When first diving into the Vegan AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) eating plan — A Lot of people are concerned with:
How They Are Gonna Get Enough: Protein and Nutrients?
This doesn’t need to be a concern at all!
Let’s get the scoop from some nutrient and protein experts:
**But, first, you might want to get acquainted with the “Food Lists” of those foods allowed and those not allowed on Vegan AIP.
~ Dr. Kharrazian is a Functional Doctor who has successfully treated immunological conditions in the United States and Europe for more than 20 years.
He states that the secret to getting all of your protein and nutrients is to keep your diet as diverse as possible!
The AIP is an “elimination” diet — meaning we eliminate the inflammation-causing foods for 30-90 days or more — until we have measurable improvement in symptoms.
He says that:
“many people notice that over time in following a restricted diet — they start reacting to an increasing number of foods”.
They start limiting the foods they’re eating more and more, reducing their foods to only a few foods they can tolerate.
This is the worst thing you can do for your immune system and overall health.
This creates less diversity in the gut microbiome and bacteria diversity. As a result, many people end up with more food intolerances, more chemical intolerances, and worsened autoimmunity.
So, the key to increasing tolerance is to —
Enhance and Diversify the Microbiome!
Eating A Wide Diversity of Veggies is Key To Your Health
Different Vegetables have different nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
We increase the chance of getting all the nutrients we eat by eating different meals every day and every week.
That is why we must be adventurous! Make it a habit each week of trying and incorporating new vegetables into our diets.
~ “Okraw” (Youtube), a long time raw foodist, seconds this call for diversity, noting that:
Proteins are made up of multiple things (not one thing) called amino acids.
Different foods have different ratios of amino acids.
Variety is vital for getting all of the various amino acids.
As long as you eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables — you are getting enough nutrients AND protein!
~ FullyRawKristina (Youtube) is another long-term raw foodist.
Regarding Nutrients and Protein, she says: you may not need as much protein as you think.
Even the World Health Organization suggests that 10% protein from your daily calories is adequate for our human body.
10% of the protein in your diet is only approximately 200 calories a day.
We get our protein from our variety of fruits and vegetables. So every food we eat has protein — all fruits and vegetables.
Fruit is approximately 4%- 8% protein — and it even contains all of the eight essential amino acids that our body needs.
As a vegan — eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables is where you will get your protein.
The secret is getting in enough calories to get in enough protein from those calories.
~ James Wilks is an English film producer, vegan activist, and former professional mixed martial artist. He produced the film “The Game Changers (Netflix) — about his journey to Veganism following an injury.
In the film, he notes that studies show that the average plant-eater gets enough protein and gets 70% more than they need.
Every single plant contains ALL THE ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS in varying proportions.
Plants are packed with antioxidants, phytochemicals, minerals, and vitamins that reduce inflammation, optimize the microbiome, optimize the blood supply, and your body’s performance.
Plants have 64 times the antioxidant performance of those found in animal products.
Even iceberg lettuce has more antioxidants than salmon or eggs.
Thus, being on a plant-based diet can help reduce inflammation by 29% in just 3 weeks.
~ Sara Ballantyne is a well-known AIP forerunner and author of: The Paleo Pom website.
Even though she’s a carnivore, she recommends eating a variety of nutritionally dense and healing foods —from 8-12 cups of vegetables each day.
That translates into about 12-16 cups of vegetables a day on the Vegan AIP (from Ashley Clark; administrator / Vegan AIP FB page).
So, we can see from the experts above that it is indeed very possible and doable to get all of our protein and nutrients in the “Vegan AIP”!
The secret is to not stay on the “Elimination” stage longer than we need to so that we can start “Re-introducing” more veggies to make sure we keep our diet (and our microbiome) diverse!
The other secret is in the quantity of veggies (& fruit) we need to eat!
I know! This sounds like a lot!
Here are a few simple tips to get in all those veggies:
- Roast (or steam) huge amounts of veggies to last for a couple of days and to eat with every meal.
- Eat at least one blender (full size) of a green smoothie a day with minimal fruits and 5 to 6 c. of veggies.
- Saute those greens — they will shrink way down when sauteing!!
- Eat at least one “raw” meal a day to get more nutrients. Raw food is even more nutritious than cooked food. Also, including a few raw meals — lessens the number of veggies you need to eat!
~ So, let’s do away with the nutrient and protein fallacies!
Jump right in and start feeling better now.
FOR MORE INFO AND SUPPORT:
~ Please Sign up for my Newsletter to Receive the Free Snack Guide.
~ Also, Please Leave a Comment below. I’d love to hear from you!
~ My Website is full of Delicious Vegan AIP Recipes and Info to get you started on Vegan AIP.
~ If you have decided that you want to try the Vegan AIP:
- To deal with some autoimmune condition or chronic illness
- And you would like some help support and help to get started
** Then Please Check Out My:
And the ~ Kickstart Coaching Packages
Vegan AIP was the perfect thing to get me back on track, and I’ll bet it can do the same for you.
In Vibrant Health ~
Tanya
ThriveHealVegan.com
Foodie, Traveler, Blogger, Healer, Writer, Artist, and More!
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