Eat WHOLE FOODS

And no, I don't mean the store. There is this concept of eating that is very popular in the healthier circles. It is not a fad or trend, but basically a step back to a simpler human existence. Eating whole foods means eating the food "God intended." Unadulterated, unprocessed, unrefined, etc. I highly recommend you pursue a whole foods diet while on the elimination diet. It is really the only way you can know what you are eating.

I think people have a tendency to fool themselves. For example, you are at a burger place and you order and burger and fries. So you are thinking meat and potatoes - hard to screw up right? Well what you don't know is that the burger contains all sorts of hormones and preservatives, was corn-feed and there is gluten in the "spices" blend used to season it. Meanwhile the fries were cooked in soybean oil with wheat-covered onion rings... I admit that was a terrible example, but you get my point. You need to prepare you own food and/or get it from a source you trust, and you need to focus on eating fresh foods without a lot of ingredients. Go back to basics.

And if you want to buy something prepackaged and easy don't bury your head in the sand theorizing if you don't look it's not there; turn over the package and read every ingredient. There really is no point cheating with this "diet" - otherwise it can be all for not! Why suffer 90% of the time for compromised results? It doesn't make any sense.

Want to know more about whole foods? Watch a video on the whole foods diet from a Bastyr University faculty member Cynthia Lair: What is a whole food? (It's a little silly but informative.)