Food Sensitivities

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If you have any digestive problems, allergies, skin conditions, headaches, or any prolonged unexplained condition, you should check for food sensitivities or allergies. Many of these symptoms can be cleared up or at least better controlled by identifying these foods and eliminating them from your diet. Often these conditions are exaggerated by poor digestion causing havoc on your immune system (this connection is thoroughly explained in the Baby Steps to Health program). The list below are the most common food sensitivities that are recommend for elimination when trying to improve digestion and hopefully all other conditions caused by their irritation.

Most common food sensitivities: gluten (wheat, barley, rye), coffee/tea, chocolate, white or brown sugar, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, all preservatives (processed foods, condiments, salad dressings, junk food), salt, tobacco, any juices, pop, oranges, dairy, eggs, pork, fried foods.

Here is how you test yourself for food sensitivities:

	Eliminate all the above foods or suspected food(s) for 2 weeks and keep a record of symptoms that improve or disappear.
	After 2 weeks, or when all symptoms have disappeared, include only one of the foods you have eliminated back into your diet for one week.
	If any symptoms reappear such as bloating, digestive upset, allergies, fatigue, aches/pains, headaches, then you likely have an intolerance or allergy to that food and should eliminate it from your diet.
	Wait at least 3 days, or until all symptoms have disappeared again before trying the next food on the list. Follow the same procedure for all the suspected food intolerances. It is important to only include one food at a time so that you know which one is causing the symptoms.
	You may want to re-test yourself in 6 months. Some sensitivities are only temporary and may become tolerable once your digestive tract and immune system have improved.