I have, for many years now, experienced a range of symptoms which vary in accuteness, but which seem to be caused by a variety of foods. Some foods I *know* to be culprits (surprise, surprise: wheat and cheese!), but I am lining up a number of other suspects (soya - I was very interested to read Edith's recent post about that, sweet peppers, rice...). The symptoms are:

lots of catarrh
stuffed up nose
runny nose
shortness of breath
tight, dry throat
tingly mouth and tongue
lethargy
feeling depressed (very out of character!)

I have decided that the time has come to try an exclusion diet to try and find out, once and for all, what is causing these symptoms. I should be most grateful if others would share with me their experiences of exclusion diets. Is it easy to identify problem foods? How long do I need to follow the total exclusion diet befoe introducing other foods? How long should I try one *experimental* food before introducing another? And finally, is it indeed the case that following an exclusion diet like this for a few months can, effectively, *cure* some intolerances?

Sorry this is such a long post, but I am becoming increasingly frustrated by all this. The symptoms have become worse over the years, and *much* worse in recent months.

Interestingly, just over eighteen months ago I have a period when I was almost completely symptom free. It was before I had come across ER4YT and I was following my instincts about what to eat. A *lapsed* vegetarian, I found I thrived best on just meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. Then I bought a book called 'The Ultimate Nutrition Bible' which told me to cut down on meat, eat lots of carbohydrates blah, blah - we all know the story! Finding ER4YT made such sense, and I feel so much better when I follow it. Like so many others, though, I am suffering from a legacy of many, many years of eating foods which were not right for my body. It will take time to put things right, I now appreciate. For now I think I must stick to HB foods - even Neutrals seem to be doing me harm. I think I am now covering old ground as there have been posts covering this before, so I'll shut up now!