Elimination Diet: A Valuable Disclaimer?
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Dear Jeff,
I hope that this message finds you very well.
I shared the following concern with a loved one who was tempted to try an elimination diet, and I was hopeful that you might be kind enough to share your perspective.
Do you think this is an issue that those of us considering elimination diets should be aware of? Does my hypothesis seem plausible in that many "food intolerances," especially those observed while undertaking an elimination diet, may simply be the result of our bodies needing more time to adapt to changes in diet?
Thank you very much for your consideration and for all that you do to support global health.
Please have a wonderful day.
Warmly,
Michael
---
"In addition, there is another reason why I think we should favor Novick's guidelines over the guidelines of the elimination diet:
Our gastrointestinal ("GI") tract is basically a long tube of our external environment that extends through our body. Due to this:
"The human body carries about 100 trillion microorganisms in its intestines, a number ten times greater than the total number of human cells in the body." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora)
Especially on a healthy diet, such as one following Novick's guidelines, many of these microorganisms are supportive, and aid in our digestive processes and health. We encourage their presence and number in our digestive tract through eating health-promoting foods, and these foods cause the microorganisms associated with them to thrive in our bodies, and help us more easily and effectively digest the healthy foods.
However, on the elimination diet, we artificially restrict certain health promoting foods, such as tomatoes, citrus fruits, and healthy whole grains like wheat, barley and rye. In doing so, we may begin to starve the gut bacteria that were accustomed to helping us digest these healthy foods, and they disappear from our GI tract.
Once the elimination diet is established, and all symptoms associated with the foods that were excluded disappear; primarily symptoms associated with the unhealthy foods, I would think; we then begin reintroducing the healthy foods we had restricted to determine if these are foods that our bodies can safely handle.
However, due to the absence of the healthy gut bacteria that help digest these foods, which need time to repopulate in our bodies, we will likely experience some digestive problems associated with the newly introduced healthy foods, and may misinterpret these digestive symptoms as symptoms of some disease process that is associated with consumption of the food. We would then continue to unnecessarily eliminate these healthy foods from our diet, when all we really have to do is wait for the healthy gut bacteria to gradually repopulate, and allow for easier digestion of these healthy foods.
We see the same thing when individuals increase the amount of fiber in their diet. Their gut microorganisms are not accustomed to this level of fiber, and thus gastrointestinal symptoms can result. However, so long as the higher fiber intake is sustained, the gut bacteria will gradually adapt to the higher fiber intake and the gastrointestinal symptoms should be ultimately relieved as a result.
These individuals do not have a fiber allergy, or a fiber sensitivity that demands a permanent reduction of fiber. They simply need to wait for their bodies to adjust accordingly, and then symptoms are likely to subside.
Thus, those of us who attempt an elimination diet should likely be aware of this potential phenomenon, so that we do not continue to unnecessarily exclude healthy foods from our diet because of the time needed for our gut bacteria to re-adapt to the return of these healthy foods."
I hope that this message finds you very well.
I shared the following concern with a loved one who was tempted to try an elimination diet, and I was hopeful that you might be kind enough to share your perspective.
Do you think this is an issue that those of us considering elimination diets should be aware of? Does my hypothesis seem plausible in that many "food intolerances," especially those observed while undertaking an elimination diet, may simply be the result of our bodies needing more time to adapt to changes in diet?
Thank you very much for your consideration and for all that you do to support global health.
Please have a wonderful day.
Warmly,
Michael
---
"In addition, there is another reason why I think we should favor Novick's guidelines over the guidelines of the elimination diet:
Our gastrointestinal ("GI") tract is basically a long tube of our external environment that extends through our body. Due to this:
"The human body carries about 100 trillion microorganisms in its intestines, a number ten times greater than the total number of human cells in the body." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut_flora)
Especially on a healthy diet, such as one following Novick's guidelines, many of these microorganisms are supportive, and aid in our digestive processes and health. We encourage their presence and number in our digestive tract through eating health-promoting foods, and these foods cause the microorganisms associated with them to thrive in our bodies, and help us more easily and effectively digest the healthy foods.
However, on the elimination diet, we artificially restrict certain health promoting foods, such as tomatoes, citrus fruits, and healthy whole grains like wheat, barley and rye. In doing so, we may begin to starve the gut bacteria that were accustomed to helping us digest these healthy foods, and they disappear from our GI tract.
Once the elimination diet is established, and all symptoms associated with the foods that were excluded disappear; primarily symptoms associated with the unhealthy foods, I would think; we then begin reintroducing the healthy foods we had restricted to determine if these are foods that our bodies can safely handle.
However, due to the absence of the healthy gut bacteria that help digest these foods, which need time to repopulate in our bodies, we will likely experience some digestive problems associated with the newly introduced healthy foods, and may misinterpret these digestive symptoms as symptoms of some disease process that is associated with consumption of the food. We would then continue to unnecessarily eliminate these healthy foods from our diet, when all we really have to do is wait for the healthy gut bacteria to gradually repopulate, and allow for easier digestion of these healthy foods.
We see the same thing when individuals increase the amount of fiber in their diet. Their gut microorganisms are not accustomed to this level of fiber, and thus gastrointestinal symptoms can result. However, so long as the higher fiber intake is sustained, the gut bacteria will gradually adapt to the higher fiber intake and the gastrointestinal symptoms should be ultimately relieved as a result.
These individuals do not have a fiber allergy, or a fiber sensitivity that demands a permanent reduction of fiber. They simply need to wait for their bodies to adjust accordingly, and then symptoms are likely to subside.
Thus, those of us who attempt an elimination diet should likely be aware of this potential phenomenon, so that we do not continue to unnecessarily exclude healthy foods from our diet because of the time needed for our gut bacteria to re-adapt to the return of these healthy foods."