Advancing to Phase 3

Congratulations! You are on the final day of Phase 2. What an achievement! You should be very proud of yourself as the elimination part of the diet is very challenging.

I want to caution you that Phase 3 is where you may discover your food sensitivities because foods that have a greater risk of causing inflammation start coming back in. If you've already discovered that some food intolerances be sure to stay away from them for several months before deciding if you want to try to add them back in.

Be sure to monitor your body closely and use your Symptom Journal every day.

Below I repeat the advice on adding foods back in during Phase 3, which I sent last week, because it's very important.

Decide what you'll be adding in first. This will help you to plan your meals for the week and your shopping trips. The meal planning tool is a useful tool.
Download the Allowable List of Foods. We have a list that shows you the foods that you can add incrementally – Phase by Phase – on our web site. You can view it on the site and download a printable version to use as a reference. This is also helpful to bring with you when you're shopping.
High risk foods. Phase 3 has some foods and beverages that pose a higher risk of triggering inflammation. These foods are indicated on the list in the book (page 154-155) and with two asterisks (**) on our web site. Proceed with caution when you add these foods back, and rather than adding the whole food group, it's really best if you add ONE food and wait THREE days and watch your body very closely for symptoms.
Gluten-containing grains. Surprisingly the gluten-containing grains come back in Phase 3. If you have Lyme or other tick-borne illness, I caution you about these grains. Most Lyme patients can not tolerate gluten. You may want to consider waiting until Phase 4 or speak with your doctor before attempting to add any of these grains into your diet. If you decide to try them, add one grain at a time with at least three days in between (see the above bullet). Whether you have Lyme or not, these are the whole grains that are allowable. Wheat flour does not come back until Phase 4