4 Amazing Whole30 Health Benefits

July 14, 2025

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There are several diets that can support your health goals, and one of the most popular is the Whole30 diet. This 30-day elimination program encourages you to cut out alcohol, sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, and additives. The health benefits of Whole30 are truly amazing. Read on to discover what you need to know about the diet, along with some delicious Whole30 recipes from Melissa Hartwig’s cookbook.

What You Need To Know

Melissa Hartwig’s tough-love, no-nonsense approach from It Starts With Food—which sold over half a million copies and sparked the #Whole30 movement—continues with her new Whole30 Cookbook: 150 Delicious And Totally Compliant Recipes To Help You Succeed With the Whole30 And Beyond. Hartwig’s program offers a short-term nutritional reset that helps heal your gut, restore your metabolism, boost your immune system, and curb unhealthy cravings and habits.

We spoke with New York Times bestselling author and certified sports nutritionist Hartwig about the feel-good benefits you can expect when you dive into her popular eating plan, along with all 150 new Whole30-approved recipes.

Whole30 Rules

To start Whole30, you’ll need to eliminate the following foods and drinks:

Alcohol
Grains
Legumes
Dairy
MSG
Sulfites
Carrageenan

Why? “We eliminate foods the scientific literature and our clinical experience have shown to be very commonly problematic, to varying degrees, across a broad range of people,” Hartwig says. This elimination phase has helped its followers with a varied array of health problems, from high blood pressure and depression to endometriosis and fibromyalgia.

“You can’t figure out how these foods are actually impacting your health, habits, and relationship with food if you’re still eating a little bit here and there; you have to completely eliminate them, like, 100 percent, for a period of time, then carefully reintroduce them one at a time and compare your experience,” she says. “It sounds rigid, but it’s the only way you’ll know for sure how these foods are affecting you.”

So…what can you eat? In two words, real food: Plenty of vegetables and fruit; meat, seafood, and eggs; and natural, healthy fats such as coconut oil, ghee, and olive oil.

If you abide by the (ironclad) rules, you will eventually see a much healthier immune system, gut, blood pressure, and more; but in the short term, here are the immediate results Hartwig says you can expect:

1. Vitality and Energy

Energy Whole30 health benefits Unsplash — Credit: Unsplash

“The Whole30 began as a self-experiment in April 2009, to see if a 30-day squeaky eating plan would help my athletic performance and recovery,” Hartwig says. Her co-founder was also dealing with chronic shoulder pain. “We had stunning results. His shoulder pain completely disappeared, and my relationship with comfort foods and cravings was radically transformed.” Both Hartwig and her partner discovered that once they had isolated the foods that negatively impacted their own bodies, they felt a significant increase in energy and vitality.

Oftentimes, removing these foods from your system does result in weight loss, but that’s a side benefit: “Your reset is about so much more than just weight loss,” Hartwig writes in the Whole30 cookbook. “Focusing on your body composition means you’ll miss out on the most dramatic and lifelong benefits this plan has to offer.” Whole30, in other words, is holistic—expect to see changes beyond the body.

2. A Happier Attitude

Cravings Sweets Sugar Unsplash — Credit: Unsplash

“Mood actually improves as the Whole30 program progresses,” Hartwig says. “Once your blood sugar is better managed, energy is up, sleep is better—it’s hard not to have a sunnier disposition!”

For many, strict rules around food can actually be liberating: “Having black-and-white rules around your food can be really comforting for many. Feeling in control of your food for the first time in a long time helps you feel more in control of other areas of your life, too.”

3. Cravings Stop

“Cravings are almost always born of habits or an emotional response to a life circumstance,” Hartwig says. For that reason, she strongly discourages replacing a hankering for a chocolate-covered macaroon with, say, a coconut-and-chocolate nut bar.

“That just continues to feed the cravings and the habits! Instead, by knowing the average craving only lasts for 3 to 5 minutes, distract yourself by calling a friend, tidying up, going outside, or reading a few pages of your book,” she says. And to stop the cravings in the first place, be sure to eat a balanced breakfast, lunch, and dinner, eating nutrient-rich food like Hartwig’s One-Pan Herb-Crusted Roasted Salmon With Roasted Broccoli Steak, below.

4. Your Relationship With Food Changes

Relationship With Food Eating Unsplash — Credit: Unsplash

“You have to think about Whole30 as the first step in a life-long process,” Hartwig says. “It’s not a diet, it’s not a quick fix, it’s not going to fix every issue you’ve had with food in just 30 days.” The reason people go bananas for the program is that it is a chance for real change.

“It’s an incredible jump-start to a whole new relationship with food, and it can make stunning improvements in your health in one short month.”