audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I have been on an elimination diet over two months now. My doctor thinks my thyroid autoimmune disease could be due to food intolerances and advised me to take this step. He believes that many autoimmune diseases are related and usually linked to gut health, so he has put me on a path for healing the gut. He mentioned “leaky gut”. I’m thinking, what? People who suffer from IBS or other issues like celiac or Chron’s disease may be familiar with these terms.
This elimination diet is a rather strict one, prescribed by the AL-CAT test. The AL-CAT test is a food sensitivity test that exposes your blood to up to 200 foods and some environmental chemicals and measures your immune response. It is not testing for allergies, but rather for food intolerances, which is much milder than allergies.
It’s very strict - foods that you usually eat often - 3 or more times a week - that you show some intolerance for need to be eliminated for a period of 90 to 180 days, depending on the degree of intolerance. In addition, you go on a rotation diet of the “OK” foods where you don’t eat the same thing every day and most foods you only eat every 4 days.
The theory is that you can get past most food intolerances by taking a break for 3 or 6 months, depending on how strong your reaction is to the food, and then reintroducing the food to see how your system handles it. If your body is not exposed to the food for a long enough time, it stops making the antigen to it.
You can’t eat out. You have to prepare all your own foods - mainly from scratch. Even the cooking oils you use have to be rotated. I have several foods that I am intolerant too - like barley/malt, for example - that show up insidiously as an additive in many processed foods (caramel color, for example). There are only certain spices I can use. So I’ve been a slave to the kitchen, and thank goodness I'm a fairly experienced cook, because I am definitely working with a limited palette!!!
I general, I am currently dairy, soy and gluten free, as well as a smattering of other foods. I think it likely that dairy could be the main culprit. I noticed some digestive changes immediately from stopping dairy, and maybe coffee as well.
Results so far - there has been an improvement in my thyroid numbers so far, some by as much as 20%. It’s small, but significant as this is the my fourth full T-panel in 16 months, but the only one that has shown any improvement.
My digestive system does feel “calmer” - it’s hard to quantify better than that. But it does feel like there is some “gut healing” going on. I keep a food journal to note what I am eating every day, any foods that seem to cause me digestive problems, keep track of food rotations, etc.
But there have been many other surprises. After only a few weeks I noticed that my knees didn’t bother me nearly as much as they usually do. Dairy is often a culprit in joint pain.
Last night I was reviewing some notes from 2012 where I was exercising about at the same level. And I noticed that I often made notes about muscles soreness in 2012. Well, I have not experienced muscle soreness in the past couple of months - zippo, nada. And I have been increasing weights some, doing a few more strenuous things, etc., compared to a few months ago. Normally this would cause muscle soreness and fatigue.
And, I have lost almost 10 pounds since starting the diet. I had lost 5 before starting the diet, mainly due increasing my activity level in Feb. But these last pounds are under a weight that I have not able to break under since before 2008 - a very stubborn weight threshold. I thought that mean’t thyroid function had improved more than the blood test results - and maybe it has, it just hasn’t shown up yet. Hypothyroidism can make it really hard to lose weight.
I haven’t been counting calories at all. I did notice that I didn’t feel the urges to snack that I sometimes had before. This diet is probably slightly higher carb with the elimination of dairy. Also, the grain carbs I can eat - corn, rice - are higher GI starches. I also eat plenty of fruit. But no added sugar. I eat plenty of nuts and oils - as much as I want.
My blood pressure has dropped steadily all year - this corresponds directly to the weight loss. It’s lower now that it has been since I started tracking it.
Anyway - it’s not necessary to take an expensive test like the AL-CAT to try an elimination diet on your own, simply but cutting out certain foods. If there are certain chronic conditions you are suffering from, you can read up on whether certain foods are considered to be culprit and try eliminating those particular foods for a certain time period and see if your symptoms improve. I had tried just going gluten free at first - without any improvement which is why we decided to take this more comprehensive step.
This elimination diet is a rather strict one, prescribed by the AL-CAT test. The AL-CAT test is a food sensitivity test that exposes your blood to up to 200 foods and some environmental chemicals and measures your immune response. It is not testing for allergies, but rather for food intolerances, which is much milder than allergies.
It’s very strict - foods that you usually eat often - 3 or more times a week - that you show some intolerance for need to be eliminated for a period of 90 to 180 days, depending on the degree of intolerance. In addition, you go on a rotation diet of the “OK” foods where you don’t eat the same thing every day and most foods you only eat every 4 days.
The theory is that you can get past most food intolerances by taking a break for 3 or 6 months, depending on how strong your reaction is to the food, and then reintroducing the food to see how your system handles it. If your body is not exposed to the food for a long enough time, it stops making the antigen to it.
You can’t eat out. You have to prepare all your own foods - mainly from scratch. Even the cooking oils you use have to be rotated. I have several foods that I am intolerant too - like barley/malt, for example - that show up insidiously as an additive in many processed foods (caramel color, for example). There are only certain spices I can use. So I’ve been a slave to the kitchen, and thank goodness I'm a fairly experienced cook, because I am definitely working with a limited palette!!!
I general, I am currently dairy, soy and gluten free, as well as a smattering of other foods. I think it likely that dairy could be the main culprit. I noticed some digestive changes immediately from stopping dairy, and maybe coffee as well.
Results so far - there has been an improvement in my thyroid numbers so far, some by as much as 20%. It’s small, but significant as this is the my fourth full T-panel in 16 months, but the only one that has shown any improvement.
My digestive system does feel “calmer” - it’s hard to quantify better than that. But it does feel like there is some “gut healing” going on. I keep a food journal to note what I am eating every day, any foods that seem to cause me digestive problems, keep track of food rotations, etc.
But there have been many other surprises. After only a few weeks I noticed that my knees didn’t bother me nearly as much as they usually do. Dairy is often a culprit in joint pain.
Last night I was reviewing some notes from 2012 where I was exercising about at the same level. And I noticed that I often made notes about muscles soreness in 2012. Well, I have not experienced muscle soreness in the past couple of months - zippo, nada. And I have been increasing weights some, doing a few more strenuous things, etc., compared to a few months ago. Normally this would cause muscle soreness and fatigue.
And, I have lost almost 10 pounds since starting the diet. I had lost 5 before starting the diet, mainly due increasing my activity level in Feb. But these last pounds are under a weight that I have not able to break under since before 2008 - a very stubborn weight threshold. I thought that mean’t thyroid function had improved more than the blood test results - and maybe it has, it just hasn’t shown up yet. Hypothyroidism can make it really hard to lose weight.
I haven’t been counting calories at all. I did notice that I didn’t feel the urges to snack that I sometimes had before. This diet is probably slightly higher carb with the elimination of dairy. Also, the grain carbs I can eat - corn, rice - are higher GI starches. I also eat plenty of fruit. But no added sugar. I eat plenty of nuts and oils - as much as I want.
My blood pressure has dropped steadily all year - this corresponds directly to the weight loss. It’s lower now that it has been since I started tracking it.
Anyway - it’s not necessary to take an expensive test like the AL-CAT to try an elimination diet on your own, simply but cutting out certain foods. If there are certain chronic conditions you are suffering from, you can read up on whether certain foods are considered to be culprit and try eliminating those particular foods for a certain time period and see if your symptoms improve. I had tried just going gluten free at first - without any improvement which is why we decided to take this more comprehensive step.
but happy to hear that the elimination diet is working so well for you. 
