Sunday, June 19, 2011

Online GAPS Resources

I wanted to share some online resources that make it a bit easier to follow the GAPS diet.  These should be helpful for those of you on the GAPS diet as well as people considering the diet.
  • GAPS Diet food list - Need an easy reference chart to know what you can eat while on GAPS? This is a printable sheet that shows what foods are recommended and what foods should be avoided while on the GAPS diet.
  • Legal/illegal SCD list - This is a very comprehensive list of legal and illegal food items, including very obscure ingredients.  [The GAPS Diet is based on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) developed by Elaine Gottschall. This list is for SCD, but it also generally applies to GAPS as well.]  This list will also help you in determining the rationale for why some food items are not allowed on GAPS.  For instance, bacon is commonly listed as not allowed on GAPS, but by reading the description on the SCD list, you can see that the issue is whether or not the bacon is cured with sugar.
  • GAPS Diet FAQs  This FAQ page has answers to a wide variety of GAPS topics, including dairy foods, die-off reactions, and juicing.
  • Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride's GAPS site - This is a great site with loads on information about the GAPS diet protocol, including tips for pregnancy and new baby
  • GAPS Guide site - This site, which is maintained by Baden Lashkov (author of the GAPS Guide book), is a great source of information. Baden is very helpful and promptly answers any questions you may have about GAPS
  • Description of Full GAPS Diet and GAPS Intro Diet (including 6 stages) - This is a summary of the GAPS Diet protocol written by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride. 
  • Foods allowed on GAPS Intro Diet - Towards the bottom of this article, there is a good breakdown of what foods are allowed on each stage of the GAPS Intro Diet.
  • Articles about common GAPS Diet mistakes - These two articles have great information: Avoid These 5 GAPS Mistakes and The Five Most Common GAPS Diet Mistakes.
  • GAPS Diet 101 video - This is a video overview of the GAPS Diet presented by RN/natural health advocate Lauren of Mindful Mama.
Do you have any favorite GAPS diet online resources to share?

This post is part of Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Real Food Wednesday with Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist!

    15 comments:

    Taryn Kae Wilson said...

    Hi Sarah!
    Two questions- are Nutritional Yeast and Kombucha allowed on GAPS?

    Sarah Smith said...

    Hi Taryn -
    YES and YES! Here is what Dr Campbell Mcbride says about nutritional yeast:
    1. Is nutritional yeast GAPS legal?

    Yes, I allow some species of yeast, providing that the person is not allergic to it, as some people with yeast overgrowth can be. Kefir contains yeast species (which I recommend for majority of my patients) and in many patients I recommend S. boulardii as a supplement, which is also yeast.


    And here is what she says about kombucha:
    Is Kombucha allowed on Gaps? How do you know when all the sugar has fermented out?

    Yes, kombucha is allowed, but I would not introduce it until you move to the Full GAPS diet. At that stage, if a little sugar is left in your kombucha, it will not do you any harm, as your gut will be strong enough to handle it. Just ferment it the usual way, so it tastes sour.

    Taryn Kae Wilson said...

    Thank you so much!!

    I was avoiding nutritional yeast because I thought it wasn't allowed, but my body was really craving it! It gives me so much energy. Plus it tastes so good!

    And I love kombucha!

    I'm so grateful to have someone to ask GAPS questions to.

    HealBalanceLive said...

    Great post! Tons of helpful information for beginners, Thank You!

    Megan said...

    Hi Sarah! I've been following Cheeseslave's Reversing Food Allergies class and one of the members posted a link to her blog showing what foods are allowed in each stage. It may be similar to a link you have posted above, but I thought it'd be helpful to share this one too!
    It's:
    http://gapsinourgut.blogspot.com/

    It reminds me that sometimes the best learning that takes place is when we teach ourselves. Thank you for all these resources. I try to incorporate many of its philosophies into our diet/lifestyle and when the time is right for us we will probably do this full-on.

    Sarah Smith said...

    Thanks Megan!

    Danielle Marie Goldstein said...

    I have another question about yeast. . .I brew homemade meades and am wondering if this is GAPS legal? It's basically just raw honey and water, sometimes with herbal infusions mixed in, all fermented. And yes, there is a bit of yeast. . .

    Sarah Smith said...

    Hi Danielle,
    I searched through Dr Natasha's FAQ, and found the following about mead:
    Is mead in small amounts GAPS allowed?

    Yes, as long as it is made with honey and not with sugar (as sugar is often not completely removed by fermentation).

    Susan said...

    This is generally a wonderful blog i should say,I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work.

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    Kim said...

    My daughters have been blogging about our GAPS journey here: http://creativenourishment.wordpress.com/ It has been so fun to get advice from others on the internet and contribute our own ideas that have developed from putting a family of 7 on this challenging but doable diet. Thanks for your very helpful list of resources here!

    Merz said...

    Thanks for this site! I'm wondering if nutritional yeast is okay in a homemade raw cashew "cheese". Do you happen to know? Thank you so much!

    Sarah Smith said...

    YES! Here is what Dr Campbell Mcbride says about nutritional yeast:
    1. Is nutritional yeast GAPS legal?

    Yes, I allow some species of yeast, providing that the person is not allergic to it, as some people with yeast overgrowth can be. Kefir contains yeast species (which I recommend for majority of my patients) and in many patients I recommend S. boulardii as a supplement, which is also yeast.

    Unknown said...

    would it be better for the gaps diet to make honey kombucha?

    Sarah Smith said...

    No, kombucha doesn't work very well with honey. As long as the kombucha is brewed long enough to be tart, there won't be any substantial sugar in the finished product as the sugar is consumed during the fermentation process.

    Jean Beardsall said...

    Thanks so much for the info about sugar curing of bacon - I dont know how I could bear not having my bacon