Category Archives: GAPS Diet

GAPS for Beginners Series: Fats on GAPS

Like broth and fermented vegetables, healthy fats are another important component of the GAPS diet. Fats are integral to many bodily functions and are absolutely essential for healing your gut and the rest of your body. If you’re considering GAPS, you will need to focus on eating as much healthy fat as you can. Depending on what your diet was like pre-GAPS, this may mean you need to dramatically increase your fat consumption.

Even if you don’t think you need GAPS, taking a look at your fat consumption is still worthwhile. Everyone needs to eat plenty of healthy fats for optimum health.…

GAPS for Beginners Series: Fermented Vegetables

Like bone broth, fermented vegetables are an essential part of the GAPS program. The process of fermenting vegetables enhances many nutrients, makes vegetables more digestible and creates an abundance of probiotics. Fermented vegetables are tangy, sour and, in my opinion, entirely delicious.

If you’re contemplating GAPS, you should aim to eat fermented vegetables with every meal. Eating ferments with your meals assists your digestion and gives your body probiotics to help rebalance your damaged gut flora.

If you don’t think you need GAPS, I would still urge you to incorporate fermented vegetables into your meals. Eating ferments is a traditional practice and offers benefits for everyone’s health.…

GAPS for Beginners Series: Bone Broth

Bone broth is an integral part of the GAPS program. In addition to providing valuable, easily digestible nutrients, broth soothes and heals the gut lining. People on GAPS should consume broth every day. I like to eat my broth in soups, but you can also use it to cook meats or vegetables, make sauces, or even just drink it on its own with a meal.

If you’re contemplating GAPS, I recommend incorporating broth into your kitchen routine as early as you are able. Even if you already make broth now, you’ll probably need to increase the frequency in order to have enough for GAPS.…

GAPS for Beginners Series: Reducing Toxins

In discussing choosing good sources for meat and eggs last week I mentioned that GAPS encourages us to choose organic animal products because they contain fewer toxins than conventional products. Part of the reasoning behind toxin reduction in food is that GAPS people do not have well-functioning detoxification systems. Part of this is due to the fact that the detoxification system requires a full complement of nutrients to perform optimally. Many of these nutrients are missing or inadequate in people with gut issues. Secondly, the detoxification system in GAPS people is already overloaded because a damaged gut is constantly producing huge amounts of toxins that need to be dealt with by the detoxification system.…

GAPS for Beginners Series: Finding Good Sources for Meat and Eggs

Finding good sources for meat and eggs is a bit tangential to the GAPS protocol. I think it’s important to mention, however, for two reasons. The first is that, since GAPS omits food groups that you may have previously relied on, you’re likely to eat more meat and eggs to compensate. Since these foods will likely comprise a good portion of your nourishment, having secure access to them is important in keeping yourself well-fed.

Secondly, finding good sources for meat and eggs deserves some attention because GAPS is a healing diet. To help your body detoxify and rebuild you ideally want to be providing it with the highest-quality nutrients.…