Food Allergy Living Blog Tagged Results

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is a condition that is gaining more and more recognition. Unfortunately though, the treatment options for EoE are not black and white. EoE may be treated either with medication, which has known long term side effects, or nutrition therapy, which has been shown extremely effective, but may be hard to follow for some.

Medication treatment for EoE is the use of steroids. However, this is not a long term fix. As EoE is a chronic condition, treatment with nutrition therapy is often discussed. Here are nutritional therapy options for EoE:

• Elemental Diet – A diet consisting of solely an amino acid-based (or elemental) products
• Elimination Diets – The removal of allergens from the diet.
  1. Tailored Elimination – Elimination of specific allergens based on allergy testing
  2. Six Food Elimination – Elimination of 6 top allergens based on the most common allergens seen in EoE patients

The Six Food Elimination Diet

The 6 Food Elimination diet is interesting because it bypasses the need of extensive food allergen testing. As you may know, allergy testing (skin prick tests and blood tests) are not perfect. There are often false positives which can make the treatment plan more complicated and time consuming. So what the 6 Food Elimination diet proposes is that, off-the-bat, patients will eliminate the top 6 allergens seen in EoE patients. The top allergens are milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts/tree nuts, and seafood. One study¹ confirms there is a 74% success rate when using this type of nutrition therapy for EoE. (As a point of reference, an Elemental Diet shows a 95-98% success rate based on multiple studies)

Advantages and Disadvantages to consider

The advantages of using this nutrition therapy are that the EoE patients may still eat solid foods. It also eliminates the need for extensive skin and blood tests to check for food allergies. Important disadvantages to this diet therapy are that it may unnecessarily remove foods from the diet. This could increase the risk of the patients’ nutritional status. As some of you may know, it is hard just to remove milk and soy from your diet. Try eliminating 6 different allergens while maintaining your nutritional status! One way to ensure there are no risks for nutritional deficiencies is to supplement the diet with a nutritionally dense, hypoallergenic elemental product, such as Neocate®. This will help ensure the patient is getting all the protein and nutrients they need per day while guaranteeing that no allergic reactions will occur upon starting the elemental products. It is vital that EoE patients are monitored by a dietitian. The dietitian will help calculate how much of the elemental product the patient will need per day and also make sure the nutritional status of the patient is maintained.

Again, since there is a 74% success rate, if any symptoms persist after starting the 6 Food Elimination diet, see your doctor, as you may need a more “allergen safe” diet therapy such as an Elemental diet.

I hope this helped to shed some light on this nutritional therapy option for EoE. Every person will have their own treatment plan that works for them. Is anyone doing an Elimination diet now? How is it going for you? Have any tips you can share that may help others manage an elimination diet?

-Christine

^{1 Kagawalla AF et al, Effect of six-food elimination diet on clinical and histologic outcomes in eosinophilic esophagitis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2006:4(9):363-8}