The Whole30 diet pattern is a stringent 30-day elimination diet that most people follow for shedding weight or to improve digestive problems. This diet program encourages people to restrict alcohol, sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, and additives from the meal plan for 30 days. It is touted as a complete lifestyle changer, rather than a simple diet.

The Whole30 diet is considered a stricter version of the Paleo diet that has scaled its way to the top of the ladder for popular diet trends conferring promising incentives including weight loss, increased energy levels, a respite from chronic pain and digestive issues- if you follow the strict set of rules for what you can and cannot eat.

However, the diet plan also calls to eliminate all types of milk products, legumes, and grain (including oats and quinoa) which are all healthy foods that offer beneficial nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, and fibre. Studies disclose that unless you have an allergy, there is no valid reason to avoid these foods from the diet and doing so can eventually result in more harm than good.

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What Is The Whole30 Diet?

The Whole30 diet pattern is a strict 30-day elimination meal regimen that delivers a host of health and emotional incentives. It was first formulated by two certified sports nutritionists in 2009, who designed this diet regimen to change a person's metabolism and redesign their relationship with food. It was believed that eliminating these foods from the diet is supposed to aid the body recover from negative effects and improve long-term health.

Most people follow this regimen with the prospect of losing weight. Some may also use this program to identify food intolerance or attain some of its claimed health benefits.

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How To Follow The Whole30 Diet?

The concept behind the Whole30-day diet program is simple: For 30 days, one must completely restrict foods that may impair your health. After the early 30 days, one can slowly start to introduce again some foods while closely watching the impacts those foods have on your body.

This is an extremely rigorous elimination diet, so it has a strict set of rules, and it also offers you a list of foods allowed as well as off-limit certain foods.

Also, during the 30-day elimination period, no cheating is permitted. It’s suggested that one should start the challenge all over again if you get off track. The creators claim that strict adherence to the diet lets the body reset in isolation from certain foods that may cause inflammation, gut problems, or hormonal imbalances. Moreover, like other diets, there is no need to track calories, or measure portions. Also, checking weight is strictly advised for day 1 and 30 of the program.

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Claimed Benefits Of The Whole30 Diet

The Whole30 diet regimen when perfectly followed is believed to have many health incentives, according to supporters. These include:

Well, adhering to the Whole30 diet perfectly for 30 days is known to have several health incentives, according to supporters. These include:

• Loss of body fat
• Boost energy levels
• Good sleep
• Lower food cravings
• Enhance athletic performance
• The diet’s founders assure that the Whole30 program will alter both the way one thinks about food and taste. Additionally, it can also change the emotional relationship one has with food and body.

However, this diet program lacks scientific studies to back above claimed incentives.

Foods To Include And Avoid

Foods To Eat

Foods allowed on the Whole30 diet comprises minimally processed foods:

• Fresh and dried fruits
• Vegetables
• All nuts and seeds (except peanuts as they are legumes)
• Meat, eggs, and poultry
• Fish and seafood
• Oils- olive, coconut, avocado oil and ghee

Foods To Avoid

Some of the foods that should be eliminated during the 30-day diet period include:

• All sugar and artificial sweeteners - raw sugar, honey, maple syrup, artificial sweeteners, and products containing these
• Alcohol
• All grain - wheat, corn, oats, and rice
• Pulses and legumes
• Soy and soy products
• Dairy and dairy products
• Processed additivies

Additional Guidelines:

The Whole30 diet fosters some additional rules such as quitting smoking for the entire period of the diet. Also, you’re not allowed to check the weight on any days other than day 1 and day 30 or involve in any kind of body measurements.

Reintroduction Phase

In this phase, you slowly start to reintroduce certain foods into the diet. This helps to determine how the diet regimen can make you feel in terms of metabolism, digestive health, immune system, and relationship with food.

The ideal way to reintroduce off-limit foods is to add back one food group at a time. For example, dairy can be introduced again on day 1 after completing the Whole30 program. Further, you are then encouraged to go back to the Whole30 diet and avoid milk on days 2 through 4, while focusing on any possible symptoms. If the process goes well, then you can reintroduce a different food group on day 5 and then repeat the same.

Reintroducing only one food group at a time while keeping the rest of the diet the same is supported as a perfect way to determine which food groups cause negative impacts like bloating, skin woes, or painful joints.

Once all food groups have been individually tested, you can bring back the ones your body has well tolerated into your regular meal plan.

However, followers are not needed to reintroduce all foods, but they are strongly motivated to avoid reintroducing foods that they do not miss.

Downsides

Well, most aspects of the Whole30 diet regimen are in accordance with a wholesome diet. For instance, the diet promotes adding plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and minimally processed foods.

Although, avoiding nutrient-rich foods like legumes, soy, and dairy may make it difficult to meet nutritional needs. This may have negative health impacts if the diet is continued for more than 30 days. Also, most restrictive diets with no allowance for indulgences are considered not sustainable in the long run.

Conclusion:

The Whole30 diet program is a 30-day elimination meal pattern formulated to cut-off certain foods that may result in health issues in a few people. Most people follow this diet regimen to lose weight or help identify foods that give them digestive problems. You are allowed to eat meat, vegetables, fruit, tree nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. And you must totally avoid sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, alcohol, and processed food additives. However, it would be difficult and very limited to maintain in the long term and the Whole30 diet is mainly formulated to be followed for 30 days only.