My low metabolism mixed with the gastroparesis continues to be a problem for my attempt at weight loss. I have just been gaining and losing the same 3 pounds since I started Dr. McDougall’s Maximum Weight Loss Plan. As excited as I was at the possibility that this plan might work for me, I am not surprised that it was thwarted just as every other attempt for the last 5 years.
I exchanged e-mails with Dr. McDougall, explaining my health condition — after all, the physicians I’ve been to see in person have had nothing useful to advise other than eat less and exercise more. Dr. McDougall suggested I might find some answers to my health issues through a rather drastic method called the elimination diet. According to Dr. McDougall’s December 2002 newsletter, “this is the last step in searching out a dietary cause for health problems and is not recommended for the average person seeking relief from obesity, high cholesterol, and generalized fatigue. The standard McDougall approach of a low-fat, vegan diet and exercise will solve the problems for most people. And the Maximum Weight Loss Program that eliminates refined foods (including flour products) and sugars will help even the most calorie efficient person lose weight…The ‘elimination diet’ is truly for those people who are desperate and want to get well NOW – and who feel they have tried everything else.”
I guess I fall into the classification of desperate.
During the first week of an elimination diet, you eat only certain foods that are least likely to cause any type of adverse reaction. (Some elimination diets require you to do this for two weeks.) At the end of this “elimination period”, your body should be “clear” of the problem foods that you were eating before the diet. In other words, you should be relieved of your problems, especially if they were allergic in nature.
During that “elimination period”, all foods should be thoroughly cooked, because cooking alters the proteins, making them less likely to cause an adverse response.
At the end of the “elimination period”, each week, you will add one food, and only one food, back in to your diet to determine if it causes any unpleasant reaction. For testing purposes, each “new” food should be eaten in large quantities 3 times a day for two days. If the food does not cause a reaction, you can conclude that it is not a troublemaker. Most reactions occur within a few hours, but some may not show up for several days. When you have a reaction to a food, you must wait 7 days before testing the next item. This interval gives your system time to clear itself of the allergy-causing food.
Foods to Avoid: chocolate, nuts, caffeine, onions, green pepper, cucumbers, corn, radishes, all citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, wheat
Starches to Eat: brown rice, sweet potatoes, winter squash, taro, tapioca, rice flour, puffed rice
Condiments: salt only
Beverages: water only
Note: fruits & vegetables must be cooked
In preparation for this diet, which I’m hoping to start tomorrow, I decided that I should give up caffeine first and then wait a few days to recover from the caffeine withdrawal before attempting anything else. I remember the last time I tried to give up caffeine and it wasn’t pretty. Within 36 hours, there was a migraine, my brains felt like they were oozing out of my ears, I was sick to my stomach, I could barely see to walk — I did not make it. I gave in.
However, I’m proud to say that I am now on day 3 of no caffeine and so far it hasn’t been too bad. Just a constant dull ache in my head and a pain in my neck. This is tolerable. I read somewhere that caffeine withdrawal can last up to 10 days. I hope it doesn’t last that long, but I can survive this if it does.
So on to the rest of the elimination diet. Adding stuff back in sounds agonizingly long so I better get to it.
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{ 3 comments }
As somebody who most likely has celiac disease and has been through a lot with elimination diets, I have some suggestions.
- Probably you didn’t need to go through caffeine withdrawal. Caffeine isn’t a protein and immune reactions are to proteins. I’ve never heard of someone having a caffeine allergy. Caffeine is a drug,though, and maybe that’s the rationale behind eliminating it, that some people suffer from too much caffeine. Mate’ and guarana are drinks with caffeine that aren’t related to the usual ones, tea and coffee, and thus would be fine to test your body for immune reactions to foods.
- Rice is related to gluten grains, it has gluten-like proteins, and it shouldn’t be on an elimination diet. A fair number of people, including me, have problems with all grains (members of the grass family), including rice. An elimination diet should be grain-free (and thus, gluten-free). Grains include wheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, teff, millet, rice, lemongrass tea, corn.
- Legumes shouldn’t be on an elimination diet, so no peanuts, beans, peas, soy.
- Any food you eat more than once/week or so shouldn’t be on the elimination diet.
- Really eliminating corn is a big deal, because it’s probably in your toothpaste, mouthwash, any medications you take, supplements. If you don’t really eliminate it, your body’s reaction to the corn may keep other food sensitivities hidden, so that you don’t have a reaction to trying the allergenic foods and you think they’re ok when they’re not. This happened to me! In a big way! So, you should brush your teeth with baking soda (not powder, soda) for a week. And quit the supplements. Any medications you really have to take, call a compounding pharmacy like America’s Compounding Center http://accrx.com , and find if they can make it for you without fillers – so you just eat the pure drug, not the corn starch it comes with.
My web page has a lot on elimination diets and my long arduous trek with food sensitivities.
Laura
Every doctor I’ve been to in the last 10 years has told me to cut out caffeine. I did it once for about a year in 2002, but that time was an accident.
I was having lots of migraines anyway and the doctor wanted me to cut out aspertame and switch to Splenda. I took up drinking Diet Rite, not realizing that it was caffeine free until I was a month along. 
So I figured I’d stick to it even though it hadn’t helped the migraines.
I’ve cut out the caffeine now for a few weeks and I can’t say that I think it’s helped. I’ve always said that I didn’t think it affected me like the doctors thought it did. My sleep issues haven’t improved, I still have migraines, etc. In fact, just this morning, I was craving caffeine for the first time since giving it up, which was weird.
Anyway, as for the rice, so far brown rice, plain baked potatoes, and plain bagels seem to be the only things that don’t upset my stomach. If I stray from those things, I get bad acid reflux.
Try wearing wearable weights like “Body Togs” scientifically based weighted sleeves worn on your arms & legs under your clothes while going about your day. They increase calorie burn, muscle tone & bone density. Weighted vests work great too!
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