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:

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:

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.