The BIG food sensitivities that people encounter are cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, nightshades, fish, shellfish, tree nuts and citrus.  But this is not an exhaustive list and it is easier to list the foods that are hypoallergenic and allowed for consumption during the diet instead.

You can eat:

• Any vegetable except corn, peas or beans.  Also, you need to avoid the nightshades: potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.   It is important to eat different vegetables and not the same one for fourteen days.
• Only chicken, turkey and   organic or free-range meats are preferred as additives can also cause individuals to react
• Rice (any type)
• Pears, blueberries
• Any seasoning is alright as long as it does not have any nightshades or soy.  Think of seasoning as dry vegetables.
• Herbal teas except chamomile.
• Olive oil is acceptable to use.

Continue on this diet for 14 days.  On the 14^th day the second phase of the diet begins – food challenges.  You will pick the food you would like to re-introduce first, and for 2 meals you add this food back into you diet.  Then you resume your diet without the food for the next 3 days, all the while keeping track of any changes in you diet diary.  If after the third day no adverse reactions are seen it is alright to add this food to your diet.  You will then challenge another food at this time, eating it for 2 meals and then eliminating for 3 days like before.  It is in this manner that you will work through all the foods that may be causing symptoms.

An elimination diet is not easy.

Before you start, talk to your family, let them know what you are going to do.  Also, pick a time that is appropriate, dieting during holidays is much more difficult.  Before dieting, keep a diary of symptoms for at least 3 days and continue the symptom diary during the diet.  The elimination diet can take months to finish, so be patient.

Please remember when using this method that it may take some time to resolve the issues creating the ongoing infection. A general rule of thumb for the length of treatment before resolution of a chronic condition is one month of treatment for each year of infection so STICK WITH IT! Some pain and/or bleeding is not uncommon, it indicates an ongoing infection. If either persists please contact your primary care physician.

Procedure:

1.    Mix ½ to 1 teaspoon  of sea salt and a pinch of baking soda to 1 cup distilled or filtered water. (If you experience a burning sensation, try varying the amount of salt until the burning stops.)

2.    Stand with your head over a sink. Bend over the sink so your head is perpendicular to the ground. Using either a neti pot (purchase at any drug store, Fred Meyers, or online) or a turkey baster, or a bulb syringe, place the pot or syringe in one nostril. Pour or gently expel water into one nostril, it should run out the other nostril. Repeat this procedure with the other nostril. Use the entire cup for each treatment.

3.    Some of the solution may run down the throat, this is perfect – it will cleanse and heal that area as well. Eventually you may want to sniff or inhale the solution so that it does in fact go down the throat. You can then spit it out your mouth.

Frequency:

Do this procedure twice a day; once in the morning and again in the evening. You may want to use it with hydrotherapy applied to the sinus (forehead, eyes, and nose) area.