How to Dine Out on the AIP

Want to know How to Dine Out on the AIP?

The good thing about eating at a restaurant while following the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol is that it actually isn’t that difficult to eat out with this particular diet. Though, it may surely seem that way if you are new to taking your elimination diet with you to your favorite eatery for the first time.

It can actually be very simple to do, no matter what restaurant you go to, as long as you know to keep to the basic AIP guidelines and do a little preparation.

Check out these tips below that make eating out on the AIP stress-free.

Make Your Menu Choices Simple

When you are eating out it’s not necessary to make it complicated and choose one of the newest skillet meals or fancy desserts, or something that requires analyzing every single ingredient of the meal puzzle to check if it’s compliant or not. 99.999% of the time, it’s not going to be compliant as normally prepared in the kitchen!

Instead, just go simple, especially when you are new to dining out on the AIP.

This might mean simply ordering from the healthy part of the menu, like getting plain grilled chicken (salt and olive oil only please, hold the spices!) with steamed vegetables (hold the spices and butter, please!) or the pan-seared salmon (again, hold the spices and request it to be cooked in olive oil) with a dry salad (hold the dressing, hold the non-compliant tomatoes, croutons, cheese, etc).

These are simple, easy meals you know most likely include ingredients you can have while on the AIP.

Be sure to read the next tip below about communicating with restaurant staff so that you know exactly what may be on those meal components first, though!

Speak (Nicely) to the Staff Beforehand

It’s a wonderful idea to call the restaurant ahead and first ask if they can accommodate your AIP diet, and let them know what day and time you’d be coming…if you know that in advance.

List your restricted foods, and also tell them what you CAN have. You can even offer a suggestion of a simple meal that they may be able to prepare for you, and then ask if that is in their kitchen’s capacity.

This works best if you are kind. You don’t ever have to apologize or feel like it’s an inconvenience to be on a dietary protocol, mind you. Rather, be polite and patient with the person on the phone and they will be happier to help you be able to have safe meal options when you arrive at their establishment.

Here’s an example of what you can say to the person on the other line:

“Hi there, my name is Meagen and I am looking forward to dining with you on DATE & TIME.

I am on a medical elimination protocol diet right now and I cannot have many foods commonly prepared in a kitchen; like black pepper, gluten, seed oils, and chilis (to name just a few), and I also have to be very cautious about cross-contamination so that the prepared meal is safe for me to eat.

Would you be able to accommodate me with:

1. A filet of salmon/chicken/pork chop cooked in olive oil and seasoned only with salt?
2. A dry salad with just lettuce, cucumber, and onion?
3. A side of steamed veggies with salt only and no butter or oil?
4. A side of plain, raw fruit for dessert?

Also would it be okay for me to bring my own salad dressing and seasoned salt so I can add some flavour if needed?”

If they let you bring your own flavourings, bring these with you!

AIP Pesto Sauce

AIP Ginger Dressing

AIP All-Purpose Seasoning Salt

Look For Steak or Seafood Restaurants

As far as the type of restaurant goes, steak and seafood should be at the top of your list. Finding AIP-approved meals is simpler when you don’t need to do a lot of substitutions or change half of what the meal is supposed to be (been there, tried that, haha)!

Going to a steak and/or seafood restaurant is so much easier to order a compliant meal, I’ve found. Steak restaurants already have steak as the main component for most of their dishes, and it is probably a higher-quality steak as opposed to ordering steak from a café or diner.

To your unseasoned steak (other than salt), order a baked plain sweet potato and some plain steamed asparagus, and you have a solid, belly-satisfying meal!

With seafood restaurants, go for anything grilled (request olive oil if they grease their grill) or steamed or that is not breaded, fried, or drowning in butter (cough cough, it’s probably margarine) and you should be okay! Just make sure you talk to the staff first about what ingredients you cannot have so that you don’t have any inflammatory surprises.

Be Smart About Fast Food

There are going to be some times when you need to choose food from a fast food restaurant. This is definitely not ideal, but it also doesn’t have to make or break the AIP diet.

Try to get a side salad if you can, and skip the dressing and any other non-compliant items. Let them know you have an allergy and ask them if the salad is made fresh and let them know how serious your diet is.

That way they don’t just pick cheese or croutons off the top! I’ve had this happen before and I had to (politely) send it back because if I ate it I would have gotten sick from the gluten-y crumbs of those croutons and the particles of dairy! (sigh)

Request that your meat, whether it be a chicken breast or a burger patty, be cooked without oil (they are 99.999% NOT going to have olive oil at the drive through) and without any spices but salt.

See if they have raw veggies sticks or apple slices you can have in place of fries. To drink, get an unsweetened iced tea (if you tolerate caffeine) or choose water with a lemon wedge.

Ask for your burger or sandwich to be made ‘protein style’ with a lettuce leaf as the wrapper and an onion slice. Ask to leave off any sauce, pickles, tomato, and cheese. I truly get it…eating plain meat wrapped in a big lettuce leaf by itself is not the epitome of a fabulous or flavourful dining experience…but sometimes we need something NOW so we don’t get the hangries. Plus, it suffices to tide you over until you can get to a healthier, more nutrient dense, AIP compliant meal at home.

I hope you’ve found this post on How to Dine Out on the AIP to be helpful!

Do you have any AIP dining out tricks and tips you’d like to share with me? I’d love to hear. Leave me a comment below!