What to Eat on Autoimmune Paleo? How to combine it with low-FODMAP diet?

There are many lists and directions online for what to eat and what not to eat on paleo or autoimmune paleo diet. It is quite a jungle when trying to figure out what to eat and what not to eat! Take a deep breath, it is just food after all and listen to your body. There is no one diet. We are all different. But I have been trying to figure out the Autoimmune paleo diet (AIP) last few weeks so I thought I'd share some resources. I also made a chart what to eat if also FODMAP's bother you. read on to find out more.

AIP is a stricter elimination diet where you eliminate a lot of possible gut irritants for 30 days and then slowly introduce foods back to see if any of them triggers something. New food should be eaten for three days before introducing a new one. It might sometimes be a good idea to wait even longer in between new foods. Especially if it causes a reaction I would withdraw the food again and wait a week or two before introducing something new to get the other stuff out of your system.

There is already so much information online that I am not going to research it and write it down all over again. But I will tell you where to look. Here are some sources of information, food lists, shopping lists and meal plans and ideas.

If you are not quite ready for AIP yet, try first paleo diet that allows more foods than AIP. If you are not ready for paleo diet, try going partially paleo. Switch some foods to paleo friendly foods. Or start with one paleo meal a week. Or "paleo" because can we really eat in modern days like the people in paleolithic era did? Or is it even necessary? That is another blog post but just wanted to make a point that we shouldn't get too hung up on the word. Paleo for me means eating one ingredient real foods that make you feel good. It can vary a little from person to person. But there are some general guidelines that work out for most people.

Here is what to eat on paleo diet:

What to eat on paleo diet?
The Ultimate Paleo Diet Food List

An excellent place to start learning about the autoimmune paleo protocol (Phoenix Helix, a blogger who is healing her rheumatoid arthritis with AIP):
What is autoimmune protocol?

Article from Paleospirit: "What is the autoimmune paleo protocol?"

Lots of information about autoimmune protocol by Paleomom

A great detailed grocery list for Paleo AIP by Phoenix Helix 

A wonderfully clear shopping list for autoimmune paleo. I will print several copies of this.

Autoimmune Paleo Print Out Guides

Meal ideas (by me)

All autoimmune paleo labeled posts with recipes on this blog.

And what about FODMAPs? What are they?

FODMAP means "fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols". They are carbohydrates and sugar alcohols found in grains, beans, some vegetables and fruit (check full list of FODMAP's here). They don't absorb well and feed gut bacteria that start fermenting them and this can cause bloating, stomach pain, gas, diarrhea, constipation or both and other gastro-intestinal symptoms.

What has this to do with the paleo diet? When we remove grains from our diet we often increase the amount of vegetables and fruit. Instead of feeling better on our brand new diet that was supposed to heal us, we get more stomach issues. The FODMAPs, that some vegetables and fruits are higher in, could be the bad guys!

But there is a solution. A low-FODMAP diet. You don't have to leave all vegetables and fruit, just some of them. But there will be plenty left to eat. And it can be combined to the autoimmune paleo diet!

It sounded like too much to me first. But after getting comfortable with the autoimmune paleo diet and noticing that on days I overdid FODMAPs my stomach hurt in the evening, I decided to try this.

It seems overwhelming first if you are just mourning after the foods you'll leave on autoimmune paleo or paleo diet, I know. My suggestion is not to do it all at once. Baby steps. Baby steps.

I couldn't find a list of foods that would take into consideration both AIP and low-FODMAP diet so I made one! I looked at many lists and they all had a little bit different views about what is ok and what is not so listen to your body too. Keep a food diary if you still have symptoms.

More information about FODMAP's by Chris Kresser

A list of foods to eat and avoid if you follow both Autoimmune paleo and low-FODMAP diets.