What is the Dr Axe diet?

October 3, 2025 •

4 min read

According to the website, the Dr. Axe diet is not a single restrictive plan, but a philosophy built around the consumption of nutrient-dense, whole foods to promote healing from within. This approach centers on reducing inflammation, improving gut health, and eliminating common inflammatory culprits from your daily intake.

Quick Summary

A guide to the Dr. Axe diet, detailing its principles of clean, whole-food nutrition, focusing on healing the body and promoting gut health. It covers the types of foods to eat and avoid to reduce inflammation and offers practical advice for implementation.

Key Points

Whole Foods Focus: The diet emphasizes eating nutrient-dense, whole foods like organic fruits, vegetables, and high-quality proteins to support overall health.
Inflammatory Food Elimination: It involves cutting out processed foods, refined sugars and grains, and unhealthy fats to reduce inflammation in the body.
Gut Health Is Key: A central focus is restoring gut integrity and balancing the microbiome through fermented foods, bone broth, and probiotics.
High-Quality Sourcing: The plan encourages consuming organic, grass-fed, and wild-caught animal products to ensure high nutrient content and avoid toxins.
Personalized Protocols: Beyond the core principles, variations like the Keto, Paleo, and AIP diets are offered to address specific health concerns.
Sustainable Lifestyle: Rather than a temporary fix, the diet is promoted as a long-term, sustainable way of eating for better well-being.
Nutrient-Rich Emphasis: By concentrating on minimally processed ingredients, the diet helps prevent nutritional deficiencies common in modern diets.

Core Principles of the Dr. Axe Diet

At its heart, the Dr. Axe diet is an anti-inflammatory, whole-foods approach designed to support the body's natural healing processes. Rooted in the principles of functional medicine and clinical nutrition, the diet avoids processed and refined products while emphasizing nutrient-dense, real food.

Focus on Whole, Nutrient-Dense Foods

The foundation of the diet is eating foods as close to their natural state as possible. This includes a wide array of ingredients packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants essential for health.

Fruits and Vegetables: A colorful variety of produce, such as leafy greens, berries, cruciferous vegetables, and beets, is encouraged daily for antioxidants and fiber.
Quality Protein: The diet prioritizes high-quality sources, recommending grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish like salmon, free-range poultry, and pasture-raised eggs.
Healthy Fats: Fats are not limited but encouraged from healthy sources like avocado, olives, coconut oil, and nuts.

Eliminate Processed and Inflammatory Foods

This principle involves removing foods that can contribute to inflammation and other health issues. Key items to eliminate include:

Refined Grains and Sugars: White bread, pasta, sugary drinks, and baked goods are considered pro-inflammatory and nutrient-poor.
Unhealthy Fats: Refined vegetable oils, shortening, and hydrogenated fats are discouraged.
Conventional Dairy: Standard dairy products are often avoided, with some protocols allowing for raw or goat-based options.

Prioritize Gut Health and Probiotics

Dr. Axe stresses the connection between gut health and overall wellness. The diet actively incorporates foods to support a balanced gut microbiome and heal the intestinal lining.

Fermented Foods: Items like kombucha, kefir, and sauerkraut provide beneficial probiotics.
Bone Broth: Rich in collagen and minerals, bone broth is considered a powerful tool for repairing the gut lining.
Supplements: In some cases, specific supplements like probiotics or collagen are recommended.

What to Eat vs. What to Avoid: A Comparison

To simplify the approach, here is a breakdown of common food categories within the Dr. Axe diet philosophy.


Food Category	Recommended (Eat More)	Avoid/Limit (Eat Less)
Protein	Grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, organic chicken, free-range eggs	Conventionally raised meat, farmed fish, processed meats
Fats	Avocado, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, seeds	Refined vegetable oils, trans fats, shortening
Grains	Whole grains (quinoa, millet, brown rice) in moderation	Refined grains (white bread, pasta), breakfast cereals
Dairy	Raw or fermented goat/sheep milk products, kefir, probiotic yogurt	Conventional cow's milk and cheeses, high-fat/sweetened dairy
Sweets	Natural sweeteners (stevia, honey, maple syrup) in moderation	Added sugars, candy, sugary drinks, baked goods
Beverages	Water, bone broth, herbal tea, kombucha	Soda, juice, sports drinks

Common Variations and Specialized Protocols

The Dr. Axe brand encompasses several diet plans, each with slightly different applications and restrictions.

The Healing Foods Diet

This is a general anti-inflammatory plan that focuses on replacing pro-inflammatory ingredients with nutritious, whole-food alternatives. It aims to decrease inflammation, improve heart health, and stabilize blood sugar levels.

The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)

As a stricter elimination diet, the AIP focuses on removing foods that might trigger autoimmune responses. It excludes common irritants like grains, legumes, dairy, and nightshades to help heal the gut and identify trigger foods.

Keto and Paleo Approaches

Dr. Axe also offers guidance on more specific plans like the ketogenic diet, which is very low-carb and high-fat, and the Paleo diet, which eliminates grains and sugar, mimicking the eating patterns of ancestors.

Benefits and Potential Considerations

While the diet promotes many healthy, whole foods, it is important to consider the benefits and potential drawbacks.

Reported Benefits

Reduced Inflammation: By focusing on anti-inflammatory foods and eliminating inflammatory triggers, the diet aims to lower chronic inflammation, a risk factor for many diseases.
Improved Digestion and Gut Health: The emphasis on probiotics, fiber, and gut-healing foods like bone broth is meant to restore gut integrity and balance.
Weight Management: The focus on whole foods and high-quality protein and fats can increase satiety and reduce overall calorie intake.
Increased Energy: Eating nutrient-dense foods can provide a more steady source of energy, avoiding the crashes associated with sugary or processed items.

Important Considerations

Restrictive Nature: Some variations, especially AIP, are highly restrictive and may be difficult to follow long-term. This can be a risk for nutrient deficiencies if not properly managed.
Sourcing: The reliance on organic, grass-fed, and wild-caught products can make the diet expensive and potentially inaccessible for some.
Supplements: Dr. Axe's brand heavily features supplements, which may be costly and add complexity to the diet.

Getting Started on the Dr. Axe Diet

For those interested in adopting a cleaner, more holistic approach to eating, the following steps can help ease the transition:

Start Gradually: Instead of overhauling your diet overnight, begin by making a few simple, sustainable changes. Swap refined vegetable oils for healthier fats or replace sugary snacks with whole-food alternatives.
Meal Plan: Plan your meals and snacks in advance to avoid impulsive food choices. Batch cooking large portions of healthy meals can help maintain consistency throughout the week.
Prioritize Quality: When shopping, focus on purchasing high-quality, organic, grass-fed, or wild-caught products when possible. This is a core tenet of the diet's philosophy.
Read Labels: Become a diligent label reader to identify hidden sugars, unhealthy fats, and processed ingredients in packaged foods.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the Dr. Axe diet is not a quick fix but a holistic lifestyle designed to improve overall health and wellness by focusing on whole, nutrient-dense foods while minimizing inflammatory ones. By promoting a whole-foods-based, anti-inflammatory approach, it seeks to address the root causes of many chronic health issues through nutritional intervention. While many of its principles align with established healthy eating guidelines, specific variations or claims should always be discussed with a healthcare professional, especially if you have underlying health conditions. For further reading on the anti-inflammatory foods that inspire this plan, consider exploring resources at draxe.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

The primary goal is to support the body's healing processes by consuming nutrient-dense, whole foods while reducing inflammation and improving gut health.

While many people experience weight loss on the diet due to the emphasis on satiating whole foods and the elimination of processed items, it is primarily promoted as a plan for overall health rather than just weight loss.

You should avoid refined sugars, refined grains (like white bread and pasta), processed foods, unhealthy fats, and conventional meat and dairy.

Intermittent fasting is not a mandatory part of the core diet but is often suggested by Dr. Axe as a complementary strategy to help with weight loss, blood sugar control, and detoxification.

Transitioning to the diet may cause temporary side effects like headaches or fatigue, especially when fasting is incorporated. For some, especially with highly restrictive versions like AIP, there is a risk of nutrient deficiencies if not carefully managed.

The diet is safe for many people, but highly restrictive versions may not be suitable for those under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding individuals, or people with a history of eating disorders. It is important to consult a healthcare provider before beginning, particularly if you have a chronic medical condition.

The Healing Foods Diet is a general anti-inflammatory approach, whereas the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) is a stricter version designed specifically to address autoimmune issues by temporarily eliminating more common irritants, such as grains, legumes, and nightshades.

Supplements are often suggested to complement the diet, with Dr. Axe's personal account and books highlighting ingredients like collagen, probiotics, and certain greens powders to boost healing and nutrition.