Elimination Diet For Gut Issues: Should You Try It?

If you have symptoms like bloating, intestinal discomfort, indigestion, or interesting stools, it might be worth investigating the cause. Elimination diets are an important tool in identifying and treating the cause of your gut issues. (Call 1300 03 03 25 for an appointment.)

When health advice falls flat

Lately we’ve read some interesting articles about gut health. But they fail readers in one crucial area.

Here’s an example. One article quoted a dietitian who advocated eating yoghurt if you have bloating.

The quoted expert went on to explain the benefits of a good-quality yoghurt and what to look for. Good call. But that was it.

Investigate & treat the cause

There are plenty of examples like this.

They offer band-aid solutions at best.

To treat gut symptoms successfully, you need to investigate and treat the cause of your symptoms.

Food intolerance

Current thinking says between 2% to 20% of the population suffers with intolerances.

Many of these intolerances can be attributed to food.

Elimination diets

When attempting to find the issue, elimination diets are one of the best ways to identify your gut problems.

By removing certain foods, for specified times, it’s easier to ascertain which foods may be triggering symptoms.

Elimination diets have been used for many years as a diagnostic tool and work well in helping health professionals get to the bottom of digestive issues. 

Phase 1: Elimination

If you have symptoms such as bloating, intestinal discomfort, indigestion or any other form of gut problem you need to work out if a food is aggravating the issue.

Elimination is phase one. This is where you completely stop eating certain foods.

Phase 2: Reintroduction

After a few weeks, you begin phase two, which is the process of reintroducing foods.

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

It’s worth investing the time and energy into discovering the source of your issues.

We’ve become impatient and want the pill to cure our ills NOW.

But, it’s not always that simple.

Rather than applying a band-aid to gut issues, it can be worth your while to do some investigation.

Work with your naturopath

Whilst it isn’t easy—by working with a health professional like a naturopath and following an elimination diet—you can get to the root cause of your issues.

From there, you can get to work with your naturopath on repairing your gut and your overall health.

Always seek professional advice when undertaking any type of elimination as there are risks involved, specifically with the reintroduction phase.

We need to be mindful that we may have eliminated something that our bodies treat as an allergen, and reintroduction can trigger more symptoms than you may have first been experiencing.

Find the cause

The elimination method of diagnosing gut issues has much merit, and it’s one way we can look for answers and provide our amazing bodies with a way to heal.

Not every symptom is going to be caused by food, but our gut and and our health is important. So find the cause, don’t just keep applying band-aids.

in the long term, stick with good-quality wholefoods, lots of prebiotics, bone broth, and gut-loving additions to your daily meals.

Occasionally, when our bodies exhibit symptoms of inflammation or illness that could be food related, we look at the cause, and then look for the cure.