GAPS Puts Asthma in Remission
An increasing number of folks that I know seem to be trying out the GAPS diet in order to solve a variety of autoimmune issues. The “GAPS Diet“, as it is commonly known, is a temporary way of eating (usually about 18 months) to rebalance and heal/seal the gut wall which halts the flood of toxins from pathogenic strains dominating the gut environment into the bloodstream causing an unpredictable mix of autoimmune symptoms. The diet is described in detail in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MDs book Gut and Psychology Syndrome.
The autoimmune disorders significantly alleviated or healed by the GAPS Diet include the simply annoying, like seasonal allergies, to the more life altering such as autism, fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, and the list goes on and on and on ….
Ok, let’s get real for a minute. Does the GAPS diet really work for alleviating allergies and other autoimmune disorders?
Absolutely it does. My husband used to be the poster boy for allergies. He was allergic to every single prick the allergist tried on him some years ago. Today, he is allergic to nothing. Absolutely nothing. His asthma (during respiratory illness) and eczema are also gone.
Another person I recently talked to has arrested the progression of her IBS symptoms and gotten herself off the medication using the GAPS Diet. In fact, I know many folks who have received significant relief from their autoimmune disorders from the GAPS Diet.
How empowering to know that there is an answer for autoimmune illness and that something as simple as the GAPS diet can make it happen!
The trouble is, GAPS is simple but not necessarily easy. When folks go on GAPS, a number of common mistakes seem to be made. Here is a rundown of the five most frequent mistakes I’ve encountered coaching folks at various stages in the process:
Mistake #1: Going off Grains but Not Starches
The most important premise of GAPS is to eliminate all sources of disaccharide containing foods from the diet until the gut wall can heal and reseal. Most sugars and all grains, even those not containing gluten, are disaccharides and hence must not be consumed while on GAPS as a compromised gut wall is unable to digest them. Undigested food in any form provides the perfect environment for pathogenic viruses, bacteria, and fungi to thrive.
Talking to people on GAPS, I have frequently encountered those who have eliminated all disaccharides from the diet but not all the starches in the form of potatoes, sweet potatoes, arrowroot flour, potato flour, carob powder, cocoa powder, chickpea flour, and almost all beans and legumes (navy beans and lentils are ok).
While starch is not a disaccharide, it is a very complex food molecule, comprised of very long strands of hundreds of monosugars that are very difficult for an imabalanced gut to break down. Undigested starch feeds gut pathogens. Even worse, starch that does manage to get digested results in molecules of maltose, which is a disaccharide!
As a result, for success on GAPS to be achieved and long term results attained, grains and starches must be eliminated.
Mistake #2: Taking a Cheaper Probiotic or No Probiotic at All
GAPS success requires an infusion of strong, therapeutic strength probiotics to reseed the gut with dominant, beneficial flora at the same time the GAPS Diet is starving out the pathogens. Unfortunately, a number of folks I’ve talked to who claim to be on GAPS are not taking a probiotic at all.
This is a mistake – taking a probiotic on GAPS is not an option, it is a must!
In addition, a decent quality probiotic is expensive and some on GAPS may be enticed by some of the cheaper brands available at the healthfood store.
Dr. Campbell-McBride MD warns about this in her book. She writes that most brands on the market are not strong enough or have the correct aggressive probiotic strains necessary to recolonize the gut. Moreover, many brands of probiotics do not contain the strains listed on the label or have the claimed bacterial strength.
To avoid the problem of probiotic label fudging, make sure the brand selected is reputable and can deliver the results you need.
After all, you’re going to all this trouble and inconvenience to eat GAPS, why cut corners with the probiotic and threaten the success of the process?
Mistake #3: Going Wild with the No Grain Flours
Our culture’s food supply is so overly dominated by grain based foods that when a person initially decides to go on GAPS, the thought “what in the world will I eat” can be rather overwhelming.
As a result, a common mistake for people on GAPS is to make a wholesale switch from grain based foods to those exact same foods made with no grain flour such as coconut or almond.
Eating bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles, pizza and cookies made with coconut or almond flour at the same rate one used to eat these same foods made with wheat can cause unintended consequences.
Coconut flour is extremely high in fiber and eating too much of it can cause gastric distress. Almond flour contains a lot of omega 6 fatty acids, and while essential to health, too many omega 6 fats in the diet contributes to inflammation.
As a result, eating a moderate amount of baked goods made with alternative flours such as coconut and almond is the best way to go to ensure GAPS success.
Mistake #4: Not Making/Eating Enough Homemade Broth
A very important part of the GAPS diet is consumption of copious amounts homemade broth. A small cup with every single meal is recommended. The reason is that broth contains so many easy to assimilate minerals, vitamins, and amino-acids. It is a very soothing food to the intestinal mucosa and has been known for centuries to aid digestion due to the natural gelatin that attracts digestive juices.
Many folks I know on GAPS are not consuming nearly enough broth. A good idea before going on GAPS is to make sure your freezer is completely loaded up with any and all forms of homemade broth that you can find quality bones for: chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, fish etc.
Broth is inexpensive to make and is so very important to GAPS Diet success so be sure to include it with every meal if at all possible! Once or twice a week in soups is not often enough.
Mistake #5: Giving Up Too Soon
Success with the GAPS Diet takes time. In most cases, it took years for the gut to get in bad shape and it’s going to take months or even a year or two to get it back in shape. For a child, the average amount of time on GAPS to achieve a significant level of autoimmune remission is 18 months. For an adult, it can take longer.
I have known adults who have achieved success in only 6 months, but these were typically people who had been eating traditionally for many years already and who simply needed to go on full GAPS for a few months to complete the healing process. If you are coming to GAPS from the Standard American Diet, then plan on 2-3 years to success. While this may seem like a long time, it is really short considering living the rest of your life with an ever worsening auto-immune situation.
Don’t give up too soon! Initial subsiding of symptoms within a few weeks or months on GAPS does not mean healing. Stick with it so that the gut wall is healed and sealed for good and you can reclaim the vitality of life you seek!
If the GAPS diet is of interest to you and you would like a complete overview of the program, please check out a post I wrote some months back on this topic.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
|
|
{ 74 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sarah,
As a clinical nutritionist/chiropractor I use GAPS in my practice all the time and it really can help with alot of problems from autism to psoriasis and all in between. I find the hardest thing is gettting people to really commit to it. They really have to do it 100% or it will not work well, if at all. Your “five common mistakes “are right on the money. As usual your posts are well thought out and relevant.
Thanks for commenting, Jill. Yes, folks have to commit to reclaiming their health. A half hearted attempt will not work and it is best to let folks know this upfront.
I’m wondering if I should go on GAPS and see if it’ll heal my skin. Since I was 12 years old, I’ve had cystic acne on my face and body. It’s been better as I’ve gone through pregnancies, but recently it is flaring up again. I am breast feeding my almost 9 month old, so can I go on GAPS while breast feeding? Could GAPS really help clear up my skin?
Absolutely! Acne is a sign of an imabalanced gut.
Thank you! Makes sense since my childhood diet consisted of cold kid cereals, grilled cheese sandwiches on the cheapest white bread on the market, boxed mac and cheese, french fries, fish sticks, hotdogs and canned vegetables.
i feel your pain..i too have had acne since 14 years old..really bad on cheeks and chin..and i’m 27 now still dealing with it…it is about 95% better now since changing diet but i still get flare-ups…i’m trying grain-free diet right now and in just a few days i think it’s been helping. it’s been quite the journey..hopefully this is the answer.
Thanks so much for the post, Sarah! My daughters and I are on week 6 of GAPS. I must admit that I am a bit disheartened at this point. Growing up in a “quick fix drug remedy” society, it is very hard to be patient as more intestinal problems come to light in the initial stages of the diet. I’m definitely guilty of slacking off on the broths – and I believe many people also are less diligent on the fermented veggies and on fruit/honey intake. It is definitely not easy – especially with all the “social” repercussions. Our going out to eat at/with friends has really diminished. Most don’t understand. However, it is definitely worth it when I think of the long term effects on my children’s health. Thanks again, Sarah. This article was very encouraging for me!
Thanks for this post. I got the GAPS book (and have read most of it), have broth made in the freezer and just ordered the probiotics from GAPS store, lots of grass fed meat in freezer and veggies ready too. These tips were quite timely as I will embark on the GAPS intro diet very soon. I think and hope I am ready. Keep doing GAPS posts to encourage us.
I think that hardest is thing about GAPS is realizing that you have to do GAPS intro and you have to eliminate honey, sweet vegetables, fruit and nuts to have GAPS really work for you. You have to do an anti-candida diet for a period of time while on GAPS because all GAPSTERS have pathogens in their gut (ie parasites, candida/yeast, bacterial overgrowth.)
When you look at Full GAPS it seems very doable but real healing doesn’t take place unless you do an anti-candida diet.
I wish I had known that an anti-candida diet was a must because I would have done that first then GAPS Intro and then Full GAPS.
I’m doing the intro. I’m in week two. The intro says you can have ginger tea with honey. I’ve been doing that plus yogurt with honey. Do I need to omit the honey?
Thanks for this post. We’ve been doing GAPS for about 7 months. We were very strict for 6 months, but since none of us had any “severe” issues, we’ve been trying to see if we can re-introduce a few foods like raw milk and occasional potatoes in the last month or so. We all seem to fair fine with the raw milk (presumably because of the lactase enzymes), but potatoes definitely can cause a recurrence of some very minor joint pain for me.
It is hard to keep staying 100% GAPS when there are so many pressures from outside influences (like my mom, who loves to cook a family dinner every Sunday that has always included potatoes or grains). It’s hard on my daughter going to the park and seeing all of the other kids eat lots of food she can’t have (which we never fed her at home anyway, but would let her indulge a little bit if people offered her some snacks when we were away from home).
With the exception of raw milk, all of the foods I make at home are still 100% GAPS; however over the last month it has been easy to let some other foods slip in once a week (like potatoes or rice, although we’ve managed to avoid all other grains and starches). Your post reminds me that we really need to try to stick with it for longer, otherwise what if we waste the effort we’ve made so far? I’m sure we still will not be perfect, but it’s worth trying. We’ve slowly gotten accustomed to eating less and less non-grain baked goods, and our reliance on nuts has been diminishing as well.
I definitely need to start pushing the broth back into our diets more, though. And thanks for the reminder about probiotics. We’ve tried reducing the amount of Bio-Kult we’re taking since it is so expensive. I’m thankful you have provided so many good videos that help cut our budget other places, like making homemade kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir.
Sarah Smith\’s last post: Raw Milk- A Remedy for Lactose Intolerance!
Thanks for the great post, Sarah! I would add just one more common mistake to your list: skipping the intro. While I think it’s ok to start with the full GAPS and to approach the diet gradually (especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding), it does seem that at some point the intro has to be done for full healing to occur.
Just curious, I am planning on starting the GAPS diet soon and I am breastfeeding. Should I NOT do the Intro diet because of breastfeeding?
Hi Christine!
I would start with Full GAPS and then when you are no longer breastfeeding, go through Intro for a time before returning to full GAPS. Many people find it easier, regardless of pregnancy or BFing, to do it in this order. Either way is fine- and in my opinion, equally healing!
In the last few weeks I’ve been trying to cut down my grain intake. I’m a life-long grain junky and I’ll even choose it over most other sugary foods. Its so hard trying to find foods or make food that doesn’t contain grains. And coconut and almond flour is too expensive for me. All this salad gets boring after awhile. Thankfully, I do not suffer from an autoimmune disease or any severe digestive disorder, but I’ve always had problems with flatulence and sometimes bloating. You’d think after so many years of eating grains that I would have problems, but no.
Sarah, do you think it would be worth me going on a full GAPS diet? What can it do for someone that doesn’t really have any autoimmune disorders?
Kelli\’s last post: Spicy Green Pea & Broccoli Dish
The drug industry has conditioned us to expect instant results. People want to take a pill and be instantly well. The instant results provided by drugs only relieve the symptoms, and become less effective over time. They never fix the underlying problem, which continues to get worse while the drugs mask the symptoms.
Everybody should understand that true healing takes time and commitment. It is not easy, but it is worth it.
Stanley Fishman\’s last post: Eat Fat- Live Long—the Real Food of Okinawa
It should also be mentioned that (raw) fats are VERY important on GAPS. I think they’re just as important as broth, probiotics and fermented foods. Raw beef suet, raw lamb suet and most definitely raw grass-fed butter (when one can do dairy) are incredibly healing – w/o these fats, you won’t heal.
Can you give me some ideas on how to incorporate them? Obviously if I render them- they are no longer raw……but biting into a BIG OLE piece of beef suet or lamb suet- doesn’t sound very good.
Nicole Rice\’s last post: Borscht
I’ve been transitioning to GAPS for about a month now. I’m still BF my 13.5 month old so I’m doing full GAPS. I actually had to back off a bit – I started with BioKult (was up to 6 caps a day), broth, no grains or starches, limited fruit – and had dieoff almost immediately. This would have been fine if I had not been BF. I’m still doing BioKult (2 caps), broth (1 to 1.5 cups daily), no grains or starches and 1 serving of fruit a day. I had to up my starchy veggies as well. If you are on GAPS you should definitely use the GAPShelp group on Yahoo – it’s been a lifesaver for me. I agree that for full healing (especially for major issues) you should do intro, but you shouldn’t avoid GAPS altogether if you can only do full GAPS. It’s already done wonders for me and I’m not even 100%!!
Sarah,
I really appreciate this post. I personally know a number of people who have gone on the GAPS diet only to find themselves in a worse situation than they were before.
One additional caution that I would like to bring up is that adrenal fatigue is often linked to copper overload / toxicity and vegetarian foods are heavy in copper. This is one more reason why “going wild” (as you appropriately put it) with the no grain flours can be a problem. This doesn’t mean that we can’t eat any of them, but it does serve as a reminder that anything to an excess can become a problem.
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom.com\’s last post: How to Store Nuts and Seeds
Please tell more about people that have tried GAPS and then been in worse shape. Why? We are very close to starting the intro and want to be sure we don’t end up worse off. Thank you!
The GAPS diet is very low carb. If you suffer from adrenal fatigue, which is probably most of us to some extent, a low carbohydrate diet can actually aggravate it. It is important to treat the bigger problem first. IE. if you are very fatigued but also have trouble sleeping, going on a very low carb diet may not be the right choice. Try a less strict version of GAPS first.
Another consideration is that most people with GAPS have low hydrochloric acid levels in their stomach. Not only does this play into problems further down the intestinal line (with dysbiosis, leaky gut, etc) but it also affects your zinc status, which interplays with copper. Therefore, someone with low zinc and/or low HCL would be more affected by this. It’s important to explore some of these other health issues as a supplement to the GAPS protocol. HCL and/or zinc supplementation is easy and inexpensive. Most people could benefit from it but it shouldn’t just be used automatically. I do see that most of my GAPS clients also need digestive support further up the chain as well- digestion is a north to south process after all
Adrienne,
Can you expand on your comment? Are you saying we need grain flours? Or are you saying we shouldn’t eat as many veggies? I’m confused but would definitely like to learn more. Thanks!
The only exception to what you’ve said is the probiotic issue. Some (including us) have done much better simply including many probiotic foods. Some with EVERY meal. It’s been discussed heavily on the GAPS Yahoo list too, and that is the way some families do it. For us, that means homemade yogurt with breakfast, kombucha with lunch, and possibly pickles and juice at snack or dinner. You absolutely NEED probiotics…but it doesn’t have to be a supplement.
We started out baking from almond flour maybe once a week…as a transition. Now we bake maybe once every 2 – 3 weeks. Most meals are really meat-heavy and lots of soups, or (if you can’t stand soup all the time), meat/veggies cooked in stock.
Yes and no on the probiotic. In our guts, there are transient bacteria and native bacteria. Transient bacteria, like that found in cultured foods, come in and do their good deeds and then leave with an elimination. Native bacteria, like those found in only very specific supplements (99% of the ones on the market only have transient bacteria), are the strains that colonize the gut and shove out the bad bugs. It’s important to have both. Cultured food is extremely important and should be included at every meal, but a good high quality probiotic with native bacteria, should also be included. I don’t use BioKult in my practice, for the most part, because of the additives, though many people are just fine with it. I use a different probiotic that has over 29 stains plus soil-based bacteria. It’s comparably priced to BK and I feel does a better job- though it is based on your bio-individual needs, of course.
Can you tell me what probiotic you use?
Couple of things based on comments above that I’ve observed. First of all, I’ve seen plenty of folks heal on GAPS without doing the intro, myself and my husband among them. We ate honey and fruit and were fine. I don’t personally find the anti-candida diet to be helpful.
Also, in most cases, BioKult is needed. Probiotic foods are not strong enough. There are some extremely aggressive strains in the BioKult that “search and destroy” the pathogens like the milder strains in probiotic foods cannot. People may think they do better without the BioKult because it is so strong that it makes them worse at first. AFter coming off GAPS, fermented foods are sufficient for maintenance, but in my experience, a very strong probiotic like BioKult is necessary.
The problem many GAPSTERS find with BioKult is that it contains additives that they react to and it’s really expensive especially with more than one person doing GAPS.
Custom Probiotics makes an 11 strain powder probiotic that is much more cost effective but is still missing three strains that BioKult contains. CP has no fillers.
Many find healing with doing full GAPS but most (based on reading GAPS Support Group for a year now) need GAPS intro and sometimes an anti-candida diet to heal.
The anti-candida diet excludes fermented foods which is misguided and will drastically slow healing of the gut wall. It also allows starchy vegetables which will prevent the gut from healing properly. Believe it or not the anti-candida diet does not exclude grains either! It is a misguided diet all around.
I do not find excluding honey and ripe fruit on GAPS to be helpful at all. While on GAPS, there are SO MANY restrictions on carb intake (with grains and potatoes and other starchy veggies completely eliminated) that eliminating honey and fruit as well can cause extreme tiredness from too low a carb intake. Eating honey and fruit while on GAPS was my saving grace .. I could not have gotten through it without them as I would have had no energy whatsoever from too little carbs in the diet. GAPS itself will bring the candida under control even if honey and fruit are still consumed in moderation. It is simply unnecessary and causes undue stress and strain to eliminate honey and fruit as well.
Thank you for that clarification. I _have_ been awfully hungry. My specific protocol allows for yogurt so I’ve been consuming that with glee. Maybe GAPS isn’t so bad after all
Hi Sarah,
I’ve been doing the GAPS diet for about 7 months. I am definitely not ready to end the diet yet as I get a recurrence of symptoms (specifically some joint pain) if I try to eat any potatoes. But, I have noticed that over the last month or so I have been getting extremely tired, so tired that I might even call it lethargy and fatigue. My sleep is not the best (I still have an infant in the house after all, and he still wants to nurse throughout the night), but the tiredness seems to be more than just lack of sleep. My gut feeling is that perhaps I am not consuming enough carbs, and this is leading to the extreme tiredness. Can the body function okay without many carbs? Do you know why I felt fine for the first six months on the diet, but now seem to have this problem? We aren’t really eating any lentils or white beans, so my carbs are limited to veggies and the 1-2 pieces of fruit I eat each day, plus a small amount in baked goods (that are only eaten a couple times/week). Sorry if it is off-base to ask you; you just seem to be so knowledgeable about it all.
Sarah Smith\’s last post: Balsamic Vinaigrette GAPS-legal
thanks for this post. I was wondering what to do about the candida. I saw the Doc recommended taking it slow on the honey and fruit. I am on first stages but I am opting out on the honey and loading up on veggies. i will be interesting to be adding a sweetner in after 3 years of no sugar (only grn apples and berries.)
Hi Sarah, I was wondering if you know the differences between the GAPs diet and the SCD diet. I will be starting the SCD diet tomorrow and have read the book “Breaking the Vicious Cycle” which has been very insightful, it seems these two are very similar.
Hi Hannah, GAPS is based heavily on SCD. There is more of a focus on broth and fermented foods on GAPS than SCD. Here is a link that explains it in more detail:
http://gapsguide.com/2008/12/05/differences-between-scd-gaps/
So, so, so well said, Sarah! I don’t have time for blogs, but I always read and pass along yours to friends and the folks on the health forum I moderate! This one should go in your “most important” list.
Hi Sarah. This is a timely post as I am planning to do GAPS when I get ready. I don’t have severe issues but have had digestive issues for a long time and would like to heal that so I can eat comfortably. I just received the GAPS book and the GAPS Guide. Have read the guide and just starting the GAPS book. It will be a trial I’m sure but I am hoping I can manage committing to it. I have a question I would like to ask while I’m here. I don’t have access to raw milk but was recently visiting my Mom who lives near the Maine/US border (it is about 75 miles from where I live). I often cross the border when visiting to purchase food items that are cheaper than here in Canada (milk, butter, chicken, tuna etc). Anyway, this last trip I checked out the organic section and they actually had raw milk and raw yogurt for sale from a local farm. I was super excited, so I bought a gallon of the milk and a large container of the yogurt. I was wondering since I have never had raw milk, would I have to be careful how much I drink to start. I have had kefir so my system is used to some good bacteria. My daughter and I both found the milk to have a bit of an aftertaste and I found it thinner than pastuerized whole milk – could this be because there wasn’t enough cream in it? It had a sticker on it that said ‘shake me up’, I assumed that was to mix in the cream. I’ve had a bit each day for the past 3 days and no issues with it. I’ve also eaten some of the yogurt and it isn’t causing me any distress. I won’t have a steady supply of it obviously as it is a long drive and I only visit every couple months or so but figured I would get some each time I visit.
HI Mary, some folks get a bit of cleansing reaction in the form of loose bowels the first time they have raw milk as it is so loaded with probiotics. Start with a small glass and see how you go. Increase appropriately as it seems to work for you.
Probiotics and enzymes in pill forms upset my stomach. I used quality stuff from Standard Process and Progressive Labs – I was worse off than when I started. I found, after some trial and error, I could use them pulverized in my mortar and pestal and just sprinkled on my food. But real food sources are better (for me) I think. I now just use kefir and fermented foods like homemade yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, etc. and I seem to do fine. Also, as someone else mentioned, lots of good fats – homemade butter from raw cream, coconut oil, home rendered lard, etc. I have Sjogren’s Syndrome and peripheral neuropathy (cause unknown) and I’m not sure those can be “healed” with any type of diet. The fact of the matter is, I don’t have time to pursue a GAPS diet or any other high maintenance diet. We follow WAPF as much as possible within our time frame and my DH and I do quite well considering we are not spring chickens and that I have two major “diseases” going on.
Another great tool to help with autoimmune problems is the LEAP MRT mediator release test by Signet Diagnostic. This is a blood test that checks for “mediator release” of 150 various foods and chemicals. Our systems are so individual that it is impossible for one diet to fit everyone. When I had the MRT done, I had problems with many of the very healthy foods I was eating — garlic, apples, pinto beans, pineapple. By avoiding those trigger foods I had great improvement in my skin condition. Their website is http://www.nowleap.com. It is promoted for IBS and Migraine, but it is helping people with many immune-related problems.
Nancy\’s last post: Baby Turnips & Greens side dish
Is there an objective way to ascertain the condition of one’s gut flora?
Ciao,
Pavil
Not really. Gut flora imbalance is ascertained based on symptoms primarily. There are stool tests that can be done, but the accuracy of these is debatable.
A friend of mine recently told me that there is a new test that can test the degree of gut leakage. See http://www.cyrexlabs.com.
Great post. We are following the GAPS diet pretty closely, and I’ve been trying to incorporate more broth into our diets… thanks for the reminder! If anyone is interested, I’m hosting a 40-Day Grain free and sugar free challenge to help remove grains from the diet: http://wellnessmama.com/40-day-grain-free-challenge/ . As this is also part of the GAPS diet, to remove grains and sugar, it might be helpful for anyone embarking on the GAPS diet as well.
Katie @ Wellness Mama\’s last post: What’s Cooking This Week and A Challenge!
Our friends’ two sons with autism are currently on the GAPS diet. As you mentioned, it can be long process but they have seen a great improvement in their sons the last 7 months.
I will share your information with them. Thanks.
Jo at Jo’s Health Corner\’s last post: Varicose Veins – What to Do Naturally
Thank you for this post. All of the comments have been very helpful. I have been doing the GAPS diet for a month now, but like you said I have not been drinking enough broth or taking the biokult. I have no freezer space to store it and use th chicken broth in the soups I am making. Is that enough broth or do I need to drink a glass of broth as well. I eat the soup all day long while at work, since that is the easiest thing for me to bring to work.
This is just the beginning. I have had other issues that have come up since on this diet, but don’t think they will go away until we get out of the house we are in. I am sure I will have to stay on this diet for a lot longer than most because of being in an environment that is not the best.
Thank you for any advice you can give me!
Soup on a daily basis is great! A small cup of broth with other meals would probably prove helpful as well.
Hi Sarah, many friends have IBS and have been diagnosed with fructose malabsorption. They therefore stick to a low fructose diet (high fructose corn syrup is not common here in Australia), so eliminate honey, apples, pears, wheat, onion, and many other foods. Do you know if GAPS diet would help with fructose malabsorption in the context of IBS? Cheers, Fiona in Australia
Hi Fiona, malabsorption issues have their root in gut imbalance so I have no doubt GAPS would prove helpful in this situation.
Hi Sarah!
I am thinking I really need to go on GAPS to heal the eczema I have had my whole life. I am now 21 years old and it is starting to get worse…everyone told me it would go away after childhood…it has not. The doctors have now given me strong steroid creams and I can tell they are not good for my body. I also have issues with food sensitivity and need to eat simply and food combine, so anyway, I do think there is a gut skin connection even though all of my dermetologists act like I am crazy. My questions regarding GAPS are: 1. Are Squashes like Butternut forbidden? 2. I realize you do not think people should eat tons of Almond flour, but would almonds be ok for an emergency snack (I am out and about a lot so don’t always have time to prepare everything at home). 3. I try to avoid dairy, but just found raw kiefer at my co-op. Is this GAPS friendly and do you think it will help eczema? I know a lot of people say to stay away from dairy with eczema. But the probiotic benefits seems great.
Thanks a lot!!
Asha
Asha\’s last post: FRUCTOSE IS POISEN
Hi Asha, squash is fine on GAPS. ALmonds are totally fine too .. just keep them in moderation. Raw kefir is fine for most people on GAPS as the lactose (a disaccharide) is used up during the fermentation. Some very severe cases may need to eliminate all dairy while on GAPS, even butter and fermented dairy. But, to start out, try the raw kefir and see how you go.
Be aware that your eczema may get worse before it gets better .. this is called a “healing crisis”. This is when many folks give up, but you need to work through this period as the pathogenic strains causing the eczema in your gut are dying off and being redominated by the beneficial flora strains.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Ode to Bacon Grease
Thank you for your informative post, Sarah. I just wanted to add that Dr. Natasha herself has mentioned here and there than buying probiotics hasn’t been necessary for many families to succeed with the GAPS protocol. Certainly she doesn’t advocate adherence for life, like many companies suggest, provided that you take plenty of home-made lactoferments. I think she feels the greed of many companies and the struggles of many families with 3 or more kids. Probiotics have been helpful for me, as an initial boost, but as soon as I can tolerate large doses of lactoferments I plan to stop taking them. Also I find very telling that she didn’t recommend the biokult brand to me…
Thanks for this! I haven’t (yet) done GAPS, but this is so good to know!
Hi Sarah! Donna Gates and McBride have helped me so much!
I can’t take dairy yet so I make coconut milk kefir. If I drink a small glass of it I start to feel very dehydrated and constipated and was wondering if you’ve ever felt the same way and if these options helped (ie. dilluting it, adding fruit)?
Thanks aain for the great quality info Sarah!
Here’s a question- if a person doesn’t seem to have any gut imbalance or auto-immune symptoms, do you think there is any point in doing a strict GAPS diet? I’m interested in trying it, but I don’t know how I would gauge effectiveness, since I don’t have any problems that I can tell…
Sarah
Thanks! This is a great post. Also as any FYI, Dr. Cowan recommends an anti-candida diet that is basically GAPS but is low carb and excludes honey, sweet/high carb veggies like winter squash and carrots, all nuts except almonds, all dairy except yogurt and kefir, all fruit except avocados, granny smith apples, berries, and white grapefruit. I’ve found it very helpful. To learn more go to: http://fourfoldhealing.com/protocols-patient-info/
and then click on low-carb.
My husband is on the GAPS diet. I am wondering if this diet has been the focus of research into the creator’s health claims? I understand that perhaps parts of the foundations of the diet are based on some research, but has any research been done using subjects that have been on the diet?
Hi Sarah,
This is an old post, so I hope that you see this comment! My husband and I have been on the GAPS diet for around 2 months now, and I have a question about the probiotics. We were honestly trying to avoid the cost of Bio-Kult and we were hoping that juices from fermented veggies and milk kefir would be strong enough to repopulate…Apparently we were wrong! My husband usually takes a good deal of juice with every meal (either from sauerkraut or other fermented veggies) in addition to a diet full of sour cream (made with kefir) and milk kefir and other fermented veggies/drinks.
I was under the impression that milk kefir contained strains of bacteria/yeast that WERE aggressive (and in very large amounts). Is this incorrect? Are the liquids from fermented veggies more probiotic than the veggies themselves?
Would you also recommend kombucha and water kefir on GAPS even though they are made with sugar? I am very interested in the liver cleansing benefit of Kombucha, but the GAPS book doesn’t say if it is legal or not.
Ah, and the last thing, I remember reading that probiotic supplements never make it to the lower intestines (I’m pretty sure this is in the GAPS book) and that is why you need fermented foods/drinks. What is your take on this?
Thank you so much! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your blog. You have changed my life, really!
-Julia
About mistake #1:
Are cooked beets, cooked carrots, and cooked chestnuts also starches? Should they also be excluded like potatoes etc?
I have been looking EVERYWHERE and still have not found an answer, and I am very excited cause I think you will know! I have been on this diet for months, but still haven’t found out about them (and I love all these foods!)
I cannot wait for an answer! Thank you very much!
Hi Theodora, I was wondering if you ever found out about the beets for intro? I want to make soup with with beets and make fermented beet juice, please email me carlabudd@gmail.com
#4 is the big problem for me – how does one heal when you can’t tolerate the smallest amount of meat broth, let alone bone broth? My gut is in such bad shape that histamines, glutamates, etc. all cause me major distress…
Hi Sarah,
I have been considering doing the GAPS diet for some time to try and heal asthma I’ve had since I was 2 (I am now 41). I’ve been cooking Noursihing Traditions style for almost 5 years now and overall feel pretty good. The only problem is we really can not afford the probiotics. The whole idea of doing the GAPS diet feels very overwhelming and I don’t want to start it up if being that we can’t afford the probiotics it’s not going to help. The cost of Green Pastures cod liver oil for me and my children is already more than we can afford but I splurge on it since I feel it is so important. What do you suggest for people who can’t afford Bio-Kult?
The Five Most Common GAPS Diet Mistakes — The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/R5OnaeSR
When you have a 22 month old you don’t have a choice but to include baked goods, fruit, and honey more often because intro is not recommended and they still have a small sweet tooth. Most toddlers will not eat eggs and sausage every day of their life for breakfast let alone leftovers all the time unless they have taste aversions! I think intro is the only way to ditch the sweet tooth. My son gets WAY too thin on soups and he is already thin. We do butternut squash fries in lard as a way to keep him fuller. Also sour cream smoothies. I am still unsure about yogurt and berries as his constipation came back. I’m finding that making food for him and myself is becoming harder and harder. We are running out of recipes!
Yes most people neglected this fact. It is really alarming to know that the basic ones have been taken lightly and never had been studied to understand its importance.
__
Adelia\’s last post: does milk cause acne
is there a website you recommend to learn about this… I am wondering what they heck you have left to eat????! I did a mostly protein and veggie diet for my candida issues and I got REALLY sick. My It was way too much protein for me it seems. But how do you keep your energy levels up with only veggies? I would like to learn more.
is there a place or way to check if something is a non-grain starch? My husband and I are avoiding all grains and most fast carbs (no fruit except avocado and tomato), but we have started to make a delicious non-sweet hot or iced drink from roasted CACAO powder (not COCOA) and I am wondering if the actual cacao would be considered a starch? It would be really sad to have to give that up as it is a fantastic replacement for coffee in the morning as it gives a bit of a zip and we load it up with all kinds of good stuff (coconut oil, cayenne and cinnamon)
thanks so much for your always informative information, I hope you know there are many people out here who are silently benefiting from your generous spirit. Know that good juju is coming your way from us, whether we comment or not! big love,
jessica
Yum! Jessica, would love to know your morning drink recipe! Would be fun to have something to alternate with the tea.
comment2, http://acheterduviagrafr.com/ Pharmacie, :]]],
Nice post. Thanks for this sharing. It is very important to eat balanced meal which should contain every vitamin & essential nutrients important for joints & for flexibility of bones. This is important & useful information.
Hi Sarah, I love your videos and your site! It’s been crucial in our journey to traditional foods and lifestyle. I wanted to know, you mentioned at the end of this article that initial healing in the first few weeks doesn’t mean healing. What DOES it mean? My son had relief from his eczema in total during the Introduction to GAPS, but a few weeks after being on Full GAPS it came back hardcore. I’ve read and been told that this is actually the healing going on (for several reasons) and that eczema takes the longest time to heal, but my heart keeps going back to those first few weeks and why we can’t get his skin to that again. We’re trudging through the diet, struggling financially to do this (thus my frequent visits to sites like yours), but keep wondering is it really working.
Hi Sarah, can you have beets during the intro for making soup and kvass? Thanks!
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about coming off the gaps diet when it comes to eating processed foods in moderation? In the book Dr. Campbell Mcbride talks about how when you come off the full GAPS diet the patient cant go back to eating the typical american diet. But she doesnt even mention eating unhealthy things in moderation. Im not fanatical, I know when i go on vacation im not going to be able to be healthy the whole time, and same goes for when i go to parties and things like that. Of course I wanna stay healthy for the majority of the time and i never plan on going back to my old lifestyle. Ive been doing an anti candida diet for about 2 months and i plan on starting the full gaps diet next month for about 1-2 years.
Hey Sarah,
I love your blog! It has been really helpful for me as I changed and continue to improve my diet. Two weeks ago I had a little boy! I had to have a c-section….and my water was broke for a long time before he was born, and his white blood cell count and CRP was really high…so the docs made him do a full course of antibiotics. (Which is a week in the hospital) So, now I’m wanting to put him on probiotics to help his gut bacteria get back in place. Can I use Bio-Kult for a newborn? How do I give it to him if I am breastfeeding? Should I take it too?
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Erin Crouch