When and How to do an Elimination Diet
Summary
TLDRThis video script offers guidance on conducting an elimination diet effectively, emphasizing the importance of addressing digestive malfunctions before beginning. It highlights common mistakes, such as not producing enough stomach acid or having thick bile, which can lead to food sensitivities. The speaker advises on a step-by-step process, including a 4-8 week diet plan to eliminate common problem foods, and stresses the need for commitment and careful reintroduction of foods to identify triggers. The goal is to improve digestion and reduce health issues related to food sensitivities.
Takeaways
- π The video emphasizes the importance of timing and method when undertaking an elimination diet to avoid common mistakes and maximize benefits.
- π« TC Hale clarifies they are not a medical professional, and the information provided is for educational purposes only, urging viewers to consult a doctor for medical advice.
- π Elimination diets are highlighted as effective for identifying food sensitivities, which can lead to significant health improvements when the offending foods are removed from one's diet.
- π¬ The script discusses the role of food sensitivity tests and their potential inaccuracies, suggesting a self-guided approach to identify problematic foods.
- πͺ The human body should conquer the food we eat by breaking it down into essential nutrients, and the video points out that improper digestion can lead to food being perceived as an invader by the body.
- π« The most common mistake made during an elimination diet is not addressing digestive malfunctions, such as insufficient stomach acid or thick bile, which are often the root causes of food sensitivities.
- π οΈ The video suggests that before starting an elimination diet, one should begin repairing digestive malfunctions, which may involve increasing stomach acid or improving bile flow.
- β±οΈ Setting a clear timeframe for the elimination diet, typically four to eight weeks, is crucial for observing changes and determining the effectiveness of the diet.
- π½οΈ During the elimination diet, all processed foods, sweeteners, grains, dairy, legumes, and alcohol should be removed from the diet to identify the most common problematic foods.
- π« Commitment to the elimination diet is paramount; any deviation requires restarting the process, emphasizing the need for strict adherence.
- π After the elimination period, reintroducing foods one at a time is essential for accurately identifying which foods may still cause a reaction or sensitivity.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of an elimination diet?
-The main purpose of an elimination diet is to identify and remove foods that may be causing adverse reactions or health issues, by systematically eliminating common problematic foods and observing the effects on one's health.
Why are elimination diets gaining popularity?
-Elimination diets are gaining popularity because they can be very effective in resolving significant health issues for some people, especially those dealing with food sensitivities.
What is a common mistake people make when starting an elimination diet?
-A common mistake is starting an elimination diet without first addressing existing digestive malfunctions, which can lead to continued food sensitivities and health issues.
What are some signs of digestive malfunctions that should be addressed before starting an elimination diet?
-Signs of digestive malfunctions include burping, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, nausea, indigestion, and skin or acne issues.
Why is stomach acid important in the digestion process?
-Stomach acid is crucial for acidifying food, which is necessary for breaking it down into elemental nutrients. Without enough stomach acid, food isn't properly broken down, leading to potential sensitivities and health issues.
What role does bile play in digestion?
-Bile, produced by the gallbladder, is alkaline and helps neutralize stomach acids. It's essential for the breakdown of fats and the 'sizzle' effect that further breaks down food into absorbable nutrients.
What is the recommended duration for an elimination diet?
-The recommended duration for an elimination diet is typically four to eight weeks, allowing enough time for the body to recover and for individuals to observe changes in their symptoms.
What should one do if they suspect they have a food sensitivity?
-If someone suspects a food sensitivity, they can consider doing food sensitivity tests, consulting with a healthcare professional, or following an elimination diet to identify problematic foods.
What are some foods that should be eliminated during an elimination diet according to the script?
-During an elimination diet, one should remove all processed foods, sweeteners, grains, dairy, legumes, alcohol, and for those with autoimmune issues, also eggs, nuts and seeds, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers.
How should reintroduction of foods be done after an elimination diet?
-Reintroduction of foods should be done one at a time, with careful observation of how the body reacts over a period of time, to accurately identify any foods that may still cause adverse reactions.
What is the 'carnivore diet' mentioned in the script, and why might it not be suitable for everyone?
-The carnivore diet involves consuming only meat and eliminating all other food groups. It might not be suitable for everyone because the high protein intake can be difficult to break down, especially for those with existing digestive issues or insufficient stomach acid.
What is the advice for those who find it challenging to commit to a full elimination diet?
-For those who find it challenging, the advice is to start with 'training wheels' by incorporating compliant meals into their daily diet, gradually building up a rotation of meals before fully committing to the elimination diet.
What resources are available for further guidance on digestion and the elimination diet process?
-Further guidance can be found in the book 'Kick Your Fat in the Nuts', specifically chapters three, four, and nine, and appendix E which provides a list of foods to eat during an elimination diet. Links to these resources are promised in the video description.
Outlines
π½οΈ Understanding Elimination Diets
This paragraph introduces the concept of elimination diets, emphasizing their popularity and effectiveness in identifying food sensitivities. It discusses the importance of avoiding common mistakes and highlights the role of digestive malfunctions in food sensitivity development. The speaker, TC Hale, clarifies they are not a medical professional and advises viewers to consult a doctor for medical advice. The summary also touches on the digestive process, explaining how stomach acid and bile are crucial for breaking down food into nutrients, and how improper digestion can lead to food sensitivities and health issues.
π οΈ Fixing Digestion Before Starting an Elimination Diet
The second paragraph focuses on the importance of addressing digestive issues before undertaking an elimination diet. It explains that common digestive problems like insufficient stomach acid and thick bile can prevent proper nutrient absorption, leading to food sensitivities. The speaker suggests that people should take steps to improve their digestive health, such as increasing stomach acid or addressing bile flow issues, before starting an elimination diet. The paragraph also mentions the book 'Kick Your Fat in the Nuts' as a resource for understanding and improving digestive functions.
π Committing to an Elimination Diet Plan
This paragraph discusses the commitment required for a successful elimination diet, emphasizing the need for a strict 30-day period without consuming any of the eliminated foods. It advises on the importance of being vigilant about food ingredients, especially when dining out, and the necessity of complete commitment to avoid starting the diet process over. The speaker also mentions the need to remove common problematic foods and provides a list of foods to avoid, including grains, dairy, legumes, and alcohol, while also suggesting that a gradual approach to the diet can be helpful.
π« Avoiding Common Mistakes in Reintroduction
The fourth paragraph addresses the process of reintroducing foods after an elimination diet and the common mistakes people make during this phase. It stresses the importance of reintroducing foods one at a time to accurately identify which foods may cause adverse reactions. The speaker warns against reintroducing multiple foods simultaneously, as this can cloud the understanding of specific food sensitivities. The paragraph also touches on the possibility that improved digestion may allow for the tolerance of previously problematic foods and suggests that some foods may need to be avoided for longer periods if they continue to cause issues.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Elimination Diet
π‘Food Sensitivity
π‘Digestive Malfunctions
π‘Hydrochloric Acid
π‘Bile
π‘Leaky Gut
π‘Reintroduction
π‘Autoimmune Issues
π‘Carnivore Diet
π‘Stomach Acid
π‘Bacterial Overgrowth
Highlights
Elimination diets are effective for identifying food sensitivities and improving health.
People often experience significant health improvements by eliminating specific foods.
Food sensitivity tests can provide insights but may not always be accurate.
The body should be able to break down food into nutrients without adverse reactions.
Digestive malfunctions are a common cause of food sensitivities.
Low stomach acid and thick bile can prevent proper food breakdown.
The digestive process involves an 'acid-alkaline sizzle' for nutrient extraction.
Leaky gut allows food particles into the bloodstream, causing immune reactions.
Elimination diets should not be attempted without first addressing digestive issues.
An elimination diet should last for four to eight weeks to see significant results.
Processed foods, sweeteners, grains, dairy, legumes, and alcohol should be eliminated.
Commitment to the diet is crucial; one bite can reset the process.
Reintroduction of foods should be done one at a time to identify triggers.
Improving digestion may allow for the reintroduction of previously problematic foods.
Carnivore diets may not improve digestion and could exacerbate symptoms.
Starting an elimination diet with 'training wheels' can help ease into the process.
The book 'Kick Your Fat in the Nuts' offers guidance on improving digestion.
Appendix E of the book provides a list of permissible foods during an elimination diet.
Transcripts
If you're thinking about doing an elimination diet, in this video,
I'm going to help you understand the right time to do an elimination diet,
the right way to do it,
and the most common and most significant mistakes that I see people making,
it can take some effort to do an elimination diet.
If you're going to put that effort in,
you really want to get the most out of it. And to do that,
you really want to avoid the mistakes. Here we go.
TC Hale is not a doctor and does not claim to be a doctor or licensed in any
type of medical field.
Don't be an idiot and use anything heard on the show as medical advice.
This information should be used for educational purposes only,
and you should contact your doctor for any medical advice, not get off me.
So elimination diets are really popular now,
and the reason that they're popular is because they can be very effective.
Some of the people that use these see results that are unbelievable and
absolutely miraculous,
and they see significant health issues just go away when they're eliminating
specific foods from their diet. And with a lot of these people,
they're looking at food sensitivity issues where they're eating a food and
they're feeling like they're having a problem with that food.
There's tests that a person can do food sensitivity tests that'll give you an
idea of the foods that are giving you trouble.
Sometimes someone will do this test and the list will be like, okay,
well there's nothing left to eat.
I have to leave Earth in order to eat food now just because they gave me such a
long list.
And there's also some debate about the accuracy of some of those different types
of tests, but what we're going to talk about here,
you can do yourself and it's free and you just kind of have to go through the
right steps to get an idea of some of the foods that could be creating some
problems for you.
And basically what we're looking at is just some type of reaction that the body
is having to specific foods.
And the problem with this whole approach is that as humans,
we should conquer the food that we eat.
We should take it and we should get the nutrients out of it.
We shouldn't eat a chicken sandwich and have it carry us off captive for hours
and days at a time and make us miserable. We should be able to conquer our food.
So the biggest mistake that we see people make is that they'll go
into this elimination diet approach with digestive malfunctions.
And most people dealing with these food sensitivities got there because of these
digestive malfunctions. So when we eat food,
this stomach should make hydrochloric acid and help us acidify so that we can
break that food down.
But it's very common today for someone not to be making enough stomach acid for
a wide variety of reasons. But once this food is acidified,
it should leave and come down here into the duodenum,
and that should trigger the gallbladder to squirt this alkaline bile down to
help neutralize those acids. And it's this acidic product leaving the stomach,
hitting this alkaline bile, and when they collide,
it creates this sizzle that really helps us bust the food apart and
break that food down into elemental nutrients. That's the difference.
That's what's creating the problem for a lot of people is that when they eat
their food,
they're not breaking the food down into these elemental nutrients like vitamins
and minerals and amino acids and fats that the body can use.
The body still sees this food as having an identity when it doesn't get broken
down correctly.
So we really need both sides of this digestive process working correctly.
And there's a lot of other things that happen and further down the digestive
process, but it's very common for someone not to be making enough stomach acid,
and it's very common for someone's bile to have become too thick and sticky to
flow correctly.
So if either of those sides of digestion aren't working correctly,
you don't get that sizzle and you can't break those foods down into elemental
nutrients. So when you eat a chicken sandwich,
and I'm not saying you should eat a chicken sandwich,
but if you ate a chicken sandwich,
you want to break it down into these elemental nutrients.
If it goes in here and it's still like, Hey, I'm a chicken sandwich,
the body doesn't know what to do with a chicken sandwich.
It knows what to do with vitamins and minerals and amino acids.
So when it sees this chicken sandwich coming into the bloodstream,
it's going to attack it like it's an invader.
So when we're looking at the lining of the intestinal lining and leaky gut is
very popular. Now, all the cool kids have leaky gut. Now,
and I'm not going to dig into this a lot,
but if you want to learn more about that,
we'll put a link in the description below for our video on how to fix leaky gut.
But what happens is these junctions here become a little bit too wide,
and then these food particles can go into the bloodstream where it's really not
supposed to be there. It should really be broken down correctly.
And then only the small particles,
those nutrients get into the bloodstream so that the body can use those
correctly.
So if these junctions are too wide or if the person isn't really breaking down
their food correctly,
then these food to get in there that still have an identity,
and that's what creates these food sensitivity issues.
It's basically the body turning on the security system and saying, oh,
this chicken sandwich is an invader.
So then the next time you eat a chicken sandwich,
the body goes crazy and it goes to war against a chicken sandwich,
and you create all these reactions and symptoms and health issues just
from the reaction that the body's giving to that food. And of course,
if someone isn't making enough stomach acid,
then all these invaders come in on the food that we eat and we get these
bacterial or fungal or yeast overgrowth issues either in the stomach or the
small intestine that have the ability to really magnify this,
to really restrict our ability to really break that food down and really magnify
this issue of creating these food sensitivity type situations.
So that's really one of the biggest mistakes is that people don't fix their
digestion before they go into this elimination diet.
And when we're looking at an elimination diet,
we're basically going to remove all of the foods that are most commonly
problematic to the widest percentage of people.
That doesn't mean all the foods that we're going to talk about.
I know you're looking at some of these and getting a little bit nervous already
about dare, what are you talking about? You're killing me.
But we're talking about the foods that most commonly create problems for
the widest percentage of people.
So we want to eliminate all those possibilities to see do our symptoms and
does our situation and whatever we're trying to improve,
does it improve when we eliminate all the foods that are most commonly
problematic?
So a person can see a lot of improvements if they remove a food that's giving
them trouble.
But if they haven't taken any steps to fix those digestive functions,
then they haven't really fixed the actual underlying cause of the problem.
They've just removed the thing that was poking, Hey, hey, here's some trouble,
here's some trouble for you.
They removed the thing that was kind of poking them,
but they didn't fix the underlying cause of that problem,
which was their inability to properly digest that food and break it down into
elemental nutrients. So we like to see people fix those malfunctions.
If the stomach acid is too low, take steps to fix that.
If bile is not flowing correctly, we want to take steps to fix that.
So both sides of digestion are working correctly.
If there's an overgrowth in there that's restricting digestion,
you want to take steps to get rid of that.
So if you need to learn how to do that, chapters three and four of my book,
kick Your Fat in the Nuts,
walk you through figuring out which aspects of digestion are not working
correctly, and if so, what steps will help you improve those situations.
And the book is available on Amazon,
but I'll put a link in the description below so you can get the whole thing
totally for free.
And then you can just jump to chapters three and four and what we're talking
about here with this elimination diet.
I go over this in a lot more depth in chapter nine of that book. So you can get,
that'll come in the book that you get for free,
and you can read through this if you want to understand this more than we cover
in the video today. So when we're looking at the how to do this,
we really want to have that digestive malfunction repair at least in motion.
You might not need to totally fix all digestion before you start your
elimination diet,
but you really want to be working towards doing that and have that in motion and
taking those steps to improve any digestive malfunction.
So if you're having any digestive symptoms at all, like burping, bloating,
constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, nausea,
indigestion,
maybe food just kind of sits there like a rock in your stomach for six hours or
maybe even skin or acne issues,
all of those are signs that one or both sides of digestion are not working
correctly and you want to correct those before you really leap into this.
So once you have that in motion,
you want to set a timeframe and you want to say, okay,
I'm going to do this for four to eight weeks,
and you want to pick that timeframe,
and most people do okay with four weeks and they can see some significant
results in that time period enough to see what's going to create
improvement or not.
People that are having significant issues or might be dealing with some
autoimmune issues,
might want to go eight weeks to give the body a little bit more time to recover
from the things that are causing the trouble.
But what we want to do is we want to remove these foods.
We want to remove all processed foods. We want to just get rid of it.
We want to become a Jer, just eat real food. That's what a JER does.
So you want to get rid of all the processed junk,
you want to get rid of all sweeteners,
but my coffee has this and it's so delicious, lose it. You got to get rid of it.
If you want to see miraculous results and significant results,
you have to take significant steps. You want to remove all grains in any form,
all dairy, in any form, all legumes,
and that includes soy and any kind of to fuey,
fake Franken burgy kind of things. All alcohol. I know I said it,
I can't believe I said it out loud. All alcohol, you got to lose it.
And any versions of these things.
So you can see the list is pretty small really,
but when you think about all the things that go into this,
corn syrup is made from corn, which is a grain,
and corn syrup is in just about any food that you're going to buy in a package.
So when you look at removing any form of all these things,
you're removing a whole lot of stuff. But it's important that when you do this,
you're committed to it. So if you're going to do an elimination diet,
you need to do it for that entire 30 days and you need to not have a
single bite. When you have a bite, you're starting the clock over again.
You really have to completely remove that from your body.
That means that you have to really watch ingredients.
That means going to a restaurant is hard.
You have to know that they're really going to be honest about what they're
putting in their food, and you have to be okay about saying, okay,
I can't have any of this. I'm allergic to this. If you put this in my food,
I'll be dead before lunch is over.
So then they get real serious about making sure it's not in there.
So you have to be real serious and you really have to be committed.
This is the biggest mistake is that people will say, yeah,
I'm a kind of do and elimination diet sort of if it is just not going
to work.
You have to do an elimination diet and not even have a single bite for that
entire time. Now,
if you're having any autoimmune type symptoms or you've been diagnosed with some
type of autoimmune type issue, you also want to remove these foods, eggs,
nuts and seeds, tomatoes, potatoes, egg plants,
peppers, and that means even ground pepper and any nights shaped vegetables.
So that's a lot of things.
A lot of people are going to look at that list and be like,
what do you want me to eat?
But there really are a lot of other foods that are still left to eat.
And in the description below this video,
I'll put a link to appendix E in my book,
which is this long list of foods that you can still eat when you're on an
elimination diet. And when you look at, you're like, oh yeah,
I forgot those were foods. That's a food. I can eat that.
So there really are a lot of things that you can eat.
And when you look at carnivore, that is so popular right now,
and it's so popular because a lot of people see significant improvements when
they do it carnivore, they're just eating meat.
So they're removing all these things already and they're just focusing on the
meat things, and they're having success doing that. So if somebody can do that,
know that you can remove these things for a month and it's going to be fine.
It's a month. Come on. You can do anything for a month.
So you can remove these and you can make it happen so that once you've been
doing this for the four or eight weeks, whatever you decide you're going to do,
then it comes time to test these reintroductions.
And you want to do this by looking, okay, how do I feel? What symptoms improved?
What got better? What's functioning better?
And you really want to pay attention to that.
So when you're going to test out these reintroductions,
this is also one of the biggest mistakes right here. People are like, okay,
I'm going to have a cream cheese lentil pie with a whole wheat crust. Well,
you just put half the things back in at one time.
You really don't want to do that when you reintroduce foods to test how things
are going. You want to do one thing at a time and you don't want to do a food.
Well, I had some grains and I feel fine 30 minutes later,
so that wasn't the problem.
I'll go ahead and just eat piles and piles of grains.
A lot of foods can take a day or two to create that reaction in the body.
It's not always an immediate thing like I had cyanide and now I'm dead.
Sometimes food reactions take a lot longer than that.
So give yourself some time and reintroduce one thing at a time to
give you an idea of how that goes. Maybe you do some type of grain,
you do okay on that,
and then maybe a few days later you do a different type of grain or maybe you go
to a dairy, but don't look at it like, oh, I put butter back in and I did. Okay.
So all dairy is fine.
Keep in mind that a person might be having a reaction to specific types of
foods, not just the whole category of that food. So take your time,
pay attention to how things go. A lot of people will find that, oh,
I do okay on that food and that's fine, that's great.
I'll just go ahead and put that back.
In some foods that may have been bothering them before,
if they took steps to improve these digestive malfunctions,
now they're going to do okay with it because they're breaking the food down into
elemental nutrients. They may be needing to use supplements to do that.
They may need help to break it down properly.
They may still be working on allowing the body to repair those functions,
so it can do it without help, but if they're doing it with help,
they're still breaking those foods down.
So some of those foods are not going to give them trouble anymore.
If a food gives you trouble,
then leave it out and continue to test other things.
Some people might need to go longer without eating a type of food.
Maybe they haven't really fixed digestion yet.
They've just created some improvements,
but it's not fully working where they're really breaking that food down.
If the body was really having an emergency reaction to a food,
you might need to leave it out for six months or a year and then you can test it
out to see does it do okay?
So some people might need to leave some foods out a little bit longer,
and some people might have to leave some things out indefinitely.
And it's okay if you understand what that is.
If you understand the food that's creating trouble for you,
you can just avoid that food.
You don't likely need to avoid all of these foods indefinitely.
I haven't really seen that very often.
Usually as long as somebody fixes digestion,
they should do okay with a lot of these. And with that in mind,
what's not usually successful, and I hear about doing this a lot,
is people will do one of these elimination diets or they'll do carnivore in a
hope that they will fix their digestive symptoms and trouble.
And a lot of times carnivore can make those digestive symptoms a lot worse
because you're eating so much protein. And for protein,
we really need to be able to make enough stomach acid to break that down.
Protein is harder to break down than carbohydrates.
So a lot of people that are looking at this list and like, oh,
I'm going to get rid of grains, I can never do that.
I'm going to have crazy cravings.
Because those people are often gravitating towards those simple carbohydrates
because they're easier to break down than protein.
They don't have enough stomach acid to break that protein down.
So we don't like to see people move to an elimination diet or a carnivore diet
in hopes of improving their digestive malfunctions because a lot of times it can
magnify the symptoms that come from that.
But if they take steps to improve that digestion,
now carnivore diet is likely going to be a lot more successful for them.
So that's why you hear about some people doing so well on carnivore and some
people being so miserable and that didn't work. I ain't doing that again. Well,
they didn't have the capacity to break all that meat down,
but I don't like to see people do that.
I like to see people fix digestion first and then go into these kinds of
situations. But again, I know when you look at this, it's like, ah,
that looks hard. I don't think I could do that. I'm just not so sure about that.
It's possible to start this off with training wheels,
and what you could do is just look at the things that you're going to remove and
start researching. What kind of diet am I going to have?
What kind of meals do I want to have?
And every day if you can just make one of your meals comply with this and
get through that successfully,
then you could start building this arsenal of meals that you like, oh,
I ate that. That wasn't so bad. I like that. Oh, I can add that in.
And just get yourself a good rotation of different foods and meals that you
really like by incorporating that into one or two meals per day
to work up to the fact that go, okay, I have enough meals. I'm ready to do this.
I'm going in.
Just don't start that clock until you've removed all of them.
Just because you had one good meal doesn't mean your 30 days started.
You got to remove it all before that clock starts.
But this seems to be the most successful way to figure out what's creating the
trouble for you. You get to remove all the most common problematic foods,
improve your symptoms and feel better,
and then figure out which ones may be creating the trouble.
If you just try to remove one at a time, 15 years later,
you're still going to be working on this, remove it all.
Make it easier for yourself, make it more effective, and you'll get there.
And if you need more help,
that chapter nine in my book goes over this in a lot more detail.
And we'll put the link below where I have appendix E, right on the internet.
You can just look at it there,
but it's also in the book if you download it for free in that link below.
So this can take some work, but the results can really be crazy.
Now if you want to dig into figuring out if there are digestive issues for you
right now,
you can jump over and check out our video on 10 signs of low stomach acid or our
video on 10 signs of poor bile flow to see if those might be things you need to
work on and correct before you can get this going.
I can't wait to hear about your results.
Browse More Related Video
Why You Should Never Use Betaine HCL Without Doing This
10-Day Anti-Inflammatory Diet: Stop Feeling Tired, Achy, And Bloated! | Dr. Mark Hyman
Top 10 Foods That Cause Dementia
Take 20: Health Podcast Series | EP02 Part 1: Detox Pathways | Samantha & Alkesh
Left Side Abdominal Pain Under Ribs β Causes & Remedies Covered by Dr. Berg
Why Do Most Indian Men Have a Protruding Potbelly?
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)