EoE Diet: What to Eat and What to Avoid

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Today we're going to be talking all about Esinophilic Esophagitis, otherwise known as EOE.

I'm going to specifically break down what foods you should eat and what foods you should avoid. So whether you've been diagnosed with EoE or even know somebody with EoE or just simply curious, I'm going to run through foods that are good for you if you're struggling with this, and foods that maybe you should avoid helping you to come up with a meal plan that's going to serve your symptoms and help you feel a lot better.

So before we jump into our topic today, my name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional licensed nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic. At Oswald Digestive Clinic, we work with many people who struggle with digestive issues, and if you know somebody or you are struggling with something, I will link our website here where you can easily make an initial appointment. I'm also going to link our free guide, which is Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health. So without further ado, let's jump back into the topic of EoE.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

What Is Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE)?

Let's answer the question first. What is it? Esinophilic Esophagitis is a chronic allergic inflammatory condition of the esophagus. So more in plain English. What happens is that certain foods can trigger an allergic reaction. This is where your immune system will send white blood cells to your esophagus, which are called eosinophils. These white blood cells or eosinophils create an inflammatory condition within the esophagus tissue. This can give you a sensation of swallowing difficulties or even chest pain as well as some throat pain.

Now, what's interesting is that EoE is not caused by acid reflux, even though it has some pretty similar symptoms. But as acid reflux is coming more from within the stomach itself, EOE is caused more from triggered food that foods that you may be allergic to creating this acidophils to create this inflammation. But the tricky part lies in that everybody has different triggers, and so it's figuring out yourself individually what foods trigger your symptoms. So this is why diet really plays a big role in symptom management and also just being more aware of foods.

Using an Elimination Diet to Identify Triggers

So we know what EoE is. Let's talk about how do we find out what your individual triggers are to foods. And the best approach will be doing the elimination diet. And what this means is that if you're looking for food triggers, it's best to cut out the top six most inflammatory foods. Research has actually shown that by doing this elimination diet, while it feels super restrictive and is really time consuming, you are able to understand what your trigger is and then of course, better manage your symptoms.

What foods do we need to take out if we're going to be doing a type of elimination diet?

Number one is going to be dairy, followed up with gluten or wheat, and then we'll need to be taking out eggs. We'll take out soy, take out peanuts and nuts as well as seafood. So by taking out these main food categories, we are really eliminating a lot of inflammatory foods. Now, of course, these aren't inherently inflammatory by themselves. It's just the way that your body is responding to them. Ideally, you would take these six foods out for at least eight weeks and then under a supervision, sometimes people will do this by themselves, but if you need more direction and just really strong guidelines about how to reintroduce the foods after the eight week period, it'll be really ideal to work with a practitioner such as myself or us at the clinic. So doing an elimination diet, which takes out six really big food categories, you might be left thinking, oh dear, what am I going to eat? And just feel super overwhelmed by it. But a lot of times, and I encourage my clients all the time not to think about what they can't eat, but rather what can they eat?

And there's a lot of foods left out.

What Foods Can You Eat with EoE Diet?

So if you are thinking about doing the elimination diet, what are some foods that we want to highlight that you're going to have better results with? Most people struggling with EoE can tolerate and do really fine with fruits and vegetables, fresh produce. Now, unless you have a specific allergic reaction that you've known about most people, as I said, will be fine with any kind of fruit or vegetable. Also, keeping in gluten-free grains like quinoa or rice, those are going to help round out a meal with a nice starchy carbohydrate along with those fruits and vegetables. In addition to the fruits and vegetables and some grains, you'll want to keep in any kind of meat or poultry. So chicken or Turkey beef, you want to keep in those meats for another piece of that balanced meal. So you have your fruit and vegetable, you have your grains, you have some protein in addition, you can keep in healthy fats, specifically things like olive oil or avocado oil, coconut oil, those types of things are also going to be a really healthy fat to keep your blood sugar stable and your meal balanced.

Avoiding Processed Substitutes During Elimination

If in the lamination diet feels really restrictive, just focus on what you can eat. And that's really going back to whole real foods. Sometimes when we're doing elimination diets, we're trying to find substitutes for let's say dairy or even gluten products. And sometimes we can get bit because we're not reading the ingredient labels on things. So while they're inherently gluten-free or inherently dairy-free, sometimes these dairy-free or gluten-free might have other irritants in them. So whenever you're doing an elimination diet, I always urge you just to try to stick to the basics. Fruits, vegetables, proteins, and healthy fats and some grains. That way you're not having to get any confusion with what might be creating more of these option fills to create the inflammation in your esophagus. And you have a more clear picture of what your trigger foods could be. And one of the tips of doing an elimination diet that really helps you and if you're working with a practitioner also helps you themself is to keep a journal just kind of tracking any kind of symptoms that you're having because sometimes we think, oh yeah, I'll remember, but we never do.

The Importance of Keeping a Food and Symptom Journal

It's hard to recall sometimes our symptoms clearly because we have a busy life and we just take for granted eating sometimes. And maybe it's like, oh yeah, I don't feel very good, but we don't remember what not feeling very good really means. So it's ideal to keep a journal throughout the elimination. And then of course, as you start reintroducing the foods, it's very important as well.

Reintroducing Foods Step by Step

And when you get through the elimination portion of it, you've really probably radically changed your diet by eating more of just kind of basic foods. And now it's time to reintroduce the foods to find out what those triggers are. I do advise working with somebody when you do this because it can get very confusing, but if you want to do it on your own, it would be very, you want to take one food group and add it in per week basically, and then just marking down what your symptoms are.

Once you've finished up one week, let's say you add in dairy is fine, don't add it in again until after you've completed adding all of those foods in. Otherwise, there could be some mixed signals with what your body is really trying to tell you.

Living Better with EoE

So it is a slow process, but really it's just a period of time. And if you're really struggling with symptoms, it's a game changer when you find out what your real triggers are. So I hope that this helped to give you a little bit more information about not only what EoE is, but how you can manage your symptoms and lead a more productive, comfortable life, right? Because anytime our gut doesn't feel good, it just drags us down. We feel exhausted. It becomes really overwhelming.

If you are thinking about doing any kind of elimination diet or just want more help with your gut health in general, I have a link to our website down below where you can easily make that initial appointment and we can walk the journey with you.

So thanks for watching today.

If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic.  We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.

Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH