  nights  out, alcohol,  celebratory  dinner  etc) however it is almost  the  most  crucial  part  of  the  process.

During  the reintroduction  of  foods  we  can  establish  exactly  what  one  might be  intolerant  to as  well  as  understanding  for each  individual  what  foods  they  respond  best  to.

Why 21 Days?

Antibodies, which are the proteins that your immune system makes when it reacts to foods, take around 21 to 23 days to turn over, so if you don’t eliminate things to which you’re sensitive for at least this amount of  time, you won’t get the full effect of eliminating them.

Also

New habits take 21 days to form,  which is also why we’re doing a 21-day elimination diet! We want to instil and maintain the positive habit changes learned during the elimination phase.

 

Facts  about  the  gut  &  why  it’s  so  crucial  to  our  overall  health

•Roughly 80% of your  immune  system  is  located  In  your  gut

•The gut is your  second  brain  ,  it  can  influence  the  chemistry of  your  mood, emotions, immune  function  and long  term  health

•There are  more  neurons  (nerve  cells  that process and transmit  information)  in  your  gut  than  there  are  in  your central  nervous  system (CNS),  which  includes  the  brain  and  spinal  cord

•95% of  your  serotonin(  happy  hormone)  is  located  within  the  gastrointestinal  tract.  So  you  can  see  how much  influence  the  condition  of  your  gut  will  have  on  your  mood day  to  day  or  even  meal  to  meal.

•Your  digestive  tract  is  roughly  nine  metres  in  length,  about  the  same  as  a  double-decker  bus  (this  ones  just interesting)

 

What  results  to  expect  from  the  elimination  diet?

Improved  sleep  quality

Improved  energy  levels

Improved  bowel  health

Improved  mood

Improved  cognitive  function

Overall  calmness  /  zen

Improved  Skin  &  hair  condition

Weight  loss  (  on  the  scales)

Inches  lost

Fat  loss

Clothes  fitting  better

Stabilisation  of  hormones

Less  Pms  / menstrual  cycle  symptoms

What  can  I  eat?

One of the biggest misconceptions  people  have  about  the  elimination  diet  is  that  they  won’t  be  able  to  eat  any delicious  foods.

Let’s first go over all the nutritious foods  you  can enjoy while  on  the  elimination  diet.

Organic meats & fish

Lean grass fed Beef

Free range Chicken

Turkey

Lamb

Salmon

Mackerel

Sardines

Cod

Plaice

Tuna steaks

Vegetables

The Emphasis  is  on green  veg only , in  particular  leafy  vegetables. There  is  no  cap  on  how  much  of  these  you  can eat  in  a  day, the more the better .

Healthy fats

Extra  virgin  Coconut  oil

Unsalted  butter

Ghee

Animal  fats  (  duck  &  goose)

Extra  virgin  Olive  oil

Rapeseed  oil

Nuts  (  Brazil,  cashew,  almonds, walnut, pecan – no peanuts , as these are legumes and a nutritionally poorer quality nut)

Nut  butters

Seeds  (  sesame ,  chia,  flax,  sunflower, pumpkin etc)

Avocado  (  is  actually  a  fruit  but  massive  fat  source)

Eggs (protein  and  fats)

Hydration

Take in as  many  herbal  teas  as  you  like  throughout  the  day, these  have  massive  benefits  alongside hydration.  Green teas have  a  caffeine  content  so  keep  these  to  a  minimum. Also  make  sure  you  take in  at  least  1.5  litres  of  purified  water  a  day

What to eliminate 

Finally, just a reminder of what to strictly stay away from:

Processed food 

Rice

Salt 

Sugar 

Caffeine 

Alcohol 

Root vegetables 

Gluten 

Dairy 

Fruit 

Legumes (beans, peanuts, peas, and lentils)

Why Alcohol?

Eliminating alcohol is partly for the detox factor. But alcohol also has a lot of sugar that helps things like yeast and harmful bacteria in your gut thrive. So when you eliminate alcohol, you may feel better in a few weeks, not just because of the absence of a sleep disruptor and a depressant, but because you’ve actually changed the flora in your gut that are critical to keeping you healthy!

How do I reintroduce foods the right way?

This part is really very simple, On day 22, pick one thing you eliminated—like dairy,gluten or  eggs (but no more than one) and eat it.

See how you feel over the next 48 hours. If you have no reaction after two days, eat that same food again, and for a second time, notice how you feel. From there, it’s up to you whether to re-incorporate that food into your diet on a regular basis.

Once you’ve made a call on the first food you reintroduce, pick another one and follow the same steps.

Finally benchmark your results

Throughout the diet and the reintroduction process, notice how you feel. Maybe you’ll see changes you weren’t expecting. Maybe your sleep quality or your energy level is better. Maybe the redness in your skin is gone, or your belly is flatter.

No blood test or doctor can tell you what life without a particular food will be like. When you find out for yourself, you could be saving yourself a lifetime of inflammation, annoying symptoms, and in some cases, even life-threatening diseases.

Please be aware this is a basic template  protocol ,there is more than one way to skin a cat,  and are many ways to modify this to suit specific individuals.

Good luck and Enjoy

Clódagh