DIFFERENT TYPES OF ELIMINATION DIET: THE FEW-FOOD DIET OR THE RARE-FOOD DIET
One of the step up from here is the few-food diet or the rare-food diet. On a few-food diet the exclusion phase consists of a dozen or more foods that most people do not eat all that often. The exact foods chosen vary from one doctor to another, but they tend to include things such as parsnips, turnips and carrots which most of us do not eat in great quantity. The allowed foods also vary from patient to patient, because the doctor will ask the patient if any of the foods on the allowed list are eaten often – if they are, these must be excluded too. Most doctors have a second version of their few-food diet, with a different list of allowed foods: patients who do not get better during the first exclusion phase are switched to the second diet, in the hope that they will fare better. Of course, there is always a chance that both lists will include one or two foods which cause symptoms.
The rare-food diet is an extension of the few-foods idea, but instead of the patient eating uncommon foods such as turnips or parsnips during the exclusion phase, they are asked to eat exotic items such as yams or buckwheat. Since these items may never (or only rarely) have been eaten before, they are very unlikely to cause any reaction. In a sense the rare-food diet is an improvement on the few-food diet, because if the person fails to get better during the exclusion phase, they are probably not food-sensitive. With the few-food diet there is always some doubt – perhaps they were sensitive to parsnips, even though they only ever ate them for Sunday lunch? The drawbacks of the rare-food diet are principally cost – exotic foods are expensive -and the problem of getting such foods for those who do not live in a large city. The foods have to be prepared differently and the taste may take some getting used to, but on the whole they are at least as palatable as turnips! For those with multiple sensitivities who can afford the exotic foods, and have access to them, this type of diet is well worth considering.
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