Sarah Ballantyne explicitly says 2-4 weeks minimum for your body to adjust to the diet (mostly a change in gut flora), and about 6 months minimum to heal on the diet (replacing unhealthy cells with new, healthy ones and healing damaged tissue). Only after we have acheived consistent symptom remission, we can (if we choose) think about testing and reintroducing foods outside of the scope of the healing process (such as eggs, grass-fed dairy, caffeine, etc).

Three primary reasons, as far as I can tell:

1. Prematurely reintroducing foods can delay or reverse the healing process
2. Reintroducing even non-problematic foods before restoring gut health can result in false-positives for food sensitivity
3. Giving ourselves time to become familiar with and sensitive to a feeling of consistent health allows us to more easily identify even subtle problematic symptoms during testing that could lead to serious long-term health problems (e.g,. a stuffy nose or sneezing after eating something). Many of my symptoms I didn’t even know existed until they were gone…it was like, “I feel better…why do I feel better? Oh, my knees don’t ache all the time…wait a second…my knees were aching all the time!” So I can be on the lookout for achey joints as I reintroduce foods.

We’ve been struggling w/ infertility and in going to the doctor discovered that my thyroid antibodies are elevated, which could be contributing to our problems getting pregnant. Because I have tons of the Hashimoto’s symptoms (we’re going back to the doctor soon and will discuss a diagnosis w/ him), I’m thinking that’s what I have. I’m hoping to find the best way to get well–and quick! I’m 41 and we really want to have a family. I was just wondering if you’d have any recommendations.

Thanks for any thoughts you might have the time to share.

Thanks for reviewing this book for “us!”

My good friend wrote a book about dealing with Hashi’s: “You’re Not Crazy and You’re Not Alone” (loving yourself through Hashimotos).

A GREAT book. Might be one for your healing journey! Who knows!

Thanks for all the insight you give us daily!
Carissa