My Personal Journey with the Autoimmune Protocol
My autoimmune disease symptoms started with puberty—fatigue, chronic constipation, migraines, steady and unrelenting weight gain that didn’t scale with my high activity level …
Autoimmune Protocol Clinical Trials and Studies
The Autoimmune Protocol, or AIP, is a science-based diet and lifestyle intervention for autoimmune disease and other chronic illnesses driven by immune dysregulation. You can think …
AIP Do’s and Don’ts
In the last week of my 6-week intensive online course about the Autoimmune Protocol, the AIP Lecture Series, I address many issues related to lifelong health and wellness. …
Is the Autoimmune Protocol Too Hard?
There is one pervasive myth about the Autoimmune Protocol: It’s too hard. When it comes to learning about and implementing the AIP, there’s definitely a learning curve. …
Habit Formation and New Years Resolutions
Happy New Year! For me, like many, the start of a new year is a time of reflection. I look back over the last year, appreciate my accomplishments and the challenges I overcame, …
Updates to the Autoimmune Protocol
My definitive guidebook on the Autoimmune Protocol, called The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body, was published way back in January of 2014. This …
Coffee and Autoimmune Disease
For many of us, any study suggesting our coffee-drinking habits might be good for us is a reason to celebrate (and to raise our mugs of hot delicious Americanos in toast)! And as …
AIP FAQ: Carbohydrate Intake on the Autoimmune Protocol
One of the consequences of a nutrients-first approach is that the distribution of macronutrient intake tends to end up fairly balanced, with roughly a third, give or take, of …
The 3 Phases of the Autoimmune Protocol
Autoimmune disease is an epidemic in our society, affecting an estimated 50 million Americans. There are more than a hundred confirmed autoimmune diseases—some of the most common …
AIP, Orthorexia and Food Phobia
I just wrapped up another session of the AIP Lecture Series, marking two years of teaching this online course, and I’m reminded that one of the (many) benefits of this type …
Symptoms of Autoimmune Disease
There are more than one hundred confirmed autoimmune diseases and many more diseases that are suspected of having autoimmune origins, see Should Everyone Follow the AIP?. Symptoms …
Sugar and Sweetener FAQ
Today, the average American consumes almost 152 pounds of sugar each year, a staggering amount of refined simple carbohydrates equivalent to 6 cups of white sugar every week. This …
Nutrient Deficiency and Autoimmune Disease
Many micronutrients are immune modulators, meaning that sufficient amounts of these substances are required to regulate the immune system. Although epidemiological studies reveal a …
What Is the Gut Microbiome? And Why Should We Care About It?
The gut is a biological niche, home to a diverse array of microbes that influence nearly all aspects of human biology through their interactions with our bodies. The term gut …
Featured AIP Coach: Laura Morrow
After suffering from fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, and chronic headaches and migraines, Laura reversed her autoimmune symptoms by changing her diet and lifestyle using the …
Featured AIP Coach: Sybil Cooper
Dr. Sybil Cooper is a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor, AIP Certified Coach, Certified Primal Health Coach and a current student at School of Applied Functional Medicine. …
Announcing The AIP Lecture Series!
I’m so excited to announce the the next session of The AIP Lecture Series!!! It begins Monday, January 10th, 2022 and there’s still time to get early-bird pricing! I …
Spices on the Autoimmune Protocol
When it comes to herbs and spices, figuring out which ones are safe on the Autoimmune Protocol can be tricky. Many spices come from the seeds of plants and some are even from the …
The WHYs behind the Autoimmune Protocol: Nightshades
Tomatoes, potatoes (but not sweet potato), eggplants, sweet and hot peppers (but not black pepper), and chili-based spices (including paprika) all come from plants which are …
Autoimmune Protocol Lecture Series FAQs
As I gear up to teach the next session of the AIP Lecture Series, you’ve asked me a ton of excellent questions about the course! I decided to collate these questions and my …
The Reintroduction Phase of the AIP
The Autoimmune Protocol can be thought of as a nutritional intervention for a diet gone badly awry, overabundant in calories and lacking in vital nutrients. But how well an …
Featured AIP Coach: Onelly Hernandez
Onelly Hernandez is a Certified Primal Health Coach and an AIP Certified Coach. She has worked as a Certified Nurse Assistant for 9 years in in-home care and health care …
Dietary Fat FAQ
How dietary fat impacts our health is related to the type of fat we’re eating as well as how much. Let’s review! What Fats Do in the Body Fats (or more technically, …
Bone Broth FAQ
Bone broth is definitely a healing food, but there’s also lots of myths about broth, so let’s review all the what’s, why’s, and how’s! The reason why …
The Health Benefits of Spices
Spices are used to flavor or color foods and come from the seeds, roots, buds, bark, resin, or fruits of a plant. They’re usually used in their dried form—with a few notable …
The WHYs behind the Autoimmune Protocol: Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds in moderation are a health-promoting food. A variety of studies have shown that a mere 20 grams of tree nuts per day is associated with substantially reduced risk …
The Health Benefits of Herbs
Herbs and spices are any savory, aromatic, edible plant used to flavor or garnish food (or in some cases, for their medicinal properties!). Although herbs and spices are often …
The Trouble with Stevia
While many people in various “real food” communities agree that artificial sweeteners are a bad idea (see Is It Paleo? Splenda, Erythritol, Stevia and other low-calorie …
The Health Benefits of Sea Vegetables
Sea vegetables, also known as edible seaweeds, are not only incredibly tasty, they’re also one of the most unique and nutritious foods on the planet! They’ve been consumed for …
The Health Benefits of the Parsley Veggie Family
The parsley family (also known as the Apiaceae family or umbellifers, due to forming umbrella-like stem structures called umbels) is a huge plant group with over 3,700 species, …
The Health Benefits of Ginger
Ginger is perhaps the most famous member of the Zingiberaceae family, which contains about 1600 known species (including turmeric, cardamom, and galangal!). Botanically, ginger is …
Featured AIP Coach: Indira Pulliadath
Indira Pulliadath is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and an AIP Certified Coach. She has a Masters in Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy and a Masters in Business …
The Importance of Fish in Our Diets
Of all the animal products, seafood has one of the most consistently positive track records in the scientific literature. Oily cold-water fish like trout and salmon offer some …
What to Eat on the Autoimmune Protocol
Some foods are obvious wins for a health-promoting diet because they have tons of beneficial constituents and very few or no constituents that undermine health—good examples of …
The Health Benefits of Stone Fruits
Amid all the talk of berries as superfoods, bananas as gut-health boosters, and citrus as vitamin C powerhouses, one fruit group tends to get sadly little attention: stone fruits! …
The Health Benefits of Tropical Fruits
ALL fruit have distinct health benefits (see Why Fruit is a Good Source of Carbohydrates, The Health Benefits of Apples, The Health Benefits of Melons, The Health Benefits of …
AIP Eliminations Summary
As you adopt the Autoimmune Protocol, your food choices become focused on consuming the nutrients to support healing—foods that provide everything your body needs to stop attacking …
The Health Benefits of Bananas and Plantains
Bananas and plantains are both members of the genus Musa, growing on plants that are technically giant herbs rather than trees (due to having a “pseudostem” made of tightly packed …
Should Everyone Follow the AIP?
Chronic illness is epidemic in our society. More than half of all Americans take two or more prescription drugs, and about one-fifth of us take at least five different daily …
The Health Benefits of Alliums (Onion Family)
The onion family, also known as alliums, includes hundreds of different species belonging to the genus Allium, although the ones we’re most likely to see on a dinner plate are …
Gelatin vs Collagen vs Bone Broth
The collagen supplement market is booming. There’s gelatin, collagen protein, collagen peptides, hydrolyzed collagen, collagen hydrolysate, marine collagen, multi-collagen, bone …
The Health Benefits of Melons
Melons are the sweet, juicy fruits produced by members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae, and are related to squash and cucumbers (botanically, they’re also technically berries!). …
The Health Benefits of Winter Squash
Winter squash is a generic term for members of the genus Cucurbita that grow through the summer and are harvested in the fall, when they’ve reached full maturation (unlike summer …
AIP vs. Gut Health Diet
I recently released my new gut microbiome e-books, The Gut Health Guidebook and The Gut Health Cookbook (released this week!), the culmination of nearly six years of intense …
The Health Benefits of Leafy Greens
It is well-established that eating a diet abundant in fresh vegetables and fruits is good for our health. In fact, every serving of vegetables or fruit reduces risk of all-cause …
The Health Benefits of Berries
Berries are an extremely ancient food in the human diet, with evidence of being a seasonal staple for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. And, science has given us plenty of reasons to …
The Health Benefits of Cruciferous Vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables are members of the Brassicaceae family, many of which are actually cultivars of a single species (Brassica oleracea): cabbage, Savoy cabbage, cauliflower, …
Is It Better to Eat Veggies Raw or Cooked?
Eating 8+ servings of fresh vegetables and fruits daily lowers risk of chronic disease more than any other dietary factor (see The Importance of Vegetables), but is it better to …
