If you’ve been following Live Lighter, we’ve been on an elimination diet adventure. It’s a diet designed to help you find foods that irritate your digestive system because you’re either allergic to or sensitive to them. These foods include gluten, 3 types of nuts, dairy, sugar, nightshade veggies, soy, shellfish and catfish, several fruits, corn, caffeine, alcohol, and certain meats.

That list doesn’t leave much left! Even in my Allergy-Free recipe books, there are recipes that include several items on the “to avoid” list, like tomato or eggplant (both from the nightshade family) or lemon and limes (citrus fruits – not allowed). This makes creating tasty meals quite the challenge, let me tell you!

So I thought I’d share some of my recipes that I’ve found or created since I’ve been on this very restrictive diet. Even if you’re not on an elimination diet, these recipes are very healthy and extremely easy to digest – as long as you don’t wolf them down.

Here are 3 allergy-free recipes to try out:

Read the rest of this entry »

With eliminating soy and milk products from my diet, my morning smoothies haven’t been the same. I just love the thickness and smoothness that yogurt and flavoured soy beverage lend these delicious, healthy, easy-to-digest protein breakfast drinks.

However, I found a fabulous substitute! It’s guava nectar (although, I’m sure any fruit nectar will do). It’s extremely flavourful and compliments the other frozen fruit in the smoothie…er, I guess it’s called a froozie without the milk derivatives.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Berry Guava Elimination Diet-Friendly Froozie

Ingredients

1 ½ cups Europe’s Best 4-Field Berry Mix (straw, rasp, blue & blackberries)
½ cup guava nectar
½ serving Ruth’s hemp protein powder
½ cup filtered or spring water (to desired thickness)

Directions

Add ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.

Nutritional Info

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this year, my Naturopathic Doctor suggested that I try an elimination diet to help find the source of my digestive problems. To recap, an elimination diet eliminates all foods known to cause allergies or food sensitivities.

Eating hypo-allergenic foods gives your digestive tract a chance to heal itself. It also cleanses your body of offending foods so that it becomes more sensitive to detecting them. After a specific time (TBD by your doc), you slowly reintroduce foods you eliminated and note any reactions.

It’s a strict diet and I had troubles sticking to it in the Spring, so I decided to put it on hold for the Summer. It’s Fall now and since I’m trying to conquer my addictions, I thought I might as well do it all at once. I have a plan to completely cleanse my system, eliminating cravings for addictive substances and any possible foods causing me trouble.

There aren’t a lot of elimination diet-friendly recipes out there, so I’d like to share some recipes that I have in different print sources, some adaptations to them, and even some that I’ve created myself! Here are a couple to try, even if you’re not on an elimination diet. They are super healthy, nutritious and very yummy. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been awhile since we had an elimination diet adventure post. Several weeks ago, I started the stage that I was most excited about, food reintroduction. It’s the phase of the elimination diet where you slowly and methodically begin eating the foods that may have been causing our bodies to react negatively.

This part, while fun, has also been very challenging. It’s basically a scientific test and I’ve found that it requires a lot of attention, planning and determination. This is how it’s supposed to go down:

1. Continue eating hypo-allergenic foods from the elimination diet.
2. Take one day and eat 2 – 3 servings of a possibly offending food, e.g. eggs.
3. Note any digestive disturbances throughout the day.
4. Wait 1-4 days and choose another food to try, repeating the process until you’ve tried all possibly offending food groups (wheat, gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, sugar and nightshade).

Read the rest of this entry »

This elimination diet adventure has both ups and downs , a thrilling rollercoaster I like to call, The Diet Decimator! It’s been both challenging and extremely rewarding. Between the yummy recipes , the cleansing and, most importantly, a notably improved digestion…I could possibly stay on this diet forever!

Ya, ha! Riiiiiight. I could – since necessity calls for creation and these recipes I’m trying are truly deeeelish - I just don’t want to. Truth be told, I’ve cheated almost everyday since starting this extensively restrictive diet. Mind you, they’ve been healthy cheats, like a handful dried fruit and chocolate chips or a small, black organic coffee.

For awhile, I was feeling guilty about cheating because I know I can do this perfectly… under the right circumstances. If all I had to do was this diet? No problem. There would be no stress and therefore no cravings. And doing it perfectly isn’t just my ego talking, Folks, it means the difference between 3 weeks and nearly 3 months!

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have digestive troubles but aren’t ready to visit the doc yet, let alone attempt any major changes in diet or fitness levels? Well, this post is for you!

During my last visit, the Naturopathic Doctor passed on the following pearls of digestive wisdom:

1. Eat sitting down. Ever hear of the flight or fight reaction of the sympathetic nervous system? Well, the phrase, “rest and digest” summarizes the parasympathetic system. When one of these systems is turned on, the other must be off. Sitting while you eat will allow your body to fully focus its energy on digesting the food, properly and quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

So if you’ve been following Live Lighter for the last few weeks, we’ve been on an elimination diet adventure . The Holy Grail in this story is healthy digestion! Come on, I bet you’ve experienced digestive discomfort a time or two.

It’s estimated that approximately 1 in every 5 Canadian has chronic digestive problems. (Source: Canadian Society of Intestinal Research ). So have you ever wondered about your poor digestion?

Here is a 10 minute clip by Paul Check , holistic health expert and founder of the C.H.E.K. Institute, explaining how a healthy digestive system works, some tips in how to achieve it, and what happens when we ignore our digestive problems:

Coconut-almond crusted, organic chicken fingers with spicy homemade mustard dipping sauce (or honey garlic dipping sauce), steamed garlic asparagus and broccoli drizzled with olive oil and finished with fresh ground sea salt and pepper. For dessert, a watermelon-berry fruit smoothie.

How scrumptious does that sound? AND it was an elimination diet-friendly dinner!

Rachael Ray , eat your heart out.

But where did this magnificent meal come from and will I share the recipes with you? But of course, Live Lighter Readers!

Friday nights are a special night in this household. My good friend Krista comes over armed with a smile, some Friday treats and her extraordinary culinary talents. This woman has mad skills in the kitchen, what she can do with appetizers will make your head spin, not to mention she’s the best hostess I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Read the rest of this entry »

So I have to confess, I’m having more trouble with this elimination diet than I thought I would. While I’m finding and trying great recipes, that’s only a small part of making a restrictive diet like this work for you. I was reminded of this when reader Tiffany shared her troubles earlier this week on An Elimination Diet Adventure. My advice to her was given based on my previous experience with cleansing, and while the principals are the same and the tricks will work, two weeks into my elimination diet and I’m still cheating.

The great thing is that I’ve identified the main source of my problems: stress. Right now, I’m experiencing both internal and external types of stress. Internally, any major change in diet or routine is going to stress your body whether you realize it or not. Your body will adjust, it just needs time. You can make this adjustment phase easier with several healthy lifestyle tricks, including the attempt to control as much external stress as possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that many of us have food allergies or sensitivities to food without even knowing it? Symptoms to food reactions are varied, the most severe resulting in death, but most are subtle, such as gas, an uncomfortable belly or even forgetfulness.

So how do you find out if you have food intolerances and what foods your body dislikes? Well, one way is to go on an elimination diet . This is a super restrictive diet that cuts out all food allergens known to affect some people. This includes:

• Sugar
• Dairy
• Gluten (wheat, rye, barley, spelt, oats)
• Peanuts, pistachios and cashews
• Read the rest of this entry »