The Elimination Diet Step 121the like are a good investment against hunger and against the desire to stray
from the diet and nibble ‘snacks.’
The same enjoinder applies, though less forcefully, to your other
daily meals. Eat heartily, and don’t go hungry. Make a virtue out of breaking
your normal routine. Others who continue to eat junk will be far more
uncomfortable about your diet than you will!
Withdrawal symptoms
Let me now close this chapter with a reminder about withdrawal reactions.
As with a junkie coming off heroin or an alcoholic who gets the DTs, the
symptoms caused by stopping eating something to which you are addicted
can be quite severe. Patients occasionally suffer so badly they have to give
up working and retire to bed for a couple of days. It can be like this, but
fortunately this extreme is rather rare: most people experience nothing
more than a headache, tiredness and a disagreeable manner with friends
and relations.
This unpleasant withdrawal phase has given rise to the fashionable
and misleading term “de-tox” diet. Now that you are becoming diet wise you
will better understand what is really happening on this step.
It can be a trying few days, and you must warn them it might
happen or you will find yourself in conflict. It is especially important to be
sympathetic with children in this phase; they are not being naughty as you
might think, and to punish bad behavior would only add to the distress.
The point to remember is that if you do feel something out of
the ordinary it is good news, so to speak: it means we have hit a bull’s-
eye somewhere. One or more of the foods you have ceased to eat was
an allergen, and you are going to be correspondingly better in the long
run. If that isn’t comfort enough, then bear in mind that it will all clear up
in a few days. Since, as I have said, it takes about four days to empty the
bowel it is possible to predict that many cases, though not all, will wake up
feeling refreshed and well on the morning of the fifth day. Patients are often
startled by how accurate this is. Even if you vary by having symptoms that
persist longer, your deliverance will come, so do persist.
The only exception to this last remark is the occasional individual
who gets worse due to being allergic to something eaten on the diet – fruit
for example. Again, this is rare and not a reason to give up when the going
gets hard. Only if you are still feeling worse after ten or more days should
you suspect you might be in this category. The way to deal with the problem
is explained later (see Chapter 13).