If you're trying an elimination diet – a diet where you eliminate certain foods to figure out whether you are allergic or have problems related to a certain ingredient or food – it's important to get it right in order to get the answers that you're looking for. Here are some of the common mistakes people make when on an elimination diet and how you can avoid them.

Not preparing in advance

If you work away from home or you're on the go a lot of the time, you might not have the luxury of picking up a quick sandwich or burger, depending on what you're eliminating from your diet.

Planning in advance and ensuring that you have enough foods with you to keep you going for as long as you need can help to prevent breaking your diet by opting for other foods.

Eliminating ingredients too slowly

Another common problem people often make with elimination diets is failing to eliminate ingredients and foods fast enough. Many people believe that they need to eliminate each food for a lengthy period of time in order to see whether it affects them or not.

However, this isn't the case and can make your elimination diet much longer than it needs to be and much less efficient.

Ignoring the ingredients on packaging

In order to carry out an elimination diet properly, you need to be aware of everything you're eating, including everything on the long list of ingredients.

It might seem easy enough to eliminate milk from your diet, but that doesn't just mean having black coffee in the morning and swapping your porridge for a fruit option. Milk is found in many other foods, so if you really want to see if it's affecting you, read the list of ingredients on the packaging so you can cut out everything which includes milk.

Giving up if you don't immediately notice a difference

Eliminating everything at once means it's impossible to find out which ingredients are having a bad effect on you, while taking it slow can take its toll and make you more likely to give up.

If you don't immediately notice a difference, don't give up. Think about your diet again and other potential ingredients which could be problematic. If you don't notice a different after two weeks and after you've eliminated most foods you think could cause issues, you may want to consider a visit to your doctor or an allergy test.