Category Archives: GAPS Diet

GAPS for Beginners Series: Becoming a Label Reader

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 0 Comments

In Tuesday’s post I talked about some changes you’ll have to make if you decide to modify your diet for GAPS. If you’ve read the full list of GAPS-legal/illegal foods, you know that you have to avoid things like breads, pasta, tortillas and cereal. To honor all the restrictions on the GAPS diet, however, you also need to avoid any foods that contain even small amounts of GAPS-illegal ingredients. To pull this off successfully you need to become a fanatical label reader.

If you’ve been eating traditional foods for a while you may be accustomed to reading labels to look out for unhealthy ingredients like hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup.…

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GAPS for Beginners Series: Modifying Your Diet for GAPS

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 3 Comments

In Friday’s post I discussed why you might consider trying the GAPS diet. If you’re interested in beginning to transition to GAPS, or even if you just want to learn more, an important first step is to familiarize yourself with what foods are allowed or avoided as part of the diet. (For short, I refer to these as GAPS-legal and GAPS-illegal foods.)

Check out the full list of legal/illegal foods here.

I know that list can be overwhelming in the beginning, so let me summarize the basic guidelines. Foods that must be avoided include: grains, starches (such as potatoes), most beans, all sweeteners except honey, unfermented dairy products, soy, and all other disaccharides and polysaccharides.…

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GAPS for Beginners Series: Why You Might Consider GAPS

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Meghan Slocum • 3 Comments

Today I’m beginning a new series here at Whole Natural Life: GAPS for Beginners. I know how overwhelming GAPS is at first glance. Like me, you may wonder whether GAPS might be the answer to your health struggles but initially rule it out because GAPS seems too intimidating. I thought it would be helpful to do a series of posts on the various elements of GAPS. If you think you might need GAPS, I hope this series inspires you to give it a try. For those of you who may not need GAPS, I hope you will enjoy learning about the various health-promoting habits that comprise the GAPS program.  …

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Reflections After 15 Months on GAPS: Part 5 – Thoughts from a Non-GAPS Person

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Meghan Slocum • 0 Comments

This is a guest post from my husband Jesse. He joined me on GAPS in July 2011. I hope you enjoy hearing his perspective.

First I should explain that I am not a GAPS person, which means that I do not have digestive, physiological, or psychological problems that can only be healed by eating a GAPS diet. However, I hope to convince you that even non-GAPS people can greatly benefit from eating a GAPS diet.

While I did not have the same incentive to change my diet that Meghan did, I joined her in every change as she transitioned our diet to traditional foods.…

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Reflections After 15 Months on GAPS: Part 4 – Lessons Learned on GAPS

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Meghan Slocum • 4 Comments

In part 1, part 2 and part 3 I talked about what led me to GAPS and the progress I’ve seen so far. Now I want to share a few of the lessons I’ve learned during my 15 months on GAPS.

Lesson #1: Try not to stress about the day to day

I fall into a certain trap a lot when it comes to my acne. One day my skin will be looking really clear and the next day I’ll suddenly have several nasty breakouts. My instinct is to start freaking out: “What’s going on? Did I eat something that I’m reacting to?…

Filed Under: GAPS Diet