An elimination diet is a short-term eating plan that eliminates certain foods that may be causing allergies and other digestive reactions - then reintroduces the foods one at a time in order to determine which foods are, and are not, well-tolerated.The main reason for doing an elimination diet is to pinpoint exactly which foods are the culprits for digestive and other health-related issues when someone is experiencing ongoing symptoms, and she can't seem to figure out what's causing them. Symptoms that might drive someone to do an elimination diet include persistent diarrhea, bloating, constipation, eczema and acne.It's estimated that 15 million adults in the U.S. alone suffer from food allergies - about 4 percent of the adult population and about 8 percent of children. But these numbers don't even take into account food "intolerances" or food sensitivities that don't show up on allergy tests, so this means the real numbers are likely a lot higher. It's just another reason to test an elimination diet.Eight foods account for about 90 percent of all food-allergy reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, nuts, wheat/gluten, soy, fish and shellfish. Elimination diets range in terms of what exact foods are permitted and eliminated, but most will cut out all common allergens.Most elimination diets last for about 3-6 weeks. It's believed that antibodies - the proteins your immune system makes when it negatively reacts to foods - take around three weeks to dissipate. So this is usually the minimum time needed for someone to fully treat from sensitives and to notice improvements in their symptoms.Even when someone may think that they already eat a healthy diet, if they still battle health issues that they can't resolve, an elimination diet is usually extremely useful for identifying which suspected foods are truly the cause. Even if you've opted to have a food allergy test done at a physician's office in the past, you still might be missing something because it's common for allergy tests to show negative results for underlying food sensitives that are not true allergies yet can still cause negative symptoms.A food allergy is an overreaction of the immune system to a specific food protein, but similar effects can happen even when someone doesn't test positive for an allergy. When food protein is ingested that isn't well-tolerated, it can trigger a range of reactions that may cause symptoms like: rashes, hives, swelling, trouble breathing and various digestive (GI tract) pains.Identifying and removing allergies and sensitivities is vital to overall health. When you struggle with an ongoing, unidentified sensitivity, your body constantly sends out inflammatory responses that can cause harm in multiple ways. Food sensitivities and allergies are correlated with an increased chance for developing.