I know these days, the word restriction is something we hear often.  

 

Prior to our current pandemic, the most often way I referred to restrictions was when it came to eating foods.

 

There are good and not so good reasons to restrict certain types of foods.

 

Reasons such as allergies, where your body does not properly recognize certain foods for some reason causes one to want to avoid those foods.  I will dig more into allergies in the next few weeks.

 

Other reasons include improper digestion, or other types of reactions where our bodies are going signs that it is not happy with something that we are consuming.

 

In these cases, it is helpful to isolate the offending foods, and avoid them for a time, and look to address the underlying issue.  

 

That investigative task is not always an easy, in fact it can be frustratingly difficult and exhausting.

 

Please note when I refer to diet, that is just a temporary way of eating and specific foods are listed to either include or avoid to help address an underlying issue.  It is an eating plan.

 

There are many restrictive diet changes, and just a few are: 

 

Eating Plans That Avoid or Greatly reduce certain food groups / macro nutrients:

Vegetarian

Vegan

Keto

Low Carb

Low Fat

Grain Free (not just gluten)

Soy Free

Sugar Free

 

Eating Plans That Avoid specific foods or food groups due to their higher than normal content of compounds that may not work well for some people but usually are safe for most people:

Gluten Free

Dairy Free

Low Oxalate (LOD)

Low Salicylates

Low Amine

FODMAPS

SIBO

Anti-Inflammatory

Whole 30

Elimination diet

Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS)

Body Ecology (Anti-Candida/Low Sugar)

 

There are many more types of specific food “rules”, as you can see in a walk down the health section of a book store, but these ones above are the ones I have the most understanding of from the point of solid research based and personal references in how/why they can be helpful for some people.

 

I am listing these out not to overwhelm but rather to point out that there are many different helpful options to address bothersome symptoms, and finding the one(s) that could help you or someone you love to feel less symptoms and move towards feeling and being more healthy, is a huge possibility.  There is always hope.

 

I will go into some of these special diets in another post, but I just want to plant the seed and inspire some ideas and hope for those who may feel like giving up due to not seeing symptoms reduce.  

 

In my family, we have had to incorporate a number of these different food restrictions in the past and it has allowed us to address underlying issues with great success.  That is the reason I got into nutrition was seeing first hand how foods and supplemental nutrients were key to correcting symptoms and health issues in my own home.

 

Once I starting to see clients, it was easy to see how these different options could offer many people the results they were looking for to reduce symptoms and feel well and healthy, either again, or sometimes for the very first time in their lives.  

 

Have a great week!

Lisa.