Whole 30

The trending diet you need to know about

If you’ve been living under a rock you’re excused, but otherwise it would be near impossible to have missed the recent resurfacing of the Whole 30 trend of recent weeks. Inspired by the New York Times best-seller It Starts With Food, the Whole 30 detox borrows a page out of Paleo diets, and is about rebooting your system and eating habits in order to remove all the potential harm you may have been doing, through eating processed food that causes skin outbreaks, gut problems, hormone imbalances, worsens anxiety and causes your energy levels to fluctuate. Its fundamental belief is in the idea of natural and unprocessed foods, but it also believes in sustaining this for a short period of 30 days, and slowly reintroducing things that aren’t too harmful. Here’s a quick guide to what you’re allowed to eat on Whole 30. It’s never too late to start?

– No grain – much like Paleo you can’t have wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains, and even all the gluten-free stuff isn’t allowed.

– No alcohol and no tobacco

– No added sugar – including sweeteners and even supposedly natural ingredients such as honey and syrup.

– No white potatoes – this is actually there more for the purposes of getting you to change your habits, as so many diets are dependent on white potatoes of sorts.

– No legumes – which means no beans, no chickpeas, no peas and no peanuts.

– No soy products of any sort

– No MSG or flavour enhancing products

– No dairy – no matter what form it comes in

– YES eat a lot of oils

– YES to nuts

– YES to seafood and meat

– YES to all fruits

– Bizarrely YES to fruit-juices

– Yes to legumes such as green beans and sugarsnaps

For 30 Days you stick to this, only slowly reintroducing the less harmful foods you have cut out very slowly. More to follow on what foods to introduce when you’re nearing the end of a diet. Delicious Whole 30 Recipes to come…

Marilyn Lee