The question, “What is the difference between SCD and GAPS?” comes up so frequently that I wanted to create a post that folks could simply link to.
Overview: The SCD is a diet only. GAPS is a three-part program: diet, detoxification, and supplementation. GAPS’ diet is based heavily on the SCD. However, the GAPS diet includes a stronger emphasis on broths and fermented vegetables; removal of casein for at least 4-6 weeks (then very careful reintroduction); fewer types of beans (legumes); and only homepressed (as opposed to storebought) fruit juices. GAPS also allows the use of sea vegetables and pure cocoa upon sufficient healing.
Intro Protocol: The intro presented in Breaking the Vicious Cycle includes honey, fruit, broth, dairy, meat, and vegetables. For some people, yeast overgrowth can be maintained throughout this intro. Also, for people sensitive to casein (and it’s hard to know until it’s first removed), this intro will have limited effects. GAPS’ intro protocol involves veggies, broth and meat –working up from there. This is a pretty safe starting point for everyone, giving full opportunity to heal the gut and also to see what foods might be bothersome for a given individual. GAPS’ intro is much more detailed and clear-cut than that presented in Breaking the Vicious Cycle.
Supplementation: The GAPS program recommends a handful of supplements specific to bowel and brain function. The author of GAPS also recommends a wide range of bacteria, including Bifidus which Elaine Gottschall declared illegal for SCD.
Philosophy: Breaking the Vicious Cycle promotes ‘fanatical adherence’. GAPS is more accurately described as a list of recommendations, from which each patient will develop a personalized program. Besides adherence to the SCD, GAPS recommendations (but not requirements) for supporting the body’s balance include: use of pasture-fed meat, use of pastured eggs, a toxin-free home, safe removal of mercury fillings, etc. From the various recommendations, each patient selects the ones that suit his particular needs, lifestyle and budget. For example, the developer of the GAPS program has found that some people continue having symptoms until all pesticides have been removed from their diet. These patients, then, would find this critical to success. Others have found this variable to not be as crucial, so focus their resources elsewhere.
Detox: Of the two, only GAPS includes a detox protocol. This includes healthy living, avoidance of harmful chemicals, and baths with baking soda, epsom salts, etc.
Purpose: SCD was developed specifically for bowel disorders. (It was shortly recognized, though, that it also helped to resolve autistic traits.) GAPS was developed specifically for people struggling with behavioural/cognitive/mood issues with or without obvious bowel issues.
Personal Perspective: Personally, I see GAPS as the next stage in SCD’s evolution. The diet, originally developed by Drs Haas, was tweaked by Elaine Gottschall to improve results. My perspective is that GAPS has done this again. That is, although GAPS was developed specifically for people dealing with cognitive, behavioural or mood issues, I believe that the full GAPS program would be an absolute boon to folks focusing primarily on bowel disorders, too. After all, “all disease begins in the gut”. GAPS simply springboards from earlier excellence to offer results even more spectacular. I am deeply grateful for the work done by Drs Haas, Elaine Gottschall, Dr Campbell-McBride and all the others who have contributed to this particular healing approach.
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The “tweeking” of the research Elaine Gottshall from Dr. Hass was done through advanced science degree, and committing to a lifelong, 30 plus years of research on how sugars are digested and the foods you have now on any of these diets, not to mention her countless sacrifice to get the information out there. Her recipes are an old mothers dinners in the 60′s but the New SCD diet Cookbook has a lot of up to date recipes. By the way if you try to use foods at your leisure and do not adhere to learn and eliminate all sugars that are not monosaccharide’s recommended by Elaine first it may well just stall results and open one to say “oh it doesn’t work”. And that would be sad if the diet offers relief to that person. It would be an excellent idea to really read her research in the first chapters and spend time researching the materials and research sites.
GAPs is wonderful also it seems to have lots of research in mood and behavior disorders and it also is discouraging dairy, I wonder if (testing) would be a good idea, I have heard many people are completely dairy sensitive, and need to rid it completely to see results. But you bet more than a passing glance needs to be invested in Elaine’s work if IBD and diet is considered. Just some thought sent out there! look forward to your information.
Great stuff, A! Thanks for sharing your very wise thoughts!
About the dairy: Yes, absolutely -as with every single food on the ‘recommended list’, those a person is reactive to will need to be kept out longer or even permanently. The list is simply a starting point from which to trial each food.
Yes, Elaine’s work and life service totally rocks. I am so profoundly grateful to her!
All my best,
Baden
Actually, in the GAPS book, on the section about introducing dairy, she says that if the patient finds him/herself reactive to ghee, he/she may well never be able to consume dairy. This isn’t specifically GAPS related, but there is some research that I have taken a very special interest in for the last two years or so in raw camel milk curing anaphylactic allergies to milk and any other allergy. if you google camel milk allergies, you should find the full text of the small-scale study. After four days the children showed reduced allergies, and by a week, they showed no allergies at all. They stayed on the milk for about a month, two of those weeks exclusively. They reported no recurrence, either. Unfortunately, even pasteurized camel milk is illegal in the US. Completely ridiculous. It’s like there is someone out there in the FDA and USDA that doesn’t WANT anyone to heal. Baden, I feel like I may have typed something similar to this before, so if I have, just ignore this comment in the moderation process. Anyhow, I’m hoping to take a trip overseas either this next summer or the one after it. Can’t say it will be the most enjoyable visit, but I bet it will be well worth it. The only thing I worry about is that while all children were allergic to milk, they were all children. None of them were close to 18. I guess we’ll see.
Camel milk? What about human milk?
I would say.. no. If your allergies are severe enough, you can actually become allergic to human milk if the mother/wet nurse eats something you are allergic to. I had that problem with my mom’s milk as a baby. This is specific to camel milk. There are actually many healthful properties to camel milk AND camel urine. There are also some benefits to combining the two. I’m totally not making this up. In other parts of the world, these have been recognized for their healing properties and are used for quite a few conditions, including several autoimmune (milk) and even cancer (urine, though I’m not sure if this is a proper application or not. I’m not aware of the exact healing properties of the urine.)
ETA: Upon reviewing my comment, I have decided that it sounds insane. Maybe this will help: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-01-13/science/28367190_1_blood-cancer-cancerous-cells-cancer-institute
Hello,
Can you please help me to understand why GAPS and SCD allow foods such as bananas, honey and other fruits that feed Candida albicans? My own understanding is that these foods allow the bad yeast to thrive and when this occurs they burrow into the gut lining creating leaky gut syndrome.
So, if GAPS and SCD are suggested as great diets for those with digestive disorders then what about this whole gut dysbiosis issue? I listened today to a lecture by Elaine Gotschall and she said that it is the single sugars the body can break down and absorb so does that mean they are sufficiently being absorbed in the small intestine so once the food (what is remaining of it) is deposited into the colon there is nothing there ideally to feed the bad bacteria?
The thing that confuses me though (if I am accurate) is that bad bacteria and yeast can travel up into the small intestine and grow there too.
Please help me understand this! You seem to have a good grasp on GAPS and SCD is why I ask you.
Thank you ever so much,
Tara
Hi Tara,
There are different schools of thought about what triggers candida overgrowth. Some communities say it’s fats, some say mushrooms are a trigger, some say fruits are, etc.
GAPS follows the premise that anything quickly and easily digested (eg. simple sugars) are fine for most people. (This said, most of us do need to limit them.)
As you note, some people have a specific experience of small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). One leader is this field specifically recommends the GAPS diet. You might enjoy Dr Siebecker’s website, or a direct consultation with her, here: http://www.siboinfo.com/diet.html
All my best,
Baden