Our Family on GAPS: What We’re Doing, What We’ve Done
Last modified on 2011-01-31 02:40:11 GMT. 15 comments. Top.
My Children eating a simple GAPS lunch of beef patties, clementines, and homemade pickles
Judging by the amount of emails asking, I take it that my readers are curious about what we’re doing on GAPS right now and what we’ve done over the past year of this GAPS journey. I’m going to try to answer all the common questions I get about GAPS.
How did we start GAPS?
To be honest (I don’t really have the ability to not be honest- what you see is what you get here!) I was adamantly avoiding GAPS for about 3-4 months after I learned that it could help my child. ”Too low carb,” I thought. “That is ridiculous! No grains? Who does that to a toddler?”. So first we tried GFCF (gluten free and casein free), she was already mostly dairy free because she got congested with milk (even raw milk).
With GFCF we saw huge huge improvement within 48 hours. My child suddenly made eye contact, had the ability to learn, was interacting socially, and had very much improved with her balance. But sadly after about a week she started regressing, fairly quickly. I knew that GAPS was the next step, and encouraged by the initial results we got with dietary intervention, I was ready to start.
We started GAPS with the introduction diet (starting with chicken stock and boiled meat and vegetables and slowly adding in more advanced foods like cooked peeled fruit, eggs, then raw pureed fruits and veggies, baked and fried meats, nuts, and cultured dairy) and progressed through the steps, waiting to make sure new foods did not bring on a reaction. She was stuck on cooked veggies and fruit for a few months, which baffled me because I thought she was digesting those fine prior to GAPS. Her symptoms for not tolerating a food was usually night terrors, but it seems that everyone is different in this area.
I did the GAPS intro with her, I like to try out any ‘experiment’ I do on my child myself to make sure it’s okay. I felt great on the diet, so I didn’t worry about having her on it. I was able to progress through the stages much more quickly than she was, and I healed my dairy allergy in the process in only 2 months. My breastfeeding son (11 months at this time) also went through the diet with us, and his babyhood eczema hasn’t been seen again since we went on GAPS.
What about dairy?
On ‘Full GAPS’ (the diet after intro is called full GAPS, some people only do this part of the diet and still see great success) cultured dairy is allowed. This includes 24-hour yogurt, hard cheeses and butter. After healing our initial dairy allergy (my daughter’s went away quickly too, but I was nervous about trying dairy with her so I waited about 4-5 months) we did introduce butter, yogurt, kefir, and cheese, and we were excited about it! We kept them in for about 6 months and then as a trial I took both kids back off dairy and they started sleeping better,
How long until you saw a difference?
As I noted above, just by reducing gluten and casein we saw a huge difference in my daughter with autism. But then she regressed. She stopped regressing within a few days of being on GAPS. For the rest of our family we see a difference within 3-5 days.
Is GAPS safe while pregnant or breastfeeding?
GAPS is a very healthy ‘clean’ diet and I feel like it would be a great pregnancy diet! I would just do what’s called ‘full gaps’ and take it really slow introducing probiotics. The intro (as opposed to full gaps) is a little to restrictive for what I’m comfortable doing while pregnant or breastfeeding, but that’s a decision you have to make for yourself. By delaying things that trigger die offs (coconut oil, probiotic, fermented foods, limiting carbs) you can lessen the impact it would have on your baby in utero or nursling. As with everything on this site, this is not medical advice, please consult with your healthcare provider before making any dietary changes, especially in pregnancy.
My child’s doctor wants them on GAPS, but I’m still breastfeeding. Do I need to go on it too?
Yes, the proteins (and possibly carbohydrates- I’m not sure on this one) will go through your gut, into your bloodstream and into your milk.
How long are you going to stay on GAPS? How long do you have to stay on GAPS? Is it something permanent?
I don’t stay on GAPS all the time, though I do keep my ASD child on it at all times. I anticipate that she will be on it for at least another two years (she has been on it for over a year now). The goal of GAPS is to heal the gut, and once the gut is healed non-GAPS food will be tolerated. In my case, I saw this as my milk allergy went away even when I was off of GAPS for months.
My child essentially lives on crackers and processed foods; they will not eat any of the SCD/GAPS foods on the list. Now what?
I understand! The Pecanbread Site has a really good article on picky eaters and SCD (SCD is what GAPS is based on)
Both my children started eating everything within a few days of being on SCD/GAPS. If there is *anything* that they will eat to keep their calories up enough (applesauce? squash fries? avocado?) then you might just try it for a week and see how it goes. Kids who need SCD/GAPS often have sensory problems, and they can actually refuse food to the point of harming themselves, so I don’t recommend the “they’ll eat if they get hungry enough” approach that others do, but I think that SCD can help with picky eating 
How much does it cost to be on GAPS?
By eliminating grains and potatoes, GAPS often is a more expensive diet. It can be less expensive by finding local sources of grassfed beef, using lentils and beans, and eating more seasonally. When our whole family is on GAPS our grocery bill stays the same, as we are eliminating any junk food impulse buys. But if you already are down to bare bones with no impulse buys and eating whole grains, your grocery bill will go up, as meat and vegetables are more expensive than grains. This will also depend on how much organic you buy, if you are shopping around, how much you pay for milk, meat, and eggs, and whether you eat more meat or more beans and lentils.
I have 4 kids and they typically eat a LOT of food. I’m prepping for GAPS intro right now and am wondering if I should expect their food intake go down somewhat once we’re into full GAPS and they are able to utilize more of the nutrients in their food, or should I expect to have to double all your recipes?
Children often are very hungry for the first 6-8 weeks on the diet; my toddler ate as much as I did the first 6 weeks or so she was on the diet. Her appetite has since calmed down, she is still a great eater but can now go hours between meals rather than requiring constant huge meals and snacks. Yes, the food is more nutrient dense, and children are often less picky while on GAPS/SCD so less food gets wasted. A common day for my 4-year-old is 2-3 eggs, scrambled + a piece of fruit for breakfast, 3-5 grain free crackers or half a grain free muffin for snack, a palm-sized (her palm size) meat patty + a serving of lactofermented vegetables (1 small pickle, 1/4 cup of sauerkraut) and another piece of fruit for lunch, a handful (her hand size) of nuts and dried fruit as an afternoon snack, two servings of meat (palm sized) + 1/2 cup cooked veggies + 1/2 cup squash fries (cooked in coconut oil) for dinner.
The Grain Free Meal Plan serves 4, and yes, I would expect to have to double most recipes for your crew. You could experiment with doubling the main dish and keeping the sides and snacks the same if you wanted.
Can you lose weight on GAPS?
Yes! I personally have found GAPS to be ‘weight norming’ – ie my children gain steadily (as they should!) while on GAPS while I lose to a certain amount and then hold there. For me that is about 135 pounds at 5’8″, which is a healthy weight for me. I personally do not watch my carb intake at all; I easily will eat 4-5 pieces of fruit + honey as a sweetener as often as I desire on GAPS and I still lose weight to a certain point. Along these lines, I have had issues with hypoglycemia my whole life, and that is never an issue on GAPS, even without limiting my carbs.
Are you going to come out with a dairy/egg/egg white/coconut/nut free version of the Grain Free Meal Plan?
As I mentioned above, I have recently put my children back on a dairy free trial of GAPS (we still use ghee), so I have had a chance to expand my dairy free recipes greatly. Starting in March at least 75% of the recipes in the Grain Free Meal Plan will have a dairy free options, though I am still including options for using cultured dairy for those who can. As far as other allergens go, I will see what I can do, but I do not have much experience cooking without eggs, nuts, coconut, or other allergens so it will take me more time to get recipes that work.
The Gut-Brain Connection & Autism, ADD, Allergies, and Other Diseases
Last modified on 2011-11-14 02:54:31 GMT. 35 comments. Top.
The gut is one of the often overlooked parts of our bodies. But the gut is amazingly important! The gut is where our food is digested and if it is not working correctly, we are unable to pull the nutrients needed out of our food. So a diet can be full of good nutrients, essential vitamins and minerals, and healthy fats, and yet the body still isn’t able to use them properly so the person is actually deficient in these nutrients. Another important function of the gut is to get waste out of our body. This isn’t just unusuable food parts like fiber, but also the toxins that our body so wonderfully seperates out to be discarded so they don’t affect how our body works. But again, if the gut isn’t working properly, these toxins aren’t being expelled as effeciently as they could be, so an overload of toxins can occur.
I hadn’t looked into intestinal health until I was looking for help for my daughter with autism. I had heard of the GAPS diet, but thought it was too overwhelming to start (being honest here!). But once we saw amazing improvement on the gluten-free-casein-free diet (hear more about that on my podcast with Cheeseslave), only to have quick regression, I knew I needed to look more into the ways the gut and diet can affect brain function. My daughter has been on the GAPS/SCD diet for over a year now, and we continue because we see improvements.
Here’s an overview of what I’ve learned, primarily from the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, and also from Breaking The Vicious Cycle. Both are available at the GAPS Online Store – discount code HHHBook10 gives you 10% off any book until 12/1/10. Honestly in this age of toxins and antibiotics, I strongly recommend anyone who cares about the health of themselves and their family to read those books.
The gut depends on good bacteria (flora) to plug holes, neutralize toxins and metabolize vitamins
The intestine is naturally porous, and we depend on a symbiotic relationship with friendly bacteria to ‘plug the holes’. This prevents large proteins (like gluten and casein) from going through the gut wall and into the bloodstream, and the bacteria also provide a barrier against toxins entering our bloodstream. As the gut flora neutralize, metabolize, and further break down our food they also are transporting vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients across the gut wall.
Bad bacteria in the gut can emit toxins, which affect brain function like a drug
In addition to not having enough good gut flora, the presence of bad ‘opportunistic’ flora creates problems by releasing toxins into the bloodstream, which affect the brain. We get bad flora in our system by wiping the entire system out with antibiotics, allowing the bad bacteria to establish colonies because there aren’t enough good bacteria already established to crowd them out. In the case of a baby, babies get their first dose of bacteria by coming through the birth canal, so if mom has a history of having antibiotics and has bad gut flora, the baby’s first ‘dose’ of bacteria are often bad ones.
On a personal note, I believe this to be the difference between my child with autism and my ‘typical’ child. With my autistic child I had eaten a pretty standard diet during and prior to the pregnancy, with the my childhood punctuated with antibiotics for sinus infections here, ear infections there.
With my son’s pregnancy (he’s my second child and is developing typically), I had found the traditional foods way of eating and ate lots of fermented foods and drank whole raw milk. The prenatal I took with him also had probiotics in it, so when he came down the birth canal he received an abundance of good bacteria. Of course this is all speculation, but this is supported by the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book. I didn’t read the GAPS book until after my second child was born, and it seemed to answer some of our questions about how why one of our children was affected and not the other.
The ‘Second Brain’ is in the Gut
There is neural tissue actually right in the gut. The gut can be damaged by toxins and other products of our modern lifestyle, but it can also be damaged by stress. Have you ever had digestive upset when stressed? Don’t feel like eating? That’s the neural tissue in your gut telling you that it’s not doing well. The ‘gut brain’ is primarily dealing with emotions. There is even evidence (and I’ve seen this personally) that when we are under extreme stress the gut becomes more damaged, increasing psychological symptoms and food allergies. For more information on this check out This episode of the Healthy Skeptic Podcast
The genetic component to autism? You do get gut flora from your parents
As I talked about up in the previous paragraph, the baby’s first interaction with bacteria is as they are born. So parents who have poor gut flora pass on the gut flora through the birth canal. For babies born via cesarean, they still get natural flora from mom’s skin as the baby nurses, and just in the environment around them. How does dad’s flora get into this picture? Assuming that mom and dad are having relations during the pregnancy, they are also sharing gut flora then, so the gut flora of both parents is present in the birth canal.
How vaccines and envirnomental toxins play a part in gut health
So, what is with the vaccination debate? Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride talks about this in her Gut and Psychology Syndrome book as well. She explains that a person without good gut flora will have an inferior detoxification system, and the toxins that are in vaccines along with the inactive viruses are just too much for the body to handle and the toxins end up affecting the brain. This is the most common sense approach to the vaccine/autism debate that I think I have ever heard!
In our case, neither of our children have ever received any vaccinations at all. I am adamant that they will not be vaccinated at all, because I do think that by bombarding their systems with toxins and viruses, active or not, it would be too much for their bodies to handle and we would be risking serious injury. You can read more about how I researched vaccines in the guest post I did on Kelly’s blog- I came to my vaccination decisions before autism even entered the picture.
ADD, Asperger Syndrome, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, OCD, Bipolar Disorder, etc, are all related
ADD, ADHD, Depression, Autism, Anxiety, even Rheumatoid Arthritis and Celiac disease are all thought to be related in that they all originate in the the gut from poor gut flora. What an interesting concept! Reading the GAPS book was the first time that the connections had been made for me, but it makes perfect sense. All these conditions are on the rise, as we as a population are taking in more vaccines than ever, using more pharmaceutical drugs than ever, and administered more antibiotics than ever.
What Can Be Done?
After all this, if you’re in my generation you are most likely thinking that you or your children actually are affected by what Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride calls GAP Syndrome. You have signs of having poor gut flora. The good news is that there is a diet that can slowly starve out the bad bacteria in your gut and replace it with healthy flora. It’s the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and is what the Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet is based on. It is a grain free sugar free starch free diet that gives the gut a rest from the constant flow of complex carbohydrates that feed gut flora. I personally have seen great results in it, both in my daughter, and in myself- I followed it for just a couple months and was able to get rid of a dairy allergy. My daughter has also been healed of a dairy allergy, though she will be staying on the diet for at least a few more years to hopefully eventually heal her of autism.
So that’s my Gut/Brain connection overview, along with the ‘Cara Theory’ for how autism happens, or at least how I think it happened in our family. I’ve been wanting to write this all out for a while now, because if it can help even one family it is so worth it! I really have only touched the surface, the Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Breaking The Vicious Cycle books go into much more detail. Again, both books are available at the GAPS Diet Online Store on my Resource Page- discount code HHHBook10 gives you 10% off any book until 12/1/10.
What now? I encourage you to share this post on Facebook and with anyone who you think could benefit from it.
Using Coconut Flour for Gluten and Grain Free Baking- some tips
Last modified on 2012-03-17 02:13:00 GMT. 48 comments. Top.
For that year that my daughter (and, off and on, the rest of our family) has been following GAPS I’ve been learning to work with non-grain flours; almond and coconut. Coconut flour is my preferred flour to work with because a grain free diet should not be a diet primarily made of nuts, and it’s easy to eat too many when using nut flour in baking every day. Coconut flour is available through small retailers in the US here. Watch for ‘coconut flour blends’ made with grain flours, you just want 100% coconut.
What is coconut flour?
Coconut flour is very finely ground dried coconut, which is left over from extracting the coconut oil. Coconut flour is low-carbohydrate, high in fiber, and gluten free. It is a very dense flour, so in most recipes many eggs are used in proportion to the flour. The eggs allow the baked good to rise in the absence of a leavening agent (baking powder, soda, or yeast), bind the bread together in the absence of gluten. Gluten is the protein found in wheat that so many people are finding that they are sensitive to. Gluten is what makes wheat dough sticky, trapping the air bubbles from the yeast to make it rise.
What do I need to account for when cooking with coconut flour? 
Cooking with coconut flour has both differences and similarities with other gluten free flours. Coconut flour is finely ground, it is very dense, and it can make baked goods a bit dry. Here are some tips for working with it.
- Coconut flour contains phytic acid. Like all nuts, seeds, and grains, coconut flour can benefit from being soaked in an acidic solution to neutralize the phytic acid. However, because very little coconut flour consumed in comparison with wheat flour, (in pancakes 1/4 cup coconut flour vs 4 cups of whole wheat flour) I generally do not do the soaking step.
- Coconut flour is dense. Recipes using coconut flour often have many eggs in them, which helps the baked good to rise. The eggs are also very nourishing! Eggs from healthy chickens are full of protein and healthy fats. For this reason, baked goods made with coconut flour will not cause the blood sugar spike like grain-based baked goods.
- Coconut flour can be dry. Nobody likes dry bread or muffins, but this can be remedied by adding pureed fruit or vegetables to the batter in place of some of the liquid called for, or even half of the fat. Adding applesauce to muffin recipes in place of butter is a well-known ‘low fat’ substitution. In this case we are not doing the substitution because we are concerned about fat, only because the pureed fruit or veggie makes a more moist treat.
- Coconut flour tends to clump. Batter made with coconut flour needs to be mixed very well to get all the lumps out, as the coconut flour tends to want to stick together. This is best achieved by using a whisk if mixing by hand, or by using a food processor. Unlike gluten-containing flour, there is no worry of over mixing coconut flour containing recipes, so mix away!
- Coconut flour baked goods are dense and filling! Because of how filling coconut flour breads and muffins are, you can compensate by using mini muffin tins to make bite sized treats. Smaller sized loaf pans are helpful for bread making, and you will find mini sandwiches made out of this bread to be just as filling as the larger sized conventional counterparts. Silver dollar sized pancakes are recommended for breakfast as well. If using a regular sized loaf pan to make coconut flour bread, you may want to enjoy your sandwiches ‘open faced’, as shown.
I wanted to share my coconut flour bread recipe using applesauce or pureed onion to lighten the bread.
Coconut Flour Bread Recipe
More coconut flour recipes around the web:
Nourished Kitchen’s Coconut Flour Cake calls for a dozen eggs, coconut milk, orange extract, and other yummy nourishing goodies! (I would suggest this whipped frosting to go with it)
CHEESESLAVE’s Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffins- These are really good! I used sugar and nitrate free beef bacon from US Wellness Meats.
My Grain Free Banana Nut Muffins: Perfect alongside soup one night, then for breakfast the next day!
GAPS Recipes and FAQ
Last modified on 2010-07-10 13:45:46 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
I wanted to post some questions about GAPS that I get, as well as links to my GAPS posts and recipes all together, so here it goes. I’ll be still going grain free every once in a while and trying new GAPS friendly recipes, so more will be added in the future as well. I was glad that I was both able to re-create bread like recipes (the coconut flour bread) and venture into other food that I hadn’t tried before GAPS (like more fish!)
I think I’m done with GAPS for right now. I seem to be completely rid of my milk allergy, and my breastfed son (who eats solids too- he’s 15 months) doesn’t seem to react to it any more either, which is awesome. He used to get eczema from it and I used to get sinus infections. I feel a little less scattered, a little more organized, but my handwriting didn’t improve much (if at all). I’m glad we did the trial of the GAPS diet. Don’t let the name fool you; Gut and Psychology Syndrome
Posts/Recipes
FAQ down below
General info:
An overview, and what I got together to Start GAPS
How we modified the intro because I felt it was too low carb
My guest post at Cheeseslave’s blog; How GAPS is helping our Family
Stephanie of Keeper of the Home talks about Starting GAPS and why she decided to do GAPS in her family
What do you eat on GAPS? (A shopping trip)
Bulk cooking on GAPS saved me lots of time
Kitchen Tools Having some help in the kitchen by way of appliances and other tools makes work so much easier both on GAPS and whole foods cooking. These are some of my favorites.
Menus- Just outlines of meals for a week. These are more winter menus, since I did this during winter time. Lots of links to recipes or descriptions of how I cook things in here.
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Menu 4
Breakfasts
Beef Sausage
Easy Balanced and Filling Smoothies
Squash Pancakes
Coconut flour muffins
Eggs
24-Hour Yogurt
Lunch
Coconut flour bread
Butternut Squash Soup
Cooking Squash
Chicken Stock
Chicken Salad Wraps
Meatballs and Apples
Chicken Pancakes
Dinner
Fish Cutlets
Fish patties (my favorite!)
Hamburgers on Portabella Mushrooms with Squash Fries
Spouted Lentil Soup
Meatballs
Squash
Fresh Wild Trout
Onion Soup
Liver and Onions (and why you should consider eating liver)
Snacks/everything else
Soaked/Dehydrated Almonds
Homemade Almond Flour
Easy Homemade ketchup
Cooked Apples
Juicing
Dried Fruit
Macaroons
Berry Cobbler
Almond Brittle
Mayonnaise
Sauerkraut
Strawberry Almond Bars
A big part of GAPS is reducing the toxin load in the home, here is what I use for soap and hair/body/tooth care. I use soapnuts as a 100% natural laundry detergent now. Oil pulling is something else that some GAPS-type people find useful. And Epsom Salt Baths are another part of the GAPS protocol.
Questions:
Do you have enough energy?
I felt like I had more energy on GAPS. I felt great the whole time I was on it, though I never really had a huge die off. I feel better on GAPS.
Is it safe for pregnancy or breastfeeding?
I personally will make a point to be on GAPS for at least part of my next pregnancy, should we be blessed again. It is a very healthy ‘clean’ diet and I feel like it would be a great pregnancy diet! I would just do what’s called ‘full gaps’ and take it really slow introducing probiotics. The intro (as opposed to full gaps) is a little to restrictive for what I’m comfortable doing while pregnant or breastfeeding, but that’s a decision you have to make for yourself. By delaying things that trigger die offs (coconut oil, probiotic, fermented foods, limiting carbs) you can lessen the impact it would have on your baby in utero or nursling.
Is it expensive?
Yes. Not to scare you off, but because you’re eliminating potatoes and grains from the diet, and I really think the meat you eat needs to be organic, it is more expensive than not being on GAPS. We are a single-income family, and my husband is in construction so the income we do have right now isn’t huge (being honest…) and we still made it work, but it takes some planning. You can see some things that have worked for us in Paying Cash for Groceries and 10 ways to Find More Grocery Money
Is it time consuming?
No. It takes some planning, but it’s not too bad. Mostly, you can’t just grab something quickly when you’re out- I don’t think there is any prepared food even at our health food store that is GAPS friendly. I quickly learned that before doing errands I needed to hack a squash in half and stick it in the oven (at 250 degrees) so something was ready when we came home. I bulk cooked meat balls, apples, and dehydrated lots of fruit at one time. It requires organization, but I didn’t find it took really any more time than regular cooking from scratch.
Do you miss grains?
I’m not going to lie… I like bread. I didn’t find that I had overwhelming cravings for starches, though. There are lots of good foods you can eat on GAPS. So, I found that I was easily able to adapt to the diet but I don’t think I’d choose to be on it for the rest of my life without a good reason.
Can you cheat?
Cheating is complicated and it involves knowing your body and understanding your reactions. You do need to be strict- fanatical adherence is I believe how it’s said in Breaking The Vicious Cycle, on a day-to-day basis, or you won’t have any healing. Cheating needs to be thought through and deliberate (I know this sounds bizarre… just go with me on this). We had ‘good luck’ cheating with SCD-legal foods, as I described in the post on Cheeseslave’s blog. SCD legal foods don’t contain the carbohydrates that are going to feed the bad bacteria.
I tried cheating with *just a bite* of soaked whole wheat bread about a week into the diet, and reacted to it immediately; raised pulse, nausea, other tummy troubles. I was surprised that would make so much of a difference. I tried again after about 3 weeks onto the diet, and enough healing had taken place that I could cheat and feel not great, but not awful. At this point I decided to just do GAPS 5 days a week, and be ‘off’ on the weekends. After a couple months of this on for 5 days, off for 2, I did another full 3 weeks on, and then was done.
More about cheating: I found that it did no good if I ate even a tiny bit of ‘illegal’ on the days that I was supposed to be doing GAPS. It took me a full 24 hours of only eating GAPS foods to feel like I was actually on GAPS (feeling scattered, bloated with the illegal foods). For this reason, I’d encourage you to not bother with doing ‘mostly GAPS’ and then write off the diet as ‘not working’- it’s not going to work unless you’re not letting any trace of illegal carbohydrate into your diet. I’m sure there are plenty of people who can’t handle cheating at all. I didn’t consider myself to be in dire need of GAPS, but was doing it more as a cleanse, so it wasn’t going to affect me as much.
What about going to other people’s houses?
See the ‘Cheating’ section, above. I elected to keep the kids on GAPS food, since I couldn’t really tell how they handled non-GAPS food on occasion, so I just brought food along for them, plus some to share. They were stuck on the only-cooked-fruit stage for quite a while, and I’ll admit that I did occasionally microwave fruit to ‘cook’ it easily at other people’s houses. Because food allergies, special diets, and picky kids are so common now, it wasn’t a big deal at all to bring different food. I’d usually just bring some sort of fruit and some sort of meat so it wasn’t too messy. If a former-favorite (pizza) was being served, I’d be sure to bring something they really liked, like fruit leathers and not stress if that’s all they ate that meal.
What supplements do you take?
We started out taking Biokult
What Did You Do for Intro?
We modified the intro (added carbs (squash), coconut oil (for satiety since we were used to it), and ahem coffee for me. Other than that we rushed through the intro described in the Gaps Guide
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Feel free to ask me any questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them or point you in a direction of someone who may know the answer. There’s a GAPS Yahoo group too, and they know much more than I do.
What Do You Eat On GAPS? (Gut and Psychology Syndrome)
Last modified on 2010-01-01 13:14:00 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
ShareOrganic apples, butternut squash, cheese, butter, pecans, coffee, organic beef, honey, bananas, eggs, avocados are all allowed on GAPS
I’m trying not to be obnoxious about it, but as I see how great our family feels on GAPS I find myself talking about it perhaps too much. Quickly into the conversation people ask me, so what can you eat? When I came home from a weekly shopping trip and saw that I had only bought GAPS-approved food, I took a picture to show how many awesome yummy foods you can have on GAPS. In addition to this, we’ve introduced sprouted lentils, and have our olive oil and coconut oil.
I like bread, but there are plenty of other carbs available, plus recipes for bread-like things made with squash and nut flours.
You can read my previous posts for more information about the diet:
Starting GAPS
Modifying the GAPS Intro to work for us
This is a part of Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Fridays
Starting GAPS
Last modified on 2010-08-12 01:26:38 GMT. 20 comments. Top.
It doesn’t look like much all set out on the table here, but I’ve been gathering information and ingredients to start the GAPS intro for the past couple weeks. I have, a bowl of my crockpot chicken, GAPS Guide, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Breaking the Vicious Cycle
The GAPS Intro is outlined here. I would rather hold real books in my hand than only have them on the web, so I bought the GAPS Guide, which does have the introduction diet in it and I’m using that. I read through the website before deciding to buy the books, though.
GAPS starts out with a diet based on meat and veggie soup, and slowly adds in other easily digestible foods (no grains, though, for a long time). The idea is that it gives the gut nourishing healing foods, and allows it to repopulate good flora (the kind of bacteria in yogurt and lactofermented veggies), which helps our digestion and absorption of nutrients, as well as keeping nutrients that aren’t broken down all the way from passing through to the bloodstream prematurely. I think it’s fascinating. It’s almost like setting the ‘reset button’ on your gut flora after a lifetime of antibiotics and toxins. I’m curious to see how it works, I’d love to get rid of my milk allergy, and maybe even improve my handwriting (which looks like chicken scratch- thought to be related to dyslexia) and spelling ability (I rely heavily on spell check).
My baby is nearly a year now, and I’ll continue to nurse him through GAPS. It’s supposed to be more baby-friendly than other cleanses, more gentle, so I think we’ll be okay. Of course if I see any bad symptoms in him, I’ll go ahead and stop.
Feel free to ask questions in the comment section. I’m not an expert in GAPS at all, but I have been reading quite a bit about it lately. I’ll most likely be posting about non-GAPS related things during this since the diet is very simple and not a lot to blog about 
More:
A post here and here by Kelly on GAPS.
Chicken Stock is nourishing and warm, whether you’re doing GAPS this winter or not. Here are pictures and instructions.
Keeper of the Home wrote about a different cleanse that she was doing over here, must be the season!
