The Whole30 Food List: Here's What You Can & Can't Eat

The "no cheat" thing isn't me playing the tough guy or turning the Whole30 into hazing. It's grounded in the science of an elimination diet, during which you have to completely eliminate suspected triggers to accurately evaluate them. (Otherwise, how will you know if life could be better without them?) Plus, the Whole30 is about keeping your promise to yourself. You committed to 30 days of evaluating your health, habits, and relationship with food, and I want you to honor that commitment.

Want the program to actually change your life? Follow the rules 100% for 30 straight days. 

No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, NutraSweet, xylitol, stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products more often than you realize. 

No wine, beer, Champagne, vodka, rum, whiskey, tequila, etc., whether consumed on its own or used as an ingredient—not even for cooking.

This includes wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, sprouted grains, and pseudo-cereals like amaranth, buckwheat, or quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn, and rice into our goods in the form of bran, germ, starch, and so on. Again, read your labels. 

This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. This also includes all forms of soy—soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like soybean oil or soy lecithin). No peanut butter, either. The only exceptions are green beans and snow/snap peas. 

This includes cow's-, goat's-, and sheep's-milk products such as cream, cheese, kefir, yogurt, and sour cream. The only exceptions are clarified butter and ghee. 

If these appear in any form in the ingredient list of your processed food or beverage, it's out for the Whole30.

No banana-egg pancakes, paleo tortillas, avocado oil potato chips, or coconut-milk ice cream. Your cravings and habits won't change if you keep eating these foods, even if they are made with Whole30 ingredients.

Your reset is about so much more than just weight loss; focusing on your body composition means you'll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer. So no weighing yourself, analyzing body fat, or breaking out the tape measure during the 30-day elimination. 

These foods are exceptions to the rules and are allowed during your Whole30.

Clarified butter and ghee are the only sources of dairy allowed during your Whole30, as they've had their milk solids rendered out. Plain old butter is not allowed, as its milk proteins could impact the results of your program.

Products or recipes that include orange, apple, or other fruit juices are permitted on the program, although we encourage you not to go overboard here.

While these are technically legumes, they are far more "pod" than "bean," and green plant matter is generally good for you.

Most vinegar (including white, red wine, balsamic, apple cider, and rice) and alcohol-based botanical extracts (like vanilla, lemon, or lavender) are allowed during your Whole30 program. (Just not malt-based vinegar or extracts, which will be clearly labeled as such, as they contain gluten.) 

All brands of coconut aminos (a brewed and naturally fermented soy sauce substitute) are acceptable, even if you see the word "coconut nectar" on the ingredient list.

All iodized salt contains a tiny amount of dextrose (sugar) as a stabilizer, but ruling out table salt would be unreasonable. This exception will not affect your Whole30 results in any way. 

Here comes the tough love, heavy on the love—perhaps the most famous part of the Whole30. This is for those of you who are considering taking on this life-changing month but aren't sure you can actually pull it off, cheat-free, for a full 30 days. This for people who have tried committing to health initiatives before but "slipped" or "fell off the wagon" or "just had to eat [fill in food here] because of this [fill in event here]." This is for you, said with love.

Fighting cancer is hard. Birthing a baby is hard. Losing a parent is hard. Drinking your coffee black is. Not. Hard. You've done harder things than this, and you have no excuse not to complete the program as written. It's only 30 days, and it's for the most important cause: the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime. 

Unless you physically trip and your face lands in a box of doughnuts, there is no "slip." It is always a choice to eat something unhealthy, and if you open the door now to "Whole30 but…" you will bail on the program, and I cannot allow you to bail on yourself again. Commit to the program 100% for the full 30 days. Don't give yourself an excuse to fail before you've even started. 

You're all adults. Stand up for yourself. Learn to say, "No, thank you" and hold the line without defending, explaining, or excusing your decision. Just because it's your sister's birthday, best friend's wedding, or office party does not mean you have to eat or drink anything. It is always a choice, and I hope we all stopped succumbing to peer pressure in seventh grade.

Meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, dining out, explaining the program to friends and family, and dealing with stress will all prove challenging at some point during your program. I've given you all the tools, guidelines, and resources you'll need in the eight Whole30 books and on our website, and our community is here 24/7 with accountability, resources, advice, and support…but you also have to take responsibility for your own program. Improved health, habits, and relationship with food don't happen automatically just because you're now taking a pass on bread. This will be work, but it will be worth it. 

Text excerpted from The Whole 30 Friends & Family © 2019 by Melissa Hartwig Urban. Photography © 2019 by Ghazalle Badiozamani. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.