What to Do if the Diet Fails 143such a substance. That could be healthy, you might suppose, and so it could;
but niacin is notorious for the side effect it produces of a burning flush,
rather like being exposed too long in the sun. If a hearty steak tends to do
this to you, perhaps it is really the ‘harmless’ vitamin pollution at work!
Include a two-week meat-free regime in your self-assessment
program. If there is any improvement, find out which meats by reintroducing
them as before.
Pulse-Free
The elimination diet, or Stone Age diet, is in effect grains-free, dairy-free
and chemical-free with a few refinements, such as no sugar and stimulants.
Next to these foods, the pulse family is arguably the commonest group of
troublemakers. These are also called legumes (peas and beans). It should
not be forgotten that peanuts (a bean, not a true nut), lentils and soya (often
used as textured vegetable protein, TVP) are also members of this botanical
group.
There are a great many biological toxins to be found in pulses,
which means that most of them are poisonous unless cooked particularly
well. This could account for the fact that, as a family, they are not always
well tolerated.
After your meat-free experiment, try two weeks pulse-free.
Nut and pip-free
Some people don’t tolerate fruit very well; with others, nuts are a problem.
This may be a sign of allergy to the birch tree pollen (Betula species). Foods
to avoid in this group are almond, apple, apricot, raw carrot, raw celery,
cherry, coriander, fennel, hazelnut, kiwi, nectarine, parsley, parsnip, peach,
pear, peppers, plum, raw potato, prune, tomato and walnut.
These may be foods to suspect if you felt worse on the Stone Age Diet. You
probably increased your intake of these foods. Try eliminating them now as
part of the program.
A larger group exclusion we call the “nut-and-pip-free diet”:
tomatoes, apples, plums, nuts, marzipan, coconut, pears, plums, cherries,
bananas, pineapple, peas, apricots, peaches, beans, lentils, soya, strawberries,
raspberries, peanuts, melon, cucumber, gooseberries, black currants,
marrow squash, pepper, mustard, oranges, lemon, grapefruit, curry, soft