Gracie Diet By Carlos Gracie - Train Your Body and Hunger

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This content has been Fact-Checked by a Certified Nutritionist in our Publishing Team. Learn more here. Always consult a medical professional before commencing any diet.

The Gracie Diet also known as the Jiu-Jisu Diet became one of the most popular and trusty guides, developed and used by Carlos Gracie.

The program focus on creating healthy eating habits that involve having meals in intervals and not mixing certain food groups.

After 50 years of its creation, the program remains successful and it is known to have positively affected many people’s lives.

What Is Gracie Diet?

“Make your nourishment your cure”.

These are the words by a great philosopher, Hippocrates, that inspired Carlos Gracie to create Gracie Diet.

Carlos Gracie used to suffer from several health problems such as migraines.

Realizing that something had to be changed, Carlos committed several years of his life to carefully research various diets and groups of food.

His key findings were:

Most of the health problems arise from consuming foods incompatible with one another.
Eating at small intervals helped him transfer his weak body into an athletic figure. Gracie believed that you should give your metabolism at least 4 hours after every meal. This way the body can absorb more nutrients. This is also a good habit to train your body to eat only when you are hungry.

These 2 points helped Carlos to come up with what we all know today, the Gracie Diet.

What Gracie Diet offers:

A useful and well-structured guide to avoiding poisonous food combinations.
Gives your body essential nutrients and vitamins for longevity.
Keeps the pH level of the blood neutral.

How it works

The principal is quite simple; there are 6 main food groups.

The items listed in each of the food groups can be combined with one another or with the ones from other groups.

Certain lists contain foods to be consumed without mixing with other foods.

Proven Results

To prove his new method, Carlos Gracie tested the efficiency of his program on him and his family – including children, grandchildren, and nephews.

As the diet focused on listening to the body and nourishing it with vitamins and other beneficial substances, it was perfectly safe for both adults and young children.

Carlos Gracie lived a healthy and active life after adopting the Gracie Diet.

Most of his family members who adopted Gracie Diet lived until their mid-90’s. Some of them became prominent athletes and masters of mixed martial arts, Jiu-Jitsu being the most popular.

Rorion Grace, Carlos’s nephew has published The Gracie Diet Book where he shares his family story, their diet habits, and how to get healthy and strong. The family credit the Gracie Diet for their achievements, because they believe there is a tight connection between good nutrition and increased physical performance.

For over 50 years Gracie Diet has been a successful way for many people who wanted to get in shape in a super healthy way and increase performance.

Gracie Diet Benefits

Taking into account the time Gracie Diet has been around and the fact that it has been widely used by athletes to remain in excellent physical shape, you can be sure that Gracie Diet offers plenty of benefits.

Unlike the fad diets that usually promise quick but short-term results, the Gracie Diet will get you there without starving yourself.

It may sound too good to be true, however, the practice has proved that a balanced diet is more likely to provide consistent weight loss compared to restrictive diets.

Overall, there are no health risks associated with this diet, and anyone may try it, except for pregnant women.

The main benefits are the following:

1. It encourages weight loss without losing muscle mass

The diet is perfect for you if your main goal is to gain muscle and look fit. As the program includes almost all types of foods (protein, vegetables, fruits, milk, etc.) there will be no loss of muscle which is super important to lose weight.

2. It nourishes the body

The program can be implemented by both children and adults. Its main focus is to take care of the body by making it stronger and not letting it get sick through incorrect food combinations.

3. It balances blood pH

Carlos Gracie noticed that just like any farmer is responsible for controlling the soil pH level before they plant anything, we too need to be aware of our blood pH level. Blood pH is an essential element of the digestive system. A neutral pH level helps the body to better absorb all the beneficial substances.

That’s why it is important to learn about certain food combinations that can make our blood less alkaline.

4. It provides healthy food combinations

It is no secret that certain foods don’t go with each other well. The Gracie diet focuses on guiding people to make healthy choices and not mixing foods that may have a poisonous effect on our bodies.

Gracie Diet Food Groups

To help you get started here is a detailed list of what you can eat on Gracie diet.

Group A

This group includes various vegetables and greens. It also includes healthy fats, meats, and seafood, which you can easily combine with Group B foods to get your tasty and healthy meal. Here is the detailed list of Group A ingredients.

Vegetables and Greens

Artichokes
Asparagus
Arugula
Basil
Bay leaves
Bell peppers
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Butternut squash
Beets- red
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cilantro
Corn- fresh
Cucumbers
Eggplants
Endive
French beans
Garlic
Ginger
Green Beans
Green onions
Hearts of palm
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Okra
Onions
Oregano
Parsley
Peas- Fresh
Pumpkin
Radish
Red cabbage
Savoy cabbage
Spinach
Soy- Fresh
Turnip
Tomatoes- Sweet
Watercress

Meats and Seafood

Chicken
Crab
Crawfish
Eggs
Fish
Fish eggs
Lobster
Mussels
Octopus
Oysters
Red Meat
Shellfish
Shrimp
Squid

Healthy Fats

Avocados
Almonds
Butter/Margarine
Brazilian nuts
Cashews
Cocoa
Coconut-dried
Hazelnuts
Melted cheeses
Nuts in general
Olives
Olive oil
Peanuts
Pine nuts
Sesame seeds
Walnuts
Wheat Germ

Group B

The components included in Group B are presented below. Just keep in mind that you should not mix the starches with each other.

Barley
Breadfruit
Cereals in general
Chestnuts
Corn flour
Beans
Soy
Corn(popcorn)
Peas
Lentils
Manioc
Oats
Potatoes
Quinoa
Rice
Rye
Starches in general
Sweet potatoes
Wheat and derivatives
Yams

Group C

Group C contains different sweet fruits, creamy and fresh cheeses that perfectly go with each other and with the ingredients from Group B (which are not prepared with fat like butter, oil). Here are the components of Group B.

*The noted ingredients should not be mixed with each other.

Apples-red*
Acai
Bananas-dried, baked or cooked
Cherimoya*
Cheese-fresh
Coconut-fresh
Cottage cheese
Cream cheese
Monterey Jack cheese
Dates
Figs-fresh
Grapes-sweet*
Guava*
Honey
Jaca fruit
Melons
Papaya
Pears-sweet
Persimmons
Plums-sweet*
Prunes
Raisins
Ricotta cheese
Sugar cane syrup or juice
Sugar in general
Watermelon
All sweet fruits in fresh condition
Teas of leaves or peel of an orange, apple, lemon, fig leaves, black tea, mate, cider, chamomile, various herbs, etc.

Group D

The ingredients included in Group D are presented below. You just need to remember that acidic fruits should not be mixed with each other or with anything else during this diet program.

Apples-green
Apricots
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Cider
Currants
Grapes-acidic
Grapefruit
Kiwis
Lime
Lemons
Mangos
Oranges
Peaches
Pears-acidic
Pineapples
Plums-acidic
Pomegranate
Quince
Raspberries
Strawberries
Tangerines
Tomatoes
All acidic fruits

Group E

The core element of this group is raw bananas, which can be mixed with:

Apples-red
Cheese-fresh
Cream-fresh
Figs-fresh
Grapes-sweet
Melons
Milk
Papaya
Pears-sweet
Plums-sweet
Watermelon
All fresh sweet fruits

However, you should not combine raw bananas with:

Avocados
Butter
Dried fruits
Honey
Olive oil
Oily fruits
Sugar in general
Sugar cane
Oil/fat in general
Ingredients from Group A and Group B

Group F

The main ingredient of group F is milk, which you can freely blend with:

Bananas-raw or baked
Breadfruit
Cooked Yolk
Artificial sweeteners
All components from Group B
Milk derivatives except for curdled milk, kefir, yogurt, and other curdled daily products, that are not recommended to eat with other things.

On the other hand, there are some products, which you should not combine with milk:

Avocado
Egg whites
Fruits in general
Meats in general
Oils and fats
Oily fruits
Olives
Sugar in general
All ingredients from group A

Gracie Diet Rules

Unlike other standard diets that have countless rules and restrictions, the Gracie diet is pretty simple. The rules here serve as guides to get you on the right track towards healthy eating and lifestyle.

So, there are only 4 main points to remember when you are about to choose your meal.

Rule no. 1 – Eat in intervals

While many diets encourage people to eat every 2 hours but with relatively smaller portions, for Gracie Diet you will be required to keep 4-5-hour intervals between your meals.

As not mixing the food types is the cornerstone of this diet, eating in intervals becomes extremely important. If you have a proper meal and you eat something else in less then 4 hours, you are mixing the meals, as your tummy won’t have sufficient time to digest the first meal.

This also means that you are not allowed to snack. So, every day you will have about three main meals.

Rule no. 2 – Don’t mix

This rule is about following the food group guide and making sure you combine foods that are compatible with one another.

As mentioned earlier, this is essential for keeping the alkaline level neutral that directly affects digestion. Avoid consuming cereals with cereals, fat with sugar, acidic foods with other acidic foods.

Rule no. 3 – Eat only when you are hungry

Overeating is the number one enemy when you are trying to lose weight. Always make sure you are 80% full when you are done with your meal.

Rule no. 4 – Fast once a month

Gracie diet fasting is another important rule to follow if you hope to shed some weight.

It will take only 1 day but will make a huge difference in case you decide to consistently commit to this program. You may also add more fasting days whenever you feel comfortable. It will eliminate the toxins and other impacts of modern-day life from the body.

Check out our fasting ultimate guides:

This is also one of the reasons why pregnant women are not advised to implement the Gracie diet.

Gracie Diet Phases

If you are a newbie in dieting then we offer a short plan for getting started with the Gracie diet. There are three main phases and you start with following the most important rule – eating in intervals.

Phase 1 (Eating in intervals)

During the first week, you are advised to plan your meals in such a way that there is a 4-5-hour interval between them. You may eat whatever you want but don’t snack.

Phase 2 (Eliminate desserts and sodas)

During your second week try to eliminate sugar and sugary drinks from your diet. So, repeat the steps in phase 1 and avoid desserts and soda. Making small steps will eventually get the result you want.

Phase 3 (Don’t mix starches within the same meal)

For your third week add a new recommendation, which is eating 1 starch per meal. So, if your favorite food is a burger, don’t order French fries with it.

Gracie Diet Meal Plan

Here is a sample 1-day meal plan to give you more detailed insight.

Breakfast

Oatmeal
Raisins
Dates or honey
Fruit juice (e.g. apple)

Lunch

Baked salmon and rosemary
Vegetable salad with olive oil and pistachios
Quinoa
Carrot juice

Dinner

Rye bread
Cottage cheese
Watermelon juice
Raisins, dates or honey

Gracie Diet Results – Does it really work?

Like any other diet, the Gracie diet may not necessarily work for everyone. There is no scientific proof regarding diet success and the positive effects of food combinations.

However, the Gracie diet has been practiced for about 50 years and many people admit to having successfully transformed their way of living, eating habits, and bodies.

The good thing about the Gracie diet is that it eliminates mindless snacking, encourages healthy eating, takes care of the body, and provides useful tips for making better food choices.

Always consult your doctor before starting any diet.

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