Rotation Diet for Allergy

After having successfully recognized which foods are making you ill, the next step is to manage your diet so that the allergic effects can be avoided, particularly, that most insidious and dangerous of things - addiction! After complete avoidance for a period of time, the body loses its sensitivity and can be re-exposed to allergenic foods, on a carefully managed basis. This method is known as the diversified rotation diet.

American allergist, Dr F.L. Leeney, was the first to use this approach and another leading allergist, Dr H. Rinkel, further refined it. He demonstrated that a symptom-producing food does not have to be avoided forever but can be returned to the diet, on a limited basis, after a period of time, during which sensitivity diminishes. He says that foods, giving minor reactions, should be avoided for a minimum of six weeks, and those causing major reactions should be avoided for three months. After that time, the offending foods can be reintroduced into the diet every four days. If reactions occur on this programme, then further avoidance, for another two to three months, is necessary.

The reasoning behind the four-day rotation diet is that it normally takes three days for food to pass through the intestine. As Dr Kenyon says, it may be possible to get away with a three-day rotation, but, as a 'rule of the thumb', four days is safer.

There is always the danger that a person, once allergic to a number of foods, will develop new allergies to other foods, if they are eaten too often. This is because the body deteriorates into an allergenic state, with the immune system becoming overtired and incapable of dealing with the toxic residues found, normally, in safe foods. When an allergy sufferer is forced to give up staple foods, he will often try to compensate by the adoption of new daily staples. For example, he will substitute soy products for milk, beans for grains, chicken for pork and so on. In no time at all his flagging immune system will, again, be overloaded by constant repetition and further allergies will result. The ideal answer to this problem is the four-day or seven day rotation diet. This method not only rests the immune system, by preventing it being bombarded with the same toxins day after day, but also gives the individual an eating plan which is more interesting, as well as safe.

Drs Kenyon and Lewith list three advantages of the rotation diet:

1. As a diagnostic tool it can unmask hitherto unrecognized, hidden (masked) food allergies.
2. It makes it less likely that the person will develop new allergies to foods which he is regularly in contact with, having substituted these foods in place of allergic foods.
3. It helps the multiple food allergic person to lead a reasonable lifestyle and to maintain tolerance to the food he is already able to eat.

The diversified rotation diet allows the food allergy sufferer to maintain as balanced a nutritional intake as possible. However, sometimes supplements will be needed. Otherwise, as well as developing new allergies, it can be possible to become malnourished very quickly, leading to further aggravation of existing problems.
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