Allergen Exclusions & Combinatorial Fallbacks: Planning Without Eggs, Dairy, or Nuts

1. The Triple-Elimination Bottleneck

When eggs, dairy (casein and whey), and tree nuts are excluded simultaneously, naive recipe databases collapse. Over 70% of published low-carb recipes rely on one or more of these three allergens as emulsifiers, binders, or primary fat vehicles.

Under standard meal planning algorithms, filtering these allergens triggers severe menu repetition or drops daily caloric intake below metabolic baselines. A deterministic solver must explore non-dairy, non-nut lipid spaces.

2. Clean Alternative Lipid Vehicles

To maintain an unyielding 70% to 75% fat ratio without dairy or nuts, recipes must pivot to monounsaturated and saturated plant and animal fats: cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, Hass avocado oil, virgin coconut cream, beef tallow, and sesame tahini.

Tahini and sunflower seed butter provide rich, nutty flavor profiles and micronutrient density (magnesium, copper, zinc) with zero almond or walnut allergen proteins.

3. Combinatorial Variety Enforcement

Eliminating allergens must never result in eating ground beef and steamed spinach fourteen times in a row. Repast's solver enforces a minimum diversity threshold: at least four distinct animal protein sources (e.g. wild salmon, chicken thighs, grass-fed chuck, pork tenderloin) across any 7-day plan.

Identical dinners are prohibited within a 48-hour rolling window, ensuring culinary sustainability despite strict biological exclusions.

4. Micronutrient Compensation Without Dairy or Eggs

Eggs and dairy provide concentrated sources of choline, bioavailable calcium, riboflavin, and iodine. When they are removed, the planner must intentionally integrate canned bone-in wild sardines, beef liver or heart, dark leafy brassicas, and unrefined mineral sea salt to prevent micronutrient deficiencies.