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 A number of specific diets have been formulated to either help pinpoint foods that cause a food allergy or relieve food allergies altogether.
Low Allergen Exclusion Diet
The low allergen exclusion diet avoids the most common trigger foods for a food allergy but does allow you a fairly normal eating habit. The diet also avoids processed foods which usually contain additives, flavourings and colourings.
Foods you can eat
- Lamb and lamb offal
- Game; rabbit, pheasant, venison
- Fresh fish; no shellfish
- All vegetables
- Vegetable juice
- All fruits; except citrus fruits
- Fruit juice; except citrus
- Dried fruit; unsulphured
- Potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams
- Seeds; sunflower, pumpkin, sesame
- Vegetable oils, sesame, nut oils; no peanut or corn oil
- Grains; brown rice, buckwheat, millet, quinoa
- Beans and pulses; kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, butter beans
- Sprouts; alfalfa, mung beans
- Honey and molasses
- Nuts; except peanuts
- Salt and black pepper
- Herbs
- Spices
- Herb teas
- Bottled or filtered water
Food to avoid
- Eggs
- Milk (cow's, goat's and sheep's), all dairy products; butter, cheese, cream, yoghurt, fromage frais, skimmed milk powder
- Wheat, oats, rye, corn, barley and all their products such as cakes, pasta, biscuits, pies, flour
- Citrus fruit; oranges, satsumas, lemons etc.
- Sugar, syrup, jam, chutney, jelly etc.
- Artificial sweeteners
- Coffee, tea, alcohol
- Chocolate
- Vinegar and pickled foods
- Yeast and yeast extract; Marmite, yeast pastes
- Fermented products; soy sauce
- Additives, colourings, flavourings
- Margarine
- Salty snacks; crips, Twiglets etc.
- Tinned foods
- Stock cubes, packet soups, veggie-burger mixes
- Smoked, salted, cured foods
- Any foods you know cause a food allergy
- Fizzy drinks, carbonated drinks, squashes etc.
- Coffee substitutes
For many people this will take away their "normal" foods so be prepared and make sure you get rid of all the foods to avoid and stock up on all the foods you can eat.
Try to follow the diet for at leat five days and ideally for two to three weeks. Keep a food diary to track your progress and note down how your are feeling.
If your food allergy symptoms disappear during the diet you can try and reintroduce suspect foods to see if they cause you a reaction. Keep a note of how you feel before and after and possible try the pulse test.
Any food that does cause a reaction needs to be kept out of the diet and placed on your "foods to avoid list". If a food passes your test successfully you can place it on your "foods you can eat" list.
For best results take each step slowly; reintroduce foods slowly, perhaps one food per meal and if possible one food per day.
In a few weeks you will have made a list of safe and unsafe foods and be on your way to managing your food allergy.
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