How I am now on the Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Diet.

I had gone on the Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Diet when I was about two years old because I had eczema on my face. I hadn’t done it “properly”, I had only gone on it for like six months. When I was first on the GAPS Diet, I was actually going to fly to Germany for my Aunty, who had MND (Motor Neuron Disease). My mum has a blog about my aunty (her twin sister). My mum’s blog is pretty deep, so only read it if you think you can handle it. You can learn more about it here:

https://twinwarrior.home.blog/

Before I went on the GAPS Diet, I was intolerant to eggs, lactose and soy. My mum tried to keep me moderately healthy. At the end of the week, I always cheated, having foods with eggs, lactose and soy in it, not knowing what it could be doing to my gut. My mum had bad eczema on her leg and behind her knees. She was desperate to find a cure for her eczema; it was driving her mad and she wasnt getting any sleep because she spent all night scratching. She didn’t want to “band-aid” her eczema. She researched all possible natural ways of curing it. She had the book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” that she had bought when I last went on the GAPS Diet. She decided to go on it on the day after New Year’s day, 2018. One day I was looking at Gut and Psychology Syndrome. I thought it might benefit me, so I decided to go on it too. I am glad that I went on it. On New Year’s day, 2018, we had our cousins over to celebrate the new year. It was the last time I had corn chips, potatoes, packet gravy and chocolate boxed cake. The next day it was a bit of a shock to the system. Stage 1 of the GAPS Diet. Only soup to eat. No chips, no potatoes, no cake. Just soup. For the next few days all I ate was chicken and vegetable soup and watched my favourite TV show all day. Then, in a few more days, my mum thought that we were ready to move onto stage 2. That meant we could add egg yolks to our soup. Mum started getting creative and making different soups, like pumpkin soup and meatball soup. I was a little nervous trying egg yolks in my soup, because I had been told I was intolerant to it, but I was fine. Next was stage 3. It was so much better. Avocado, eggs gently fried or scrambled or boiled, pancakes made with pumpkin, eggs and a little bit of honey, and almond butter. Mum made yummy Russian custard, with egg yolks whipped with a little honey, then frozen into little icy-poles. We could also have cooked vegetables, so no more soup! In stage 4, you could have roasted or baked meat, olive oil, freshly-pressed juices and bread made with nut and seed flours. Stage 5. Spices, Cooked apples, raw vegetables and fruit as a juice ingredient. I made apple sauce a lot. I mixed it with a little 24 hour yogurt, yum! Now stage 6, nearly on to full GAPS. Raw fruits (like non-starchy fruit eg. apples, berries, very ripe bananas with brown spots on them, all GAPS legal fruit) and more honey. My mum had gotten a dehydrator as a present from my dad. She started dehydrating fruit to make dried fruit. It was so delicious! We were finally full GAPS. This is the list of all GAPS legal foods:

Foods ALLOWED on full GAPS (from Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, page 111-114):

Almonds, including almond butter and oil
Apples
Apricots, fresh or dried
Artichoke, French
Asiago cheese
Asparagus
Aubergine (eggplant)
Avocados, including avocado oil
Bananas (ripe only with brown spots on the skin)
Beans, dried white (navy), string beans and lima beans
Beef, fresh or frozen
Beets or beetroot
Berries, all kinds
Black, white and red pepper: ground and pepper corns
Black radish
Blue cheese
Bok Choy
Brazil nuts
Brick cheese
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Butter
Cabbage
Camembert cheese
Canned fish in oil or water only
Capers
Carrots
Cashew nuts, fresh only
Cauliflower
Cayenne pepper
Celeriac
Celery
Cellulose in supplements
Cheddar cheese
Cherimoya (custard apple or sharifa)
Cherries
Chestnuts
Chicken, fresh or frozen
Cinnamon
Citric acid
Coconut, fresh or dried (shredded) without any additives
Coconut milk
Coconut oil
Coffee, weak and freshly made, not instant
Collard greens
Colby cheese
Courgette
Coriander, fresh or dried
Cucumber
Dates, fresh or dried without any additives (not soaked in syrup)
Dill, fresh or dried
Duck, fresh or frozen
Edam cheese
Eggplant (aubergine)
Eggs, fresh
Filberts
Fish, fresh or frozen, canned in its juice or oil
Game, fresh or frozen
Garlic
Ghee, home-made
Gin, occasionally
Ginger root, fresh
Goose, fresh or frozen
Gorgonzola cheese
Gouda cheese
Grapefruit
Grapes
Havarti cheese
Hazelnuts
Herbal teas
Herbs, fresh or dried without additives
Honey, natural
Juices freshly pressed from permitted fruit and vegetables
Kale
Kiwi fruit
Kumquats
Lamb, fresh or frozen
Lemons
Lentils
Lettuce, all kinds
Lima beans (dried and fresh)
Limburger cheese
Limes
Mangoes
Meats, fresh or frozen
Melons
Monterey (Jack) cheese
Muenster cheese
Mushrooms
Mustard seeds, pure powder and gourmet types without any non-allowed ingredients
Nectarines
Nut flour or ground nuts (usually ground blanched almonds)
Nutmeg
Nuts, all kinds freshly shelled, not roasted, salted or coated
Olive oil, virgin cold-pressed
Olives preserved without sugar or any other non-allowed ingredients
Onions
Oranges
Papayas
Parmesan cheese
Parsley
Peaches
Peanut butter, without additives
Peanuts, fresh or roasted in their shells
Pears
Peas, dried split and fresh green
Pecans
Peppers (green, yellow, red and orange)
Pheasant, fresh or frozen
Pickles, without sugar or any other non-allowed ingredients
Pigeon, fresh or frozen
Pineapples, fresh
Pork, fresh or frozen
Port du Salut cheese
Poultry, fresh or frozen
Prunes, dried without any additives or in their own juice
Pumpkin
Quail, fresh or frozen
Raisins
Rhubarb
Roquefort cheese
Romano cheese
Satsumas
Scotch, occasionally
Shellfish, fresh or frozen
Spices, single and pure without any additives
Spinach
Squash (summer and winter)
Stilton cheese
String beans
Swiss cheese
Tangerines
Tea, weak freshly made, not instant
Tomato puree, pure without any additives apart from salt
Tomato juice, with out any additives apart from salt
Tomatoes
Turkey, fresh or frozen
Turnips
Ugly fruit
Uncreamed cottage cheese (dry curd)
Vinegar (cider or white); make sure there is no allergy
Walnuts
Watercress
Wine dry: red or white
Yoghurt, home-made
Zucchini

Foods NOT allowed on full GAPS (from Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, page 115-118):

Acesulphame
Acidophilus milk
Agar-agar
Agave syrup
Agae
Aloe Vera
Amaranth
Apple juice
Arrowroot
Aspartame
Astragalus
Baked beans
Baker’s yeast
Baking powder and raising agents of all kind
Balsamic vinegar
Barley
Bean flour and sprouts
Bee pollen
Beer
Bhindi or okra
Bicarbonate of soda
Bitter Gourd
Black eye beans
Bologna
Bouillon cubes or granules
Brandy
Buckwheat
Bulgur
Burdock root
Butter beans
Buttermilk
Canellini beans
Canned vegetables and fruit
Carob
Carrageenana
Cellulose gum
Cereals, including all breakfast cereals
Cheese, processed and cheese spreads
Chestnut flour
Chevre cheese
Chewing gum
Chick peas
Chickory root
Chocolate
Cocoa powder
Coffee, instant and coffee substitutes
Cooking oils
Cordials
Corn
Cornstarch
Corn syrup
Cottage cheese
Cottonseed
Cous-cous
Cream
Cream of Tartar
Cream cheese
Dextrose
Drinks, soft
Faba beans
Feta cheese
Fish, preserved, smoked, salted, breaded and canned with sauces
Flour, made out of grains
FOS (fructooligosaccharides)
Fructose
Fruit, canned or preserved
Garbanzo beans
Gjetost cheese
Grains, all
Gruyere cheese
Ham
Hot dogs
Ice-cream, commercial
Jams
Jellies
Jerusalem artichoke
Ketchup, commercially available
Lactose
Liqueurs
Margarines and butter replacements
Meats, processed, preserved, smoked and salted
Millet
Milk from any animal, soy, rice, canned coconut milk
Milk, dried
Molasses
Mozzarella cheese
Mungbeans
Neufchatel cheese
Nutra-sweet (aspartame)
Nuts, salted, roasted and coated
Oats
Okra
Parsnips
Pasta, of any kind
Pectin
Postum
Potato white
Potato sweet
Primost cheese
Quinoa
Rice
Ricotta cheese
Rye
Saccharin
Sago
Sausages, commercially available
Seaweed
Semolina
Sherry
Soda soft drinks
Sour cream commercial
Soy
Spelt
Starch
Sugar or sucrose of any kind
Tapioca
Tea, instant
Triticale
Turkey loaf
Vegetables, canned or preserved
Wheat
Wheat germ
Whey, powder or liquid
Yams
Yoghurt, commercial

You might notice that Cacao powder is not on the ALLOWED foods list but it is allowed. If you want to know more about it just do some research on it. My brother decided to go on GAPS because he thought that all the food looked more “yum” than the normal food he was eating and he wanted to be healthy. Now I am still on the full GAPS Diet. My mum, brother and I have actually just introduced potato, sweet potato and tapioca starch. We also hadn’t introduced cheese yet, but now we have and it is soooo good! We are basiclly half-paleo half-GAPS (plus potatoes). There is a website about introducing potatoes and more, look at it below:

gaps.me

For over 2 years I’ve been on it. I feel like my anxiety has gotten better and more manageable then before I started the GAPS Diet, I will write more about it in other post(s). When I first started, all my friends were like, I feel so sorry for you. It was a shock when I told them I chose to go on it myself. The GAPS Diet is a very healing diet. I would definitely recommend going on the GAPS Diet.