An emotional reset is what we sometimes need after a stressful week. But have you thought about a nutritional reset? If you need to detect food triggers and clear your body from toxins, the Whole30 diet might be the one for you. While you’re generally encouraged to eat whole and unprocessed foods, it has a list of suitable foods and others that should be restricted.
What is the Whole30 diet?
The Wole30 diet is a nutritional reset that helps you removing toxins from your diet. Moreover, it is designed to detect if a given food group is triggering undesirable symptoms. As the name implies, it works for 30 days or one month. But even after that time, you will be given instructions to detect food triggers and allergies.
This dietary plan can be a bit hard to follow, but the rules are simple and easy to understand. It is a short-term reset that eliminates several foods for 30 days and reintroduces them one by one. That way, you will be able to see which one is causing uncomfortable symptoms or triggering allergies.
How it works
As a part of the Whole30 diet, you’re encouraged to eat whole and unprocessed foods. It is also important to avoid foods such as dairy, artificial sugar and alcohol. It has a list of suitable foods and others that should be restricted.
During 30 days, and as a part of your nutritional reset, you should not eat restricted foods, not even in short portions. However, there’s a long list of suitable food choices, and plenty of room to create tasty recipes.
Foods you can eat
The white list can be subdivided into three categories:
- Foods you can eat frequently: Fruits and vegetables, natural fats from plants and fish, seasonings, and spices. You are encouraged to eat this type of foods every day, without limits.
- Foods you can eat moderately: Meat, eggs, and seafood. This food group is important for your nutrition. However, you should eat in moderate amounts and portions, not every day.
- Foods you can eat sparingly: Processed foods with natural ingredients. In any case, read the label of your processed foods. As a general rule of thumb, if you read ingredients difficult to pronounce, it is likely not a suitable option.
Restricted foods
The list of restricted foods includes a large portion of what we consider standard foods in the American diet:
- Artificial sweeteners and sugar: Honey and agave nectar are included, even if they are considered natural sweeteners. Fruit juice can be used in small amounts as a sweetener in some recipes.
- Grains and legumes: All kinds of beans, chickpeas, lentils, soy products, and peanuts are off limits. You should also restrict grains, including corn, wheat, rye, quinoa, and rice.
- Dairy: You have many other animal proteins on the white list. But no milk or any product produced with milk. The exceptions are clarified butter and ghee, which do not contain milk proteins.
- Most types of oil: You’re not supposed to include canola oil, flaxseed oil, soybean or sunflower oil. You can use other natural sources, especially coconut oil.
- No additives: It is especially important to restrict MSG, carrageenan, and sulfites. However, you’re also encouraged to avoid processed products with ingredients difficult to pronounce.
Whole30 after 30 days
After 30 days have passed, you can reintroduce restricted foods. However, if you really want to accomplish the objectives of the Whole30 diet, introduce them one by one. After introducing one of them, wait one day or two before reintroducing another food. This reintroduction process should take a minimum of 10 days and up to 30 days.
If you follow the recommendations laid out in the Whole30 diet, you will not only get a nutritional reset but also detect food triggers and allergies, increasing your awareness about yourself and your diet.
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