The Short Answer

People with autoimmune conditions benefit from removing inflammatory foods that trigger immune attacks. The most common culprits are gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and rice. Eliminating these foods for 30 days, along with processed foods, grains, and legumes, typically reduces inflammation and helps stabilize autoimmune symptoms.

The anti-inflammatory diet approach to managing autoimmunity

When we see a new patient with an autoimmune condition, one of the first and most powerful interventions we recommend is an anti-inflammatory diet. This approach works because the standard Western diet actively increases inflammation and chronic disease risk, while a properly designed anti-inflammatory diet is nutrient-dense and low in inflammatory triggers.

At RedRiver, we’ve spent years testing patients, who come from all over the country and around the world, for food intolerances. When you have a food intolerance, the food triggers inflammation in your body every time you eat it. For people managing autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto’s low thyroid, lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis, this chronic inflammation promotes ongoing immune attacks against your own tissues.

Nine foods that commonly trigger autoimmune flares

Based on our clinical experience with immune testing, here are the foods we see most frequently cause problems:

1. Gluten: By far the most inflammatory food we identify in immune testing

2. Dairy: Appears about as often as gluten in triggering inflammation

3. Soy

4. Corn

5. Rice

6. Aspartame: The artificial sweetener used in most diet beverages

7. Pork (beef to a lesser degree)

8. Eggs

9. High-iodine foods: Some people with Hashimoto’s low thyroid respond better to a low-iodine diet. If this applies to you, avoid: Iodized salt, Saltwater fish and seafood, Seaweed, Supplements, multivitamins, or protein powders containing iodine, Dairy products, Foods with additives like carrageen, agar-agar, alginate, or nori, Bakery products made with iodated dough

Additional foods to consider removing

Beyond the nine primary triggers, many autoimmune patients benefit from also eliminating all grains, legumes, nightshade vegetables (peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes), and alcohol. These foods tend to increase inflammation in susceptible individuals.

What you can eat on an anti-inflammatory diet

An anti-inflammatory diet focuses on whole foods that are nutrient-dense and naturally low in inflammatory compounds:

• Poultry and lamb
• Fish (freshwater varieties if avoiding iodine)
• Non-nightshade vegetables
• Fruits (consumed with protein, fat, or fiber to moderate sugar absorption)
• Healthy fats: olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil

The 30-day elimination and results

If you follow an anti-inflammatory elimination diet for 30 days, removing the foods listed above along with sugars, sweeteners, processed foods, and fast foods while including ample vegetables, you’ll typically see a significant reduction in inflammation. Many patients report better energy, clearer thinking, and more stable autoimmune symptoms within this timeframe.

The key is consistency. Removing inflammatory foods while the immune system is actively dysregulated allows your body to begin healing the tissue damage caused by chronic autoimmune attacks.

Contact RedRiver Health and Wellness to work with a functional medicine doctor who specializes in identifying and managing food-triggered autoimmune inflammation.