The Virgin Diet (2012) is a book about losing weight by avoiding food intolerances that affect you personally.

Eliminate
gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, peanuts, sugar and sweeteners
Eat unprocessed, whole, natural foods that are humanely and naturally raised
1-2 meals a day are shakes – Virgin Diet Shakes Challenge
(reintroduce and check reactions) with dairy and eggs to see if there are any reactions and how frequently you can
reintroduce them into your diet
Challenge with gluten and soy to see if you should avoid them completely
Continue to avoid foods you’re intolerant to and regularly check your intolerances Below is a detailed outline of the food
recommendations in the book.
Cycle 1 – elimination | Cycle 2 – reintroduction | Cycle 3 – lifetime

The reasoning behind The Virgin Diet This book advises that the key to weight loss is avoiding and overcoming food
intolerance – food intolerances stress your system and give you negative symptoms including weight gain. Some
people’s bodies simply have difficulty tolerating certain foods, such as gluten, lactose, or MSG. Usually, this is because
the intolerant people are lacking a specific chemical or enzyme that they need to digest the food. This is simply a
genetic problem, and there isn’t much you can do about it except to avoid the foods. Another issue is food sensitivities,
which affect at least 75% of us. They’re a type of immune reaction, but they mobilize a different type of antibody than
food allergies do – not IgE, but immunoglobulin G, or IgG. The symptoms don’t appear until hours or days after you’ve
eaten, and if you continue to eat the offending foods, food sensitivities keep your immune system fired up on a chronic
basis.

Virgin Diet plan food list – what you can eat, and top food intolerance foods to avoid This diet has 3 stages:
Cycle 1 – elimination – 21 days – cut out all the top 7 FI (food intolerance) foods; eat healing foods and healing
supplements
Cycle 2 – reintroduction – 28 days – every week for 4 weeks, test one potentially healthy high-FI food. Based on your
responses, determine whether each food should stay or go
Cycle 3 – lifetime – avoid corn, peanuts, and sugar and artificial sweeteners 95% of the time, rechallenge the potentially
healthy high-FI foods that your reacted to in Cycle 2 after 3 to 6 months to see if you can now tolerate them; every 12
months repeat the program
Do not count calories.

You can make them yourself using vegan pea-rice protein, fiber (fiber blend, chia seeds, hemp seeds, freshly ground
flaxseed meal or nut butter), organic frozen berries, liquid (water, unsweetened coconut milk or coconut water), and
some optional extras (recipe on p. 170 of the book
Note that hemp protein should never be used as a stand-alone protein powder in your shake or otherwise. Rotate your
source of fiber – e.g. between flax seeds, chia seeds, and Extra Fiber.
When assessing a premade shake, here are JJ’s guidelines (p.171):
No artificial sweeteners
5 grams or less of sugar (although the diet guidelines say you should avoid sugars)
No whey, dairy, milk solids, egg or soy (Soy lecithin is okay.)
No maltodextrin
5 grams or more of fiber
Pea protein, rice protein, and/ or hemp protein
Sugar alcohols (Stevia is acceptable.)

If you don’t like the taste or the texture of shakes, here are some suggestions from the FAQs: Try changing the
consistency of the shake – add more liquid, or less fiber. Try the protein powder on its own and see if that’s what you
dislike – if so, try another plant protein instead. Add a tablespoon of almond butter Try different berries Vary the milks
(try coconut milk or water instead of unsweetened almond milk) Add unsweetened cocoa powder Make the shakes
warm (warm the liquid before adding the other ingredients)

Virgin Diet cycle 1 / elimination – food list

This phase is for 21 days / 3 weeks, then move on to Cycle 2 reintroduction.
Cycle 1 of The Virgin Diet – what to eat

Week 1 – jump week – each day eat 2 Virgin Diet Shakes, 1 meal, optional snack.
Weeks 2 and 3 – healing weeks – each day eat 1 Virgin Diet Shake, 2 meals, optional snack (you can do 2 shakes if you
prefer)
Keep a food journal of everything you eat
Eat a substantial, balanced breakfast, generally around 400-500 calories
Everything you eat should have 5 grams of sugar or less
You should never eat the same foods every day, as that can cause food intolerances. The shakes are an exception as they
are low-reactive.
Meal timing
Drink your Virgin Diet Shake within an hour of waking up. If you’re working out first thing, you can have half
your shake before and half after.
Eat only every 4-6 hours, 3 meals a day (less ideal option – 2 meals, an afternoon snack, then a final meal). If you
are an athlete and actively increasing your muscle mass, eat every 4 hours and have a meal 4 times a day instead
Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed
Plate proportion
Percentages not given in the book, here is an approximation of what’s shown
25% clean lean proteins, 30% nonstarchy vegetables, 25% healthy fats, 15% high-fiber, lowglycemic carbs, 5%
nuts
Fiber
Eat at least 50 grams of fiber per day – slowly increase your fiber so your body can adjust to it
Soluble fiber is great
Top sources: Raspberries, lentils, nuts, seeds (especially chia seeds and freshly ground flaxseeds), kale, quinoa,
avocado, apples, winter squash, broccoli
Water and other beverages
When you get up: 16 ounces
30-60 minutes before each meal: 16 ounces
During a meal: limit to 4-8 ounces
Start drinking water again 60 minutes after each meal
Before bed: 8 ounces
Daily total: 64 ounces minimum, more if you are in a hot climate, exercise heavily, or are heavier. You should be
drinking approximately half your weight in ounces.
Green tea is a good option
Limit coffee to 1 or 2 cups per day. If you can enjoy a cup in the morning and it doesn’t keep you awake at
night, choose organic coffee, grind your own beans, and use either a French press or unbleached coffee filters.
If you drink green drinks, e.g. from a juice bar or home-made, they should be all green vegetables, such as
cabbage, kale, broccoli, spinach and celery – no fruits, beets, apples, carrots, or other high-glycemic vegetables or fruits.
You can use powdered green drinks as long as they don’t have sugar in them.

Clean, lean proteins

4-6 ounces for women, 6-8 ounces for men per meal
Grass-fed beef, hormone-free free-range chicken and turkey, pasture-fed lamb and pork, pea-rice protein, wild
cold-water fish, wild game
Enjoy lean red meat 3 or 4 times a week, focusing on game and lamb. Get the rest of your protein from chicken,
turkey, fish, and Virgin Diet Shakes
Enjoy 2-3 6-oz servings of lowest-mercury fish per week – anchovies, butterfish, calamari/squid, catfish, farmed
caviar, clams, king crab, crawfish/crayfish, flounder, Alaskan halibut, herring, spiny/rock lobster, oysters, pollock, salmon,
sardines, scallops, shrimp, sole, tilapia, freshwater trout, whitefish
For vegetarians: eat a good blend of nuts, seeds, grains and legumes, especially lentils, which are the highest in
protein

Healthy fats
 1-3 servings of healthy fat per meal; 1 serving = 100 calories. 1 tablespoon of fat, 1/3 avocado, or the fat in
grass-fed beef, pasture-fed pork, lamb, or wild cold-water fish
Avocado, coconut milk or oil, extra-virgin olive oil (don’t cook it at medium or high heat) , olives, palm fruit oil,
sesame oil, wild cold-water fish
Rock stars: red palm fruit oil and coconut oil
Raw nuts (no peanuts) and nut butter, raw seeds (chia, hemp, freshly ground flaxseed meal), Nuts – soak them
overnight to reduce issues from lectins, phytates and other enzyme inhibitors. Limit of 1-3 servings a day (5 brazil or
macadamia nuts, 10 walnuts, almonds, or cashews, or a tablespoon of nut butter, not peanut butter)
You can enjoy ghee, or clarified butter, ideally from grass-fed cows, even in Cycle 1 as it has no milk solids

High-fiber, low-glycemic carbs

½ cup for women, 1 cup for men per meal
Legumes including: Adzuki beans, black beans, chick peas / garbanzos, cowpeas, great northern beans, kidney
beans, lentils, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, split peas, white beans. Whenever possible, consume soaked,
sprouted, or fermented
Non-gluten grains including: Brown rice, brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta, brown rice wraps, millet, oat bran,
quinoa. Whenever possible, consume soaked, sprouted, or fermented
Starchy vegetables including: Beets, carrots (raw only and along with other foods), french beans, jicama, okra,
pumpkin, squash (acorn, butternut, winter), sweet potato or yam, tomatoes, turnip. Note – don’t eat potatoes, which are
high on the glycemic index (JJ says they’re basically just big lumps of sugar) and most people have more than just a
tablespoon or two of them
Grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables can be incorporated into a healthy diet if they are not eaten in excess –
1-4 servings a day, where a serving is approximately ½ cup

Non-starchy vegetables
2+ cups raw or 1+ cups cooked per meal, the more the better
Arugula, beet greens, cabbage, chicory, collard greens, dandelion greens, endive, kale, lettuce, mustard greens,
radicchio, spinach, swiss chard, turnip greens, watercress
Artichokes, asparagus, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, bell peppers*, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cassava,
cauliflower, celery, chives, coriander, eggplant*, endive, fennel, garlic, green beans, jalapeño peppers*, kohlrabi,
mushrooms, onions, parsley, radishes, shallots, spaghetti squash, summer squash, tomatoes*, zucchini (*nightshades,
may cause issues for some people)

Low-GI to moderate-GI fruits

In moderation
Low-glycemic index fruits – favor these – blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, elderberries, gooseberries,
loganberries, raspberries, strawberries
Moderate-glycemic fruits – eat in moderation – apples, apricots, cherries, grapefruit, kiwi, lemons, limes, melons,
nectarines, oranges, passion fruit, peaches, pear, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, tangerines
If you have issues with insulin resistance or high triglycerides, you should only have one fruit per day or maybe
even none

Low-FI foods – the least reactive foods

Proteins: Hormone-free free-range chicken and turkey, pasture-fed lamb, pea, rice, and/or hemp protein, wild
cold-water fish
Nonstarchy vegetables: All, but especially focus on: Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, deep green leafy vegetables,
kale, spinach
Fruit: Apples, blueberries
Fats: Avocado, chia seeds, coconut oil and coconut milk, extra-virgin olive oil, freshly ground flaxseed meal, palm
fruit oil
High-fiber starchy carbs: brown rice, lentils, quinoa, sweet potatoes

Fermented foods
Soaked, fermented, sprouted, or pickled – not commercially
 Pickled cabbage – traditionally prepared sauerkraut, kimchi
Fermented fish sauces without gluten
Kombucha without added sugar
Dark chocolate – up to 2 ounces per day
In cycle 3 if you can handle some dairy – greek-style yogurt or kefir
Sweeteners
100% organic pure stevia extract powder with no maltodextrin; xylitol. Also see JJ’s take on alternative
sweeteners, which says that monk fruit and erythritol are okay.

Healing foods and spices

Aloe juice, apples, artichokes, avocado, beets, blueberries/berries, broccoli, cabbage, chia seeds, cilantro,
cinnamon, coconut / coconut milk, curcumin/turmeric, dandelion greens, extra-virgin olive oil, flaxseed meal, fresh garlic,
ginger, green tea, lentils, oregano, palm fruit oil, pomegranate, red onions, red peppers, rosemary, sauerkraut, sea salt,
seafood (especially salmon, sardines, sole, scallops), sweet potato, xylitol

Cycle 1 of The Virgin Diet – what not to eat

The top 7 high-FI foods – completely avoid even the smallest traces of these foods:
Gluten – in all brans, baked beans, biscuits and cookies, blue cheeses, bread and bread rolls, breadcrumbs,
brown rice syrup, bulgur wheat, cakes, cheap brands of chocolate, chutneys and pickles, couscous, crispbreads, crumble
topping, durum, farina, gravy powders and stock cubes, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), imitation crabmeat, licorice,
luncheon meats (may contain fillers), malt vinegar, malted drinks, many salad dressings, matzo flour/meal, meat and fish
pastes, muesli, muffins, mustard and dry mustard powder, pancakes, pasta (E.g. macaroni and spaghetti), pastry and pie
crust, pâtés, pizza, pretzels, Pringles potato chips, pumpernickel, rye bread, sauces (often thickened with flour), sausages
(often contain rusk), scones, seitan, selfbasting turkeys, semolina, shredded suet in packs, some alcoholic drinks, some
breakfast cereals, soups (may be roux-based), soy sauce, spice blends, stuffing, waffles, white pepper, Yorkshire pudding.
Make sure you’re only buying oatmeal marked “gluten-free”
Soy – in Asian foods, energy bars and shakes, miso, prepared foods, soy protein powders, soy milk, soy sauce,
tempeh, teriyaki sauce, textured vegetable protein TVP, tofu, veggie burgers
Dairy – in butter and many margarines, chocolate (except some dark chocolate products), cottage cheese, cow’s,
goats, and sheep’s milk, yogurts, and cheeses, cream, sour cream, halfand-half, whipped cream, cream soups and
chowders, creamy cheese or butter sauces (often served on vegetables and meats), creamy soups and sauces, ice cream,
macaroni and cheese, many baked goods (bread, crackers, and desserts), many baking mixes and pancake mix, many
canned foods (e.g. soups, spaghetti, and ravioli), many salad dressings (e.g. ranch, blue cheese, creamy, and Caesar),
mashed potatoes, shakes and hot chocolate mixes and drinks, whey protein powder. Dairy may be listed on labels as:
Butter or artificial butter flavor, buttermilk or 24/5/2018 The Virgin Diet by JJ Virgin: What to eat and foods to avoid
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buttermilk solids, casein, caseinate, sodium caseinate, cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, lactose, lactalbumin, milk,
milk solids, nonfat milk solids, whey, yogurt, kefir
Eggs – especially corn-fed – in baked goods, batter mixes, Bavarian cream, boiled dressing, bouillon, breaded
foods, breads, cake flours, creamy fillings, custards, egg drop soup, egg replacers such as Egg Beaters, flan, french toast,
fritters, frosting, hollandaise sauce, ice cream, macaroons, malted drinks, marshmallows, mayonnaise, meat loaf,
meringues, noodles, pancakes, puddings, quiche, salad dressings, sauces, sausages, soufflés, tartar sauce, waffles. Egg
may be listed on labels as albumin, egg protein, egg white, egg yolk, globulin, livetin, ovalbumin, ovomucin, ovomucoid,
ovovitellin, powdered egg, vitellin
Corn – in breakfast cereals, cerelose, corn chips, corn syrup, dextrose, dyno, glucose, grits, high fructose corn
syrup HFCS, hominy, maize, margarine, popcorn, puretose, sweetose, corn starch, corn oil, vegetable oil
Peanuts – in baked goods, baking mixes, battered foods, biscuits, breakfast cereals, candy, cereal-based
products, chili sauce, Chinese dishes, cookies, egg rolls, ice cream, margarine, marzipan, milk formula, pastry, peanut
butter, satay sauce and dishes, soups, Thai dishes, vegetable fat, vegetable oil. May be listed on labels as emulsifier
(uncommon), flavoring, ground nut, oriental sauce, peanut, peanut butter
Sugar and artificial sweeteners. Sugar in agave nectar, barley malt, beet sugar, blackstrap molasses, brown
sugar, buttered syrup, cane juice crystals, cane sugar, caramel, carob syrup, castor sugar, confectioner’s sugar, corn
sweeteners, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, d-mannose, date sugar, demerara sugar, dextrin, dextrose, diastatic malt,
diatase, ethyl maltol, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucose, glucose
solids, golden sugar, golden syrup, grape sugar, high fructose corn syrup HFCS, honey, icing sugar, invert sugar, lactose,
malt syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, muscovado sugar, panocha, raw sugar, refiner’s syrup, rice
syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sucrose, sugar, syrup, treacle, turbinado sugar, yellow sugar. Artificial sweeteners
including diet sodas, other artificially sweetened foods, sweeteners including acesulfame potassium, alitame, aspartame,
aspartame-acesulfame salt, cyclamate, NutraSweet, saccharin, Splenda, sucralose. Note that this isn’t a no-sugar diet, it’s
a low-glycemic diet and you shouldn’t add sugars – everything you eat should have 5 grams of sugar or less – learn
more about why the Virgin diet is not a no-sugar diet.
Processed foods, including gluten-free processed foods
Proteins
Avoid commercially fed animal protein, fed on corn/soy and given hormones
Avoid farm-raised fish
Avoid fish that’s heavy in mercury and other heavy metals – grouper, king mackarel, marlin, orange roughy,
shark, swordfish
Limit other high mercury fish to 1-2 6-oz servings a month – saltwater bass, bluefish, Atlantic halibut,
American/Maine lobster, mahi mahi, sea trout, canned white albacore tuna, fresh bluefin tuna, fresh ahi tuna
Eat no more than six 6-oz servings of lower-mercury fish per month – cod, crab (Dungeness, blue, snow),
monkfish, snapper, canned chunk light tuna, fresh Pacific albacore tuna

Fats
Avoid rancid, refined, or hydrogenated (trans) fats
Sometimes nightshades can cause you trouble
If you have joint pain, try avoiding: Eggplants, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes
High-glycemic index foods
Fruits: Bananas, grapes, mango, papaya, pineapple, watermelon
Fruit juice
Dried fruit
Potatoes, and anything made with potatoes
Any other high-glycemic index foods
Beverages
Avoid soft drinks
Avoid alcohol
Bottled water in plastic bottles
You could have rice milk, almond milk, or hemp milk a bit here and there if coconut milk is not available, as
they’re loaded with sugars or carbohydrates without nutrients. Fallback is unsweetened almond milk.

Genetically modified foods / GMOs

Virgin Diet cycle 2 / reintroduction – food list

This phase is for 28 days/4 weeks. Every week for 4 weeks, test one potentially healthy high-FI food. Based on your
responses, determine whether each food should stay or go. Then you can go on to the Cycle 3 lifetime diet.

Cycle 2 of The Virgin Diet – what to eat

As above, plus reintroduce one forbidden food per week – eggs and dairy (as they’re potentially healthy), soy and gluten
(potentially unhealthy, testing to see whether you need to by hypervigilant about them).
Only use healthy, unprocessed versions of these foods and in moderate amounts. Do not indulge in these foods during
reintroduction
Week 1 – test soy
Monday to Thursday, add 1 meal that includes soy to your meal plan, from the recipes in the book
Friday to Sunday, go back to your soy-free diet
Track your symptoms every day
Week 2 – test gluten
Monday to Thursday, add 1 meal that includes gluten to your meal plan, from the recipes in the book
Friday to Sunday, go back to your gluten-free diet
 Track your symptoms every day
Week 3 – test eggs
Monday to Thursday, add 1 meal that includes eggs to your meal plan, from the recipes in the book
Friday to Sunday, go back to your egg-free diet
Track your symptoms every day
Week 4 – test dairy
Monday to Thursday, add 1 meal that includes dairy to your meal plan, from the recipes in the book
Friday to Sunday, go back to your dairy-free diet
Track your symptoms every day
If you can’t tolerate cow’s milk, you may be okay with goat’s and sheep’s milk in Cycle 2. The best way to
consume this type of milk is raw and fermented, in the form of kefir or yogurt. Try a separate challenge for these

Even if you discover that you can tolerate gluten, soy, or eggs, do not add them back into your diet during the other
three challenge weeks
If by mistake you have one of the forbidden foods in cycle 1, make sure you wait 21 days before you challenge the food
you inadvertently ate
If you show a response on the first day, then that’s not a food that you should be eating. You can rechallenge it again in
3 months if you want to.
If you notice a symptom by the fourth day, you can put that food into your diet every fourth day – not any more often,
or you might start reacting more intensely
If you show no reaction, especially to eggs and/or dairy, then these are foods that you can work into your diet in cycle 3
– every second or third day, not every day If you still have symptoms and aren’t noticing that they’re triggered by these
four foods, you might have trouble with the second tier – shellfish, tree nuts, citrus, and strawberries. Give yourself a 3-
week period to drop those completely from your diet and see what happens

Cycle 2 of The Virgin Diet – what not to eat

As cycle 1, but the foods listed in Cycle 2 “what to eat” are reintroduced

Virgin Diet cycle 3 / lifetime diet – food list

Cycle 3 of The Virgin Diet – what to eat

As cycle 1, plus the foods that you can tolerate tested in cycle 2
Continue assembling meals as before, using the Virgin Diet Plate (plate proportions) and focusing on clean, lean protein;
healthy fats; high-fiber low-glycemic carbs; and nonstarchy vegetables
At least 95% of the time, avoid sugar, artificial sweeteners, gluten, corn, soy, and peanuts
Use the 3-bite rule – once or twice a week, you can have three polite bites of something you otherwise wouldn’t eat
(including desserts) as long as it isn’t something to which you react badly.
If you can tolerate them, include healthy forms of eggs and dairy based on how you did in cycle 2: if you had no
reaction, you can eat them every other day. If you had a reaction by the fourth day, you can eat them every 4 days. If you
reacted immediately, leave them out for at least 3 months
Follow the meal timing guidelines above
Substitute 1 meal each day with a Virgin Diet Shake
Stay hydrated
You can reintroduce alcohol – limit to one glass of red wine per day for women or two glasses for men. You could
perhaps treat yourself to one gluten-free beer per week; choose dark beers
Use non-food rewards
If you’re still trying to lose weight
Replace 2 meals per day with Virgin Diet Shakes
Replace your high-fiber starchy carbs with more nonstarchy vegetables
Drink more green tea to boost your metabolism
Up your fiber
Make sure you drink enough water
 Shift from higher fat animal protein such as grass-fed beef and lamb, to lower fat chicken breasts, turkey breasts,
and scallops

Move through cycles 1, 2, and 3 once a year, every year, for the rest of your life, to recheck what you can tolerate as this
may change

Cycle 3 of The Virgin Diet – what not to eat

As cycle 2
Any foods that you react negatively to
Alcohol over 1 glass a day for women and 2 glasses for men; mixed drinks
95% of the time avoid the forbidden foods that you don’t react negatively to. Use the 3-bite rule – once or twice a week,
you can have three polite bites of something you otherwise wouldn’t eat as long as it
isn’t something to which you react badly.