This Elimination/Rechallenge Diet is a short-term diet for diagnosis and assessment only; it is not a long term treatment diet. The purpose of this diet is to discover and uncover those foods that may be responsible for some, many or all of your symptoms. Whether this test diet is used alone or in combination with skin or blood tests, the results will determine what food allergy treatment diet is best for you. The treatment diet usually consists of the elimination of the worst offending foods and then rotating mild and non reactive foods on an every 3-4 day basis. This treatment diet is called an Elimination/ Rotation Diet and is described in a separate monograph.

Part I: The Elimination Phase

If you or your child are better in a week or less, begin part 2 of the diet on day 8. Improvement noted on day 2 may greatly increase by day 7. The object is to see the maximum amount of improvement which can be noted during the first 7 days.
If you want to help your entire family, urge everyone to try the diet at the same time. Typically, several family members will note improvement in how they feel or act when this is done.

If you or your child are not better within 1 week, recheck the diet records for the initial week of foods eaten: were only the allowed foods eaten? If you or your child repeatedly forgot and ate the wrong foods or drank the wrong beverages at school, work or at home, the item which was not deleted or omitted from the diet may be the culprit. Try Part I of the diet again, but this time try much harder to adhere strictly to the diet. It's best to do the diet only one time, but do it right. This fast, inexpensive method of food sensitivity detection can some times provide rapid, safe relief of many chronic medical and behavioral complaints.

Occasionally, a person is worse during Part I of the diet. This may be from a "clearing out effect" of prior food sensitivities or it may be that you or your child has begun to ingest an excessive amount of an unsuspected offending food or beverage. If this happens, immediately stop the diet. A child who substitutes apple or grape juice for milk, for example, may act or behave much worse if the apple or grape juice is the cause of this child's symptoms. Retry Part I of the diet, but stop the suspected food or beverage which you think made your child worse.

Sometimes, a person who was not helped during the first week will dramatically improve with a more prolonged diet. Continue Part I of the diet for two weeks, not one week. If Part I of the diet is tried and has not helped by the 14th day, this particular diet is probably not the answer for you or your child. The medical problems may not be related to foods or are possibly due to other frequently eaten or craved items, ie, mushrooms, cinnamon, yeast, tobacco, molds, chemicals, etc., which were not removed from the diet.

NOTE: If an infection occurs during the diet, stop the diet until you or your child is well. It is too difficult to interpret the results if it is continued.

During Part I of the diet, the following foods are omitted in all forms:

• Milk and dairy products, (yogurt, cheese, ice cream, casein, sodium caseinate, whey)
• Wheat (bread, cake, cookies, baked goods)
• Citrus (orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit)
• Eggs, corn, sugar, chocolate (cocoa or cola)
• Food coloring, additives, preservatives
• Peas (peanut butter, peanuts)
• Luncheon meats, sausage, ham or bacon
• Caffeine- coffee, tea, cola (yes, even decaf)
• Vitamin and nutritional supplements and over the counter medications. Continue all prescription medication unless directed otherwise by your doctor.

If there is some question about a specific food, do not eat it. Also, exclude any other food or beverage that is craved in excess because such items are frequently unsuspected causes of various medical or emotional problems.

MAJOR CAUTION: Do NOT eat any food you already know causes a severe allergy. This diet is to detect foods that you eat frequently but that are NOT presently recognized as a possible cause of certain medical, behavior, activity or learning problems.