How to Complete an Elimination Diet
The goal of an elimination diet is to heal the gut by avoiding all foods that could potentially cause inflammation, allergies, digestive distress, or food intolerances/sensitivities. It’s important to sustain the elimination phase for a minimum of 6 weeks to give your digestive and elimination systems enough time to heal. After 6+ weeks, you can slowly re-introduce foods one-by-one. With each introduction, your body will communicate with bloating, digestive distress, hives, etc. if there are foods you should continue to avoid. If you reintroduce a food and don’t have any symptoms, you can add that ingredient back to your repertoire.
After you’ve completed the elimination and reintroduction phase, you’ll come out with improved gut health and a roadmap for how to nourish your unique body’s needs. Improving your gut health with an elimination diet provides a very long list of health benefits. People who have completed an elimination diet report improvements in how they feel, better digestion, healthier skin, and reduced allergies, headaches, autoimmune symptoms, fatigue, joint pain and much more. Use what you learn to create a maintenance diet that works for you.
Elimination
Reintroduction
Maintenance
I recommend working with an experienced coach to complete the process. I offer 1:1 and group support so please reach out if you are interested in working together. I also want to empower people to take this journey on their own if they’d like, so I created this guide.
Elimination diets are often complex and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. One cause of different guidance is two different lenses of gut healing -autoimmune protocol and low FODMAP. In my clinical experience, I find that a mixture of both protocols works well for most people without being super restrictive. I have also found that its easier to guide people with what to eat than what to not eat.
This guide is a mix of low-FODMAP and Auto-Immune-Protocol approaches to elimination. I’ve combined the best of both worlds to create a balanced plan that will work for most people while still including a bit of variety. Working with a coach can help decide if a more restrictive plan is necessary for you.
Foods to Eat During the Elimination Phase
Locally-grown, organic, nutrient-dense vegetables (cooked)
Organic, nourishing herbal infusions
Minimally processed meat that is locally pasture-raised, grass-fed, wild-caught, and humanely raised
Live, fermented foods
Cooked Vegetables:
Green beans, Bok choi, spinach, sweet potato/yams, zucchini, beets, fennel, squash, rutabaga, celery root, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion greens, bamboo shoots, oyster mushroom, cassava
Cooked (Ideally Sprouted) Grains:
Oats, rice, buckwheat, millet
*some people may benefit from abstaining from all grains during elimination
Meats and organ meat:
Wild-caught Alaskan Salmon and Cod, sardines, anchovies
Pasture-raised Chicken, duck, turkey
Pasture-raised lamb, bison, beef (unless AGS suspected)
Bone broth
Fruit:
Coconut, pineapple, blueberry, avocado
Nuts and seeds (Ideally sprouted + roasted; 2TBSP max serving per day)
Hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts
Fermented Foods
Non-dairy fermented food, such as kombucha, sauerkraut, pickles, and coconut kefir
Oils
olive oil (uncooked), avocado oil, or coconut oil
Herbs and Spices
Dill, parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, nourishing herbs, etc.
* None derived from seeds or peppers
Vinegars
Apple cider vinegar and others without added sugar
It’s important to check ingredients for any packaged or prepared product you buy. Many oils and added ingredients are in packaged nuts etc.
Reintroduction Phase
Reintroduce foods one at a time and wait 5–7 days before reintroducing a new food.
Continue to consume foods that are well tolerated avoid avoid those that trigger symptoms.
