20 Apr 09 PREPARING FOR THE ELIMINATION DIET: YOU SHOULD NOT START THE DIET WITHOUT PLANNING

You should not start the diet without planning what you are going to eat for the first few days, and buying the things you need. Hunger is a very powerful urge, and unless you have plenty of allowed foods to hand, you may get so famished that you raid the biscuit jar or the bread-bin in a moment of weakness. To avoid such lapses, it is worth cooking up some meals in advance, so that you can have something ready within a few minutes. A freezer, or a fridge with a large ice compartment, is invaluable – you can cook your special meals in bulk and freeze them in individual portions. A supply of allowed ’snacks’ in a cupboard is also helpful.

Packaged and tinned foods should be avoided if possible during these diets. You will find that most prepared foods contain excluded items anyway: it may not say ‘milk’ or ‘eggs’ on the ingredients label, but it could be there under another name. Even if there are no prohibited ingredients, you are still taking something of a gamble, because you have no idea what sort of processing methods have been used, and how these might affect you. And it is not unknown for labels to omit an ingredient. So it is much better, at this stage, to stick to simple home-prepared foods because you know exactly what has gone into them. Tinned foods should be avoided at first because the lining of the cans, a golden-coloured phenol resin, contaminates the food slightly. Some food-intolerant people are sensitive to this.

From the point of view of food preparation, making two lots of food can be a nuisance, and some people solve the problem by putting the whole family on the diet, at least for the exclusion phase. Doctors using the elimination diet have often observed unexpectedly good results in another family member, as a result of this. There are numerous reports of fatigue, moodiness, headaches, runny noses and other minor problems, that had previously been taken for granted, suddenly clearing up. Sceptics will claim that this could well be psychosomatic, or a result of healthier eating habits, and at present there is no scientific evidence either way. But there is certainly no harm in other adults joining in Stages 1 and 2 of the diet. Children should only be included if they have some identifiable medical or behavioural problem, and consultation with your doctor is essential. Children may need a calcium supplement if milk is excluded.

Stage 3 of the diet is a different matter. It is unlikely that anyone with minor health problems, or no acknowledged health problems, would benefit from it, although a few might do.

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