Creating a Map for an Elimination Diet
If you've ever undertaken an elimination diet alongside the support of a healthcare practitioner, you know how challenging it can be at times. They are, by their nature, processes of trial and error. They will be informed by your food diary but the process can still take time before you find what works for you.
This is where genetic testing can play a supportive role. By understanding your body's unique predispositions, it can help you and your healthcare practitioner approach an elimination diet with more focus and less guesswork. Crucially, it can also tell you whether there might be adjacent intolerances playing a role as well, rather than just one.
What is an Elimination Diet?
Before we explore the role of genetics, let's clarify what an elimination diet is. It is a short-term, structured eating plan used as a tool to identify food sensitivities. It typically involves two key phases:
- The Elimination Phase: You completely remove specific foods or food groups that are suspected of causing your symptoms for a set period, usually a few weeks
- The Reintroduction Phase: Following this, you systematically reintroduce the eliminated foods one by one, carefully monitoring how your body responds. This is the most important step, as it helps you confirm which specific foods are your personal triggers
The goal is not to stay on a restrictive diet forever. It is an investigative process to gather information, so you can ultimately eat the broadest and most varied diet your body can happily tolerate. Because it's a complex process, an elimination diet is always best undertaken with the support of a qualified healthcare practitioner.
Where Your Genes Fit into the Picture
Your DNA provides the blueprint for your body. It contains genes that are the instructions for building countless proteins and enzymes responsible for everything from your eye colour to how you process compounds in your food. Small variations in these genes can influence how efficiently these processes work.
A common type of variation is called a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, or SNP (pronounced 'snip'). A SNP is a change in a single DNA building block. This doesn't mean that the gene is broken, it just means that it functions a little differently to other people. It might make a process faster or slower, or mean that you are more reactive to a certain substance than other people.
When it comes to histamine, the gene AOC1 provides the instructions for making the diamine oxidase (DAO) enzyme, which is crucial for breaking down histamine from food in your gut. Some well-researched SNPs in the AOC1 gene are associated with reduced DAO enzyme activity. This doesn't mean the enzyme stops working completely, but it may create a genetic predisposition towards having trouble processing high-histamine foods.
The links highlighted in each paragraph above will take you to separate articles where you can dive deeper into each of those topics.
Using Genetic Insights to Guide Your Approach
Knowing your genetic predispositions can help you and your practitioner make more informed decisions about where to start your investigation.
Creating a More Focused Approach
With nothing to go on, a practitioner might suggest a very broad elimination diet to begin with. While effective for some, it might not be the most relevant starting point for you, and crucially it may take longer until you uncover your personal triggers.
A genetic report, like those we offer through our partnership with Lifecode Gx, can provide that focus that might otherwise be missing. If your report shows you have genetic variants associated with slower histamine processing, a low-histamine diet becomes a more logical first step. Conversely, your histamine pathways might be functioning properly, and a different starting point may make more sense.
The ability to target a specific biological pathway from the outset can potentially save you from weeks of unnecessarily restricting other food groups.
Understanding Your Body's Interconnected Systems
Health is rarely about a single gene or a single pathway. A comprehensive genetic test looks at a network of related systems. For example, another key route for breaking down histamine inside our cells involves an enzyme called HNMT. The HNMT enzyme depends on a process called methylation.
Methylation is a fundamental biochemical process that happens billions of times per second in your body. It helps with detoxification, hormone balance, and DNA repair. Your genetic report can highlight SNPs in genes that affect methylation. If you have variants that suggest your methylation cycle is less efficient, your practitioner might advise you for example to focus on foods rich in the nutrients that support this pathway, such as folate and vitamin B12, even during the elimination phase.
A Piece of the Puzzle, Not the Whole Picture
It is crucial to hold this information in the right context. Your genes are an important input, but they alone do not determine the output.
Your Genotype is a Predisposition
Having a gene variant associated with a particular trait does not guarantee you will experience any related symptoms. Many other factors, including your diet, gut health, stress levels, and overall lifestyle, have a powerful influence on how your genes are expressed. This is the difference between genotype (your genetic blueprint) and phenotype (what is actually happening in your body).
Someone could have 'slower' SNPs for the DAO enzyme but never have an issue because their gut is healthy and their diet is balanced. Conversely, a person with 'typical' DAO genetics can develop acquired histamine intolerance due to certain medications or a gut condition. A genetic test is not a medical diagnosis, but it is a useful tool for understanding your personal tendencies.
No Variants Does Not Mean No Problem
On the flip side, if your genetic report shows no variants in key histamine-related genes, it does not rule out histamine intolerance. It simply suggests that if you are experiencing symptoms then the root cause is more likely to be acquired (from non-genetic factors) rather than having a strong genetic component. This is still incredibly valuable information for your practitioner.
How We Can Help You Learn More
We've partnered with Lifecode Gx, the UK's leading laboratory specialising in nutrigenomics, to offer at-home genetic tests to our customers. Our Histamine Report looks at the histamine pathway in full, while the Core Genetic Report looks at 27 different genes across a range of pathways. As your genes don't change, these are available together as a Bundle, which is cheaper than buying them individually.
The process for these tests is simple. An at-home cheek swab is sent to the lab for analysis, and the resulting report provides a detailed breakdown of your genetic variants in key areas related to histamine processing, methylation, and more. These tests include a call with a trained practitioner who will walk you through your results. This article lays out what to expect once you've ordered your genetic test.
These tests can empower you and your healthcare provider to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. They are designed to help you work together to build a personalised strategy, turning the often frustrating process of an elimination diet into a more targeted and hopefully more fruitful approach.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information provided is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional or registered dietitian with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or before undertaking any new diet or health regimen.