My Gaps Diet

GAPS Diet

Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Gut Physiology Syndrome.  

GAPS Diet Book For Sale on Amazon

Gaps Diet Cookbook For Sale On Amazon

What exactly is GAPS?  GAPS is an eating protocol or an elimination diet. It was put together by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride  Most people don't realize it is two issues and type groups that have the same acronym. It is undertaken by those who come to a realization that they have severe gut issues and problems. Acid reflux, Diverticulosis,  IBS, Constipation, Frequent Diarrhea, Nausea, Frequent Tummy Aches, Upset Stomach, etc....... This would be the Physiology side of Gaps. The psychology side is neurological. ADD, ADHD, Autism, and many other psychological issues.

Gaps

People are willing to undertake this eating protocol to heal their gut. Science is proving more and more every day that the gut is in charge of so many things having to do with our day-to-day living. Our gut controls so many aspects of our body. Take the time to google the gut-brain connection and read some of the studies from the top hospitals in our nation. They all tie our gut, endocrine systems, and brain together in a dance that for most of us is way out of balance. This, in turn, has made all of us way out of balance.  We are taking antibiotics and other prescription drugs that treat symptoms but do not cure them. In many cases, a whole host of new problems arise from the medications that are meant to help.

This eating protocol is a drastic yet simplified way of eating through the elimination of Frankenstein foods, ( Processed Foods) and returning to simply eating whole foods. You also remove all grains, sugars, dairy, as well as the Frankenstein foods.  The focus revolves around something from our past that has been lost through reliance on prepackaged and store-bought foods. It isn't forever just until you heal. After one month,  I see a drastic difference, but I also still have a way to go. My gut is bad and I am too overweight. 

Broths

Ask anyone you know in their late forties and early fifties, if they remember their grandmothers and great grandmothers always having a pot of soup or stock on the stove. The resounding answer you may hear is that yes they always had soup going or were always cooking soup. Why is that? Everyone knows or has heard. Oh, feed them chicken soup. In the past Mothers and Grandmothers knew that soup and broth heal, yet society has moved away from and has disbelief that soup actually heals.  Old wives' tales meet science.

An old story talks of a woman who had two chickens. One seemed sick. Rather than put it down, she killed the healthy chicken and fed its broth to the sick chicken. Her family enjoyed the chicken soup as well. The sick chicken got well and later became a pot of chicken soup. She killed the one healthy chicken to heal the sick chicken and ensured her family ate two chickens.  

Water Kefir

The GAPS diet or protocol is meat stock, meat broth, and bone broths first, then the broths and stocks are made into nutrient-dense soups. Adding in naturally occurring probiotic foods in increasing amounts heals the gut wall and helps the gut strip itself and reform with new gut lining.

Fermented Vegetables

Kombucha

While making broths you will need to bring your constitution up as to what level of broth you can go. You can use basic bones and carcasses, or you can experiment and add more parts of the animal that will bring deeper healing. The bones and fat will suffice if that is all you can bring yourself to do. My daughter and I chose to experiment for the healing.

Eating whole animals has been removed from our mindset. I remember it began in my generation. When my sister was little I remember she wouldn't eat eggs when she found out they came from a chicken butt.

Eating these fats and proteins binds together separated gut lining most often referred to as leaky gut back together through a tightening and reformation of the gut wall and lining. It takes as little as a few days or as long as a few months. It simply depends on the severity of your gut health. The Gut is tied to both the psychological and physiological aspects of GAPS. Healing the gut starts to help or contribute to a lessening of symptoms of severity. 

My GAPS Journey

I think all of my children have gut health issues that tie into auto-immune disorders or constipation. Since discovering GAPS I have tried to encourage all five to consider GAPS.

About four years ago I was told I have a floating gall stone, and raging acid reflux. I didn't even know I have acid reflux. My doctor, as well as a technician who took my gut pictures, said mine was one of the worst they had ever seen. It is silent but could be deadly. Not being aware of acid reflux can silently erode your esophageal lining and at times lead to throat cancer. I was also told that I have fatty liver disease.

I took meds for a short time for the acid then quit as it made me have high blood pressure. The acid reflux I didn't know I had, I know I have now, since starting and stopping the medication. In one of my many internet searches, I finally found GAPS  

The author of the GAPS Diet, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride did a three-part series about her book. If you have any type of gut issues, then most likely your whole family does. This video series is well worth your time. Each part of the series is about thirty minutes.

Since starting GAPS in February 2019 my gut is soft and squishy not distended and hard. Inflammation in my whole body has gone down and I have lost thirteen pounds. I am still on the introduction phase of GAPS and I plan to stay on it as long as I can stand it. I'm not bothered eating soups. I make broths, and set aside the meat and then make soups. 

My daughter and I are both now on GAPS. She is a full-time teacher and very busy. She is also recovering from a nuclear die-off of her thyroid. When she researched what I was doing she asked to join me. Her immune system is severely compromised by her thyroid issues. Her doctors helped her make the decision to kill off her thyroid as her symptoms were becoming life-threatening. 

So, my week is made up of making broth and soups for us for the week. I started making broths with a full array of veggies for flavor but switched to just broth. I have since put back the veggies for flavor upon request by my daughter. Some soups are whole and some are pureed. The chicken carrot pureed is delicious.

Next round I am trying tomato. This batch in the photo was broccoli and carrot pureed as well as chicken broth.

On the introductory protocol, you can have salt and pepper and just about any vegetable removing the most fibrous parts.  Any veg you find bothers you at first you can remove it before eating your soup or omit and reintroduce later. It can be in the soup for flavor and removed before consumption.  The only exception is no potatoes and parsnips. We are currently doing meat broth. We save the bones to reuse in the next batch once they are removed. All my meat broths are simmered no more than three to four hours. When the bones are cool I place in a ziplock freezer bag or vacuum seal, date, and then place in the freezer.  When I use them a second time, I add them with the fresh item, be it chicken, beef, or lamb and then discard them.  ( I have since stopped adding the bones to the next batch of broth and I am just saving them for future batches of bone broth at a later date in the protocol. )  

Freezing Bones

It took me a bit of research on how long you can freeze bones for batches of bone broth. It seems it doesn't matter how old they are as bone-broth cooks so long and with the vegetables for flavor as well apple cider vinegar they will make a broth and taste fine. The USDA Was My Source

I  found that after the first week my cravings were almost none. I have a few slip-ups, but I have gone black coffee no more milk or cream, and no sugars. I had previously switched to sweetleaf and rarely have sugar at all anymore. Previously I had also stopped first using artificial creamers and went back to half and half. In the last year, I had switched to full cream.  Now the only milk I have is yogurt.  We have even located raw milk and are making our own raw yogurt. When I don't have raw milk I just get the best low homogenized organic milk. I usually get Kalona Super Natural Organic Whole Milk. I also simplified the making of yogurt by buying an inexpensive machine that took all the ability to mess it up out. I also bought the extender accessory and extra jars as I always have more than seven jars when I make yogurt. 

 Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker

Euro Cuisine GY4 Yogurt Maker Accessory, Clear

Euro Cuisine Glass Jars for Yogurt Maker, Set of 8

I think the fats and oils in the broth stop the cravings. I know when I drink my broth I am usually satisfied, but you have to eat the soup four to six times a day to have proper nutrition. 

We try and use organic where ever possible. We found a store for local pasture-raised and healthy-fed lamb, chicken, beef, and goat. The store is a Halal meat market and doesn't claim to be organic. The animals are just raised on pasture, in a healthy manner and it is local. It is actually cheaper than the grocery store. The taste is by far so much better than what I am buying at our grocery stores. I know that the meat is better than the grocery because the animals are out on pasture. We can get almost all the bones and joints for the broths also. It is awesome to behold, they bring the carcass out and cut the bone type you request right off a hunk of the animal. Now that is FRESH!  

We are working our way up to trying goat. Neither of us has ever had it that we remember. Here are this week's broths and soups. I'll try and update weekly what soups I have concocted as I can get out of the kitchen!

22-quart roaster Beef Broth 

1 leg shank, 1 package of neck bones, 2 pounds stew meat, 1 half-gallon previous beef broth made with the same bones, but also 1 pack of beef hoofs

Oster 22 Quart Roaster

8 stalks of celery chopped small

2 medium to large onions chopped small

1 leek well washed brown bits removed. Include all green stalk that is healthy for flavor

6 whole organic carrots unpeeled. peeled if unable to find organic. Leave them whole. 

4 or 5 cloves of garlic if desired. I leave out as I find the broth gets a weird flavor. I add garlic at the time I make the soup.  

2 organic chickens, or other meats and bones.

Bring roaster to a boil,  turn down to simmer  Salt and pepper to taste when the chicken, beef, lamb, or pork has begun to release into the water and it is cooked enough to be safe for tasting.  Simmer for two and a half to three hours. Just until the meat wants to fall off the bone or fall apart. If you miss well fish it all out. No big deal just more work. Remove carrots if they are cooked and you can serve them with another meal. Or eat when you want to go for carbs or sugar. Continue to simmer roaster until the meat cools and you can pull it from the bone. Set all meat aside and put back in all bones, gristle, guts, gook, and fat. Add back all water and oil that ran off the meat while cooling. Simmer one more hour. 

At this time I usually put the broth in half-gallon jars and quart mason jars. 

When cool I refrigerate.  I already had some half-gallon mason jars. Most often they are all full but I was able to combine things or put in smaller mason jars and cull out seven jars. My daughter purchased two packs of six jars. This past week I bought another six-pack of half-gallon jars. I can make three types of soups that last us both all week and then broth to drink throughout the day.  My pans are large soup pans and I can usually get us each two gallons of soup and a bit from each pan. 

Repeat with beef bones and lamb bones. Not really any variation on the broths when I make them. They are the same ingredients in the same quantities,  just different bones. 

Because I make three soups at one time I chop and sautee my onions, celery, and leeks in one pan and split between the three pans. I sautee them first because I think the richness adds to the overall flavor of the soup. 

Chicken Broth

Made with 2 whole organic chickens and 5 chicken feet

(this batch was the first time I used chicken feet and I used too many.)

Chicken soup (Peas and carrots)

In a large soup pan, add broth into the pan until half full.  Sautee a large onion chopped, 1-2 leeks rinsed well with brown removed or cutaway. Use all the leek including the green and chop finely,  8 stalks of celery chopped. Add to broth.  till tender and add to broth. 

Add

1 large bag of peas

8-10 carrots chopped

1 half-cup sauteed mushrooms

salt and pepper taste

add broth until the pan is just full enough to simmer without boiling over. 

Simmer until all ingredients are done. Cool and bottle up into the fridge. 

Chicken soup ( yellow squash, carrot, and Brussel sprouts)

In a large soup pan, add broth into the pan until half full.  Sautee a large onion chopped, 1-2 leeks rinsed well with brown removed or cutaway. Use all the leek including the green and chop finely,  8 stalks of celery chopped. Add to broth.  till tender and add to broth.

1-2 cups chicken cooked in broth

3-5 fresh yellow squash chopped or 1 bag frozen

2 bags frozen Brussel sprouts braised and browned

4-6 chopped carrots

1 half-cup sauteed mushrooms

1 cup chopped red, yellow,  orange, and green bell pepper

salt and pepper to taste

simmer soup until cooked. Cool and bottle up put in the refrigerator 

Beef Soup ( Turnip, Kale, Napa Cabbage, and Carrot)

In a large soup pan, add broth into the pan until half full.  Sautee a large onion chopped, 1-2 leeks rinsed well with brown removed or cutaway. Use all the leek including the green and chop finely,  8 stalks of celery chopped. Add to broth.  till tender and add to broth.

8 turnips chopped 

1 napa cabbage

10 carrots

1 half-cup sauteed mushrooms

2 bunches Kale

all the beef removed from making the broth

salt and pepper to taste. 

simmer until well cooked and then cool and bottle up for the refrigerator.

Until the next soup!!