Reintroducing foods on the AIP diet

You’ve done an elimination diet for at least 30 days and you’re eager to once again taste the foods you’ve been missing. Hopefully your taste buds have learned to enjoy some new foods along the way, and you’ve found your body can thrive on the nutrients it was missing for so long. Is it time to dive back in?

Maybe you’re the type who likes to plunge in head-first. But you’ve worked hard to begin healing your body, and you’ve learned something about patience, too. That patience needs to continue — we recommend a much slower, toe-first approach.

Testing vs. journaling

We often recommend a food sensitivity test (in our practice we use the Complete DAT interpretation from Dunwoody Labs) that analyzes your immune response to certain foods, or parts of foods — helping sort out what may be a food allergy versus a food sensitivity. Allergies need to be avoided always, while sensitivities may just need more healing time to clear. This kind of blood test is helpful because some reactions are delayed — it can take up to 72 hours for sensitivity symptoms to appear, which makes it hard to tell a true reaction from another factor. That uncertainty can either make you fearful and stuck, or cause you to move too quickly, re-inflaming the gut and stalling progress.

If you don’t use a sensitivity test, keep a journal as you reintroduce foods so you can track any symptoms you notice. That record helps us guide you through the process.

How to reintroduce — one food at a time

Begin by reintroducing a single food. You might start with the one you’ve missed most, but be mindful that some foods are more problematic than others. For example, it may be better to reintroduce peppers before eggs, or broccoli (if you eliminated goitrogens altogether) before dairy. Keep foods simple and avoid complex ones early on — chocolate, for instance, can muddle whether a reaction is coming from sugar or caffeine rather than the food itself.

Incorporate the selected food into your menu at least twice a day for one or two days. Then pay attention to how you feel — physically, mentally, and emotionally — and write it down.

If you experience any of these, stop the food and put it on your “try again later” list — you most likely just need more time. If you reintroduce a food and feel well, you can usually count it as successfully reintroduced and keep it in your menu. Then wait a total of five days before adding a new food, and only ever introduce one new food at a time, so there’s no question about what caused any unwanted symptoms.