Surviving Stage 1 of the GAPS Diet

I did it! 

Five days of only broth, soup, boiled meat and squashes and veggies (only non or low starchy ones) and Sauer Kraut juice. Those are the stage 1 allowed food. For a full list of the foods allowed at the 6 different stages of the GAPS introduction diet, see a nice page put together by Health, Home and Happiness.

Alright,  I might have eaten a few other things not on that list. This diet is so challenging,  and hard to stick to and yet there are very few sources of support for how to deal with this. However,  my only cheats were foods that are allowed on the full GAPS diet (stage 7): fruit, honey and the kombucha drink. Those things don't sound too bad right?  

The reason the Full GAPS diet allows fruit and honey because they mostly have monsugars. Refined sugar, or table sugar, is a di-sugar, which actually takes work for the body to digest. Monosugars are absorbed easily by the body. To learn more about this, read my blog on sugars.

My kombucha cheat may have been a bad idea, since kombucha is fed refined sugar there may still be sugar in the kombucha drink unless the drink was cultured for long enough that the culture consumed all the sugar. With store-bought kombucha, you can't be sure. If you brew it at home, make sure to brew it for longer, say about 30 days. 

Besides avoiding the disaccharides, and grains do break down to disaccharides, it is very important to avoid starch on the GAPS diet. One of the most common mistakes in the GAPS diet is to remove all grains but not remove starches. For other common mistakes see the post by The Healthy Home Economist.  My previous comfort food when I tried the Paleo diet was sweet potatoes, but alas, no more. I love kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin) with coconut oil and himalayan sea salt. It is my new favorite thing to eat! I've been a little bit too worried that it's higher in starch than other squashes, but from a brief web search, it seems like it is in the same category as other winter squashes which are allowed on GAPS. 

A nutrotionist told me to deal with GAPS cravings by mixing honey with butter or coconut oil. She also recommended ginger tea with honey,  between meals as all sweet things should be taken.  The website Home Health and Happiness recommends some juice and a nap to deal with carb withdrawals. However commercial juice is not recommended for many reasons.

One thing I feel there is not a lot of support on, is how to deal with the emotional experience of the GAPS diet. Since the GAPS diet is to heal the gut, and the gut-brain connection, its no surprise that it might also be a moody experience. As all these toxins are released and bacteria die off, it's triggering my depression and anxiety. The rest of this blog is focused on ways to ease the emotional stress: 

Another recommendation to help with the detox is to take baths, with Epsom salts or other detoxifiers. Living in my tiny San Francisco apartment, I don't have a bath tub. So I've been doing a foot bath every night. I made a nice mix:

1 cup Epsom salt

1 Tablespoon Almond oil

80 drops mixed essential
(I used Rose, Rose Geranium, Jasmine, and Ylang Ylang) 

The foot bath is very relaxing, and I do it before bed. It actually helps me sleep better than a full bath. I think a full bath might be too intense for me, as well as dehydrating. With a foot bath, I get some detox support and a lot of relaxation. For city girl who walks around a lot, not always in comfortable shoes, I think these foot baths are going to become a regular part of my life! 

I'm doing this diet because I have years of gut issues, depression and anxiety. One thing that I've learned over the years is how to use music to support my emotional needs. While I love dancing, poppy music, I don't have the energy for it right now while in the beginning of the introduction diet. But I need uplifting music. So, mellow yet upbeat music is what I am looking for and I found this in Yo La Tengo's new album "Fade" (2013). Sometimes bands that have been around for awhile disappoint. Not this album. It's got all the best features of Yo La Tengo's lengendary past, and yet it's also refreshingly unique. I can't get enough of it! Highly recommended for the GAPS intro diet, or for a happy, mellow Sunday afternoon. 

The GAPS Diet Take Two: Starting Over with More Knowledge

I'm drinking a very nice Fetzer white wine, local and sustainable, sweet and tangy. It may be my last in awhile: I'm going to try to do the GAPS diet again!

On the GAPS diet, wine is not allowed, because of the sugar levels. The diet is so restrictive, I can't seem to do it. Most people ask me, "What can you eat?" Meat and veggies, with minimal fruits and nuts is the answer. But it's more complicated than that - for the full GAPS diet approved list see here.

The initial symptoms to starting the GAPS diet are harsh, too. Carb withdrawals include lethargy and body aches, toxicity from bacterial die-off also includes lethargy as well as low moods, and the lack of your usual treats certainly leaves you at a loss for how to reward yourself for all your hard work at the office! It's amazing how much I've used foods to deal with stress! Looking at all the symptoms, it's no wonder I couldn't stick to the diet.

Armed with more information and better plan, this time I'm determined to really do it! I've also trained my boyfriend in the proper ways to support me, and educated him on the ins and outs of the diet. Moral support here cannot be underestimated.

Here's the current plan:

5 days of no refined sugar: done!
5 days of no grains or refined sugar: in progress.
5 days GAPS intro diet stage 1 (only boiled vegetables and meats, broths, and kraut juices!)

These are followed by 5 days each of the other stages of GAPS diet, each stage adding a few more food groups.  At the end of April, I will reach stage 7, the full GAPS diet, which my doctor instructed me to continue for another 5 months at least. So, if I decline dinner invitations in this time, please understand! It may take even longer.

This plan came from the help of the website Home, Health and Happiness. The GAPS diet is relatively new, being first published in 2004. There are limited resources for it, so I can't begin to tell you how grateful I feel for their ebook on the GAPS Intro Diet. Be warned though, the author of the website and book is sharing this from her personal experience. Her advice for dealing with carb withdrawals is to drink some juice and take a nap. Unfortunately, we don't all have the luxury of taking a nap when we feel we need. However, the organization of her website and ebook are very helpful for getting started on the GAPS diet.

The GAPS Diet - Beginning the Journey

I'm starting the GAPS diet. Not today. Not tomorrow. But the next day. The reason is, I am traveling now, and the GAPS diet is very restrictive. Let me tell you the what, why, how, when below:



What is the GAPS diet? This diet was designed by a doctor named Natasha Campbell-McBride, who made the connection between brain and emotional disorders, and gut health. She developed this diet, to heal the gut, thereby healing the symptoms popping up mentally and emotionally. The gut-brain connection is well documented nowadays, so it makes sense that a compromised gut would have an effect on thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The GAPS  (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet aims to heal the gut, restore a healthy ecology and improve nutrient assimilation. 
The GAPS diet is similar in don'ts to the Paleo diet. No grains, carbs, sugars, starches etc. Some exceptions are the GAPS diet allows some honey because of it's nutritional and healing benefits, but does not allow Sweet Potatoes for the starch. More importantly, the GAPS diet specifies certain things that you SHOULD eat to improve health. These are mineral and gelatin rich bone broths, which must be made or purchased from unique purveyors such as Three Stone Hearth which is in the East Bay in California. While fat is villianized in modern nutrition, it is actually essential for assimilating many nutrients, as is the gelatin from bone broth. These broths are also rich in minerals, which are key to reversing the acidifying affects of stress, alcohol, sugars and processed foods. Additionally, fermented and cultured foods are important for increased beneficial bacterias in the gut. 
Why am I doing this diet? I've got a long history of gut issues (IBS type symptoms such as pain and irregular bowel movements), food intolerances, depression, anxiety and insomnia. I'm a typical "GAPS patient." My doctor prescribed me 6 months on the GAPS diet. While that might seem like a long time to you to go without the afore mentioned food groups, this diet is actually recommended for 1-2 years by Dr. Campbell-McBride. While some dairy is allowed on the GAPS diet, especially yogurt, I am actually currently unable to tolerate dairy. Am I lactose intolerant? It seems not. The working theory is that my digestive lining is so compromised because my gut ecology is off, that its the casein, not the lactose that is causing a problem. The general term for my condition is "leaky gut" - un-properly digested food, such as casein, passes from my gut, into my bloodstream, where it acts as a poison. Dairy makes me dairy, foggy brained and depressed, ergo, I do not eat it as well as all the other stuff I have to gut out to heal my gut. 
That being said, it's going to be an epic 6 months. How will I know whether my gut is properly healed? I think I'll be able to feel it. Regular bowel movements, good sleep, reasonable energy and good feelings in my brain. I will also use dairy as a testing point. If I still feel symptoms from dairy after 6 months, I may continue. If I can tolerate dairy after 6 months, I may move to a less restrictive diet, such as Nourishing Traditions, which allows grains, although fermented before cooking. 
I will track this journey on this blog, keeping track of favorite recipes, my progress, strategies for dealing with a restrictive diet in a busy world, and so on. I hope that my friends will follow this blog as a way to understand, encourage and support me. I hope that my journey will inspire other people to commit to healing their own guts, and gut-brain issues! 







Thank you for reading!