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What to Do if the Diet Succeeds
A
s I point out to patients, there can only be three outcomes for the
exclusion test diet (after perhaps allowing extra time in certain
situations): you feel better, you feel worse or there is no change. We will deal
with each case in turn.
Best of all, of course, is feeling better. This is the usual case. If you
met enough criteria from Chapter 10 which showed you were in an overload
crisis and you properly simplified your diet as described, the chances are very
high that you will feel really good. Maybe all symptoms have vanished.
Patient sometimes find a zest and energy they have not felt for years.
Friends and family may even comment, “You look ten years younger!” It’s
one of my hearty sayings that the best treatment for a woman’s complexion
is diet! It far outweighs the artifice of creams and colorings.
All very nice.
But what if you have made only a partial recovery: Some of your
symptoms are lessened, some have perhaps disappeared, and others remain
unchanged? This is quite a common occurrence also and you should not be
despondent: there are several more steps to go through after the preliminary
diet which may bring further gains or possibly lead you all the way to a
cure. What you have proved is that your illness has a basis in allergy or
intolerance. For many people this will be the first sign of progress in years,
and, of course, a degree of success. What follows is an attempt to build on
this initial information.
You feel well
If you have recovered completely, then this is the easiest part of the book
for you. Basically, what is required next is to identify those foods that were