Is Your Diet Fuelling Your Pain? Try This Two-Week Trial

At Sevenoaks Chiropractic Clinic, we often talk about posture, movement, and hands-on care; but sometimes, what’s going on inside your gut might be just as important.

If you’ve been dealing with persistent stiffness, muscle tension, or joint pain that doesn’t fully resolve with treatment, your diet could be playing a role. This isn’t about food allergies or dramatic reactions, it’s about subtle inflammation caused by foods your body may no longer tolerate well.

That’s where the trial elimination protocol comes in. It’s a short-term strategy that helps uncover whether certain foods are quietly adding fuel to the fire.

Why Food Might Be Part of the Puzzle

Certain foods can trigger low-grade inflammation in the digestive system, even if they’ve never seemed to bother you before. When this happens, that gut inflammation can ripple outward, affecting muscles, joints, and your overall sense of well-being.

Common signs that food might be contributing to your discomfort include:

• Pain that comes and goes with no clear cause
  
• Feeling stiff or achy first thing in the morning
  
• Tenderness around the stomach or abdomen
  
• Unpredictable reactions to exercise or treatment
  
• General fatigue or brain fog alongside physical symptoms
  

These aren’t proof of a food issue, but they are enough to warrant a simple test.

How the Trial Elimination Protocol Works

Developed by nutritionist Simon Billings, this protocol is straightforward:

1. Pick one or more suspect foods (usually from this list):
   
   • Dairy
     
   • Wheat
     
   • Eggs
     
   • Nuts
     
   • Soy
     
2. Cut them out completely for two weeks. No trace amounts, no “just a little”; this is the key to giving your body a break.
   
3. After two weeks, reintroduce the food in a noticeable quantity. For example, a glass of milk, cheese, and some butter all on the same day if testing dairy.
   
4. Observe your body’s response over the next 24 hours:
   
   • Digestive symptoms within 1–3 hours (bloating, discomfort)
     
   • Mood, brain fog, or tiredness later the same day
     
   • Joint or muscle flare-ups the next morning
     

If you notice a spike in symptoms, that’s useful information, not a diagnosis; however, it is a helpful clue about what your body may be struggling with.

Planning for Success

The biggest reason people give up on this test? Lack of preparation. Before you begin, take time to:

• Identify which foods you regularly eat
  
• Plan substitutions (e.g., oat milk instead of dairy, rice cakes instead of wheat-based crackers)
  
• Do a full grocery shop so you’re not caught hungry with nothing to snack on
  

Give yourself a few days to prepare before starting. The goal is clarity, not perfection, and a well-planned trial gives you the best chance to learn something useful.

What Happens Next?

If you notice a clear reaction to a food, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can never eat it again. Some people find they can reintroduce it in small amounts later on. Others choose to keep it out long-term. Either way, the trial gives you valuable insight.

Want a printable guide to what has been discussed in this post? Click here to access our handout.