13. How To Personalise AIP Diet?

Start with a 30 day reset

Chris Kresser’s book The Paleo Cure (formerly Your Personal Paleo Code), he suggests that everyone looking to discover their ideal diet start with a 30-day strict Paleo protocol.

This means following the standard Paleo guidelines: no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no industrial seed oils, no alcohol, and so on.

I suggest that someone with an autoimmune disease who is currently eating a standard American diet start with the normal Paleo 30-day reset.

Many people with autoimmunity will do just fine following a Paleo diet, and adding in the autoimmune diet restrictions shouldn’t be necessary in this situation.

Going immediately from a standard American diet to an AIP can be overwhelming for many people, which is why I generally suggest starting with the standard Paleo approach if you haven’t done so yet.

That said, if you have already given the standard Paleo 30-day reset a try.

This time, I recommend adding in the standard AIP diet restrictions, as well.

This means additionally eliminating nightshades, eggs,  (e.g., potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers), and seeds and nuts.

I generally recommend extending the reset to a minimum of 60 days for people with severe autoimmune conditions that affect neurological function, or cause symptoms that have a noticeable impact on daily life.

I’ve found that most people see enough improvement within the first 30 days that extending the reset another 30 days is no problem for them.

Side note: each time you consume foods like dairy, eggs and others that trigger an immune response, your body starts producing antibodies that lead to the attack on your immune system.

This kind of attack can last for weeks, days and even months if you consumed a lot of these foods.

If you commit fully to the reset time period you will most definitely see the improvements you are looking for and this is why the reset time is so important.  

Also, it’s vital to keep in mind that AIP diet is not something that will help you heal, and it may not be the only way to heal the damaged tissue or put your illness into a full remission.

By supporting your illness with additional medication or some of the targeted AIP supplements might be something you will have to focus on to gain the best results and help your body start functioning properly.

To maintain the body’s optimal functioning, you may consume medications or targeted AIp supplements.

You don’t need to feel ashamed of using traditional medicine along with lifestyle and dietary approach to the healing process. 

Having that in mind, once you remove toxins and foods that create autoimmune response and include some of the nutrients that.

That said, by removing the foods and toxins that contribute to the autoimmune response and providing adequate nutrients to fuel the healing process, you can significantly reduce symptoms and even possibly put the disease into remission.

Optimize Your Nutrient Intake

When it comes to adequate nutrients, if you simply remove foods from your diet it isn’t enough for you to heal from an autoimmune disease.

You must be determined to add certain foods into your diet so as to be able to enrich your body with nutrients that will then repair organs that are damaged, modular the immune system and provide cure to the gut lining.

Apart from removing the common autoimmunity triggers we talked about above, it’s vital that you add some foods that are rich in nutrients including bone broth, fermented foods, high-quality meats and fats, shellfish and fatty fish. 

There were clients I have been working with who followed AIP restrictions strictly, but they didn;t add any foods that are rich in nutrients, which made them unable to heal easily and quickly. 

Another great benefit of focusing on adding foods is the effect your total calorie intake will have on healing.

There is a whole range of challenges many of my clients following the AIP diet have to face, but one of them is the most common one: undereating.

Since there are numerous restrictions you have to respect, some people end up eating less calories than they should which is not good.

Regardless of what challenges you have to face, undereating is never a good chise and can only worsen your health. 

There is a list of foods you simply must add to your list along with consuming a certain number of calories.

This is the right path you need to take to heal your body from autoimmune disease. 

Liver, Fatty Fish, and Shellfish

There is a wide range of nutrients in foods like fatty fish, liver, shellfish.

These include vitamins A and D, choline, zink and various B vitamins which are crucial for modulating the immune response (particularly the T-regulatory cell response), supporting energy production as well as the healing process of  tissues that are damaged, particularly the gut lining.

One of the foods that can make a significant impact on body health is liver when you are on a strict AIP diet.

Liver contains a variety of nutrients that otherwise come from eggs, which are not used in the AIP diet.

Currently, the theory says that “leaky” and inflamed gut leads to the development of  autoimmune disease.

Therefore, doing a diet that allows you to create healthy gut integrity is highly important if you want to get your body into shape and heal from autoimmune diseases. (We will be discussing leaky gut in detail in another article). 

Fermented Vegetables

When it comes to fermented vegetables, you need to know that they provide beneficial probiotics and that they also contain fermentable fibers that are extremely good for your gut flora.

This is crucial for keeping a healthy gut lining which is also supported by bacteria’s ability to produce butyrate.

This cell is a key player in T-regulatory cell differentiation and production, and can have a very positive impact on the immune system. 

Bone Broth

Another food you need to focus on in your AIP diet is bone broth.

It contains gelatin, which is a protein that has amino acids like glycine, glutamine and proline.

They can help reduce inflammation, heal the gut lining, and generally have a positive effect on gut integrity.

Glycine is known for its ability to inhibit immune activity and function as an anti-inflammatory.

All of this makes bone broth one of the crucial foods that can improve gut healing and is a perfect choice for a person suffering from autoimmune disease. 

Most of the people who are doing an AIP diet are very successful at avoiding the foods that are not allowed on an AIP diet, they still often find it hard to add foods that are rich in nutrients like shellfish, liver, bone broth, fermented vegetables.

However, you need to keep in mind that these foods are the essentials of the successful AIP diet and should therefore be included in your daily eating habits if you really want to achieve success and heal from autoimmune disease. 

Taking a Systematic Approach with AIP Reintroduction Stages

There are many benefits of reintroducing foods that are not allowed in AIP diet:

There is a possibility you will be able to tolerate foods that are full of nutrients like dairy and eggs, which can have a very positive impact on your overall body’s health.

You will have a clearer picture of what foods you need to avoid more than others which will allow you to choose foods you want to eat more freely

Eating a variety of foods during an AIP diet can have a great impact on your ability to truly enjoy the food you consume when you are eating out and when you are preparing food at home, which leads to a number of high-quality life benefits.  

If you conclude that you can easily tolerate dairy products, you can also try to enjoy a variety of nutritional benefits of grass-fed dairy.

Actually, raw milk may bring a lot of benefits to the people suffering from autoimmune diseases.

For instance, drinking raw milk can substantially increase the levels of glutathione which is another nutrient that can modulate the immune response. 

Probably one of the most challenging tasks in the AIP diet is reintroduction of foods.

This is one of the ways of personalising AIP diet.

As we have mentioned above, it can take a lot of time for an immune system to kick in to the point where symptoms return.

While some people might react strongly to some foods which are otherwise not allowed to be consumed during the AIP diet and that they have immune activity against (for example, gluten here is the one to blame), other people can only have minor reactions and just a few symptoms.

One of the best ways to start a reintroduction phase is to first choose the foods you find important, and then adopt a systematic approach to bringing them back into your diet. 

If you have autoimmune disease, I rarely suggest that you should introduce gluten again. 

However, people with autoimmune disease can frequently tolarate foods that are generally excluded from the diet like white rice, nuts and seeds, nightshades, eggs and dairy products, legumes.

But, be mindful that there are certain groups of foods you need to reintroduce in a certain order. 

One of the examples is dairy products. 

Here you can start with ghee which has so little milk proteins and then you can consume other dairy products like heavy cream, butter, fermented dairy, fluid milk, etc. 

Also, you can include eggs on this list where you should first introduce yolk, and then nightshades.

When it comes to nightshades you need to introduce foods one by one (first you need to start with potatoes, tomatoes, and then eggplant, etc.

Plus, you can reintroduce foods like gluten-free grains or rice if you want to. 

If you wish to find out more about the foods you should reintroduce in your diet eventually, you need to read the book the Paleo Cure.

However, one thing you always need to keep in mind is that you need to reintroduce foods one by one and one food at a time.

Also, give yourself at least three days to recognise if any of your symptoms start exacerbating.

For instance, some symptoms like joint pain, skin inflammation or even some new “unrelated” symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress or fatigue.

If it has been three days since you have started eating these foods and you don’t seem to notice any symptoms, you can conclude that eating this kind of food is perfectly fine.  

Do Some Tests for Sensitivities

Reintroduction tests may not be enough to find out which foods are having a bad impact on your immune system.

If you notice that your symptoms are not improving while practicing AIP diet, and if you have gone through the reintroduction phase and you realise that symptoms started coming back, maybe you are still eating foods that have an adverse impact on your immune system. 

In this scenario, the best advice is to have some tests to determine which foods are causing this kind of reaction.

These tests include testing both immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin A antibodies and can help you discover what kinds of foods your body is intolerant to. 

There is a test called Array 10 which allows you to test a large number of different kinds of foods in raw and cooked forms.

This test is a great way for anyone on an AIP diet who does not seem to see any kind of improvement they were looking forward to.

So, if it turns out that you are not satisfied with the results of your diet and would like to change something, you can always do this test and get all the necessary details that should help you eventually reach success. 

Do note that these tests are relevant and accurate only if they are done on the food you have eaten in the last four to six weeks.

This means that if you haven’t been consuming dairy products, testing whether you are sensitive to dairy will probably not give you the desired results , even if you are intolerant to those products.

So, all in all, testing is always a better option for people who have been consuming some of the foods in question recently and have also felt that the symptoms have returned or worsened. 

Also, be mindful that there is a whole range of tests on the market today and not all of them are relevant and useful.

Some of them lack accuracy and are simply not good and efficient enough.

Also, some of them might create disordered eating habits which is something we definitely want to avoid.

Plus, those kinds of tests can make a person refocus his or her attention from dealing with the root cause of the problem and eliminating sensitivities in order to help their body heal properly.

In case you feel you need to test your current body state to identify which foods might have a bad impact on your body from an immunological standpoint, It’s always best to consult a professional or a qualified practitioner who can give you guidelines on how to navigate testing options and understand your tests’ results. 

Focus on Your Lifestyle

One of the things that play a major role in the health state of most people are their everyday lifestyle and eating habits.

So, besides going on AIP diet or any other diet, you should also make sure you are physically active and that you take care of other habits that significantly impact your lifestyle.

For example, you need to pay attention to how much you sleep, how you accumulate and relieve stress and how much you exercise on a daily basis. 

If you fail to live a healthy lifestyle, like having enough sleep and get physically active as much and as often as possible ,this can have an adverse impact on your diet and undo all the benefits that it could otherwise bring. 

Exercise

Besides being extremely important for cardiovascular health and weight loss, exercising is also important for healthy immune functioning.

According to research, exercising is important for T-regulatory cell production and it can also help reduce inflammation in people suffering from auto-immune diseases. 

So, the best recipe is to do exercises at a low to moderate intensity.

Generally, this means that you need to avoid overly intense or excessive exercises, have some rest between workouts, move on a daily basis at low intensity, and limit inactive lifestyle. 

Manage Your Stress

Stress can lead to bad lifestyle and have an adverse impact on health.

It can reduce gut barrier integrity and can even worsen autoimmune disorders like psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, MS and others.

According to one study, chronic stress causes a body to lose its ability to regulate inflammatory response.

This explains why more women usually have autoimmune disease than men.

So, if you are not using some mechanism to deal with stress, your efforts to achieve positive results with AIP diet will simply fall flat. 

There are a whole variety of ways you can use to manage your stress, from yoga and meditation to planned social events and occasions with friends and loved ones.

It’s up to you to choose the ones that perfectly suit your needs.

Hugging a person, petting a dog, going for a monthly massage can help you decrease the level of stress you are experiencing.

So, choose a few and do your best to get rid of stress.  

Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important factors when it comes to building healthy lifestyle habits.

If you fail to sleep enough hours you can only experience even more stress in life which can then have a negative impact on your health.

Poor sleep can also be a source of inflammation.

If you experience poor sleep for weeks or months, inflammatory immune cells can start producing excessively which then might have an adverse impact on the body’s own tissue.

If you are worried about how much you sleep, you should consult an expert that should give you advice on how to get back to the track and he or she will explain to you in detail what circadian rhythms are and what their role is in regulating hormone cycles. 

Spend Time Outdoors in the Sun

We all know that sunshine is a source of life and that it is full of healthy vitamins D which can directly influence the immune system in a positive way.

Also, vitamin D plays an important role in reducing the symptoms of autoimmune disease.

This is why it is often used as a treatment to fight against this awful disease. 

The easiest way to get vitamin D is to take every moment you have to expose yourself to the Sun as much as possible.

In case there is not much sun in the area where you live, you may want to use supplements.

But, ensure that you consult a dietician who will give you the guidelines and tell you how much you are allowed to consume and when. 

Avoid Toxins

If you want to reduce the burden of your immune system, you may want to avoid toxins in your everyday life and do whatever it takes to make your body healthy and clean.

According to one study that was conducted on mice, there was an increased risk of  developing autoimmune disease when the mice were exposed to phthalates.

These are found in various substances from plastic food and beverage containers to detergents and cosmetics. 

One way to minimize your exposure to these substances is to start using natural products whenever you can.

For example, try using natural products when you are cleaning your house, washing laundry or drinking a bottle of water.

Also, make sure you decrease your usage of industrial cosmetics and use organic instead.

There is a whole range of blog posts and articles explaining how you can clean your house by using chemicals that are not toxic as well as what kind of organic cosmetics can help you achieve the best results without causing any damage to your skin and body. 

Get Help When You Need It!

If you follow these tips you will be able to personalize your AIP diet and unquestionably see big improvements of your symptoms over time. 

Also, keep in mind that some people might need additional tweeks, more frequent and deeper testing to achieve personalized changes and develop a new lifestyle plan before they see any improvements. 

This refers to people who are suffering from some serious illnesses like long-term neurological involvement or surgical intervention, pharmaceutical dependency and other issues.

In case you are looking for some serious in-depth testing, or you just need some advice on how to follow this diet, tweak it in the best possible way, or what kind of supplements to use, it’s always best to consult a qualified Functional Medical practitioner.

This particularly refers to people with severe gut issues, long-term neurological involvement, or compounding issues like surgical intervention or pharmaceutical dependency.

Some people who are suffering from autoimmune diseases have to follow an AIP diet.

But, there are also people who do not have to stick to the diet and can use some other mechanisms to help their body heal.

Some of them are able to tolerate some foods while others have exacerbated symptoms.

How does AIP food reintroduction work?

When you try to control your eating habits and gauge your reaction to different kinds of foods that you like eating, adding them to your diet all at once is something that you definitely should avoid.

The most important thing here is that you go slow because it will allow you to determine the foods that are causing issues in your body.

Also, you want to avoid overloading your body with the foods that potentially do harm to your system.

Here are a few steps you need to take when reintroducing the foods that are not on the AIP diet list:

1. Follow the protocol for about 30 days until you get to the point where you can recognise that the healing process has started and that your body is experiencing some positive changes
2. Start with the level 1 reintroduction schedule
3. Eat one kind of food and wait for the reaction to happen
4. Make sure you prepare your food at home instead of eating out
5. Start writing your reactions to foods in a journal so that you can easily track if there is anything that causes autoimmune conditions. You should be looking for symptoms like headaches, mood swings, fatigue, skin changes, bloating and other things
6. Add foods that work for you and remove the foods that seem to be causing bad reactions
7. Repeat the entire process

And, how do you know that your body started healing from auto-immune disease?

The answer to this question can be different for everyone.

But here are two ways you can use to estimate whether you are healing or not.

1. There is a change in your labs/blood work
2. There is a noticeable reduction in your symptoms

As we have mentioned the details are different for anyone which means that you need to consult your dietician who will explain to you how the healing may look like for you specifically.

AIP diet daily menu

To help you start with the diet more easily, we’ve compiled a list of foods you should eat for each meal.

Breakfast

When it comes to an AIP breakfast, smoothies are your friend, believe me.

They’re the perfect way to start your days full of tasty nutrients, and it should last you until lunch!

Ingredients:

• Banana ½
• Avocado ¼
• One cup of vegetable juice
• Two or three cups fresh leafy greens (for example, kale and spinach)
• One or two scoops AIP-friendly (collagen) protein powder

Lunch

Continuing with the island theme, here’s a super tasty Teriyaki bowl from the team over at Forest and Fauna.

Ingredients:

• Two boneless pork chops
• Four slices pineapple
• One red onion – small one
• Coconut oil
• Four cups of green leaf lettuce
• Green onions or cilantro

Teriyaki Sauce + Marinade

• Cup coconut aminos 1/4
• Two teaspoons maple syrup or honey
• One teaspoon ginger juice
• Teaspoon fish sauce 1/2
• Cup pineapple juice 1/4 

Cabbage Slaw

• A head of red cabbage 1/2
• One Tablespoon lime juice
• One to two teaspoons honey
• Pinch of sea salt

Dinner

Orange chicken teriyaki meatballs from AIP lifestyle are so good, and the meatballs are extremely simple.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

• 2 pounds ground chicken
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
• 2 tsp orange zest (2 oranges worth)
• big pinch salt

Sauce

• 2/3 cup fresh orange juice (juice of 2 navel oranges)
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 cup coconut aminos
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 tbsp honey

Need something to get you through the day? Here are a few common AIP snacks:

• AIP Granola
• Avocados
• Tuna
• Berries
• Cucumbers
• Root vegetable fries
• Make your own AIP trail mix
• CHOMPS Italian and Sea Salt Beef

What does a typical day on AIP diet look like?

Breakfast: The best way is to mix pumpkin puree with homemade coconut yogurt, pomegranate arils, cinnamon apples and AIP granola. You can also drizzle just a little bit of maple syrup on top of the whole bowl. 

Making an AIP breakfast can be a little bit tricky as most of the common breakfast foods are excluded including toast, oatmeal, eggs, pancakes. There is also a yogurt bowl which isn’t 100 % AIP because it focuses too much on fruit and it does not have enough nutrients.

You can choose to rotate between two kinds of breakfasts – potato scrambles which include garlic, onion, bacon, sweet potatoes and some greenies.

Lunch: Try preparing beef stroganoff with mashed cauliflower, apple cider dressing and spinach salad.

In case you have been eating a diet that was entirely based on plants (including eggs, and maybe some fish or seafood), it might be difficult for you to go back to meat again and consume it on a regular basis.

Even so, try bringing back meat into your plate – it will make your diet even more enjoyable and versatile. 

It’s a completely normal thing that there is no one diet that could perfectly suit everybody’s needs.

What one person needs might be completely different from what another person wants and needs.

Also, some people’s needs may change over time, so they may have to change their diet after only six months.

What’s important is that you do whatever is best with the information we have now. 

Snack: Even though snacking is not really a part of AIP diet, you can always grab an avocado, berries or watermelon just to stop being hungry.

For instance, watermelon is really low in calories making it one of the top favourite snacks in AIP diet.

When it comes to avocados, aIl you need to do is put some salt and pepper on it and, voila, you got yourself a perfect snack. 

Dinner: Some of you might experience a lack of appetite during your AIP diet.

The food might taste as cement sometimes.

If you experience such a thing, the best solution is to cook yourself a soup.

It is an excellent answer to your lack of appetite.

Make yourself a small bowl of soup. It should give your body nutrition that it needs without making you feel hungry or nauseous.

Or, for example, you can make a bowl of chicken broth and have that for your dinner.

This can be a great source of nutrition especially when the weather is cooler.

Sometimes you can cook soup in larger quantities and then just heat it up for dinner instead of making it every time.

When it comes to the lack of appetite you should know that this is a common response of the body when it is fighting against a certain severe illness.

For instance, when you have the flu, you don’t want to eat soup because your body uses the energy that should be used for digestion to fight the illness.

So, the best things to focus on simple foods like soups, smoothies, broths, etc. when you are not feeling hungry. 

Is An AIP Diet Safe?

As mentioned above, special care needs to be taken with patients with anatomical abnormalities.

There is a risk of obstruction in patients with narrowing of the gastrointestinal tract with the increased fecal load from the high-fibre diet.

Another potential risks of this protocol includes reactivation of a latent eating disorder.

Orthorexia is a very real syndrome and possible risk of the autoimmune protocol.

This is where people become obsessed with what they usually eat.

It is imperative that any foods to which somebody has a significant allergy or anaphylaxis should not be reintroduced during the rechallenge phase.

Cost and time can also be issues as fast foods and processed foods are sometimes unreasonably cheap.

Micro nutrient deficiencies can occur but realistically this can also happen with the standard American diet as we well know.

Social isolation is another possible issue.

It’s back to our friends again.

It could be difficult to be all ‘paleo’ or ‘autoimmune protocol’ if your friends are having a beer and pizza movie night.

The Benefits of AIP Diet 

1. 1. It Enhances Beneficial Gut Bacteria
   2. It Restores Gut Integrity
   3. It is Rich in Healthy Foods full of nutrients
   4. It Decreases Inflammation
   5. It Allows you to find more about your body
   6. It Discovers foods that cause symptoms
   7. It Reduces Symptoms of Autoimmune Conditions

It Enhances Beneficial Gut Bacteria

Based on the research, this diest can have a very positive impact on the good bacteria in yur gut, which can affect the severity of the symptoms for those people suffering from autoimmune disease.

The beneficial bacteria in your gut has a major impact on your overall health, from weight control to immune function and beyond

So, AIP diet brings a lot of benefits – from relieving the symptoms of your autoimmune condition to promoting the overall health and wellbeing. Finally, it also enhances the health of your gut microbiome

It Restores Gut Integrity

The autoimmune inflammatory diet is a healing diet aimed at restoring the gut integrity and reducing inflammation in order to decrease symptoms.

Those people suffering from autoimmune disease, this can have a very positive impact when it comes to improving their lifestyle. 

Leaky gut syndrome is a condition where bacteria and toxins pass through the walls of the intestine, leading to symptoms like digestive issues, inflammation and food sensitivities.

According to studies, inflammation can enhance intestinal permeability, increasing the risk of leaky gut syndrome.

Because the focus of AIP diet is to cut down on foods that cause inflammation, it can help prevent leaky gut syndrome and restore gut integrity to let you feel your best.

It is Rich in Healthy Foods Full of Nutrients

The AIP diet promotes unprocessed, rich in nutrients and anti-inflammatory foods.

For instance, one of such foods is vegetables.

Regardless of whether you are suffering from autoimmune disease or not, everyone can benefit from consuming these kinds of foods.

Once you include more healthy foods in your diet, you can easily fight against chronic diseases and reduce h risk of getting sick from autoimmune diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

Finally, it can help you maximize your health. 

It Reduces Inflammation

Certainly one of the most important benefits of this diet is the fact that it reduces inflammation which leads to reducing symptoms as well and ultimately promoting better and improved overall health.

By eliminating a few groups of foods from your diet and including foods that are rich in nutrients can have na immense and positive impact on inflammation and therefore your health. 

This was shown in the recent study published in 2017 where around 15 people who were suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases started following the AIP diet for the period of 11 weeks.

This period also included six weeks of elimination and five weeks of maintenance.

Finally, it was discovered that inflammations in their intestines decreased leading to improvement of the overall quality of life and symptoms of all the participants. 

It Allows you to find out more about your body

One of the biggest benefits of this diet is that it helps you learn about your body and get an insight into the ways this diet can have a positive impact on your body and mental health.

It also allows you to learn more about how you can follow a nutritious diet for many years to come and find out which foods suit you the best so that you can enhance your health and meet all of your nutritional needs. 

It Discovers the Foods that Trigger Symptoms

In addition to the previously mentioned, the AIP diet can help you understand which foods may lead to symptoms for you.

Although it might seem tough to follow this diet at the beginning, discovering which foods you should cut from your diet can help you a lot and enable you to understand what lies behind the symptoms. 

This diet is also highly beneficial because it lets you know which foods can hurt or help your symptoms so that you would know how to prepare meals in the long run. 

7. May Decrease Symptoms of Autoimmune Conditions

It is a well-known fact that AIP diet’s main ability is to treat autoimmune disorders.

However, many people claim that it has helped them improve the way they feel as it decreases common conditions such as fatigue, brain fog, chronic pain, etc.

According to researchers, this diet has a tremendous impact on the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease which is another autoimmune disease where symptoms are abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea and inflammation.