I'm in the process of reading this book ("The False Fat Diet" by Elson M. Haas, M.D.). From what I gather, the premise is based on the idea that a lot of people have food sensitivities that may be causing them to gain "false fat" (i.e., bloating, etc.) among other health problems. It's not a diet that is primarily focused on weight loss, although that's part of it.

The book gives several elimination diets, ranging from the very limited (i.e., fresh fruit and veggies) to less limiting. The idea is not to limit calories or nutrients, but to do the diet for a week and then start adding foods back gradually to try and weed out which ones are problematic for you.

I'm starting the Total Elimination Diet tomorrow (which sounds worse than it is ). Basically, it eliminates the basic seven problem foods that are the most common (like wheat, dairy, soy, etc.) and several others, leaving the foods that are in most cases not problematic for most people. These include whole grain rice, veggies (though not all veggies), fruits (though not all fruits), some nuts, etc.

I've suspected for a while that I may have some food sensitivities. I know for sure that I can't eat hazelnuts because they give me painful gas, but I know there are others. I'm suspecting that vinegar and chocolate rate right up there for me because out of all the diets that I've tried to do (and I've done them all!) these two foods are the ones that I've kept all the time and I still have physical problems like chronic headaches and rashes that won't go away. I'm also thinking maybe tomatoes might be a problem, as that's another food I've never been without.

We'll see what happens!

If anyone has had experiences with this kind of elimination diet for food sensitivities, please share!

Tam

I have a sensitivity to calories! If I eat to many of them, I swell up to the point that I can't even fit into my clothes!

I think the theory that fat is a result of a sensitivity, is mostly more silliness than truth. I think that some foods can contribute to water retention, and some foods are difficult for some people to limit, but ultimately if you're carrying more than a few extra pounds - it's usually mostly true fat, not water or other "false fat".

Carbs make me hungry, so I limit them. I'm allergic to some honey (which probably means I'm allergic to a particular pollen), I get a scratchy, itchy throat after eating some honeys, especially raw honey. Pasterized cuts down on the reaction, but I generally avoid honey in order to avoid the reaction.

I think elimination diets can help people determine food sensitivities, but usually the trial peopl normally give the diet is far too short to know whether it is a true sensitivity or a placebo/coincidence effect. Just because you think you're having a reaction to an ingredient, doesn't mean you really are. You have to eliminate and add several times to be sure that you're really sensitive to an ingredient, and you can't discount the possibility of placebo affect - if you believe you have a sensitivity, you're likely perceive a reaction.

I have a wheat gluten sensitivity and cutting wheat flour totally out of my diet about four years ago has made me the healthiest I have EVER been.

I gained 60 pounds in one year, until I finally started examining WHAT was making such an extreme weight gain in that period of time (and it turned out to be my food allergies). No, that doesn't mean it was "false fat." What it means is that my body was shutting down on being an efficient machine because I was so busy feeding it things it treated as poison.

Once I cut out wheat gluten, I began feeling amazingly better. No migraines, no joint pain, no rashes, no abdominal distress, no general malaise, no major OCD symptoms, etc. (I can go into more detail if this is of interest, but I don't want to stray too far off the topic of the thread, here). And even though I was 240 pounds, I was the healthiest I had EVER BEEN, just by removing the "poison" from my system. (I'm not calling wheat gluten poison. I'm saying my body had begun to treat it as such.)

So, I thought/hoped that I would lose the 60 pounds I'd packed on that year RIGHT AWAY. I really believed things would just flip and I'd get my body back.

Nope. I'd gotten fat. The fat was real. I'd gained weight--YES, in part due to a food sensitivity--and it was real. I was gonna have to take it off the good ol' fashioned way. But with the wheat gluten out of my diet, I was so HEALTHY that I had a better shot of actually losing weight in a more healthy way.

So, now here I am 30 weeks into my commitment to diet (I cut out fast food at the first of the year, but wasn't "officially dieting," even though that cutting out fast food dropped 15 pounds off my butt in like six weeks) and I'm down 40 pounds. My waist is down 5.5". I feel GREAT! Healthiest I've ever been.

YES, I'm *still* the healthiest I've ever been. And YES, I was able to say that when I weighed 240 pounds and had a 40" waist because JUST by cutting the wheat gluten out of my diet, I was healthy again.

Now I'm healthy AND losing weight.

That's a great combo!

But certainly it wasn't by JUST cutting out wheat gluten. It was by cutting out wheat gluten, learning how to live without that in my diet, knowing what I could have and what to avoid, and THEN cutting calories, balancing glycemic index, upping the protein, and MOVING my booty as much as possible.

Finally, I think I've got it figured out!

So, I guess I'd say that I absolutely advise you to test yourself to see if you have food sensitivities (many, many people do), because that's gonna make ANY diet easier to follow. You'll have your system working at full force, rather than trying to combat something it sees as "poison" while also trying to help you burn your body's fuel in a more weight-loss-friendly way.

Hope that helps! Good luck to you!

LOL! Oh, wow! LOL

Delita

I have to agree with this. If you're talking 5 or 10 lbs that you struggle with and seem to have problems with more when you eat certain foods, that's one thing.

Most of us here are FAT. As in - we eat more calories than we burn and we've done it consistently for long enough that we've gained a lot of weight.

True food sensitivities and food allergies, as full of grace mentioned above, can contribute to ill health which can contribute to weight gain, but you still have to take that weight off the old fashioned way, by diet and exercise.

.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I think I didn't express myself well and the title of the book is a bit misleading. The book does NOT try to sell the idea that if you're 40 or 100 pounds overweight, it's all "false" fat. What the book tries to point out is that food sensitivities do play a role in possibly adding bloating and gas that the author calls "false" fat as well as making it problematic to lose weight because of the affect of the possible problem food on your metabolism. This is not a gimicky diet (I don't fall for those very easily - I've had too much experience with fad diets ) but one that encourages you to find your own individual plan as to what foods work for you NOT just for weight loss but for health and well being as well.

Tam

Just wanted to report in on this diet. I'm on day 3 of the total elimination diet and I'm starting to feel the benefits. The first two days I felt lethargic and headachy but I expected that, both because I was detoxing and also because I was PMSing. Today TOM arrived and I felt much better - more energetic and less body aches. I also noticed that some rashes that just would not go away from my upper thighs and buttocks area now seem to have almost all gone away. There are still some left but much less than before. So I guess I was reacting to something I was eating (I suspect it was the vinegar ) I also noticed I sleep much better at night, through the night and not waking up in the middle of the night. I'm guessing that has to do with cutting out chocolate.

So far so good - I haven't felt massive food cravings or hunger like I thought I would, since I'm eating a lot of rice products (like cream of rice, brown rice, rice cakes). I feel much less swollen, but that might be because I'm no longer PMSing.

Tam