The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, created by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in 2004, is a restrictive elimination diet that aims to address the root causes of various chronic diseases by healing the gut. This article delves into a comprehensive review of the GAPS diet, exploring its principles, stages, potential benefits, and criticisms.
Understanding the GAPS Diet
Coined by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, "gut and psychology syndrome" - or GAPS - is a generic term used for a range of modern chronic diseases that have their roots in compromised intestinal flora. The GAPS diet is promoted as a natural treatment for people with conditions that affect the brain, such as autism spectrum disorder. The GAPS theory claims that a leaky gut allows chemicals and bacteria from your food and environment to enter your blood when they wouldn’t normally do so. Once they do, they can supposedly affect brain function and development, causing “brain fog” and conditions like ASD.
The GAPS protocol is designed to help heal and seal the gut wall, prevent toxins from entering the bloodstream, and lower “toxicity” in the body.
Core Principles
The GAPS diet revolves around the idea that a compromised gut lining, often referred to as "leaky gut," can lead to various health issues, including neurological and psychological disorders. The diet aims to heal and seal the gut wall, preventing toxins and undigested food particles from entering the bloodstream and affecting brain function.
The diet doesn't merely subdue symptoms, but aims to heal your gut and free you from dependence on medication.
Read also: Starting the GAPS Diet
Stages of the GAPS Diet
The GAPS diet is implemented in stages, starting with an introductory phase, followed by the full GAPS diet, and finally, a reintroduction phase.
Introduction Phase
The introduction phase is the most intense part of the diet because it eliminates the most foods. It’s called the “gut healing phase” and can last from 3 weeks to 1 year, depending on your symptoms. This phase is broken down into six stages:
- Stage 1: Consume homemade bone broth, juices from probiotic foods and ginger, and drink mint or chamomile tea with honey between meals. People who are not dairy intolerant may eat unpasteurized, homemade yogurt or kefir.
- Stage 2: Add raw organic egg yolks, ghee, and stews made with vegetables, meat, or fish.
- Stage 3: All previous foods plus avocado, fermented vegetables, GAPS-recipe pancakes, and scrambled eggs made with ghee, duck fat, or goose fat.
- Stage 4: Add in grilled and roasted meats, cold-pressed olive oil, vegetable juice, and GAPS-recipe bread.
- Stage 5: Introduce cooked apple purée, raw vegetables starting with lettuce and peeled cucumber, fruit juice, and small amounts of raw fruit, but no citrus.
- Stage 6: Finally, introduce more raw fruit, including citrus.
During the introduction phase, the diet requires you to introduce foods slowly, starting with small amounts. You may move on to the next phase once you can tolerate the foods you have introduced. You’re considered to be tolerating a food when you have a normal bowel movement.
Full GAPS Diet
Once the introduction diet is complete, you can move to the full GAPS diet. The full GAPS diet lasts 1.5 to 2 years. During this period, people are advised to base the majority of their diet on the following foods:
- Fresh meat, preferably hormone-free and grass-fed
- Animal fats, such as lard, tallow, lamb fat, duck fat, raw butter, and ghee
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Organic eggs
- Fermented foods, such as kefir, homemade yogurt, and sauerkraut
- Vegetables
Followers of the diet can also eat moderate amounts of nuts and GAPS-recipe baked goods made with nut flours.
Read also: Understanding the GAPS Diet
There are also a number of additional recommendations that go along with the full GAPS diet. These include:
- Do not eat meat and fruit together.
- Use organic foods whenever possible.
- Eat animal fats, coconut oil, or cold-pressed olive oil at every meal.
- Consume bone broth with every meal.
- Consume large amounts of fermented foods, if you can tolerate them.
- Avoid packaged and canned foods.
While on this phase of the diet, you should avoid all other foods, particularly refined carbs, preservatives, and artificial colorings.
Reintroduction Phase
If you’re following the GAPS diet properly, you’ll be on the full diet for at least 1.5 to 2 years before you start reintroducing other foods. The diet suggests that you start the reintroduction phase after you have experienced normal digestion and bowel movements for at least 6 months.
Like the other stages of this diet, the final stage can also be a long process as you reintroduce foods slowly over a number of months. The diet suggests introducing each food individually in a small amount. If you don’t note any digestive issues over 2 to 3 days, you may gradually increase your portions. The diet doesn’t detail the order or the exact foods you should introduce. However, it states that you should start with new potatoes and fermented, gluten-free grains.
Even once you’re off the diet, you’re advised to continue limiting ultra-processed and refined high-sugar foods, retaining the whole-foods principles of the protocol.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Foods to Consume and Avoid
The GAPS diet emphasizes the consumption of nutrient-dense, easily digestible foods while eliminating those that are believed to exacerbate gut issues.
Foods to Consume
- Bone Broth: A staple of the GAPS diet, bone broth is rich in collagen, gelatin, and minerals, which are believed to support gut healing.
- Fermented Foods: Sauerkraut, kefir, and homemade yogurt are encouraged to promote a healthy gut flora.
- Animal Fats: Lard, tallow, ghee, and other animal fats are included as sources of energy and essential fatty acids.
- Fresh Meats and Fish: Preferably grass-fed and wild-caught, these provide protein and other essential nutrients.
- Non-Starchy Vegetables: These are easier to digest and provide essential vitamins and minerals.
Foods to Avoid
- Grains: All grains, including wheat, rice, and corn, are eliminated due to their complex carbohydrates and potential for gut irritation.
- Starchy Vegetables: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starchy vegetables are restricted due to their high carbohydrate content.
- Refined Sugars: These are strictly prohibited as they can feed harmful bacteria in the gut.
- Processed Foods: Packaged and canned foods are avoided due to their additives, preservatives, and potential for gut irritation.
- Pasteurized Dairy: Except for certain fermented dairy products, pasteurized dairy is generally avoided.
Potential Benefits
Proponents of the GAPS diet claim it can offer several potential benefits, particularly for individuals with gut-related issues and neurological disorders.
- Improved Digestion: By eliminating difficult-to-digest foods and promoting gut healing, the GAPS diet may alleviate digestive symptoms such as bloating, gas, and diarrhea.
- Reduced Inflammation: The diet's emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods and the elimination of inflammatory ingredients may help reduce overall inflammation in the body.
- Enhanced Nutrient Absorption: A healed gut lining may improve the absorption of essential nutrients from food.
- Neurological Benefits: Some individuals with neurological disorders, such as autism and ADHD, have reported improvements in symptoms while following the GAPS diet.
Criticisms and Concerns
Despite its potential benefits, the GAPS diet has faced criticism from healthcare professionals and nutritionists.
- Restrictiveness: The GAPS diet is extremely restrictive, eliminating many nutritious foods for extended periods. This can make it difficult to adhere to and may increase the risk of nutrient deficiencies.
- Lack of Scientific Evidence: The claims made about the GAPS diet are not always supported by robust scientific evidence. More research is needed to determine its effectiveness and safety.
- Potential for Malnutrition: The diet's restrictiveness, especially in children, raises concerns about potential malnutrition and growth delays.
- Social Isolation: The diet's strict requirements can make it challenging to eat out or participate in social events involving food.
Expert Opinions
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
“Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride has written a very important book! Not only has she demonstrated the vital role of microbiome in all chronic disease, but she has given us a practical healing protocol on how to deal with the problem. Her views on autoimmune disease are deep and based in clinical experience. This book should be read by every person with a chronic degenerative disease and by every medical professional who works with these patients. I warmly recommend it!”-Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld MD, Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Israel
“Dr. Natasha has done it again! Gut and Physiology Syndrome takes an in-depth look at the underlying causes of today's health crisis--environmental and dietary poisons--and then provides a comprehensive plan for detoxification and nourishment to achieve the good health and clear mind that is the birth right of every adult and every child. Especially appreciated are suggestions for reviving our natural instincts for knowing what to eat for our own particular metabolism. Gut and Physiology Syndrome is an important contribution to our collective search for good health.”-Sally Fallon Morell, President of The Weston A. Price Foundation
“I recently had the opportunity to review Natasha Campbell-McBride's new book Gut and Physiology Syndrome. Natasha has been a valued colleague and friend of mine for many years. In fact, there are few other medical people who have had such a positive influence on my thinking and my practice of medicine as Natasha. Natasha is a creative thinker and a deep seeker for the truth wherever it may lie. Natasha revolutionized the world of medicine with her original GAPS concepts and books. She showed us in clear and practical terms that microbes are not our enemies and that learning to work with our internal microbiome is one of the keys to not only our own health, but the health and survival of our planet. The beauty of Natasha's work is that, unlike most, she takes this new understanding of our crucial relationship with the microbial world and put it into a doable, effective, action plan. Natasha's GAPS Diet has been a cornerstone of my medical work for the greater part of a decade. With her new book, Natasha expands on her vision of the role of our microbiome in our entire physiology. She continues to break new ground as she gently pushes us into a new more honest, realistic and ecological understanding of life. This work is a tremendous contribution towards remediating our current medical situation: one, in which our current medicine is largely another source of sickness and disease, to one, where we can begin to heal the tremendous suffering we are experiencing all around us. Please buy this book, think about what is being said and, if possible, put these ideas into action. Our world depends on it!”-Dr Thomas Cowan MD, author of Cancer & the New Biology of Water
“This book is a gem! A wealth of information about the central role of the gut microbiome in maintaining the health of all the organs of our body. A central theme is that infectious disease only happens when our tissues are unhealthy, due to nutritional deficiencies and toxic chemical exposures, and infection is part of a repair mechanism to restore health. For example, fungi release nanoparticles that can absorb toxic metals and facilitate their removal from the body. This book will change your perspective on health and disease and teach you how to heal your body naturally.”-Dr Stephanie Seneff, PhD, author of Toxic Legacy
“This book is a tour de force! A revelation! With chronic illness affecting over half the US population, with a new generation of children sicker and dying younger than their parents' generation-if this continues, we are facing the deterioration of our civilization and humanity. Dr Campbell-McBride reveals the damage is mostly self-inflicted! Dr Campbell-McBride does more than show us the causes of illnesses, she gives us practical ways of reversing (and preventing) the deterioration of health and offering us hope for true healing. This book should be required reading in every medical school. Established ways are slow to adapt and change. Therefore, it is up to the individual healthcare practitioner, the parent with a chronically ill child, or adult (seeking to reverse conditions they were told were incurable), the health-conscious consumer (wishing to optimize and preserve their well-being and that of their family) to read this book. Lives are at stake.”-Tedd Koren, DC, author of Cancer is Natural, So Is the Cure
“Well, Dr Natasha has done it again! This book abounds rational information and wisdom. Her explanation of the body's physiology is brilliant, yet easy to comprehend. Gut and Psychology Syndrome was a revelation to the world of autism and mental illness. Gut and Physiology Syndrome restores hope to all people suffering from chronic diseases and unexplained symptoms.
GAPS Diet Cookbooks
Using the GAPS Diet: 175 Recipes for Gaining Control of Your Gut Flora by Signe Gad
Using the GAPS Diet: 175 Recipes for Gaining Control of Your Gut Flora by Signe Gad is a compact, but complete, course in following the GAPS Diet. Readers will learn what is wrong with the typical American diet, which many people refer to as the SAAD. If you are having problems with your gut, using the GAPS Diet may just well be the answer you are looking for. This comprehensive introduction to the GAPS diet along with 175 tasty recipes will help you gain control of your health and intestinal flora. In addition to answering your questions on GAPS, it will guide you through the different phases of the diet and provide you with 175 tasty sugar-free and starch-free options. Recipes are both for everyday and for special occasions, and include light meals, dinners, snacks, beverages, desserts and breads. Armed with so many delicious choices, you are sure to enjoy the journey to healing your gut and gaining control of your health.
Gaps Diet: Recipes For Alleviating Chronic Inflammation, Repairing The Gut Wall, And Regaining Energy (Gaps Diet Cookbook For Beginners)
Are you looking for a cookbook that details precisely what breakfast, lunch, and dinner options are available for each stage of the GAPS diet's introductory phases? The GAPS Diet has been proven effective. The foods we consume on a regular basis may cause our bodies to become predominantly acidic. It is common knowledge that a highly acidic body promotes the development of a variety of health issues. Moreover, guess what? This acidity is primarily caused by the foods we consume!
GAPS Diet - The Ultimate Guide to GAPS: Step by Step Guide,100+ Easy Recipes, Staged Diet Plan
GAPS diet: The ultimate guide to GAPS offers a helping hand to people, who are fighting with digestive disorders and neurological disorders. It is a type of elimination diet that involves cutting out refined carbs, starchy vegetables, pasteurized dairy, grains, processed foods and others. As poor gut health affects the brain, the aim of the GAPS diet is to naturally treat people suffering from conditions affecting the brain, like autism. Recipes are easy to understand and quick to make, the grocery lists are short and budget-friendly! The book will be especially useful for beginners, who are just getting acquainted with the diet.