Beginner’s Guide to the AIP Diet (2024)

FAQs

Beginner’s Guide to the AIP Diet? ›

An AIP diet avoids all processed foods, alcohol, additives, refined sugars, coffee, tea, oils, and certain medications. In the elimination phase, a person will also avoid foods such as grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, and nightshade vegetables, but they may reintroduce these later.

Foods to avoid on the AIP Diet include nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, dairy, eggs, food additives, nightshade vegetables, and processed foods–including processed vegetable oils and processed sugars. The consumption of drugs such as caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco should also be avoided.

Get an adequate amount of protein, plus healthy fats and oils. Supplement your plant-rich diet with some protein. And don't shy away from healthy fats: nuts and seeds, avocados, coconut and extra virgin olive oils, and other non-refined oils. Sprinkle in some fermented foods.

“Some people start to notice big improvements within a week of starting the diet, while others might not feel much of a difference until a month into the diet,” she says. Researchers note that in practice, this phase can occur anywhere from 30 to 90 days.

The AIP diet removes potentially irritating foods and replaces them with nutrient-dense foods to nourish the gut rather than adding fuel to the “inflammatory fire.”

To a person with autoimmune, they can cause havoc that probably wouldn't happen in a healthy person. Eggs can allow proteins (usually lysozyme, from the egg white) to cross the gut barrier where they don't belong and contribute to molecular mimicry.

Examples of foods you can eat while on the AIP diet include: Vegetables that aren't nightshade vegetables like cucumbers, spinach, sweet potatoes and zucchini. Fresh fruits like apples, oranges, mangos, strawberries, bananas and blueberries.

The name bean is misleading, however, because coffee is technically a seed of the Coffea plant. So, that means, like other seeds, coffee is eliminated in the temporary elimination phase of the AIP.

What diet is closest to AIP? ›

The AIP diet resembles the paleo diet, both in the types of foods allowed and avoided, as well as in the phases that comprise it. Due to their similarities, many consider the AIP diet an extension of the paleo diet — though AIP may be seen as a stricter version of it.

You might not lose weight on the AIP diet since the goal is to pinpoint pro-inflammatory foods rather than shedding pounds. However, by avoiding a wide range of foods – including dairy items, food additives and alcoholic beverages – you could lose weight as a side effect of AIP.

Foods You CAN Eat on the AIP Diet

So it's important to choose nutrient-rich foods, including a variety of fresh vegetables, wild-caught fish, fermented foods, organ meats, and bone broth. The essence of the AIP diet is meat and vegetables, which makes it similar to the paleo diet, only more severe in its restrictions.

Berries, fatty fish, nuts, leafy greens, oatmeal, and olive oil can all be part of an anti-inflammatory diet. But it's best to include a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. What meat is anti-inflammatory? The Mediterranean diet includes anti-inflammatory omega-3 rich fatty fish.

Examples of foods you can eat while on the AIP diet include: Vegetables that aren't nightshade vegetables like cucumbers, spinach, sweet potatoes and zucchini. Fresh fruits like apples, oranges, mangos, strawberries, bananas and blueberries.