You can eat well on an elimination diet by building meals around foods that are naturally free from dairy, wheat and egg: meat, fish, beans and lentils, rice, potatoes, oats, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and olive oil. With a few simple swaps, most family favourites, from a Sunday roast to a curry night, need very little changing.
Below are breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas, a full seven-day plan, and the label traps to watch for. Pick the parts that match the foods you are removing; if you are only cutting out dairy, for example, eggs and wheat can stay.
Two quick safety notes. If wheat or gluten is on your list, coeliac disease should be ruled out first with a GP blood test, taken while you are still eating gluten. And if you know or suspect a true allergy to any food, avoid it completely and speak to your GP: these ideas are for intolerance elimination, and intolerance testing is not a substitute for allergy testing.
What can you eat instead of dairy, wheat and egg?
| Instead of | Try | Check for |
|---|---|---|
| Cow’s milk | Oat, soya or other plant milk fortified with calcium (and ideally iodine) | Organic versions are often unfortified |
| Butter | Olive oil, rapeseed oil, dairy-free spread | Some spreads contain buttermilk or whey |
| Yoghurt | Soya or coconut yoghurt with added calcium | Sugar content in flavoured pots |
| Cheese | Houmous, avocado, olives, pesto made without cheese | Most shop-bought pesto contains cheese |
| Wheat bread | Wheat-free bread, oatcakes, rice cakes, corn tortillas | Free-from bread can contain egg or milk; some oatcakes contain wheat flour |
| Wheat pasta and couscous | Rice, rice noodles, potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat noodles | Some buckwheat noodles are mixed with wheat |
| Eggs for breakfast | Tofu scramble, beans, smoked salmon, leftover hash | Ready-made scrambles may contain egg or milk |
| Soy sauce | Tamari | Standard soy sauce usually contains wheat |
What can you have for breakfast on an elimination diet?
- Porridge made with oat milk, topped with berries, sliced banana and a spoon of seeds. Oats are naturally wheat-free; choose ones labelled gluten-free only if you are avoiding gluten too.
- Overnight oats with soya yoghurt, grated apple and cinnamon. Make three jars on Sunday and breakfast is sorted until Wednesday.
- Tofu scramble with spinach, cherry tomatoes and a pinch of turmeric, on wheat-free toast.
- Smoked salmon and avocado on rice cakes, with a squeeze of lemon.
- Breakfast hash: leftover potatoes fried in olive oil with peppers, onion and bacon.
- Beans and mushrooms on a jacket potato or wheat-free toast for a slower weekend start.
If breakfast is when your symptoms tend to start, our guide to breakfast foods that cause bloating has more swaps.
What are good elimination diet lunches?
Lunch is where most slip-ups happen, because shop-bought sandwiches are nearly all wheat-based. Batch-cooking a little extra at dinner solves most of it.
- Jacket potato with tuna, sweetcorn and an olive oil and lemon dressing (most mayonnaise contains egg).
- Rice salad box: brown rice, chickpeas, cucumber, peppers, parsley, olive oil and lemon. It keeps well for two days.
- Lentil and carrot soup with oatcakes or rice cakes.
- Chicken and avocado wraps in corn tortillas, with salad and salsa.
- Leftover chilli or curry with rice, reheated at work or packed in a flask.
- Houmous plate: houmous, olives, roasted vegetables, cold chicken and rice cakes.
What can you cook for dinner?
- Roast chicken with potatoes roasted in olive oil, seasonal vegetables and gravy thickened with cornflour.
- Salmon traybake with new potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes and lemon.
- Chilli con carne (or a bean chilli) with rice, avocado and coriander.
- Thai green curry with chicken or tofu, coconut milk, vegetables and jasmine rice.
- Shepherd’s pie topped with mash made with olive oil and a splash of plant milk.
- Stir-fry with rice noodles, lots of vegetables, ginger, garlic and tamari.
- Bolognese with rice pasta or on a baked potato.
Most of these freeze well, so double the recipe and you have lunches for the week.
What does a seven-day elimination diet meal plan look like?
This plan is free from dairy, wheat and egg, and uses leftovers so you are not cooking from scratch three times a day.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Overnight oats with apple | Rice salad box | Chilli con carne with rice |
| Tuesday | Overnight oats with berries | Leftover chilli in a jacket potato | Salmon traybake |
| Wednesday | Porridge with banana and seeds | Lentil and carrot soup with oatcakes | Chicken stir-fry with rice noodles |
| Thursday | Tofu scramble on wheat-free toast | Leftover soup with rice cakes | Thai green curry with rice |
| Friday | Porridge with berries | Chicken and avocado corn wraps | Homemade burgers (no breadcrumbs or egg) with potato wedges |
| Saturday | Breakfast hash with bacon | Houmous plate | Shepherd’s pie with greens |
| Sunday | Smoked salmon and avocado on rice cakes | Roast chicken with all the trimmings | Light supper: leftover chicken and rice salad |
For snacks, keep fruit, rice cakes with nut butter, plain popcorn, olives, houmous and vegetable sticks, or a dairy-free yoghurt within reach. Swap any item that clashes with your own list.
How do you avoid hidden dairy, wheat and egg?
In the UK, milk, cereals containing gluten and eggs are among the 14 allergens that must be highlighted, usually in bold, in the ingredients list of prepacked food. Scan for the bold words every time, even on products you buy each week, as recipes change. Common hiding places include:
- stock cubes, gravy granules and ready-made sauces (wheat flour, milk)
- sausages and burgers (rusk, which is wheat, and sometimes egg)
- mayonnaise, some salad dressings and fresh pasta (egg)
- crisps and flavoured snacks (milk powder, wheat)
- dark chocolate (often contains milk)
To keep your diet balanced, make sure your plant milk and yoghurt are fortified with calcium, and eat a mix of protein sources, wholegrains such as oats and brown rice, and plenty of vegetables. Our guide on how to do an elimination diet properly covers nutrients in more detail, and the specific guides to dairy intolerance, egg intolerance and wheat sensitivity vs coeliac disease list more swaps for each food.
When the removal weeks are up, the food reintroduction schedule shows how to bring each food back one at a time.
Where hair sample testing fits
This plan removes three of the most common suspects. If you would rather start with the items most relevant to you, a testing report gives you a shortlist, grouped into high, medium and low response, so you can tailor your meals to what you are actually removing.
Our tests use bioresonance, a complementary approach outside mainstream medicine. The report is a wellness test and a starting point for an elimination diet, not a medical diagnosis, and it does not test for allergies, coeliac disease or lactose intolerance. Every human test includes an elimination plan and a printable food diary.
The Core Intolerance Test tests 500 food items, including cow’s milk, wheat, egg, soya and many of the foods in this plan. You post 4–5 strands of hair to our UK lab and receive your report within 3–5 working days of your sample arriving, or 48 working hours with priority.
Frequently asked questions
Are oats allowed on an elimination diet?
Oats are naturally wheat-free, so they suit a wheat-free elimination diet. They are often processed alongside wheat, so choose oats labelled gluten-free if you are avoiding gluten as well. If oats are one of your own suspect foods, leave them out and use rice or quinoa instead.
Can I eat out during an elimination diet?
Yes, with some planning. Check the menu online, keep orders simple, such as grilled meat or fish with potatoes and vegetables, and ask staff about ingredients. UK food businesses must be able to tell you which of the 14 main allergens are in each dish.
What can I use instead of egg in baking?
Mashed banana, apple purée or a ground flaxseed mix (one tablespoon of ground flaxseed with three tablespoons of water) all work well in muffins, pancakes and brownies. They bind the mixture but will not rise like egg, so add a little extra baking powder.
Will an elimination diet be expensive?
It does not have to be. Rice, potatoes, oats, beans, lentils, frozen vegetables and seasonal fruit are some of the cheapest foods in the shop. Specialist free-from products cost more, so use them as occasional extras rather than staples.
This guide is general wellness information, not medical advice. Our test uses bioresonance, a complementary (CAM) method; it does not diagnose allergies, coeliac disease or any medical condition. Speak to a GP if you have severe or ongoing symptoms.
