An Elimination Diet For Allergies

Food allergies are more prevalent today than they were in the 1990s. According to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, more than 12 million Americans have a food allergy. More than that, about 300,000 emergency visits by children each year are due to a food allergies. An elimination diet tracks foods to pinpoint food allergies.

Purpose

When you know which food is triggering your allergic reactions, you can avoid eating it. A simple elimination diet helps determine the food or foods to which you are allergic. Once you know which foods cause a reaction, you can avoid them in the future.

The Elimination Diet

To perform the diet, you begin by eliminating all suspect foods from your diet. Do not eat any food that may be the cause of your allergies for at least two to three weeks. After all your symptoms are gone, add trigger foods back in to your diet, one at a time. If a food triggers symptoms, then you know that you may be allergic to that food. To correctly perform the diet, slowly add foods back to your diet, waiting two weeks between each food you add back. If any symptoms occur, record your reaction and speak with your allergist.

Tracking Food Intake

To begin this diet, pediatrician Dr. William Sears suggests keeping a diary of the foods you have eliminated. To properly ascertain what foods may be causing any negative reactions, you should monitor the food and date that you included it in your diet again. Other traceable features should include how the food made you feel as well as any symptoms that you may have experienced. The information in this diary can be useful for your allergist.

Working With an Allergist

Begin working with an allergist at the onset of any symptoms of a food allergy. If you do an elimination diet, your allergist can test your skin and blood to confirm your suspected food allergy. A skin prick test, is a harmless, noninvasive prick, usually on your back, that contains the protein of the food you think you may be allergic to. Excessive redness and swelling of the site will confirm an allergy. However, a blood test is the ultimate decider. Your allergist may decide to draw some blood and test it against proteins of common food allergies. This test will give you a definitive answer that you're allergic to certain foods.