The Better Behavior Show with Dr. Nicole Beurkens Episode 25: The Elimination Diet: An Effective Tool For Children's Neurological Disorders and Behavior
My guest this week is Tom Malterre, a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner whose fascination with nutrition started with his family doctor, Dr. John McDougall of the Forks Over Knives acclaim. Since then, he has attained two nutritional science degrees from Bastyr University, certification from the Institute for Functional Medicine, has co-authored three books, worked as a medical affairs member at Thorne Research and is now an educator for the Institute for Functional Medicine.
In this episode, Tom and I discuss how an elimination diet is an effective tool for a variety of children’s neurological and behavioral disorders. Tom provides the audience with years of professional experience, success, and insight on the best practices for the elimination diet and tips on where and how to begin. Parents looking to try the elimination diet themselves or in their family will greatly benefit from the guidance Tom and his wife Alissa have prepared in multiple free resources online and through their various publications. To learn more click here.
Episode Highlights
What Is The Elimination Diet?
- A simple and powerful process of removing potentially problematic foods from your diet until your symptoms subside
- This process is most effectively done by the use of healthy whole foods
- Learn more about Tom and Alissa’s elimination diet approach here
But My Kid Doesn’t Have Allergies
- It is important to know that there are different types of immunologic reactions for every individual
- Your child may not have allergies but they can still have reactions and intolerances
- Example: Your child has loose stools or becomes moodier after having apple juice or apple sauce. They might have a reaction that does not stimulate their immune system. They could be reacting to a fructose intolerance that is in the apples
- Example: Gluten sensitivities - 6% of the population has a non-celiac wheat sensitivity and there are no actual tests that can be run for this
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- An IGG panel would not be able to show this result
- An elimination diet can allow these types of reactions to be discovered
Sensitivity Testing
- There are nuances to each test that can vary by lab, by company or brand
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- Example: one companies labs may pick up soy and corn better than another
- Even when running an IGG panel it is possible to receive incomplete results
Time Between Ingestion & Symptoms
- Delayed sensitivity reactions - your body may take time to have an immune or intolerance response
- Once an antibody is released or an imbalance has occurred it can take days, weeks and sometimes even months for things to calm or return to normal in order to have a clean slate to reintroduce foods
- Cutting out any one particular food or potential aggressor must be done with dedication and time
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- Trying to remove the item for a week most likely will not be enough time
Top Offenders to Remove
- The top 6 to remove: gluten, dairy, eggs, yeast, corn, and soy
- Ideal to remove them for about a month
- Truly eliminating them is tough when eating out and shopping
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- Do your due diligence in researching items and whole foods that fit the criteria
- If you are able to remove all the top aggressors you will spend your time and efforts more effectively, most especially in the reintroduction phase in discovering what your body is reacting to
Reintroduction Process
- After removing for about a months time, your symptoms have cleared and calmed then you can reintroduce one food at a time every 3 days and wait to see if symptoms begin to reappear
- You then leave that offending food for a longer period, 3-6 months before addressing and adding it back in your diet
Where to learn more about Tom Malterre...
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