1. Elimination

Five dietary options:

1/ Fatty meat, salt, water.  Cook with butter or olive oil

2/ Meat (red/white), fish (especially oily), eggs, bone broth, water, salt, pepper. Cook with butter, olive oil, lard

3/ As 2 + white rice, rice cakes

4/ As 3 + olives (in brine), avocados, cheese

5/ As 4 + bouillon (no yeast, soy, gluten, chilli or hot spices), decaf tea (w/out milk)

As mentioned in ‘Mission’, our approach is essentially a subtractive one aimed at taking out all potential food agents which *may* be eliciting an inflammatory (or harmful) response.  This necessarily means casting the net wide. Many, even the majority, of the foods taken out may not be a problem for you. In the short-term this doesn’t matter. You need to start ‘extreme’ - this means ignoring much of the mainstream advice about so-called healthy eating. The most important aim is resolution of symptoms; if you want a cure it needs to be effective. Taking out one food at a time (gluten, wheat, dairy, alcohol, sugar, etc), takes too long and doesn’t work. If you’re having a flare-up it needs to be resolved quickly. Further, using a piecemeal approach is not fully committing.

However, we understand that many individuals will not want to go straight from their usual mixed diet to a meat-only diet overnight, so we provide five diet levels to choose from. If you feel you can’t handle the level 1 diet (we don’t blame you), start at the level which is easiest for you to contemplate or stick to.

Diets 1 & 2 are essentially zero carbohydrate. Some people have found that only a meat-only or zero carbohydrate diet has cured their chronic autoimmune condition - we believe them. However it’s unlikely that most people have to go this far. There are possible short-term side effects from transitioning to a zero carbohydrate (ZC) diet which you should be aware of if you want to give it a try, don’t confuse these effects with your IBD symptoms. We leave it for you to find out for yourself rather than ‘endorse’ any particular view of a ZC diet by linking it to this site. Levels 3 to 5 are moderate carbohydrate diets (but probably less than you’ve been eating) so are not likely to have any negative short-term effects related to lack of carbohydrate – apart from feeling better.

Assuming the dietary approach works, we believe most sufferers will get substantial relief from following level 5, and that the benefits will be noticeable within 24/48 hours. If the level 5 diet doesn’t seem to be working for you within 4 to 5 days, try out one or two levels above.

If you observe the above diets closely there is no need to tell you what you shouldn’t eat.  But, to make it absolutely plain, here are some food items you should definitely not have during the elimination phase:

Wheat/Grains/Cereals/Bread/Pasta

Fibre

Fruit

Caffeine

Vegetables

Milk

Vegetable Oils

Alcohol/Fruit Juices/Herb Teas

Sugar

If you decide to go down the dietary route you will have to come to terms with the reality that you have to follow a restricted diet - at least in the short term. Anything less than this will not work. This is your opportunity to subvert the high probability of being on medication for the rest of you life. If you try this you must be committed 100%.

During the elimination phase only eat food from diets 1 to 5. If you eat out, only eat food that you absolutely know is not adulterated with other ingredients. Don’t trust what the waiting staff say.

If you are hungry – eat more food! But only from the allowable foods. This is not a calorie restriction diet. Some people advocate fasting for CD/UC – we don’t recommend it as many sufferers will be underweight or have nutritional deficiencies. If you are underweight, do not starve yourself, do not go hungry - the object of the diet is not calorific deprivation, but temporary elimination/exclusion of foods which may be causing a problem