Additional References for the Elimination Diet

My favorite reference on food allergies and for more on how to do an elimination diet:

"The Complete Guide to Food Allergy and Intolerance: Prevention, Identification, and Treatment of Common Illnesses and Allergies Caused by Food"
by Dr. Johnathan Brostoff and Linda Gamlin

In my opinion, the part of the immune system, called Peyer's patches (small patches lining the ileum of the intestines) are going to hold the key to some of these mysteries in future research. Peyer's patches sample the contents of the intestines and prepare the body for the arrival of the food molecules into the bloodstream. When they are working correctly, they distinguish between food and disease molecules and direct the body's immune response based on that. Non-functioning Peyer's patches lead to susceptibility to prion diseases (mad cow.)

Peyer's patches include memory cells whose function is to actually "learn" over time, what to direct the larger immune system to do with various molecules entering the bloodstream.