The Elimination Diet Step 105severity of the intolerance. We call this a food challenge test and the method
I evolved over the years is the best I know. It often astonishes the unlucky
patient to experience the full force of an adverse reaction to a food he or
she had been eating almost daily, apparently without any ill effects.
The compromise
If you followed the explanation given above, you will have no difficulty
in understanding how the plan works. In essence, it is a compromise with
fasting: instead of avoiding all foods you are asked to omit only the likely
troublemakers. The common allergy foods – a sort of ‘top ten’ – are wheat,
corn, egg, milk, tea, coffee, cane sugar, yeast, citrus fruit (usually orange)
and cheese. Others seem to vary according to consumption by the patient.
For example, the tomato is quite a common allergen (although you would
probably think it a fairly natural foodstuff), probably because it is consumed
in such large quantities; we now eat winter salads, and tomatoes are very
widely used in sauces and flavorings all year round.
Potato, from the same botanical family, may also have severe
reactions. I have already remarked that for some reason it is a common
cause of eczema – turning up far more commonly than it ought to. The fact
is, as I have said repeatedly, any food can provoke symptoms. It varies from
patient to patient. But short of banning all foods, which I have explained is
not a good plan, the next best thing is to eliminate the most likely culprits.
It’s really about playing the odds.
I want you to follow this exact eating plan for ten to fourteen days.
Maybe less: if your symptoms clear up entirely in the first five days, you can
proceed to the next stage, which is the reintroduction of suspect foods, as
described in chapter 12.
Foods you must avoid
To put this in reverse, the foods that you must avoid are as follows:
No grains: grains are the grass family (Graminaceae): wheat, corn, barley,
rye, oats, rice and millet. Do not eat substitutes, such as spelt, which is really
a kind of wheat.
This group of foods are very widespread in our diet. Wheat alone
occurs in bread, cakes, cookies, muffins, pastry, pasta, as well as whiskey and
many other distilled spirits. Corn is consumed as cornbread, hominy, grits,