Why I Do An Elimination Diet.

So if you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I am a Whole30 alumni.  As I write this, I’m actually in my fifth round of this elimination diet.  But what exactly is an elimination diet, and why do it?  Well, let me tell you a bit of my story.*

*These stories are all from my personal experiences.  If you have concerns about your health, make sure you talk to a medical professional.  Like, really, really talk to them.

First, what is an elimination diet?  Elimination diets are programs where you remove certain foods or certain types of foods from your diet for a short period of time, and then slowly add them back.  The point of the exercise is to see if and how the foods are affecting you.  There are various types cutting out either one or two groups of food for a short period of time to the drastic chicken and rice diet where you only eat – you guessed it – chicken and rice. 

So why do it?  Personally, I am a big believer in listening to your body.  Each ache and each pain we get is a signal from our body that something’s up.  Each night we toss and turn, each day we’re in a poor mood could be a result of our environment, our lifestyle, or something we’ve eaten.  So often we ignore these signs, or just take a pill to relieve the symptoms, and never really address the issue.  But if we just take a moment, focus in on what we’re feeling, and think about what might be causing it, we might be able to find a solution that involves a trip to the grocery store instead of the doctor’s office. 

My Headache Story

About ten years ago, well before I had even heard of an elimination diet, I was having headaches.  Not bad headaches, but frequent headaches, four or five a week.  The headaches were not that painful, but still strong enough that they were causing problems.  It was hard for me to focus, and I wasn’t getting anything done at work, and it was getting annoying.  So I went to my doctor.  At the doctor’s office I met with a nurse who wrote me out a prescription.  She told me to take the pills whenever I got the headache and to come back in a month. 

I, like a good little patient, got the pills, and took them as instructed.  A month later back with the nurse she asked how I was feeling.  I told her the pills sometimes made the headaches go away, but then again, so did Tylenol.  What I really wanted, I explained, was to not get the headaches at all.  She said ok, wrote me out another prescription.  She told me this was for a “lady dose” of the drug and instructed me to take it before I went to bed.

So I got the pills, took one each night before bed, and soon after the headaches went away.  After a few weeks I called and spoke to the nurse and told her it worked, so she sent a series of refills to my pharmacy.  And for a few months I continued to take them and then decided to stop to see if the headaches would come back.  They didn’t.

What was that drug?

I didn’t think about it at the time.  My headaches went away.  I was feeling better.  I was more focused.  I had a bit more energy too.  It wasn’t until well after I had stopped taking the pills that I thought to look up what the nurse had prescribed.  One day I came across a partially filled bottle in my medicine cabinet and decided to lookup what exactly this wonder drug was.  It was amitriptyline, an anti-depressant. 

Yes, I started taking an antidepressant to treat my headaches.  The drug was not prescribed by a psychiatrist or a psychologist.  It was not even prescribed by a doctor; it was prescribed by a nurse.  A nurse who never asked about my mental health.  She never asked me stressors.  She never asked anything about my home life, my work life, about my living conditions.  She never asked if I was doing anything to take care of my mental health. 

Looking back, I think the reason I was prescribed it was in part because drowsiness is a side effect.  In fact, I realized this and after I stopped taking it regularly, I still carried a few when I travelled just in case I had trouble sleeping or knew my travel plans included a red-eye flight.  But really, if my trouble was just poor sleep, did I need to be put on an anti-depressant?  Couldn’t she have just said, “you need more sleep, go to the CVS and buy yourself a bottle of Unisom”?  

And for that matter, if she thought poor sleep was the problem, why wasn’t I asked about it?  She never asked me how I was sleeping, what time did I go to bed, and when did I wake up.  What was the room where I slept like and did I feel rested in the morning.  I was never asked any of this.

My headaches now

Looking back on that experience, I feel really frustrated about how we approach our health.  I say we because I think this is how many of us behave.  Something is wrong, we go to the doctor, they give us a pill and we’re all better.  No wonder healthcare is so expensive, there are so many demands on it.  This is one of the experiences that led me to try and really listen to my body when it’s telling me something isn’t right.

So, I pay attention.  When something doesn’t feel right, I think about what I did, what I ate, how I’m sleeping, all of these things to try and figure out what my body is telling me.  You know what?  It speaks volumes if you listen.  So, what about my headaches now?  I don’t get them that often, but when I do, I can tell what’s going on because of the type of pain I am feeling and how strong the pain is.  And because I know the cause, I know the solution, and it’s not always in a pill bottle.  My headaches now:

1. Tired headache: take a nap or plan to go to bed early.  Remember good sleep habits: cut off screen time at least 30 minutes before bed, cut off caffeine after midafternoon, make sure room is dark, comfortable, and cool at night.
2. Dehydration headache: drink some water and then drink some more.
3. Red Wine Headache: Why did you drink that?  You know you should have stuck to the white!  Drink a big glass of water and then drink some more water. 
4. Hormonal headache: Welcome to womanhood!  Take the Tylenol. 

So how exactly does this relate to elimination diets?

So, notice my story didn’t talk about eliminating foods from my diet.  That’s because back then, I hadn’t heard of such a thing.  Since 2018 I’ve done four complete Whole30s, and each time I learn a little more about my body.  I like to think of an elimination diet as a way of turning down the crowd noise to hear more clearly what my body is saying. 

I on and off throughout my life have had back pains.  Sometimes I could pinpoint the cause – poor posture when playing my violin, an overly cushy hotel bed – but not always.  Now I know that one of the culprits was corn.  Yes, corn!  That wonderfully sweet, fresh corn that I loved in the summer, not to mention the crispy corn chips, moist corn bread, crunchy corn fritters, cornmeal battered fried fish.  I could go on and on – corn is everywhere.  And that’s just “corn”.  Let’s not forget corn oil for cooking, corn syrup, a frequent sweetener, and all of the other foods that corn sneaks it way into our processed food. 

Unless I’m on a Whole30, I generally don’t cut corn out completely, but I am much more aware of it now, and make sure I don’t eat too much.  If I know I’m planning on serving cornbread with chili at dinner, I avoid grits and corn flakes at breakfast.

I am aware that certain foods and suspected or know to affect the human body in certain ways. Even when not on Whole30, I do try to eat cleaner to limit many of these other foods because I realize they could still be affecting me, but I haven’t gotten the message yet.

Our bodies speak volumes about what’s going on inside us.  Learning to listen to your body is one of the greatest things you can do for your health.  No one knows your body better than you do.  Get to know it better.  Learn to listen to it, because you are its greatest advocate. 

Read more about healthy living, or check out some of my favorite recipes in the recipe blog.