What to Do if the Diet Fails 141Modified test procedure
If you are determined and want to reduce the diet further, it would be logical
to try to detect the foods that are continuing to cause you problems. Some
of this is guesswork; some, as you will now know, is based on frequency of
consumption. Foods you eat only rarely are not what we are looking for.
There will no doubt be a number of allowed foods that you eat daily,
as you have always done. What about potato? Onion? Tomato? Lettuce?
Don’t suppose salad foods are healthy for everyone. Lettuce is a surprisingly
common offender, resulting in illnesses from migraine to colitis. Don’t get
caught out.
Set yourself a program of testing each one in turn. It is logical
to start with those you consume most of or, more exactly, consume most
often: overindulged foods are always prime suspects.
Avoid the food for five days and then challenge it.
Of course if you feel better soon after dropping it out, that’s a
good sign and you will be particularly careful to nail it when carrying out
the challenge test.
Omitting groups of foods
It is possible to exclude different groups of foods to those banned on the
Stone Age diet. If up to this point you have not succeeded, you might like
to try omitting each of these groups in turn. A number of suggestions are
given below.
Meat-free
Not everyone feels much better as a vegetarian, but you have only to read
the success stories of some people who have adopted this lifestyle to realize
that it suits quite a number. We can deduce that these people must have been
allergic to meat in some form or other. Unfortunately, many more people
are allergic to grains and dairy produce than to meat. This is sometimes hard
to get across to vegetarians, who tend to be enthusiastic campaigners. It
means, in effect, that fewer people are suited to vegetarianism than are made
ill by it. This is an overall view, which does not take into account individual
cases. Where vegetarianism does help is that it tends to be part and parcel of
a movement towards whole foods and away from manufactured and ‘junk’
food. Inevitably this is associated with increased health and vitality.