Okay. I’ve told you all about the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet), and how you do it. Now you get to know exactly why I want to do it, and how I feel about this decision.
For something that could potentially take a solid commitment of two years (with no cheating), this decision isn’t taken lightly. In fact, you might be wondering why I would consider this worth it. I don’t have serious health problems. I get some mild acne here and there, I get mild indigestion and stomach aches from time to time…. I get a little anxious and moody… but who doesn’t?? My symptoms are hardly severe, and they don’t interfere with my quality of life much.
So is that really worth two years out of my life?
For most people it wouldn’t be worth it, no matter how bad their problems, and that is more than fine! We are all very different people. In fact, when I first heard about GAPS, I was like ‘nooo way buddy’. Well.. that’s not entirely true. I saw the definite merit in it, but I was like… nuh uh. Maybe in the far flung future sometime.
But I couldn’t help reading more and more about it and deeper and deeper into it. It captured my attention big time, to the point where I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The more I learned, the more I realized that I believed in this protocol and felt more strongly about it than ANY health plan I had ever, EVER come across.
Why is this?
Well, I’ve been studying health for quite a while now. Before I had ever heard about the GAPS, I had very much learned that digestive problems were a major root cause of so many diseases, including acne, and learned the mechanisms of how that worked (ie. low stomach acid, leaky gut, and improper gut flora). I had also learned of the strong nutritional benefits of eating a Weston A Price style traditional diet, and very much believed in that dietary approach.
I felt I had a good grasp on this stuff, and a very clear picture, but that I still didn’t have all the answers. There were still some random questions that were mysteries to me.
One mystery was “why is it that no matter HOW I eat, whether it’s vegan, vegetarian, paleo, or traditional that I can’t seem to have PERFECT health!?’
Don’t get me wrong, I feel much better than I did when I ate the SAD diet and didn’t care about my health. And obviously my skin agrees. (See my before and after pictures for proof!)
But no matter how strict I have eaten on any of these diets, the on and off mild acne, digestive symptoms, and anxiety remain. I always hear about these people finding their one diet that made them feel like a bajillion dollars! Why can’t I find that diet for me that gets me jumping out of bed in the morning with energy and feeling rad all the time?
WHYYYY????
I also had other random unanswered questions floating around my head such as “Why is it that paleo people think all grains are the devil for everyone, yet the people Weston A Price studied all ate properly prepared whole grains and enjoyed perfect health. What’s up with that? Are grains really bad or not??”.
So anyway.. despite knowing that digestion played a major role in most diseases including acne, and despite knowing full well I didn’t have perfect digestion, I was still a bit in denial that that was MY problem. Mostly because I wasn’t really sure what to do about it. If none of the diets I had ever tried fully worked, and all the digestive supplements I ever tried didn’t do much of anything, then what am I gonna do?
Yet, I wasn’t gonna give up. I’ll be honest, having mild acne really pisses me off. I have a blog dedicated to getting rid of acne. Every time I get a pimple… it feels like a big “you suck”.
I knew the answer was out there. I was going to find it. I don’t really feel desperate about my acne or health problems anymore since they are so minimal, so I wasn’t desperate for an immediate solution, buuut…. I did want to find it one day.
Health is my hobby. I study and read about it SO much, that finding that missing link has become almost like a little game to me that I feel compelled to not just give up on it…. it’s like this big mind bending puzzle – a riddle to solve. The riddle drives me crazy, and I just. want. the. answer.
And the answer was out there. I could FEEL it was out there. The more I learned the more I felt I was close. The more I learned about traditional foods, the more I felt I was close. The more I learned about the digestive system, the more I felt I was close to finding the answers.
And then just like that, I found GAPS.
The key! The thing I had been looking for this ENTIRE time. Just sitting there. It has tied everything together for me.
All the health principles that I believed in were there: Weston A Price style eating, a tried and true digestive healing plan with logical steps that follow what I had already learned, and real people getting serious results with it on really tough diseases. Here it was. What I’d been looking for.
And I finally came to understand:
THAT is why no diet has ever brought me perfect health. For some people, they find a great diet that works with their body, they begin to digest it properly, and they feel like a million dollars. But unfortunately for some some people (and I guess I am one of them), switching to a healthy diet does not completely reverse what has happened to your digestive system beforehand. To come into perfect health, it actually needs to be specifically targeted and healed, so that it can digest the healthy food you are eating and make you feel great.
It also solved my Paleo vs Weston A Price existential question about grains…. ARE grains bad?? Are any whole foods ACTUALLY bad? And the answer is NO! But lots of people’s guts are pretty bad! If what Dr. Campbell-McBride says about a weakened gut wall not being able to break apart double sugar disaccharides (starch as in grains) very easily, then it would make sense that all these paleo followers feel so amazing without grains in their diet. It’s not so much the grains, it’s their guts. (note: this last paragraph is totally just speculation).
Whether that last part is true or not, it got me excited to maybe eat gluten again. And not worry about eating healthy foods and wondering if I’m actually allergic to them or not.
My big reasons for doing it are:
- I don’t want to have acne ever again. I want to feel happy and peaceful all the time. I dislike indigestion. Plus I’m interested to see what kind of random problems go away that I don’t even notice I have. I have constantly come across people listing off completely out-there things that they have cleared up with this program, like this woman here. And here is the full list of conditions that have been addressed with the GAPS.
- Many people in my family have a lot of health problems as they’ve gotten older (very much GAPS related ones, in my opinion) – I’d really like to just nip it in the bud as soon as possible
- I believe in this so much that I can’t just not try it. It’s been on my mind constantly for the last few months.
- I want to try it, not only to satisfy my own never ending riddle of health, but also so that I can experience it in order to help you guys out with it if any of you want to do it. I don’t want to just say “heey… do this diet” when I have never tried it myself. And the knowledge I am gaining from this will help me help those on my candida cleanse program better.
- And then there is the reason in that I would simply love to not have to avoid any particular group of foods. Right now, I consciously avoid most dairy, gluten, the majority of grains. I worry too much if I don’t eat the way I want for more than a few days. I don’t want to do this. I want room to breathe.
And here is my actual biggest reason that this is worth it to me at this point in my life, and it’s not about acne, or food, or anything like that:
It makes sense that all of us adults are so sick and our digestive systems are so bad. We’ve had time to eat terribly, build up toxins, and take mounds of antibiotics.
But what about the kids in their short little lives? How are all the kids so SICK these days? How did their gut get so bad in such a short time? Why are the incidences of allergies, eczema, autism, ADD, behavioural problems, and asthma increasing exponentially?
It’s because you inherit your gut flora profile from your mom. Our guts are actually sterile when we are born, and a baby swallows its first gulp of bacteria as its going through the birth canal. If your mother has got messed up flora and yeast problems, she passes that onto you, and then also with her breast milk. Her digestive system becomes yours.
This is why more and more children are getting sicker and sicker. The problem is getting compounded with each generation.
Personally, as a woman of child bearing age who is thinking of having children at some point in the next 5 years (probably), I’d like to get my gut all spic and span for my baby. I don’t want to pass on any problems to my kid. I don’t want to pass them the acne curse! And I certainly don’t want them to have autism, asthma, or anything else. This is out of love for them… and it’s certainly more convenient for me to not have a child with ADHD!
I just keep hearing time and time again about mothers who wish they had known about this whole gut thing BEFORE having children, and it’s become very clear to me that it’s important for me to do this before I get pregnant. So yes, this is a long commitment, but I’d rather do it myself now instead of potentially having to put my entire family on the GAPS later.
… and THAT my friends, is why the GAPS is worth it to me.
I will also say that I am at a bit of an advantage here than some people for implementing this due to my personal situation being fairly ideal. In fact, I actually do not think the full GAPS diet will be difficult for me at all, really. I’m a bit of a homebody by nature, and the way I was eating before this was very GAPS-like already. I’m accustomed to spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and I work from home. My boyfriend is supportive too, which helps. And, as I’ve said before, I’m sick of moving house, so I’m actually grateful this will help me to stay put for a while.
Plus, I feel there’s a wide range of delicious food to eat on the diet and the full diet is really not horribly restrictive (from my point of view anyway). And I have been teaching myself over a long while how to do all the stuff I need to know how to do – make ferments, bone broths, whatever.
The thing that scares me is just the staying on it through thick and thin.
It means no traveling beyond a short weekend away (if well prepared), and only with my boyfriend or a close friend because I’d feel very uncomfortable doing weird food things around people I didn’t know well. And perhaps other awkward social situations if they revolve around food, like if someone invited me over for dinner, or out for dinner. Speaking of which, eating at restaurants is pretty much out.
And then there’s people not really understanding why it’s so important to me to not cheat. “Is it REALLY going to hurt you if you eat this ONE thing this ONE time?”. Or People saying things like “YOU’RE ON A DIET?? OMG WHAT ARE YOU ON A DIET FOR? YOU DON”T NEED TO LOSE WEEEIIGHT!”. You know…?
But hey. It is what it is.
Also, I’d like to note here that as much as I believe in this protocol, there is still a chance it won’t work. There is no diet or health plan out there that works for every single person, and people do run into problems with the GAPS. The biggest one I keep hearing about is that while GAPS is not intended to be a low carbohydrate diet, people accidentally go too low carb and end up losing energy after some months on the diet.
For other people… it just plain doesn’t work for whatever problems they were trying to solve. Maybe it would have with some tweaking, but they never figured it out.
So… I would be disappointed if it didn’t work for me. But I’m extremely hopeful that it will.
And that’s that folks. What do you think of all this? Do you think I’m crazy?
60 Responses
Unfortunately, because virtually everyone is so out of touch with what their body is telling them, most people in the holistic health/alternative medicine community are most likely confusing progress for placebo.
I have no doubt that people can CONVINCE themselves that being 100% raw fruitarian is the way to go because of the placebo effect created when people assess their diet’s affect on their physical and health. From a strictly non-ethical and human biology standpoint, most of us probably know that humans are omnivores and eating organic produce regularly does have health benefits. However, plenty of vegetarians/vegans/whatever fad diet followers “feel great” for YEARS before the placebo wears off.
I don’t know how the heck I didn’t identify a gluten intolerance/reaction to wheat products the first time I ate it.
I’m not sure why, but my theory (which somewhat conflicts with Campbell-McBride) is that the body has some adaptive mechanism that allows us to “tolerate” (not exactly the best word to use here) shitty food. When I eat a slice of bread now, my stomach lets me know later that eating that wheat was a bad idea. This mechanism only works for a short while before enough toxins accumulate. Once that food is removed, it “resets” this mechanism and we can truly see our reactions to certain foods during elimination diets. I’ve heard of several people who did fine on a certain SAD food, fixed up their diet, reintroduced the SAD food and they had a significant reaction to it that they didn’t have before they fixed up their lifestyle. I don’t think that’s a sign that the digestive system has grown weaker, just that it knows what benefits it and what doesn’t.
For MOST, eating a Paleo-like diet with plenty of healthy fats, sunshine and exercise should be more than sufficient enough to get someone completely clear. My health issues at this point are so minor, I see GAPS as being more tedious than helpful for me. Not for everyone though.
One day, I’ll definitely do the GAPS diet just for the experience of it. I’ve done the vegetarian thing, which ended in disaster. Done raw vegan for a few weeks recently, which was fun. I’m back on my paleoish diet.
My life advice for everyone: Do WHATEVER you need to do to be healthy.
That’s good life advice 🙂
I love your posts Sampson, always very informative and logical 🙂
Loved that one Sampson. I agree 100% with everything you just said, respect.
Hi there!
I saw in your article that you like to read and know more about health. Which is good ! Me too 🙂
I have some books you might be interested in. They are free and available on internet. They have been written by a women called Ellen G. White starting from the year 1863 !!!!! Yes in 1863 someone knew about the link between diet and our way of life. She also warned people about the consequences of cigarettes back in the days when cigarettes were prescribed by doctors as anxiety/stress relief. She was a Christian and have a lot of interesting things to say. She gives a lot of details on how to eat and why not to eat certain food. I know that most people do not believe in God and the Bible but now that I am reading it I found out that the Bible actually makes many health statements that are proven to be true right now.
Tell me what you think!
Below the links:
1. Counsels on health
http://media2.egwwritings.org/swf/en_CH/index.html
2. Counsels of diet and food (downloadable PDF)
https://egwwritings.org/media/pdf/en_CD.pdf
3. The health food ministry
https://egwwritings.org/media/pdf/en_HFM.pdf
4. Ministry of healing
https://egwwritings.org/media/pdf/en_MH.pdf
Thanks Nathalie, I’ll take a look at those when I get a minute 🙂
I think you’ll find the diet so very worth it. I’ve struggled with acne nearly my whole life until I started healing my gut. I still get a stray zit here and there but it’s so much better. If I had known about GAPS (well back then it would have been the SCD) when my acne was at it’s worst, I would never think 2 years of a strict diet was asking too much.
I’m excited to see how it works for you! Let me know if you need tips on fermenting. I have a bit of an obsession with it 🙂
Hi Melanie!
Yeah it’s funny… it all depends on a person’s perspective of what’s asking too much or not. The way I see it – if your skin is that bad and it’s ruining your life and you hide away and limit your life anyway and you have no idea if it’ll ever stop …. why not try something like GAPS??? Doesn’t sound like asking too much to me…. but if you only have mild acne, and maybe you’re a really busy person… it kinda does seem like a bit much. I’m obviously doing it for other reasons as well though that’s making it worth it to me. Everyone has their different circumstances and perspectives.
Anyway… I think I’ve got fermenting down pretty good, but I’m curious what your favourite things to ferment are? Any interesting recipes for cultured veggies or fruits or whatever? I’m always looking for new fermenting ideas! I have a big bag of frozen blackberries in the freezer, was thinking of fermenting those… what do you say?
Funny reading this because I kinda felt like you were writing about me hahha. I actually spoke to you through email about the GAPS diet and I remember saying I thought it was a little hardcore. I liked the premise behind it but thought it was much too extreme for someone like me. Buuuuuuut, as time went on, I ran into a friend who was doing it, borrowed her GAPS book and everything changed. My acne has 90% cleared up, thanks in part to your blog (thanks!!) and overall I have more energy, am happier and my digestion has improved. But I felt the same, where was this ONE amazing diet that was just going to change my life!!!? And now I know GAPS is the answer! I have been eating a full GAPS diet for the past couple months while I find a time which is appropriate for me to begin the into. It’s hard as I am very active and constantly on climbing trips, ski trips, bike trips. So finding a month for the into is the tough part…but the full GAPS diet is totally managable away from home! I just spent 3 weeks camping in California and was able to stick to it for the most part…
So I think your decision is great. And I am stoked to see how things go for you! I am pretty much obsessed with this diet at this point so cant wait to read about your results!
Good luck!!!
Hey Kendra – good to hear from you, and I’m stoked you are doing really well on the GAPS!! And to be honest, that’s actually a huge relief for me to hear that you were able to stick to it even when away for three weeks. My boyfriend and I want to do a camping trip to the Rockies after the summer as he hasn’t seen much of BC, but I’m like… ahhh…. I totally want to go… but can I stay on GAPS?? Yeah I guess it wouldn’t be that hard if you didn’t worry that much about the quality of the food… (like worrying about whether your meat was organic while you were on the road etc). I think overseas travel would be a bit too challenging though and I’m a little disappointed about that part, and I think he is too. But whatever… we need to stay put and save money anyway.
I digress. I’m happy you’re doing GAPS – I frickin love talking about it, I’m totally obsessed too. I’m pretty sure I’ve read every webpage on the internet that even mentions GAPS.
Hi Tracy! I know why diet/holistic approach doesn’t work for me, what I have is not acne but folliculitis, please help me! What can I do?
Hi,
Folliculitis is inflammation related which diet will for sure help. Here is a thread from a paleo forum
http://paleohacks.com/questions/113282/how-to-heal-folliculitis#axzz1tlErEy7F
But diet doesn’t help much, I eat high fat paleo because it cured my depression, but my skin is still awful.
Just wanted to pop in–Paleo cured my depression too, but I still get acne and other random lingering problems. Gut health has a lot to do with inflammation (and everything) so if you’re prepared for it GAPS might be worth a shot? I haven’t started it yet, but it’s helped a lot of people for whom simple healthy eating isn’t enough to reverse all the damage done by years of, say, SAD foods and antibiotics (in my case). Which it might not be–it makes sense to me that an intentional healing protocol to reverse damage is what some people need.
Good luck in any case!
@AcneDestroyed – hmm… I hate to say but I really don’t know anything specific about folliculitis and why it would not respond to diet and lifestyle stuff like acne. I mean, it’s an inflammatory process (inflamed hair follicles), much like acne is and many other diseases of the body. And from my understanding, inappropriate inflammation is not normal and is caused by underlying health issues. So I don’t know if I can help you with anything specific to do with it more than I share here on the blog :/ I’m sorry
Tracy,
I would say that all modern grains are bad, especially wheat. We have changed them so much to be more robust to get higher crop yields that we never tested to see how that would be for our health.
Some people can tollerate rice and corn and such but they are still inflammatory.
Yes, you’re right. I still don’t REALLY know if gluten is a good idea (chicken and the egg – is gluten the cause of the digestive troubles, or are the digestive troubles the cause of gluten being bad?). I hope to be able to eat it, but I am still a bit wary. If I do eat it after GAPS, it will be sourdough for sure, and I probably wouldn’t go crazy with it. And if I was making it myself, I’d go for spelt over wheat.
I think gluten will ALWAYS be bad no matter who eats it.
But common sense would imply that proteins and protein-like compounds like gluten/gliadin/casein are reduced in fermented foods, along with the sugars. So fermented gluten-containing grains are really just all of the available nutrition within the endosperm, bran and germ + a small bit of gluten and gliadin.
I don’t think it’s possible to ever make whole wheat bread into something truly “healthy” because that’s like trying to build a working car out of Lego bricks. We can only minimize the damage the bread does through fermentation/sprouting/slow-cooking and improve other areas of its nutrient profile.
I was actually going to bring up the point that i had very poor digestion, starting as a toddler. and it made me think if I even healed my gut from the gaps diet, that it could get ruined quickly with gluten/not so healthy foods again. Thats the only thing I worried about but now it makes complete sense, since our gut flora is inherited from our mothers, and my mom has always had poor digestion. good luck i hope it works out for you!
Hi Sarah.
I don’t know… I imagine that some people wouldn’t be able to stray too far for too long, but there’s no saying that would necessarily be you. I get the impression that after GAPS, it’s not like you’d want to be going and eating junk anyway. Gluten is still iffy and I may still be wary about it after, but who knows what will happen after all this haha… we’ll just have to see!
I’m thinking of trying this along wih yu as I suffer from the same sporadic acne. However I have been doing a diet a lot like 80-10-10 and am afraid that such drastic changes might not do well. So I’ll ease into it. I have ordered some of the fermented cod liver but am hesitant about the probiotics as I have had severe reactions to several types in the Past. Mainly. I lost my appetite for 8 days after trying probiotics last time and lost 10 lbs
Hi Brad.. yes I think switching from an 80-10-10 would be a bit of an intense switch… easing in is a very good idea. As for probiotics… that is quite the reaction! It’s normal to have adverse reactions to probiotics because of die off/healing crisi, some people more than others but that’s a bit crazy. Were you jumping into a big dose of them? With GAPS, it is instructed that you are to build up your probiotics and fermented foods starting from VERY little over the course of … as long as you need really. They say to find a dose where your die off symptoms are manageable, stay at that dose till they go away, and then up your dose a little.
Go Tracy!!
I’ve just realised that I’ve been following your blog and changing to a better lifestyle for about a year now! A year ago I was like ‘pfft, i can eat whatever i like, i gotta die of something’. Then I came across your blog… now I’m adamant to look after myself – whats the use of living if you live it to the fullest!?
Working in childcare for the last 8 years I’ve noticed a MASSIVE increase in the number of kids with Autism, ASD, ADHD and many allergies and intolerances. We supplied food for our children and would end up having all types of milk, making different meals for the different chidlren with allergies.. it was a nightmare!
So initially I found you while seeking info about acne but i noticed all the problems i had (mild but there!). And like you, Im childless but want to get healthy and develop these habits and take care of myself BEFORE i start having kids. And after reading this post it clicked with me. The doctor told me years ago that acne is hereditary and so coz my mum had it bad thats why i do (so he was implied theres no way to cure it and id always have to deal with it…) But i never realised that the GUT FLORA is passed on! It makes sense! And i always wondered why there was such an increase in children with food and mind problems – i assumed it was just all the additives.
Anyway I’ve been rambling – the more I read, the more it makes sense. The more i gain healthy living and eating habits the more im in tune with my body.
Oh and TOTALLY understand the comments people give you, I get it alot too. When I’m trying to be strict and not eat gluten and dairy when out people are like “why are you on a diet – you’re so skinnnnyyyy!!!” I’m naturally small but doesn’t mean I’m healthy!! It actually annoys me when people are like ‘big is more beautiful’ when looking at a before and after photo of someone’s weightloss success. Gosh i love the after photos – so fit and toned and GLOWING. HEALTHY is beautiful!
I’m interested to give the GAPS diet a go, but maybe in the future.
Gabby
Hi Gabby – that’s interesting that you’re seeing it first hand how sick all the kids are these days. It’s crazy! It makes me feel really blessed that I’ve learned about this now before I have kids…. I just know it’s gonna save me a lotta headaches!! Because from my research about GAPS, it sounds like the digestive system affects everything, even with the ‘healthy ones’ – sleeping patterns, crankiness, colic, everything. LOL – I’m probably getting too optimistic that I’ll have the most perfectly behaved child hah.
Actually, it’s funny though, my friend just asked me if I wanted a two day a week job at a … umm.. this place: http://www.prepsociety.org/familyplace.html
And I didn’t think of it at the time, but (if I take it) I bet I will end up seeing all these kids with all these problems and I’ll have to bite my tongue on saying “GET THAT KID ON THE GAPS!!”. haha… sometimes it’s hard not to be annoying… I realize people don’t like unsolicited advice, so I don’t give it, but … it’s not because i don’t want to!
You are super crazy Tracy, but not because your doing the diet ha 😉
I am looking forward to seeing what kind of results you get, hopefully they will be good ones.
I’ll be looking up soon how to make some of the dishes on the diet, they look hard.:\
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Bobby!
Which ones look hard? Some of the fermenting and stuff is intimidating if you don’t know how to do it, but it’s actually really easy. Overall on the introduction diet, the food is has been super easy… mind you, it seems like there’s a lot of dishes to be done (and since everything you eat contains a lot of fat, it makes the dishes SUPER annoying to clean), but making the food is actually incredibly easy and because you’re eating so few things with such simple ingredients, the best part is that you never really have to THINK too hard about what to eat. Thinking about and deciding on what to eat is the one of the hardest things about cooking, in my opinion!
Hi Tracy!
It is so heart-warming that one of the reasons you are doing GAPS is for the health of your future children. I don’t know many people who would be willing to go through with a 2-year long diet with so many limitations on travel and social situations for the good of their future children. All I can say is that you will be a fantastic mum! The theory about digestive problems being passed on through the flora from mother to child is very intriguing to me. I’ve just read a recent study which found a significant link between maternal obesity and metabolic conditions and children’s autism: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/10/us-obesity-autism-idUSBRE83900B20120410. If the theory that digestive problems are passed on is correct, this makes a lot of sense!
Although GAPS does sound like it could be very beneficial, I tend to agree with Sampson on the placebo effect. Many people you read about giving raving reviews after having found their ‘perfect’ diet are simply happier for having made a switch to a more health-conscious (not necessarily more healthful) lifestyle. I’m not saying GAPS isn’t healthful! I’m just saying, please don’t worry too much if it doesn’t deliver ‘perfect health’. Is there really such a thing as perfect health, and feeling happy and peaceful all the time? Of course, we all want that as human beings. But we’re only human, and no matter how flawless our diet is, life is full of all sorts of unexpected events and environmental factors. We can’t be 100% invulnerable to this, and it’s OK to feel worried, anxious, and cry from time to time… Just part of life and being human. Sometimes, it’s knowing the bad times that makes the good times good!
Hi Lily,
Yes, I never would have been willing to do this for the health of my future children before either, but I have begun to feel my good ol biological clock start to tick… sigh.
Placebo is a good point, and who knows if perfect health is really attainable. But one thing that I’ve learned is that everyone out there has little health things that we all accept as normal, because everyone’s got them… they’re just our “quirks”, when in reality, they’re actually related to your health (and gut health). For example, mild anxiety – I know I was sounding a bit lofty when I said “happy and peaceful all the time”… of course, you would get sad or upset if there was a good reason, but I think that most people get anxious or moody, or cranky or upset when there isn’t really anything to be upset about.. or we overreact to things that don’t matter. Or we just have this feeling of anxiety or subtle doom when there is absolutely no reason for that.
That’s what I’d like to see go away, and since this whole program was specifically developed for mental health/brain issues, that is one thing I am interested to see change. From my reading, it sounds like the majority of GAPsters did have this symptom go away and they did feel much happier all the time for no reason, instead of feeling anxious all the time for no reason 🙂
Hi tracy,
I’m very glad you finnaly decide to go on the GAPS diet, I’m pretty sure it will success to heal completely your gut. I was thinking about it too, and I should say that it kind of scares me because its so long…
But you make me think a lot when you spoke about transmit our gut flora to our child… For me it definatly worth it before having a baby! I never thought about it and it’s a big point. I thought about having children a lot these day and I think a should do it. May be I’ll wait a couple weeks just to see how’s it going for ya 😉
Oh and about grains, as an agronomist, grains (and beans) are kind of my speciality… I spend 2 years of my life studying the effect of it for animals digestive system (for both polygastric and monogastric) and I can say that people living in canada should avoid any kind of wheat, canola and soy. Oats is safe (only in canada!). If you live in united states, just avoid any grains and espacially soy (even if it’s not a grain, it is so GM that it’s really bad for general health) and eat organic beans. The laws are not the same there and I need to say that we are lucky in canada that our agrculture is so closely monitored by the Ministry of Environnement.
Hi Noemie,
That’s really interesting insider knowledge on the grains and beans! Thanks for that!
I have one question:
Why not to do colonics in order to clean the system from toxin and regenerate the gut flora ?
Well, I think that cleaning out the colon with a colonic would be a good idea for detoxifying (in fact, I would have this done but I can’t afford it right now and we don’t have a colon hdyrotherapist in my town, I’d have to take a ferry to get it done), and cleaning out old stuff/bacteria. I think it would help the process along and totally be an awesome companion tool to the diet/protocol, but not necessarily be a replacement. The diet is to heal and seal the gut wall, and also to build back up your good bacteria colonies, something I don’t think you can just get with some colonics. Hey… maybe I’m wrong though! What do you think about the matter?
hey tracy, I haven’t commented in a very long time. I still love what you do, but don’t really agree very much with pushing a strict diet, and I realise you’ve been going increasingly paleo/gaps..I do think it’s great that you’re getting people to heal their body and acne by looking at their whole lifestyle more holistically though!
Anyway, I really liked the post on meditation, I think that just appreciating life, and food, is important to healing.
I realise that my skin’s been getting better and I’ve been including MORE grains in my diet, and really, look at very traditional healthy cultures, the japanese eat lots of rice, and I love food and was watchign an episode of The Hungry italians, and it was so enlightening watching them rediscovering their traditional way of eating, that simplicity, making their own pasta and bread etc. WITH LOVE. In fact, they mentioned before, that’s what one really needs, good bread and olive oil (for other western cultures it may be bread and butter, while for my asian culture, it’s rice.) I think that’s the key to a healthy diet, not what exactly, but how we approach it. and the modern science has made us all scared of carbs now, scared of grains.
I don’t know if you believe in the law of attraction, but this video sums up beautifully the relationship between food and health. If we believe the food to be bad for us, whether or not it actually is, our body is going to respond to it negatively. And I think that’s the problem with diets, any sort of diet or restriction, because we start restricting more and more of what we can eat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKOW4CIyIoU&list=PLC4E8B0641562F4D3&index=1&feature=plpp_video
And just to provide a different point of view (I am NOT anti-gaps) here’s some arguments against the GAPs diet. scroll down below to read the comments as they include a lot of people’s real life experiences and discussions too. The guy is a bit rad in his views, but he does make a lot of sense too.
http://180degreehealth.com/2012/04/the-gaps-diet
stressing out about “unhealthy” food is more unhealthy than just eating it. That said, I ‘m not saying eat macdonalds and junk food everyday. I actually eat real whole foods and love making everything from scratch, pretty much like a good weston a price person would anyway, but with white rice etc, the way my mum and my grandmother etc would have eaten. But I do it because I love it. I think the key is to prepare and eat food made with love, and to love your food. I work at the farmer’s market and I buy produce grown by people with love too, and I think all that energy matters. I like to think of food in a traditional chinese medicine point of view, in terms of their energy, not their macronutrients/micronutrients ratio.
x
Hi Shuhan 🙂 Nice to see you again!
You make all sorts of awesome points! I think though that GAPS is often misinterpreted, because I agree with everything you said – there are cultures all over the world who eat all sorts of ways (which include lots of grains), and there are many healthy people from these cultures. And that’s actually what GAPS is for… so that we can enjoy all the healthy foods that we were meant to. It’s a diet with a very specific purpose – healing the gut. It’s not meant to be a permanent diet, so I think it actually works with what you are saying.
Also, I have read Matt Stone’s point of view and I have also read about the people who have problems with the diet, and I mentioned that at the end of the post. I believe in the protocol a lot for healing, but there are so many variables, it doesn’t work for everyone. For people who have classic GAPS symptoms, I hope that it would work, but who knows. I mean, hey, I haven’t tried it yet! I don’t know what’s really going to happen with it!
No one really knows until they try it, right. I hope you don’t feel like I’m trying to push it… I’m just doing it because I really want to try it and I really hope it works. I feel good about the food choices available on it and for me, I don’t think it’s actually going to be too stressful. For some people…. TOTALLY!
But yes, reading about these people who have problems with the GAPS, and particularly lack of carbs has actually taught me a lot to broaden my understanding of whether carbs are really bad or not like the paleo folks claim. And the fact that some people are not doing well on low carb, and that Matt Stone’s RRARFing thing seems to work well for people is very eye opening and enlightening! It feels great to know that carbs are actually really GOOD!
Hi Shuhan,
Unfortunately, while your ideas are philosophically correct, when you have an unhealthy are in your body that needs healing, you need a protocol to do that- once and for all. The Gaps is not about having a strict diet, it is about giving your body the right foods- healing foods- for enough time to allow it to heal. This is the idea of “food as medicine”. In a culture such as Japan (especially before the western diet, medicines etc pervaded and caused problems, of course rice is ok for an un-diseased body.
Gaps is for people wanting to temporarily alter their diet to heal- and then switch over to a less restrictive (but ultimately healthy for our entire lives) diet, the FULL GAPS diet.
Please do not steer people away from this potentially life saving program.
The stress from living a life in which feeling tired and unhealthy and being in pain because we do not choose to educate ourselves and just open our mouths and eat whatever people tell us to is more detrimental to our health than the stressful thoughts that we MIGHT become unhealthy. The law of attraction also works this way: WHen we begin to resonate on a higher frequency, with more positive thoughts, those things that support that in our physical reality will become more and more a part of our lives and we will be happy to embrace the changes, even when it requires discipline to do so. The higher path has never been an easy road-We must be willing to go through the fire in order to purify ourselves.
When life gives us the opportunity to do so and our spirit is willing we can jump on board with our whole hearts- our soon to be healthier hearts!
Rather than see it as deprivation, we can look at it as knowledge and opportunity to make changes for the better- that is the true union of our physical bodies and our spirits.
You should be extremely proud of yourself…very inspirational to see someone so determined.
GAPS isn’t for me at this point in time (21, at university, no stability) but I’m intruiged by it…I think it could be life-changing if I did it, and that really excites me.
Thanks 🙂 I hope it ends up going well
Hi Tracy,
I say do what you feel you need to do…otherwise you’ll always be thinking “what if…”
Slight detour! All these comments about diet and carbs have me worrying slightly about the candida cleanse I am currently doing. I’m not consuming any grains or legumes or fruit at all. I’m only eating eggs, meat, milk kefir, vegetables, almonds and butter. Is this too low carb? I’m a week in and plan to be on for another two weeks.
Hi Amy,
I think it sounds like going low carb for too LONG isn’t a good idea… or going too, TOO low carb in general.
Like for example, on the GAPS intro, if you are only eating meat and broth and no vegetables, you might end up with the “low carb” flu (google it for symptoms to see if you are experiencing it or what to look for)…. however, if you are eating a large volume of vegetables, even non starchy low sugar ones, as you might on the candida diet, that should be enough to ensure you are getting enough carbs to avoid the low carb flu and be able to do a three week candida cleanse no problems. I think that maybe over the long run (either a few months to years depending on who you are), more carbs than that is definitely a better idea or you may lose energy. That’s my current understanding, anyway
Tracy –
I have read a little bit about the GAPS diet and recently started making my own bone broth. I know that when I cut out grains, sugars, and starches from my diet, my skin (and overall health) fare much better. My question is this: I know that bone broth and animal products are a really important component of the GAPS diet. Do you think that a diet free of starches, sugars, and grains – and incorporating probiotics and bone broth daily – would be effective, too? Like many, I’m intimidated by the GAPS because it’s such a specific, no-cheating-allowed sort of diet. I live in New York and have a really busy lifestyle – sometimes it’s impossible not to cheat. And I suppose that anything is better than nothing, in terms of making an effort to live a more healthy lifestyle. It seems like the bone broth is a really important element in the healing of the gut, though – have you heard of anyone having success incorporating elements of GAPS into their diet, but not going all the way gung-ho? Thanks 🙂
– Corley
Hi Corley – yes! I mentioned that I think in the first article – that even if you don’t want to do the strict GAPS, incorporating parts of it are going to be very helpful because they are very healthy – bone broths, fermented foods, more natural animal fats, fermented cod liver oil, etc… it’s all just kind of stuff from the traditional foods/Weston A Price wisdom anyway, which is awesome
Wow, you sound almost exactly like me! When I switched to traditional foods I was disappointed that I didn’t suddenly start feeling awesome like so many people do. Eventually (after much resisting, of course) I concluded that it was my gut and I needed GAPS. I still don’t feel like I’m healed all the way but things have gotten so much better on GAPS.
Your reasons for going on GAPS are almost the same as mine, too. Especially your main reason – it was like you were reading my mind on that one! It’s important to me to heal my own issues, but even more importantly I want to prevent even worse issues in my future children, since as you said the problems get worse every generation if we don’t take steps to correct things. And yes, it’s out of love for them, but also I do not want to have a child with health problems if I can avoid it! Parenting is hard enough already.
So glad to see you sharing this – I don’t think I’ve ever read it from someone else.
hah yeah, that’s funny no one’s really mentioned that – I guess because most people doing GAPS already have kids! It’s funny how once your clock starts ticking a little, you can picture your future children and them having health problems kind of breaks your heart! And I don’t even know them yet! I would just feel so much better knowing that I gave them the best chance at health. If for some reason they ended up with health problems anyway, so be it, but at least they can’t say I didn’t try!
Anyway… I like hearing from you because I like talking to people already doing the GAPS 🙂 How long did you spend on intro again? I’m gonna go check your site..
About a month, I think. I’m considering attempting it again at some point to try to jump start some more healing – but I can’t say I’m exactly looking forward to it! But people usually say that it’s better the second time.
Hm… I’m actually not doing so well on intro… digestive wise, things are bad! Read my post tomorrow to hear about it haha
Hi Tracy,
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and I must say you have me intrigued. Currently, I am following the candida diet and trying to incorporate some of the basic GAPS guidelines. Fermenting seems pretty intimidating. What would be the best way to start?
Best regards,
Hi Lola.. fermenting is really easy once you do it one time, it just sounds intimidating beforehand. Maybe trying something like beet kvass… (or you can make carrot kvass, just swap the beets for carrots), and use salt instead of whey… watch this video: https://thelovevitamin.com/3093/how-to-make-beet-kvass-another-one-of-my-fermented-delights/
Although that might not be best for candida because it’s sugary.. here’s my sauerkraut tutorial: https://thelovevitamin.com/1757/how-to-make-your-own-homemade-sauerkraut/
Thanks so much!
Which probiotic are you goin to use? I read that you recommended a human derived probiotic in another post. Or bio kult?
Yes, I’m trying biokult (because I’m a stickler for the rules lol)… no, that’s not the rule, you don’t have to take biokult, I have just been told it has some particularly aggressive strains of bacteria that are good for murdering bad guys. I’m also going to be taking one called Prescript Assist alongside it because I have a few bottles of it. The HMF one is a good probiotic too though
I saw the prescript assist on the gaps diet webpage. I had seen it in the past and wanted to try it as the ingredients are very unique strains. Now there’s 3 that look good. Ah I hate making decisions so I’ll probably spend time reading reviews on eAch. I couldn’t find a ton on bio kult even on the gaps forum.
Hi Tracy,
thanks for this great website and the awesome work you do by researching healthy diets and ways of living! you are very good looking and inspirational.
I just wanted to share my experience (not with GAPS though, didn’t get to do it yet and not sure I will do it). I’m 28, have a 2 year old daughter,I had severe acne end of Feb 2012 and found your website, got very inspired and did a candida cleanse, but also combined with elimination diet to try and track my food allergies (I thought they were the culprit). I’ll try to keep it short: after about 4-5 weeks I ended up with virtually no acne, BUT!! horrible kind of dermatitis (still no clear diagnosis from 2 dermatologists), now taking antibiotics for 4 weeks 🙁 So there goes my healthy way of living.. When I was on the diet, my face turned terribly red and irritated (it became clear that acne was not my major problem), I lost about 10 pounds (still trying to get back to normal weight), so overal terrible experience, and also took before and after pictures (before pics look much better unfortunately.. 🙁
That is not to discourage people to eat healthy: I do eat whole foods, grass fed beef, wild caught fish, organic froot and veggies, fermented and soaked grains / beans (no sugar and no gluten, and only food that I prepare myself). I just want to say that dieting can be very tricky: you don’t know how your body works, and by dieting you may ruin the fine balance and get worse or get some new and more serious issues. In my case, it may have to do with my thyroid, and from reading a lot (also the blog of cheeseslave – I see that low carb can really disrupt your hormones and cause or aggravate problems with thyroid). Sorry if this was too long / confusing, just want to draw your attention, especially if you want to be in good productive health, watch your thyroid and be careful 😉
that’s exactly the point I was trying to make above! I’m just wary that a diet, i.e. eating with strict restrictions and rules, may ruin your own body’s balance and your ability to tune in to your body’s needs.
but yup it is ultimately your decision to make tracy, so listen and just do what your body tells you to.
good point raised on cheeseslave too. I saw her eat her way back to health on matt stone’s rrarf plan, but using whole foods (loads of carbs, including soaked grains etc too) instead of refined junk food if that’s what’s been scaring people away from his radical plans, and that’s the way I’m kind of inclined towards eating. and eating my food in a state of appreciation helps (:
Yes, you guys are definitely right. I had read all this stuff before starting (like Cheeseslave’s thing and Matt Stone’s article and his RRARF thing), but I just took another good thorough look and decided to buy his Diet Recovery book yesterday…
It’s really good though, I’m learning so much! I guess this makes sense that GAPS is a pretty isolated approach to this one problem (that does need to be fixed :/, so what do you do), but the lack of starch might not be so great for metabolism in some people. *Sigh*. Now you’ve got me wondering if I should just RRARF instead. I hate nutrition sometimes. Often.
But yeah, I’m going definitely going to address this stuff at some point soon because it’s a very worth consideration. I’m also going to go buy a thermometer and take my temps and actually see if maybe my body temperature is low
Right on Tracy! I love that you do so much research and even though you have such hope in the diet, you are very aware of the negatives and possibility it may not work for you (or may work initially and then stop). Although, who knows, you could be very lucky in that it does work for you and it doesn’t take 2 full years!
Anyway I’m very excited to see how you find it. I had childhood asthma and eczema – and then the eczema hung around until adulthood and of course, I developed acne. From reading Dr Campbell McBride’s book it’s amazing to think it could have all began at birth, through not inheriting viable gut flora. I think I didn’t inherit any at all to be honest, as I was born by C-section, so that makes sense that I would suffer more than my sister with such problems (although she developed bad acne in her teens, but I think she shows a lot of PCOS symptoms; and she never had eczema or asthma etc – just me).
Oh I also meant to mention I suffer from anxiety too, and I would love to be free of it just as you would, so GAPS is something I look forward to doing in the future.
One of my favorite articles Tracy, especially thinking about your future kids…we need to realize how changing our lives will change others for the better as well. 🙂
It seems like a commitment to our overall health (body, mind, and spirit) makes everything else so much easier in the long run no matter how frustrating it may be to figure out for ourselves in the present. (not having to worry about chronic disease, medical expenses…etc.)
I so wish I would have done GAPS before having kids! I have three and might have more, they are pretty healthy and sweet but they all have eczema. I had horrible eczema growing up and still have a little. I did GAPS month 8 of my pregnancy with my 3rd baby but got pneumonia and couldn’t keep it up. I ended up having to take an antibiotic and felt like all my work was for nothing! I am trying it again now that my baby is 3 months old. it is so hard! if I go anywhere and run out of GAPS food, I have to eat or I get hypoglycemic. Any suggestions?
To be honest.. I’m REALLY tempted to do the Gaps diet! After taking a short break yesterday outside to think over some stuff… I never realized how badly I treated my gut throughout the years.. No wonder I started getting acne… Eating a pound of sugar nearly every day before I entered my teenage years.. No wonder I’m having digestive problems!
And I’m just sick of being constipated and having diarrhea even though I ate something that is very easy to digest! I’m really considering doing this diet if it can heal my gut (which I can tell by default that it’s not in its best shape!)
The only problem is.. Well, of course. Going out to eat with friends. That means my social life will go down a bit and having to say no to alcohol in college is like saying no to water while you’re trapped in southern africa’s deserts.. At least where I’m from.
But I don’t plan on doing the Gaps diet for 2 full blown years.. Definitely not! I did read a few stories from some other bloggers that they got their guts fixed in 6+ months… Less than a year though. I am considering doing this from January to August at least.. 6 months of gut healing with gaps is better than no gaps healing… right? Besides, as you continue the diet you DO introduce new foods that is very similar to a normal diet (Nothing processed but eggs, meats.. etc) And that is something I’m already eating!
If it was something like.. Eating bone broth for 2 years straight and just that.. Nuh uh! No way! Eating the same food for 2 years straight would be hell! …That’s what I thought the gaps diet was when I heard about it for a moment before I actually researched about it.. And I’m glad I did!
Anyways.. I’ll have to prepare some stuff before I do this whole gaps diet!