by Linda Goggan, Sacred Body Montville  www.SacredBody.com.au

You may be wondering “What is the AIP diet?” It is the Auto Immune Protocol Diet or otherwise known as an elimination diet. It is very similar to the popular Paleo diet however it has more restrictions. 

The idea is to eliminate all foods that are known or suspected to cause inflammation and digestive issues of the gut. It is most suitable for people that have auto immune conditions, those diagnosed with digestive conditions such as Small Intestinal Bacterial Over Growth (SIBO) or leaky gut. 

The focus is to eat nutrient dense foods such as grassfed meats, fresh seafood, vegetables and fruits but then eliminating grains, dairy, legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, vegetables from the nightshade family, refined sugar, coffee, alcohol and processed foods. 

You may be thinking what does that leave to eat? How on earth can anyone enjoy eating this way? Well, these are the 3 things I love about the AIP elimination diet.

1. Restriction is only for a short time

Depending on your health concerns the AIP diet is designed to only be short term. You can choose to do it for 30, 60 or 90 days. The idea is to set how long you will do it for and restrict the inflammatory foods for that period of time and then slowly reintroduce these foods back into your diet. This will show you what foods agree with your body and what foods don’t. Chances are there will be quite a few foods that you can bring back in but the reality is there are also likely foods that you may need to cut ties with forever.

2. It’s positive side effects

While the AIP diet has a primary focus on improving gut health and reducing inflammation it often has the welcomed side effect of weight loss. As someone that is trained in creating calorie control eating plans and helping others in counting calories to achieve weight loss I have found that when on the AIP diet there is no focus on counting calories at all. Because you are eating super clean, nutrient dense foods you will find you just naturally eat less calories and cravings are reduced.

3. Simple eating

Because you are so restricted in the types of foods you can eat for this short period it makes eating very simple. You fill your fridge with amazing fresh meats and produce and that’s it! No complications, and shopping is super easy too because it keeps you out of all the isles away from the packaged and highly processed foods.

Don’t fret though, like I said, this is only short term and is designed to sort of reset your digestive system so you can develop full body awareness to how your body likes to be fed.