Contrary to popular belief, the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) is not merely an elimination diet. While the protocol includes an elimination phase, its primary purpose is to identify personal food triggers and ultimately expand your diet. The goal of AIP is to help you achieve the most diverse and nutrient-dense diet possible, with minimal restrictions tailored to maintain your well-being.
Myth #1: AIP is an elimination diet
The elimination phase is the initial step of the AIP journey. During this phase, you will temporarily remove certain foods from your diet to help identify potential triggers that may be exacerbating your autoimmune symptoms.
- Duration: This phase should be adhered to for a minimum of 30 days.
- Evaluation: After 30 days, if you notice some measurable improvement in your symptoms, you can begin the reintroduction process.
- Troubleshooting: If there is no symptom improvement by 90 days, it is advisable to consult a qualified professional for further guidance.
Once you’ve completed the elimination phase and have seen improvements in your symptoms, you can start reintroducing foods. This process is crucial for identifying specific triggers and expanding your dietary options.
- Gradual Process: Reintroduce foods one at a time, allowing several days between each new food to monitor for any adverse reactions.
- Personalization: The reintroduction phase helps you personalize your diet, ensuring you can enjoy a variety of foods while minimizing symptoms.
MYTH#2: You have to follow AIP forever, or at least until you are in remission
The elimination phase of AIP should not be adopted as a permanent dietary change – but it also should not be used as temporary, quick fix, or detox “diet” that is just to be endured for a certain number of days. Rather, it is a starting point for you to find the personalized and least-restrictive diet that will support your wellbeing into the future!
Why not follow AIP until your disease goes into remission?
A broader diet may actually make remission more likely because it provides more opportunity to eat a nutritionally sufficient diet. While it is possible to meet all your nutrition needs with only the foods allowed in the elimination phase of AIP, it is easier to do so if you can expand your diet to include foods like eggs, nuts, and dairy – as long as you are not reactive to them.
But it is also important to understand that remission may not be a realistic goal and puts too much focus on the future. Though some autoimmune conditions are characterized by periods of remitting and relapsing, most are true chronic illnesses that can be managed to varying degrees – and AIP can be a powerful part of making a disease well-managed and improving an individual’s quality of life in the present.
Myth #3: If you still need medication, AIP must not be working for you
Lots of people start AIP with the hope that it will allow them to avoid taking medications, and for some that is the result, but a more appropriate measure of success with AIP is reduction of overall symptom burden and improvement in quality of life.
So why do AIP at all, if you will still need to take medication?
- Reduction in Inflammation: Through AIP you will eliminate highly processed foods, which are nutrient-poor and promote inflammation. Reducing inflammation may alleviate some symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases.
- Enhancing Nutrient Intake: AIP encourages the consumption of a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods, which can help ensure you’re getting essential vitamins and minerals that support overall health and may make medication more effective.
- Supporting Gut Health: AIP promotes the consumption of nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats, which can support a healthy gut microbiome. A healthy gut is crucial for immune system function and overall well-being, which will improve quality of life.
- Identifying Trigger Foods: The elimination phase of AIP helps identify personal trigger foods that may exacerbate autoimmune symptoms. This can provide valuable insights into how diet affects your condition so you can pursue your personal health goals.
- Potential Reduction in Medication Dependency: While AIP doesn’t replace medical treatment, some individuals find that as their symptoms improve with dietary changes, they require less medication or experience fewer side effects from their current regimen.
- Holistic Approach: AIP addresses lifestyle factors that can improve your quality of life, such as stress management, sleep quality, and physical activity. AIP is part of a holistic approach to managing autoimmune conditions, alongside medical treatment.
Myth #4: AIP is a sugar-free protocol
Traditionally, AIP has excluded refined sugar but has always allowed moderate consumption of “natural” sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar as well as dried and fresh fruit. In reality, your body doesn’t really know the difference. You can enjoy some sweet things on AIP as part of balanced meals and snacks!
AIP is a sugar-reduced protocol. Some benefits of reducing sugar intake: enhanced energy levels, better mood and mental clarity, better heart health, reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes and certain other diseases, and improved overall nutrition.
Myth #5: AIP requires you to eat a lot of meat
The elimination phase of AIP does exclude most non-meat sources of dense protein typically favored by vegetarians, which is why a meat-free implementation of the protocol is generally not advised. But that does not mean you need to consume lots of meat if you don’t want to! In fact, much of the power of AIP comes from eating a rainbow of diverse plant foods. While AIP is not a meat-free protocol, it is a plant forward protocol.
Myth #6: There are foods you should never reintroduce
If you consult a resource on AIP that was created prior to 2017, you will likely notice that little guidance about reintroductions is provided. In fact, it may even imply that staying in the elimination phase with few or no reintroductions is advisable. Up to that point, no research had yet been conducted to suggest otherwise – so it made sense to urge caution.
But today we know better! Dietary expansion is part of AIP. Studies conducted and published in 2017 and afterward used a gradual transition model and found symptom improvement and even clinical remission occuring before all of the eliminations had been made. This information has informed the development of a Modified AIP Elimination protocol and reinforced the idea that a less restrictive long-term diet can preserve health gains.
A followup study surveyed patients who had successfully used AIP to help manage their disease. It found that the most common foods not able to be reintroduced were — gluten (58%) nightshades (46%) dairy (42%) other cereal grains (29%) A majority of respondents still avoided one or more foods or food families, but there was no consensus as to foods all should avoid indefinitely.
Myth #7: 100% perfection, 100% of the time is NECESSARY for AIP to work
While it is true that adopting an AIP lifestyle in full will provide the most potential benefit, even small changes can elicit big results. Start with a change that you know you can achieve and then build on it, one new habit at a time. And if you stumble, just pick yourself up and carry on. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
Now we have busted these seven common myths about AIP, are you ready to start?
Learn more about Ready Set AIP, an innovative low-cost and highly supportive program that guides participants through all stages of the elimination and reintroduction diet and the accompanying lifestyle habits that comprise the Autoimmune Protocol.
Facts about AIP
- AIP starts with an elimination phase, followed by reintroductions
- AIP is not a permanent dietary change
- AIP can be used in conjunction with medication
- AIP is a sugar-reduced protocol
- AIP is a plant-forward protocol
- AIP encourages long-term dietary expansion, not dietary restriction
- AIP can work, even if you make mistakes!