PREPARING FOR THE ELIMINATION DIET: SORT OUT OTHER PROBLEMS
The idea of the elimination diet is to create a period of ‘silence’ in which you can listen to your body answering specific questions. Any sort of background noise is going to confuse you, so you need to eliminate other things that cause symptoms before you start. The three main items to consider are airborne allergens, hyperventilation and chemical sensitivity.
You should suspect airborne allergens if your symptoms include asthma, hay-fever, a year-round runny nose or congested nose (rhinitis), red, watery or itchy eyes, sinusitis, or recurrent ‘colds’. Eczema and urticaria may indicate allergens in the air that land on the skin – or things that touch the skin directly. Consult pp64-5 for likely sources of trouble. Avoidance measures are described on pp66-8. Put these into effect for a few months before starting the diet.
Hyperventilation is suggested by dizziness, faintness, tingling in the hands and feet, numbness, spaced-out or confused feelings, shortness of breath and a variety of other symptoms. A full list is given on pl56. It appears that hyperventilation often accompanies food intolerance, but it can sometimes be the sole cause of symptoms.
There are no typical symptoms reported for chemical sensitivity, but most people who react generally know that they do because certain things always make them feel ill – travelling by car, smelling perfume or swimming in chlorinated water, for example. Complete avoidance is difficult, but try to clean up your environment as much as possible, and wait for about two weeks before starting the elimination diet, so that you can assess the effects of doing this.
If you respond to any of these avoidance measures, however slightly, they should be continued throughout Stages 1, 2 and 3 of the diet.
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