Eggs      Beef      Pork     Shellfish       Peanuts      Citrus Strawberries

Vinegar     Chocolate     Alcohol (usually challenge with wine) Corn    Soy

Choose a way of eating the food that is as close to the whole food as possible. For example, with corn, eat an organic corn on the cob instead of corn chips (no butter though because that's another reintroduction with dairy!). To test for vinegar, use raw apple cider vinegar. To test for chocolate, use organic raw cacao nibs. To test for soy, start with miso or tempeh. If that works out alright, you can decide to try tofu or soy milk, although I don't recommend eating either one of those forms of processed soy on a regular basis. 

On your reintroduction day, Day 1, you can eat the same food as many times as you'd like. For example, if you chose strawberries, you can eat strawberries all day long. The next day, and the following day, (Day 2 and Day 3), you go back to the original modified elimination diet--no strawberries! This is where symptoms might kick in. It is very important to pay attention to anything out of the ordinary. Symptoms can manifest as a runny nose, skin rash, low energy, insomnia, feeling overly sleepy, digestive distress, even a crick in the neck! So note anything out of the ordinary and if something comes up, you can assume that it is from the strawberries even if you ate them two days ago! 

If you feel fine and notice nothing, strawberries are your friend. You can then move on to try a new food on Day 4. Let's say you are ready for some corn. Eat an ear of corn or two, or three, however many you'd like. Then on Day 5 and Day 6, go back to the modified elimination diet. However, at this point you can include strawberries if you had no reactions to them previously. Work your way through this process with all of the above foods. Once you've tested yourself for all of these you are ready for dairy. 

If you'd like to reintroduce dairy into your diet, start with raw organic butter. If that works alright, then try organic raw cheese. The next step would either goat or cow yogurt. If that all sits fine, you can try organic raw milk. Yes, you do have to wait three days between each new food! 

At this point, you probably are feeling loads better than you have in awhile! If people follow through with this eating plan, their energy will improve and their weight will tend to normalize. (As long as you don't eat too many nuts!) If you really still miss bread, then try reintroducing organic spelt, rye, or kamut before you go to the whole wheat. 

Working this way like a detective to find what foods you need to stay away takes determination and discipline. I will help you along the way offering support and recipes. Please email sylvie@realfoodnutrition.com with any questions you have about the process. I'm here to help! If you'd like to get started immediately and feel you don't have the time to go through this entire process, the ALCAT blood test is also available.