Don’t worry, you won’t go hungry!  While it has been suggested this is more of a plant powered diet than Paleo, trust me you won’t be stuck eating nothing but soups and salads or eating like a little bird. It’s also not a radical diet heavily weighted with fats and proteins or a carb-loader … we’re talking simply about a well balanced diet of real food – nothing scary (but facts are facts, most people don’t eat enough nutrient dense veggies, so you will be eating more of those)!

If you want to put a cool label on it, feel free to call yourself a nutrivore!

The AIP is a specialized elimination diet based on the Paleo diet.  It is a starting point, a template – one that you will customize to your personal health condition and nutritional requirements, and you’ll adapt it as you go.

The primary focus of the AIP is that of nutrient density.  It includes high-quality and in-season vegetables and fruits, grass-fed meat and poultry, grass-fed organ meat and wild-caught seafood.

The AIP eliminates many of the foods typically found in the standard Paleo diet, foods that may adversely effect and overstimulate the immune system and cause inflammation in the body and damage the gut.

The protocol starts with the elimination of the top food allergens: gluten/grain, dairy, eggs, soy, nightshades (like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.), legumes, nuts, seeds, alcohol, refined sugars and in some cases shell-fish (only necessary if you have an allergy).  This may sound like a lot, but AIP gets you thinking outside the box and you’ll want to concentrate on ADDING lots of amazing foods to your diet.

Elimination is not forever!  Before you freak out, it’s very important to know that the AIP is NOT overly restrictive as some believe. Done properly, it should not create eating disorders and it does not require a permanent elimination of all of these foods.  Careful reintroduction of foods back into your diet is a MUST, but that will be after 30 to 90 days and in some cases a little longer. Ideally you’ll want to see some improvement in your condition before reintroductions.  But we’ll get to that later.

Ready to dive in?  Scroll down and browse around more pages or topics that interest you, or take it step by step and start with my post – What is the AIP and Where Do I Start? – Start Here Part 1.