Intro Diet

If, for the sake of convenience, you’ve been eating mostly soups for stages 1 and 2, stage 3 might feel like a revelation. Scrambled eggs for breakfast? Squash pancakes? Nut butter? It’s a whole new world!

How This Stage Works

• • Gut calming In stage 3, you’re building on the progress you’ve made by calming your gut and removing reactive foods from your diet.
• • More good bacteria You’re continuing to make headway in controlling your gut’s population of challenging bacteria, introducing more beneficial bacteria, and creating a more favorable environment for the bacteria to thrive.
• • New foods You test the waters with new foods and become more deliberate about the inhabitants of your microbiome.

What You Can Expect

• • Less digestive distress By now, your digestive distress has probably calmed down quite a bit. Moving forward, any recurrence of symptoms is likely to be die-off, especially as you add probiotic foods.
• • Trial and error If you have recurring digestive symptoms, you can step back to the preceding stage for a day and then move forward again. Alternatively, check your food diary to see what food you recently added, remove it, and see how your body responds.
• • Sensitivity testing You can test a suspected food for sensitivity. If you don’t show sensitivity, try reintroducing the food in a few weeks or even months. As your gut heals, you might be able to tolerate foods you never thought you’d be able to eat again.

What You Can Eat

EGGS Cooked eggs in all their marvelous forms are a focus in this stage, providing protein and new textures. Eggs are delicious, and soft- and hard-boiled eggs make a convenient, portable snack.

• • Quality Remember to find the highest-quality eggs possible.
• • Quantity Plan on buying more than a dozen—you might find yourself eating eggs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• • Cooking Cook your eggs more gently at first, for example soft-boiled rather than hard-boiled. Use a lot of animal fat, coconut oil, or ghee when scrambling eggs.

Skillet Asparagus and Eggs is a delicious recipe to add back cooked eggs and vegetables to your diet.

FERMENTED VEGETABLES You can now eat the veggies instead of just the juice. There are two key words to remember as you begin: start slowly.

• • Start small Try 1 or 2 teaspoons with a meal, and look for how your body responds. If your digestive symptoms recur with fermented vegetables, die-off is the likely culprit. Don’t panic, and definitely don’t lose hope. As uncomfortable as it can be, die-off is a good sign. You’re making progress!
• • Small amounts Reduce the amount of vegetables you’re eating, even if that means you’re only eating ½ teaspoon of vegetables at a time.
• • Spread them out You also can reduce the frequency, perhaps eating them with only one meal instead of all three.
• • Reduce symptoms Do what you need to do to reduce your symptoms to a level you can live with. As your symptoms abate, increase the amount and frequency of vegetables until you’re eating 1 or 2 tablespoons with each meal, listening to your body’s responses carefully to set your pace.

Sweet-and-Sour Red Slaw is a tasty way to enjoy fermented vegetables.

HEALTHY FATS AND MORE In stage 3, you also add avocado and nut butter. Mash avocado to make simple guacamole, and eat nut butters on squash pancakes or simply off a spoon.

• • Start with almond butter As always, go slowly and see how your body reacts. If you find that you react to one type of nut butter, try another.
• • Move beyond boiled vegetables You now can add fully cooked (not just boiled) vegetables.
• • Keep up the broth Continue eating foods from stages 1 and 2 you enjoy. Sipping broth in the morning or between meals is still nourishing and healing to your gut.