An elimination diet is used to determine what food of foods are causing allergy symptoms or other undesirable effects.
The basics behind an elimination diet is that you remove any suspect food from your diet for a period of time – long enough for the food protein to clear from your bloodstream. Then reintroduce foods one by one, with a delay between each food of several days. This allows you to correlate a specific food with specific sets of symptoms.
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I am going to start the Gluten Free Diet today for i know it must be done i know i had this disease for over 3 months i didn’t do much about cause i was smoking cig. now i have stop smoking i can work on this health problem. Wish me luck
For 15 years I have struggled with what may be a gluten problem, perhaps others here can point me in the right dirction.
Initially I was diagnosed with anxiety, but a strange pattern always develops when I get what I call “attacks”. If I eat sandwiches for supper on any type of bread, I’ll awaken in a sweat with a very high heart rate, sometimes so high that it is scary.
I’ve been to a heart specialist and wore a monitor for almost a year, he gave up, although he did conceed that something odd was going on. I then went to a naturopath, she thinks food allergies so I had a whole array of allergy tests done, they all returned negative.
By the process of elimination as well as a food diary I think I’m on the right path. I wouldn’t be on thsi blog if I was 100% sure of my self diagnosis, main reason for that is that these attacks when eating bread do not happen every time.
I would appreciate any advice or suggestion that others might have experienced of a similar nature.
Hi Chris,
Sounds like you’ve had a lot of expensive but inconclusive tests.
The elimination diet doesn’t cost anything, hence its unpopularity in the health industry.
If you suspect a particular food, and it seems you suspect wheat/gluten, just try cutting it out for a couple of months and see what happens. You aren’t looking for “every time I eat gluten, I get this effect”, you’re looking for “if I never eat gluten, I never get this effect”.
Of course it may not be the bread but what you put between it that’s causing the problem so take note of what else you eat. Keeping a food journal and recording how you feel would also be helpful, keeping in mind that there may be a delay of hours or days between eating a particular food and having an effect.
Hi Chris. I have a similar situation to the one you described. In the past year or so, I’ve had massive anxiety, but I believe that the anxiety is caused by the physical symptoms, not the other way around. After eating certain foods, I get a rapid heart rate, constricted airways (to the point that I was diagnosed with asthma), sore through, acid reflux, and a fidgety, nervous feeling of restlessness. Sometimes i awaken in the middle of the night with these symptoms. I eat a pretty good diet (no fast food or junk usually) but I recently eliminated gluten on the advice of my celiac sister. I have tested negative for celiac, but my symptoms improved dramatically after eliminated gluten. Recently, however, the symptoms seems to return after I consume rice. I am wondering if I have to look at yeast or sulfite or other things like that. I am starting with a Naturopath in a few days, so hopefully some answers will emerge.
I have been having problems with my stomach for years. Test after test and several Colonoscopies later, I still have pain. My mother suggested to me that I may have a gluten allergy and that I may have to try a gluten free diet. Well, Thank God for mothers!! I removed them from my diet about a month ago and I have never felt better. I was always bloated but only in the upper abdomen and could never figure out why. I have not yet been diagnosed by an actual HCP but I am convinced that I do have a gluten allergy.
Hi Charlotte,
You’re not alone. I discovered my gluten allergy the same way and it has not been confirmed by medical tests. However an elimination diet is more accurate than medical tests for a gluten allergy. Celiac disease is another matter and you might consider being tested for that, unless you plan to avoid all gluten, even in trace amounts, for the rest of your life (which is what I do).
On this web site that I stated above, I am looking over it and see that I really may have a gluten allergy. Both of my parents are diebetic so I try to watch what I eat. But everytime I eat no matter what I eat, I swell up an look like I am 8 months pregnant, and I know that isn’t possible because I had a hysterectomy back in 1992.
I have a friend that is an RN and she has told me that I need to be checked for a gluten allergy. I am so uncomfortable, tired, I dont want to eat, but know that I have to eat to live. What kind of test will tell me if I have a gluten allergy? Please I am so tired of looking like the goodyear blimp just in my upper abdomen.
There are tests for gluten allergy, but they are not particularly accurate. You are better to cut out gluten for two or three months and see if you feel better.
You may actually be celiac. This is a genetic condition. If your parent s are diabetic, then that may actually be caused by celiac disease. There does seem to be a connection between the two conditions.
You can get accurate tests for celiac disease.
If you cut out gluten and you feel better, you won’t know if it is a gluten allergy or celiac disease, but it is important to find out since you need to know if you can cheat on a gluten free diet. If you have a gluten allergy, the price you pay is feeling lousy for as long as it takes to clear from your system. If you have celiac disease, there are much more severe, long-term consequences.
I am looking for a list of mold free and yeast free foods–I have been put on a diet to avoid these
Thank You
Ken K
interested in gluten free diet for 8 weeks
may need try elimination diet.went to allergist..had me tested for gluten.test return negative..2or 3 for numbers..so the allergists is sending me gluten free info…my problem is after bread white or wheat, saltines, some chips.a meal of a veggie burger on wheat bread /fries..within about 10 min i get what i refer to as my froggy voice..constant clearing of my throat does not help..drinking fluids does not help..i clear my throat so much i therefore irritate my throat..i used to think it was just white flour items now it is wheat also..i am a vegetarian of about three years…any advise plz..
I suggest you completely avoid wheat for a while and see if things improve.
This website has lots of information about avoiding wheat and gluten.