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Elimination Diet Meal Plan & Recipes for Gut Healing

Written by Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on April 9, 2025

Written by Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC on April 9, 2025 — Reviewed by Kellie Blake

• What Is an Elimination Diet?|
• How to Do an Elimination Diet|
• Why It Works|
• What to Eat|
• Elimination Diet Meal Plan & Recipes|
• Troubleshooting|

If you’re experiencing chronic, unexplained symptoms, one of the best things that you can try is an elimination diet. And while cutting out multiple food groups and figuring out how to eat when going out or at parties can feel daunting, after working with many clients in our clinic, we have found a few ways to simplify the process and help you have success with your elimination diet meal plan. 

What Is an Elimination Diet?

An elimination diet helps identify food sensitivities by removing and reintroducing potential trigger foods. When you use an elimination diet, you generally remove common foods that cause food allergies, sensitivities, or food intolerances to see if your symptoms improve. 

There are many different options for the framework of your elimination diet meal plan, including Paleo, low-FODMAP, and AIP (autoimmune) Paleo. At our clinic, we start most people out on a Paleo diet because it removes the most common foods that cause food sensitivity or food intolerance, but it is not as restrictive as many other diets, so it is a bit easier to start with. In fact, many of my clients see a large improvement in symptoms after using a Paleo diet for just a few weeks. 

How to Do an Elimination Diet

An elimination diet has three phases: elimination, reintroduction, and maintenance. This article will help you figure out what to eat during the elimination phase, where you remove foods. For more information about the other phases, please read our article, Your 3-Step Guide to an Effective Elimination Diet. 

Phase 1: Elimination

The elimination phase lasts about 2-3 weeks, during which you remove potentially problematic foods from your diet. This includes common triggers like dairy, gluten, soy, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, and other known allergens. The goal is to reduce inflammation and symptoms by giving your body a break from irritating foods.

Phase 2: Reintroduction

Once symptoms improve, you will gradually reintroduce eliminated foods one at a time. Introduce a new food every few days while monitoring symptoms. 

Symptoms to watch for:

• Digestive issues (bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation)
• Skin reactions (rashes, acne, itching)
• Fatigue or brain fog
• Joint pain or muscle aches
• Headaches or migraines
• Mood changes (anxiety, irritability, depression)
  

If a food causes a reaction, this is typically a sign that you need to avoid it temporarily while working on healing your gut. A trusted healthcare professional or registered dietitian can be very helpful in navigating this process. 

Phase 3: Maintenance

After identifying food sensitivities, your goal is to build a sustainable, nutrient-dense diet that supports your health while avoiding trigger foods. This phase ensures long-term symptom relief while maintaining dietary diversity.

The ultimate goal of the elimination diet is to pinpoint food sensitivities and create a balanced eating plan that works for your body.

It’s important to remember that food reactions can ebb and flow over time. As you work on healing your gut and supporting your overall well-being, you may find you can easily tolerate and enjoy foods that you previously were sensitive to. 

Another important thing to remember is that food sensitivities and intolerances are different from a food allergy or celiac disease. In these more severe cases, the removal of a certain food is required for your health and safety. For example, someone with celiac disease must remain gluten-free for life, even after healing the gut after a celiac diagnosis. 

Why Elimination Diets Work

An elimination diet can help you improve both gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal conditions for three main reasons:

• Elimination diets can help you figure out what specific foods may be causing an immune system response 1 2.
• Elimination diets can show you any foods that do not agree with your particular gut bacteria, causing your gut microbiome (the bacteria and other microbes that live in your digestive system and create a stable ecosystem) to be imbalanced 3.
• Elimination diets can help you discern if you have a lack of digestive enzymes where you are unable to break down certain sugars or proteins from foods (such as in the case of lactose intolerance). This can cause a variety of symptoms, from stomach pain to eczema. These symptoms may be improved by removing foods your body can not digest 4.

Regardless of exactly why a food is causing symptoms, the result is a lot of stress on the body and gut, as well as an increase in inflammation, resulting in symptoms such as digestive issues like stomach pain and bloating, as well as eczema, migraines, and brain fog. 

An elimination diet removes foods that potentially drive stress and inflammation, which gives the gut and body time to relax, reset, and often repair. Letting the gut and body rest and relax creates a better gastrointestinal environment for reintroducing foods after about three to four weeks. 

Elimination Diet Foods List (Paleo-Based)

A Paleo diet is modeled after what our Paleolithic ancestors ate, before we had agricultural crops (grains and beans). The theory behind the Paleo diet suggests that our digestive system has not evolved enough to be able to digest grains and legumes very well, and thus, they may trigger food sensitivities in some people. 

A Paleo diet is inherently lower in carbohydrates because it does not include typical high-carbohydrate foods such as pasta, bread, sweeteners, and desserts. It also moderates the intake of fruits and nuts. 

The simplest way to think of a Paleo diet is that you eat whole foods, including meat, vegetables, and some fruits, nuts, and seeds. You do not eat grains, dairy products, ultra-processed foods, or refined foods.

For a simplified guide to this diet with low FODMAP and vegetarian options, download my Paleo Diet Guide. 

What You Can Eat

Here is a more detailed list of what you eat on a Paleo diet: 

Here is a more detailed list of eliminated foods you should try to limit or avoid on the Paleo diet: 

Some people in the Paleo community avoid certain foods, like white rice or white potatoes, while others don’t. Many people do not eat starchy carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. All of these options are higher in carbohydrates, so if you want to eat them, moderate the amount and see how you feel. 

Elimination Diet Meal Plan & Recipes

Elimination Diet Ingredients List

Here is a list of a few things you can keep on hand, which can be made into many Paleo-friendly meal options. If you’re following a different or more restrictive framework for your elimination diet, you can still use these for inspiration and modify them as needed. 

• Vegetables (such as sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and Brussels sprouts) roasted in olive oil, garlic, and salt. 
• Pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower
• Bagged coleslaw mix (without the dressing)
• Cherry tomatoes 
• Spring mix or other salad greens
• Frozen cauliflower rice
• Shredded chicken thighs or chicken breast. Cook up 1-2 pounds of boneless skinless (because that is easiest to shred) chicken in an instant pot or slow cooker with some bone broth, salt, and pepper, and then shred it with a fork. If cooking is not your thing, pick up a roast chicken from the grocery store, but check the ingredients to be sure it is Paleo. You can also make pulled pork by cooking pork shoulder the same way. 
• Ground meat (beef or pork) cooked with Paleo seasoning of your choice, such as taco seasoning or sausage seasoning 
• A dozen regular eggs and a dozen hard-boiled eggs
• Packaged items: Paleo meat stick or meat bar, such as from The New Primal or Epic (Always confirm that the ingredients are Paleo.)
• Condiments: extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mayonnaise made with avocado oil, Paleo barbecue sauce, dairy-free pesto sauce
• Seasonings: Paleo-friendly taco seasoning and sausage seasoning (check for any grains or sugars in seasoning mixes to be sure they are Paleo-friendly.) 
• Drinks: Sparkling water (without sugar or juice), full-fat canned coconut milk (great to add to coffee instead of creamer), lemon juice to add a splash to water, coffee, tea 
• Sweeteners: Maple syrup and coconut sugar in moderation

Elimination Diet Meal Plan

Now, let’s look at how we can put these items together for any meal with a few sample elimination diet meal plan ideas.

Remember—rethink what a meal is. You can actually eat any of these meals at any time of day. 

Breakfasts:

• Reheat the roasted vegetables in a pan, and then add a few sunny-side-up eggs on top.
• Make a breakfast taco with taco-seasoned ground meat, spring mix, and a vinaigrette dressing of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. 
• Cook up a breakfast hash with sausage, seasoned ground meat, and roasted veggies. 

Lunches:

• Make BBQ chicken and coleslaw by adding a Paleo barbecue sauce to some shredded chicken and mixing the shredded coleslaw mix with some mayonnaise and a dash of apple cider vinegar. Make this freezeable by putting the BBQ chicken with roasted veggies instead of coleslaw.
• Create a chicken salad with the shredded chicken and mayonnaise, and put that on top of mixed spring greens and cherry tomatoes.

Dinners:

• Pesto chicken and faux rice can be made by reheating frozen cauliflower rice in a pan with olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and pepper. Remember not to overcook cauliflower rice because that’s when it gets watery. Add some shredded chicken to the cauliflower rice, top with pesto sauce, and heat it all together. 
• Make a salad with spring greens, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar.
• Plate ground meat with cauliflower and broccoli. Reheat the ground meat while you steam the cauliflower and broccoli. Add olive oil, sea salt, and pepper to the veggies after they are steamed, and put that with the ground meat.

On-the-Go or Fast Snacks:

• Prepare hard-boiled eggs with raw broccoli and cauliflower.
• Make un-deviled eggs by cutting hard-boiled eggs in half and topping them with a little mayo and salt. Have cherry tomatoes on the side. 
• Eat a meat stick or bar. 

Tips for Eating Out:

• Stick to restaurants that have either burgers or a selection of whole cuts of meat as well as veggies.
• A good rule of thumb is to order meat or fish with steamed or roasted vegetables or a burger with toppings and no bun on top of a salad.
• Salads topped with meat or fish are a good option, but ask for olive oil and vinegar on the side rather than a pre-made salad dressing. 
• Order steak or chicken that is not made with an extra coating or sauce. Most often, these will be grilled or roasted options. 
• If they can use olive oil for cooking vegetables, then ask for that, but don’t obsess about oils or condiments if a restaurant only has vegetable oil. 
• When going to family or friends’ homes, it is okay to bring your own food if that is easiest. 

While the list of foods above may seem like just a few, you will only be on the diet for a short period. An elimination diet usually only lasts for three to four weeks before you begin the reintroduction phase—unless symptoms aren’t improving and you need to transition to a more restrictive diet temporarily.

In the reintroduction phase, you reintroduce one (healthy) food at a time every three days or so, and monitor yourself for changes in symptoms. If a food seems to trigger symptoms, you may need to continue to avoid it while you work on supporting your gut health. A healthcare provider can help you create an individualized plan to improve gut health, including dietary changes, supportive supplements, and lifestyle changes.   

Troubleshooting Elimination Diets

For some people, a Paleo diet isn’t enough. You’ll probably notice within the first two weeks of your elimination diet if your symptoms do not start getting significantly better. If you’re not getting better, you may have trouble with fermentable carbohydrates and/or nightshades. 

Most often in our clinic, if a Paleo diet isn’t working, we move on to a low-FODMAP diet where you remove fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAPs). These types of carbohydrates are fermented by your gut bacteria. 

If you have a bacterial overgrowth, feeding gut bacteria with fermentable carbs like FODMAPs may cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea 5. A Paleo diet removes some  FODMAPs, such as beans and wheat, but others, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, pears, and onions, are Paleo-friendly, and you may need to try eliminating those. 

Nightshades are another potential food sensitivity, and you may have heard of the AIP diet, or, autoimmune protocol diet. This is a more strict version of the Paleo diet as it also removes eggs and nightshades. Common nightshades include peppers, eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes. Some spices are made from nightshades, too, such as paprika, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and crushed red pepper.

Meet with a Health Provider

While eating in a new way can seem like a lot to figure out, the elimination phase of your diet only lasts for a few weeks, and the potential long-term benefits are almost always worth it. I hope this article helps you feel more confident about starting your elimination diet meal plan. If you’re unsure about going it alone, you can reach out to our providers to work with one of our health coaches who can help guide you.

Dr. Michael Ruscio is a DC, natural health provider, researcher, and clinician. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bridgeport and has published numerous papers in scientific journals as well as the book Healthy Gut, Healthy You. He also founded the Ruscio Institute of Functional Health, where he helps patients with a wide range of GI conditions and serves as the Head of Research.

The Ruscio Institute has developed a range of high-quality formulations to help our clients and audience. If you’re interested in learning more about these products, please click here. Note that there are many other options available, and we encourage you to research which products may be right for you. The information on DrRuscio.com is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.