Do you experience or struggle with digestive issues like gas, bloating, abdominal pain, inconsistent bowel movements (including diarrhea and/or constipation), or headaches, migraines, skin conditions (including acne, rashes, eczema, dermatitis, and more), mood changes, anxiety, depression, fatigue or joint pain? Then trying an elimination diet might be a great and healing experience for you!
The Elimination Diet is the original and the true “gold standard” way to see if you have any food sensitivities, intolerances or allergies. But what many don’t know it will also lower your inflammation! Additionally, built into the ND Elimination Diet Experience (designed by yours truly) is the 5 R’s protocol (Remove, Replace, Repopulate, Repair and Resilience) with gut healing supplements to help address and rebuild any leaky gut, create a healthy immune system, practice mindful eating, learn more about your body and listen to your intuition and feel and look your best.
Benefits of the ND Elimination Diet:
Detoxify the body, mind and soul
Address food intolerance and/or sensitivities
Reduce and address any symptoms below and more
Reduce inflammation
Improve digestion
Heal your gut and address leaky gut
Glowing clear skin
Healthy immune system
Impoved mood and energy
Improve sleep quality and quantity
Reset the body and cravings
Learn mindful eating
How to listen to your body
Address emotional blocks
Develop intuition around food and yourself
Create lasting habits and self care practices
Create energizing morning and peaceful evening routines and rituals
Feel amazing!
While our bodies do an amazing job at detoxifying naturally, the modern world we live in makes it a challenge to keep up with it, between the toxins in the environment, our homes, the stress in our lives. Then on top of that, adding in consuming foods that don’t agree with our bodies, this adds to our congested liver, inflammation or leaky gut, and as a consequence optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients are compromised. And in turn, this can cause a weakened immune system, possibly leading to more food intolerances, leaky gut and even worse diseases and cancers. Sometimes it’s a viscous cycle.
Symptoms an elimination diet can address:
Seasonal allergies
Digestive issues - including gas, bloating, abdominal pain
Diarrhea and/or constipation
Headaches or migraines
Skin conditions - including acne, rashes, eczema, dermatitis
Mood swings
Anxiety and/or depression
Fatigue and brain fog
Joint pain
Elimination diets traditionally have 2 phases. The first is the restriction or elimination phase where you exclude the most highly allergic foods for a period of time, generally 3 weeks to a couple months. On the ND Elimination Diet Experience, I ask all those going through it if there are any other foods that they may feel the need to challenge. I strongly believe in combining the science and research with our intuitions and gut feelings.
And while this phase is restrictive by nature, it’s not calorie restrictive. You should be eating plenty of amazing delicious foods and have plenty of energy to do anything you would normally! Plus, when you do the ND Elimination Diet Experience you get a 75+ guidebook with tons of information, education, worksheets, journal printouts, meal plans, recipes, and more!
Some of the most common foods to eliminate:
Gluten
Dairy
Eggs
Soy
Sugar
Alcohol
Caffeine and more!
Once you get to the point where you are feeling really great and/or most of your health issues/symptoms have disappeared, you move to phase 2 where you will reintroduce these foods back into our diet, one-by-one to “challenge” them and see how you react. When these adverse foods are removed from your diet and your gut is healthy the body can recover and once again function optimally, allowing us to feel great!
In my ND Elimination Diet Experience, I add in a third phase. This is the maintenance phase, where we talk about how to incorporate what was learned over the past weeks or months of the elimination diet, plus how to incorporate more lifestyle habits, stress relieving tips and self-care for feeling your best all the time without restriction.
While it is possible to walk yourself through an elimination diet on your own and see a little improvement, you can read my personal experience from before I was a nutritionist here. I know working with a health professional, like myself, can make a world of difference. Every single person is different and should be treated differently. While this may seem like a one-size-fits-all diet, it’s not! Far from it. I walk all clients and groups through their own 5-R protocol and we decide what food and schedule is best for them for maximum success and results.
Who should NOT do an elimination diet?
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you can eliminate a few foods if you are experiencing any issues listed above. However, this is a time when you need a vast variety of nutrients and food. I would only recommend you do this under supervision of a doctor or medically trained practitioner.
Additionally, an elimination diet is not for everyone. If you have had any experience with eating disorders or disordered eating, this may not be for you. Please seek out a trained professional if you are interests in doing this before you go it alone.