Why I’m no Longer Following the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)

When I started writing this blog back in the fall of 2015, I was not feeling well. Digestively, I was mostly ok, but I had lots of aches and pains, especially in my feet, hips and back. I decided I needed to go all in with the AIP diet for a while and see if that reduced my inflammation. The fact is that if I am feeling inflamed in certain areas, there are likely other areas in which my body is inflamed and I can’t feel it, such as my brain and my gut. I was scared my Crohn’s would flare up.

I did follow AIP strictly for a few months and then in December, at the recommendation of my chiropractor (who is also an integrative medicine practitioner) and the support of my functional medicine doctor, I had some extensive (and expensive) testing done with Cyrex Labs. This is what Cyrex says about themselves:

Cyrex™ is a Clinical Immunology Laboratory Specializing in Functional Immunology and Autoimmunity. Cyrex™ offers multi-tissue antibody testing for the early detection and monitoring of today’s complex autoimmune conditions. Cyrex™ develops innovative arrays through continuous collaboration with leading experts in medical research and clinical practice.

Cyrex is the gold standard when it comes to advanced allergy and gluten sensitivity testing. That is, they are the gold standard in the functional medicine world, but not in the mainstream medicine world, which means most insurance plans won’t cover the cost, which is why I waited so long to have these tests completed. By December, I had met my deductible and out of pocket expenses and there was a chance my insurance company would cover part of the cost, so I decided to go for it.

The reason I chose to have these tests done is simple – I wanted to know if I really needed to be following the AIP diet or not. It is restrictive, hard, expensive, not fun. Why do it if it’s not necessary?

My functional medicine doc ordered two tests: Array 2, essentially the “leaky gut” test and Array 10, the multi-food test that shows how your immune system reacts to certain foods (gluten not included).

What these tests showed was eye-opening to say the least.

  • I do NOT have leaky gut. I did have leaky gut. My surgeon told me that I was essentially in remission from Crohn’s way back in 2010 after my emergency surgery to remove my perforated small intestine, but if I had three feet of intestines that were perforated to the naked eye, most certainly, I had microscopic holes elsewhere, ie. leaky gut.
  • After four years of medicines and following the standard American diet, it is likely that I still had leaky gut even though I was relatively symptom free.
  • After two years of following the paleo diet, sometimes AIP, but not always, this test showed that my gut was healthy and in tact, no “leaky gut” anymore. Mainstream medicine says this is not possible.
  • The Array 10 was another shocker to me. All the foods I had been avoiding on AIP were not immune triggers for me: coffee, tomatoes, eggs, eggplant, nuts, potatoes, even dairy. My world just opened up immensely.
  • Some foods that had been mainstays of my diet turns out are immune triggers: zucchini, avocados, dark chocolate, bananas, pears, lemon, lime. And some food additives such as xanthan gum, beta glucan, mastic gum, gum arabic are also no-nos. There are foods I know always make me feel sick and turns out they were on my off limits list too: wine, beans, figs.

The Array 10 test classifies foods as green, yellow or red. You can probably guess that green foods get the “green light” – you can eat them as much as you like. Yellow foods could possibly pose a problem. My doctor says to eat them in moderation and rotate. So I can eat avocado one day, but not the next. Eat a banana one day, but don’t have a pear the same day. You get the idea. Red foods are immune triggers and are to be avoided if at all possible.

Some of this seems really random. I can’t eat figs? Really? Zucchini? I ate it all the time and thought I felt fine.

But the big, gigantic, humongous good news from all of this is that there are few “red” foods and beverages for me. There is quite a long list of “yellows,” but even that is manageable. Knowledge is power and I feel so much more empowered in my food choices with this information in hand.

I still eat AIP a good bit because frankly, it’s just habit now. BUT I DON”T HAVE TO and that is worth every single penny these tests cost me. I used to almost break down and cry when it was time to go out to eat. Eating in a restaurant is supposed to be a treat or at the very least a break from the everyday chore of cooking. But when you are so extremely limited in what you can eat, there is no joy in eating out. Sticking to a paleo diet while eating out is still a challenge, but it is doable.

I don’t write this to encourage all of you who are following the AIP diet to just give it up. There is great benefit in following this diet and you may need to do it for a longer period of time than I did.

Why I am writing this is to encourage you to see a functional medicine doctor if you’re not already. My doc is Michael Citron at FoundationMed. He’s located in Raleigh, NC, but he’s a pretty high tech guy and I suspect he could meet with you virtually, thought I don’t know that for certain.

And I encourage you to have whatever testing is recommended – and that you can afford. It is so much better to work from a place of knowledge rather than a place of guessing.

I never want to go back to those days of lying on the sofa in agony each night after dinner. I am always aware of what I’m eating and how it makes me feel. I get regular check-ups from my primary doc and my functional medicine doc. I have lots of tests. We study the results together. I take a good number of supplements. I am healthy! I feel good. I have Crohn’s disease and I don’t even think about it. This is not the norm, but I am proof that it is possible!