Skip to main content

The Elimination Diet Workbook: Book Review


 


Admittedly, when I was asked if I could review this book, I rolled my eyes.  Don't get me wrong, food allergies are a serious issue...even in my family!  My mom and brother are allergic to shellfish and Adam is allergic to marlin fish.  But it seems to me, these days people blame absolutely everything on 'food intolerances', which are not even widely recognized as a real phenomenon.  Again, don't get me wrong, some intolerances are very real, like lactose intolerance, or gluten-intolerance if you are a celiac, but I find that pretty much every naturopath or other alternative health practitioner will tell you to eliminate dairy, wheat and gluten from your diet no matter what.  Even though there is absolutely no evidence to support these substances are linked to your symptoms.

But there are definitely circumstances when one may want to experiment with an elimination diet if you are feeling unwell and there is reason to believe it is due to what you are eating.  If that's the case, this book may be very helpful.

Part One explains why you might benefit from trying an elimination diet.  Part Two defines food allergies and distinguishes them from intolerances, lists the most common food allergens and intolerances and common conditions linked with diet.  Part Three gives you all the specific information you need to actually attempt an elimination diet.  It involves 4 phases:
1. Preparing
2. Planning and Eliminating
3. Challenge Phase
4. Maintenance

Part Four includes tools to help you through it, including a sample targeted elimination diet and a catchall elimination diet, tips for avoiding common allergens and triggers, and maintenance diet tools.

The tips are particularly useful because they explain where you will find various triggers, which may not always be evident from labels, etc. Like, for example, all the places you will find sulfites, and the different ingredient names which are all types of sulfites.  Or, all the unexpected places you might find wheat, or nuts, or soy.  There are also tables of substitution foods to provide nutrients that you may be currently getting from a food you plan to eliminate.

So if you suspect you may have a food allergy or sensitivity and would like to try an elimination diet, this book will be very useful for you.  Just make sure you check with your doctor first to rule out any other possible causes of your symptoms.

 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available.  My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic.  I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch.  I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat!  I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes.  You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (
5 comments
Read more

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th
164 comments
Read more

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste
1 comment
Read more