The Key to healing your Gut

Intro to the GAPS Diet: 

I’m going to start with an introduction about my journey with the GAPS diet and how it had a lasting impact on my health. At about two years old I had eczema on most of body. I went to a lot of western medicine doctors who provided my mother with no real solution. As I got older it was mostly just on the inside of my arms. It was painful and itchy. My mother noticed that when I ate wheat products my skin would worsen so I was gluten free for the first 10ish years of my life. My mother was eager to find a solution. Amongst her trials she stumbled upon the GAPS diet, which at the time I didn’t love it. I was put through the stages of the diet and by the end my eczema was completely gone, and it never returned to this day! This diet changed my life for the better and while eczema may not be as severe of a condition, my hope is that from this article you will be able to resolve any health issue that you may be facing.  There have been many studies that have been done that prove the effectiveness of this diet on mental health and GI issues.

Let's start with an introduction to your Vagus nerve, which runs directly from your brain to your large intestine. It is the main part of your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for slowing your heart rate, dilating blood vessels and relaxation of the gastrointestinal tract among other things. So, we can see our brains are connected to your digestive tract. With that it will be easy to see that what we eat affects our mental state as well as our physical.  

Gut-Brain Connection: 

Your stomach sends signals to your central nervous system that causes changes in mood. Previously it was thought that your mood affect your gastrointestinal tract like when you have anxiety you get diarrhea or constipation, but new research is proving that the opposite is also true, that your mood and mental well-being is a result of the state of your gut. Your gut and brain communicate as closely as best friends with your gut having the most nerves in your body aside from your brain. So, we know these two systems work together very closely. Hopefully now we are starting to get the importance of gut health.  

Research has shown a hug overlap in gastrointestinal disorders and mental health disorders. This includes a long list of mental health disorders. There have been numerous doctors who have done clinical trials supporting the evidence that autism and digestive disorders are linked. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's book shows scientific evidence that healing your gut can heal these disorders including autism. Dr. Dohan did research on schizophrenic patients and discovered the removal of grains from the diet dramatically improved symptoms of schizophrenia. Furthermore, he researched several other cultures including those in the South Pacific and Ireland what he discovered was quite astounding. Both cultures were effectively grain free and had zero cases of schizophrenia or coeliac disease not one and after adopting the western diet those numbers skyrocketed with Ireland having the now highest rates of coeliac disease and schizophrenia in the world. This is hopefully an eye opener of how much our diet affects our mental state. There is a lot more to be said about our western diets with evidence like this, however I will keep this article to the point. 

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's book “Gut and Psychology Syndrome” (2015) the creator of the GAPS diet. This diet is laid out into 6 stages, for the intro diet. The first stage is very minimal, a lot of broth and well-cooked vegetables. As you move through the stages you are gradually able to consume more foods. This provides you with a good clean-out of all the toxins living inside your gut that are causing health issues mental or otherwise. Doing this diet is like a reset for your body and mind. The above-mentioned mental alignments have been effectively cured in thousands of patients after implementing this diet. I’m going to relay the steps of the diet below.  

Stage 1:  

• Homemade meat or fish stock, homemade fermented foods, vegetables, probiotics (from dairy or vegetables depending on person)  

  
  

Probiotics are found in sauerkraut, yoghurt, kefir, fermented milks. 

If you’re prone to diarrhea, you’ll want to add in the dairy probiotics and if you’re prone to constipation you’ll want to add in the sauerkraut juice (not the vegetables themselves) 

• Bones (Have the butcher cut them in half to acquire bone marrow), joints, natural (unprocessed) salt and black peppercorns slightly crushed. Boil all of it then let simmer for about 3 hours, (slow cookers are best to do over night) 

• With your stock you will add sliced vegetables and cook thoroughly (onions, pumpkin, squash, cauliflower etc... Try and avoid any that are too fibrous) Approx. 25-35 minutes (they should be very soft)  

• 1-2 TBSP of garlic and boil for 10 minutes (then turn off heat) 

• Add a few tsps. of your choice of probiotics (make sure the soup is cool as the heat will kill the probiotics) You should increase the amount every 5 days 

• 
  

This will be your diet for however long it takes you to move through the diet. I like to do a week for each stage but depending on the severity of your issue you could spread the stages out through to 12 months. I would recommend a week minimum. 

Stage 2: 

• Continue the soups/marrow, vegetables, and probiotic foods.  

• Add a raw organic egg yolk to one bowl of soup a day and increase to one in every bowl 

• When completely tolerated, add in soft boiled eggs with a runny yolk 

• Continue adding your probiotic foods to every serving and begin to make stews and casseroles (no seasonings other than salt and pepper)  

• Introduced fermented fish (a small piece a day and gradually increase) 

• Introduce homemade ghee into the meals you are preparing 

Stage 3: 

Continue your above-mentioned diet  

• Mash ripe avocado into the soup 1-3 tsps increasing the amounts  

• Pancakes made of squash, nut butter and ghee 

• Scrambled eggs served with avocado and onions well cooked in ghee 

• You can now consume the sauerkraut vegetables starting with 1-4 tsps and working your way up  

  
  

Stage 4:  

Again, continue with the above foods 

• Add meats (roasted or grilled only no burnt parts) eat with cooked vegetables and fermented vegetables 

• Add cold pressed olive oil (slowly increase) 

• Start making carrot juice, a few small spoonful's a day and again increase as tolerated-add into the juice yoghurt or whey 

• Baked bread with nut/seed flours only 

-Nut flour 

-Eggs 

-Squash  

-Marrow  

-Ghee/coconut oil/duck fat 

-Salt 

Starting with a small piece a day and increase as you go 

Stage 5: 

• Begin adding cooked apple puree with ghee and a small amount of honey to taste 

• Add in raw vegetables (start with soft ones and work your way up) 

If you are experiencing diarrhea with the introduction of raw vegetables, then go back to the previous step until your body is ready 

• Once the juice and vegetables are tolerated start adding in fruits (no citrus fruits) 

Stage 6: 

• If all stages are well tolerated, then add in raw fruits 

• More honey  

• Add baked cakes using dried fruit as a sweetener  

  
  

Listen to your body! You will be able to gage your readiness for each step based on abdominal pain and your stool. Pay attention, if you are not ready for a step and your body is still adjusting then you should stay at that step until you’re ready. The effectiveness of this diet depends on how well you stick to it and go in step with your body.  

This is the intro diet there are more steps to complete after. However, I believe that the intro diet is the most crucial step to your gut clean out. Even if you choose not to continue with the 2nd part I would still encourage you to continue eating healthy, organic and unprocessed foods. You must be able to maintain the health of your gut after detoxifying. Going back to the same diet as before will likely cause the same issues again. There will be a thread of recipes in Gut-Brain connection and Gut health so if you’re interested in healing your gut and advancing on your journey to wellness, you are in the right place.  

This is a link to the "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" (2015) Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

https://a.co/d/4GFppOd