The following are updates to GAPS Guide.
Dairy
Updated information is available online here.
P. 35 – Intro – Supplements In (Removing For Intro, Reintroducing or Starting)
Except for those required to preserve life or limb, remove *all* supplements -even GAPS ones like EFAs- before Stage 1. You can reduce them slowly as you prepare for intro.
After starting intro, add only GAPS-necessary ones back in. I suggest focusing just on foods until the end of Stage 3, and then from any point Stage 3 onward, consider introducing one GAPS supplement, then another new food or two, then another GAPS supplement, then another new food or two, and so on until all foods and supplements have been gently incorporated.
As with all new introductions, be sure to wait four days between new introductions, start with a tiny amount, and watch for reactions. If a noticeable reaction occurs, skip that supplement, trying it again every couple of months. Where no noticeable reaction occurs, continue building the dose slowly.
Page 35 – Intro Diet – Pregnancy, Nursing, Babies
For instructions specific to women who are hoping to conceive or who are pregnant, click here. For instructions specific to nursing mothers, babies and toddlers, please click here.
P. 39 – Moving From Stage to Stage (“Pacing”)
Where there is bleeding, cramping or true diarrhea (not simply three or fewer “looser stools” per day), stay on Stage 1 until that resolves, or a maximum of 7 days, whichever comes first.
Other than that, simply keep moving forward with a new prep, amount or food every few days unless you get an obvious reaction to one of those new foods. If obviously reacting to newly introduced food, take that food out, allow a few days to recover, skip the reactive food and move on to the subsequent one.
P. 39 – Constipation (“Pacing”)
Constipation during intro is often due to die-off. If you have constipation, keep moving forward regardless. If necessary, do enemas to ensure a BM every 24-36 hours (max) until they start coming on their own. For many more tips regarding constipation, please see your GAPS Guide book pages 89-91. CLO + carrot juice in Stage 2 is one option for stubborn constipation.
Page 4o – Intro Vegetables [Asterisked Point]
Some people may tolerate any GAPS-friendly vegetables right off the bat; others will need to use trial and error to find the best starting veggies for them. For some sample approaches, click here.
Page 41 – Intro Diet – “Every Morning”
Here I recommend not starting a commercial probiotic until the diet’s initial die-off has eased. I would add to this to also skip the juice from fermented veggies, or any other form of probiotic, until the same point.
P. 47 – Progressing Further – Water
To calculate water intake suggested by a variety of sources, take your current weight in kilos, divide by two and consume that much non-caffeinated liquid in ounces.
P. 48 – Saccharomyces Boulardii
Start with a pinch to test tolerance, then build to a dose just short of noticeable die-off. Take that dose three weeks on, three weeks off, then three weeks on again. See also this post.
Note: NuTriVene’s GAPS store is able to provide free samples of various GAPS supplements, including Bio-Kult, Betaine, and S Boulardii.
P. 70 – Medical and/or Nutritional Authorities
In addition to those mentioned in the book, practitioners offering live and/or phone consultations regarding GAPS are:
Alessandra Edwards, Naturopath
Australia
www.totalbirthing.com
*
More Australia & New Zealand Website & Practitioners
http://gapsaustralia.com.au/gaps-practitioners/
*
Dr Rosann Volmert, D.O.
Pasadena, California, USA
www.drvolmert.com
*
Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN
Asheville, NC
www.innovativehealing. com
*
Dr. Tim Gerstmar, ND
Redmond, WA
http://aspirenaturalhealth.com/
*
For more physicians, see:
http://gapsdiet.com/GAPS_Physicians.html
*
Also, Dr Campbell-McBride now has a website:
www.gaps.me
P. 76 – More Info/Support
Click here.
P. 87 – Die Off Symptoms
In addition to the symptoms listed in the book, die-off can trigger also the following symptoms: extreme lethargy, pallor, irritability, total loss of appetite (for up to four days in the first round of intro), dramatic increase in hunger, sadness, any flu-like symptoms. For tips on avoiding or relieving these, see GAPS Guide p 87-88 and this post.
P. 122 – Favourite Products
I no longer recommend the Omega 8005 juicer/homogenizer. Although its juicing and homogenizing functions did work very well, the machine I received had problems and the company’s response to this was very, very poor. While several list members are loving their Omega 8005, others delight in their Champion Juicer and/or Vitamix for their functions, durability, and customer service.
Personally, I’m back for now to just a simple Cuisinart stick blender, for which I paid $63 at my local department store.
P. 131 – Probiotics With Betaine HCL
If using probiotics and no Betaine HCL, take your probiotic with food.
If using Betaine HCL, take the Betaine with meals and take your probiotic away from food.
P. 132 – Supplements – Essential Fatty Acids
Besides the four products listed in the book, Dr Campbell-McBride also recommends a “good nut/seed oil blend in the ratio of 2:1 of omega-3:omega-6 fatty acids” supplied in an opaque glass bottle and refrigerated. For a child, start with a few drops added to cold or warm food and slowly build the dose to 1-3 tablespoons per day (under 18 months of age, 1-2 teaspoons). Adults work up to 4-5 tablespoons per day. For more info, click here.
P 135 – Broth
For detailed information on meat and bone broth, see GAPS Guide. Note there that Dr Campbell-McBride initially and primarily recommends meat broth, not bone broth. Early in healing, bone broth causes problems for some people. For ideas on how to get broth into children, click here.
P. 135+ – Recipes – Yogurt
For yogurt, click here.
P. 140 – Recipes – Sauerkraut
For additional (and simpler) fermented vegetable recipes, click here.
P. 144-146 – More Recipes
For more recipe sources, including blogs specific to GAPS and the new GAPS cookbook, click here.
Chapters 10, 11, 12 – Discount on Supplements
Due to changes in US laws, we are no longer able to provide a discount code for NuTriVene supplements. However, two new options exist: With purchase of GAPS Guide, NuTriVene offers a discount coupon which can be applied to their other products. NuTriVene also offers samplers of various GAPS supplements.
p 151 – Whey
Commercial whey is not used on GAPS and appears on the ‘not recommended’list. Whey drawn from homemade ferments is, however, recommended.
P 151 – Cocoa
Dr Campbell-McBride states that cocoa is too irritating on the digestrive tract to use in a compromised gut, but that after sufficient healing has taken place, pure cocoa (not chocolate) may be used. My own suggestion is to use only organic, and preferably raw, cocoa at that point and infrequently.
Can’t get the first link to work, just refers back to home page. thanks
in reference to:
“Page 35 – Intro Diet – Pregnancy, Nursing, Babies
For instructions specific to pregnant women, nursing mothers, babies and toddlers, please click here.”
Hello,
very helpful updates.
Can’t get the last link to work (the “samplers”).
Best regards,
Helga
Helga,
Thank you so much for letting me know! It appears I had at some point clicked ‘move to trash’rather than ‘update’! It is now repaired (and improved).
I always appreciate when people let me know what in the book or website needs clarification or repair.
All my best,
Baden
Hi Baden,
I know a rash of people wanting/planning to start GAPS soon – including my parents – and, of course, have recommended they all buy the GAPS Guide. My question is: are you still selling the first edition? (Is there a 2nd edition out yet?) And if you’re still contemplating a 2nd, I want to suggest adding an index, if you haven’t already. It would make looking things up much easier. Also, I’d be glad to help create an index if that would be useful (I used to work as a technical writer).
In gratitude for all your GAPS offerings,
Seanain
Hi Seanain,
Thanks so much for your note.
Yes, GAPS Guide 1st Edition is still the current one, and will be for at least another year or so, I’d say.
Yes, definitely any subsequent edition will need an index and I may well take you up on your offer to help with this!
All my best,
Baden
Hi Baden,
Thanks for the great web site and helpful guide. When we tell people we’re not eating grains, they start freaking out about ketosis and damaging our kidneys, etc. Can you or Dr. NCM directly address the issue of ketosis? Specifically, what is the difference between die-off and ketosis? What role, if any, does it play in the introduction diet? Is ketosis an issue on the full GAPS diet?
Thanks!
Angie
Can you give any advice about finding Lima beans in the UK? The English dictionary says they are butter beans but I know these are on the forbidden list. Do they maybe go by a different name here?
I have returned to GAPS diet after 3 year lapse. After 3 days felt vastly different and have been improving ever since after long chronic fatigue and periods stopping. I’ve had 2 periods and also been running!
Hi Sophia,
Very interesting! Your note prompted me to do some research and I, too, found that while most sources say “butter beans” and “lima beans” are one and the same, one is on the SCD legal list and the other is on the illegal! I suggest you post your question to the support group. Hopefully someone has done further investigating, and/or has sourced lima beans in the UK. Please let me know what you find out.
Congrats on your return to GAPS and on your great results to date!
Best,
Baden
Baden,
Thank you so much for sharing the results of all your information-gathering!
The link you give for nursing moms, babies, and toddlers is really geared towards new babies, and doesn’t help me at all in planning to start GAPS with my two-year old nursling who has been eating solid food since he was seven months old. Can we start intro together, or must we go to full GAPS and go back to intro when he weans, a year or three from now? What’s the consensus?
Hi Amity,
Thank you for the clarity of your post. Dr Natasha’s recommendation is that a nursing mother do full GAPS. Within the GAPS community, some nursing mothers did intro, some did full GAPS, some put their toddlers (nursing or not) onto intro, some directly onto full GAPS. Personally, I would encourage you to put both yourself and your toddler onto full GAPS and after he has weaned himself, or if problems are stubborn, look at the possibility of intro for you or you and him.
Note that I recommend all people transition gently to full GAPS before considering doing intro. Certainly one can go directly to intro -I did, and my son (then 3 years old) was nursing heavily at the time- but I know Dr Natasha to be a very conscientious person who does not make recommendations lightly. (I only did otherwise because this recommendation did not yet exist.)
Does this help at all?
All my best,
Baden
Indeed it does help! That “if problems are stubborn” rider does a great deal towards calming my urge to do-the-intro-NOW! On the other hand, if I take into account my food intolerances and my son’s soft tooth enamel, almost the only things we can eat on full GAPS that we can’t on the intro are nuts and legumes. I guess we’ll continue transitioning gently into full GAPS and worry about intro somewhere down the line. Thank you.
hi baden,
i’m trying to start the gaps intro diet and am confused about when to use bone broth vs meat stock. in chapter 13 – recipes for intro, bone broth is discussed at some length. however, in chapter 3 – implementing the program, i don’t see how to integrate into the intro diet. it seems to refer to using meat stock only. after reading the update above referring to p.135 – broth, and how natasha doesn’t recommend it in the intro; i’m even more confused about chapter 13′s references to bone broth in the intro diet. i just made a big batch of bone broth and don’t know what to do with it. i’d appreciate your thoughts.
Hi Sasha,
Dr Natasha’s recommendation is for meat stock only. Some people like to incorporate bone broth instead of that right from the beginning, or after some healing has occured. Some people, though, are sensitive to bone broth.
I suggest you
-freeze your bone broth in small batches
-use meat stock for the first few months, then
-trial the bone broth and see how your family does with it
All my best,
Baden
I am confused. Is boiling a chicken or a duck considered a bone broth or a meat broth. I can’t seem to tolerate straight bone broth from say cow bones, but I can tolerate duck or turkey. What’s the difference?
And I thought that bone broth was reccomended in the intro? Chicken soup is reccomended right? But just not straight bones?
I have no idea what I am doing…
Hi Erika,
Boiling a large piece of mostly meat for 1-3 hours would make a “meat broth”. It is meat broth, not bone broth, that is the primary recommendation for GAPS. Yes, homemade chicken soup is great, as is any other kind of meat broth or meat soup in intro.
I don’t know what the differences are between the broths you can and cannot tolerate. For some people, it comes down to what the animal feeds on.
All my best,
Baden
Hi Baden,
Maybe you replied to Angie privately but I would love to know your answer. Below is the post I am referring to:
“Angie
Hi Baden,
Thanks for the great web site and helpful guide. When we tell people we’re not eating grains, they start freaking out about ketosis and damaging our kidneys, etc. Can you or Dr. NCM directly address the issue of ketosis? Specifically, what is the difference between die-off and ketosis? What role, if any, does it play in the introduction diet? Is ketosis an issue on the full GAPS diet?
Thanks!
Angie”
Thank you!!
Carmen
Hi Carmen,
Although I have heard the concern numerous times, I don’t know of anyone to have experienced ketosis via GAPS. Unfortunately, I have no further information about this. This question comes regularly enough, though, that I would say it qualifies under Step 16 listed here:
http://gapsguide.com/2009/02/16/how-to-find-answers/
When you receive an answer, I’d love to receive a copy of it so that I can post it to this site.
Angie: If you’re reading this, I apologize if I did not answer this question when you posted it! Sometimes one gets by me, especially when I have to ponder it first (and then I forget to come back and reply).
All my best,
Baden
Hi Baden,
I hope you are having a wonderful day and are greatly blessed for doing this great work for everyone. I get tears in my eyes whenever I think of how much I appreciate you and your great explanations and personal answers.
My question is, when are whole nuts introduced? We are on stage 4 of intro and since we can eat the nut pancakes, is snacking on whole nuts allowed?
Also, my boys love to just eat straight peanut butter for breakfast (not on intro). Is that too much nut consumption? Thirdly, how bad are roasted nuts from the store? My mother in law tries really hard to give my boys legal snacks, but she buys regular roasted nuts from the store. The ingredients say nuts, oil, salt. We could roast and bring our own over there, but I’d like to accept this little shortcut if it wasn’t harmful to us.
Sorry to bother you. I have read both books, many of your posts and Q&As and NCM’s entire website and couldn’t find the answer.
I GREATLY appreciate your service to us lost sheep!
Sincerely,
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
Thank you so much for your positive feedback and kind words!
Also, thank you very much for doing such a comprehensive search for info before posting a question. (I have just finished a move and am behind many posts at the moment.)
Some people tolerate nut flours (ground nuts) and/or nut butters far better than they tolerate whole nuts. So, mashed nuts first in pancakes, then ground/floured nuts in the bread (later intro stage). I would wait on whole nuts until after intro.
Nuts roasted at home are preferred, but when the time comes test some roasted commercially and see how it goes. If fine, use those occasionally.
Although peanut butter is approved for GAPS, many GAPSters avoid or severely limit it because of concerns about toxins. In any case, one should limit (all) nuts. On average, a handful per day, per person, would be plenty. Best is if they are used only every four days or so, as a complement to the base diet, and not relied on as a primary food. Rather, fats, eggs, meats, veggies should be the mainstay for most meals.
All my best to you, Jessica.
Baden
Hi Baden! I found the links on this page to the information for nursing mothers, but there is nothing on that page about what I need to do if I am starting GAPS while nursing. Do I need to be aware of anything or careful with anything when starting this diet? One of the answers to an FAQ in your book says not to detox while nursing, but is that the only limitation? (And would that just mean no juicing? Could I still do epsom salt baths?)
Thank you so much!
Joanna Russell
Hi Joanna,
Women who are pregnant or nursing should go straight to full GAPS (skip intro). Other than that, I don’t know what Dr Natasha recommends beyond what is stated on her website.
All my best,
Baden
Thanks for the response Baden. Do you know why we’re supposed to go to full GAPS?
Thanks again
Joanna
Hi Joanna,
I’m sorry, I don’t have any information on this beyond that which is provided in the links.
All my best,
Baden
I am still confused about bone vs meat broth. I have been going to great lengths to get meat bones and boil them 24 hours to get all the marrow out etc because that is what I thought Dr. Natasha was recommending to get the gelatinous broths. Now I read above that all I need to do is boil meat (which doesn’t produce as rich a broth).
I have also read you should and you should not take probiotic capsules with a meal. Above it says you can if you are not taking HCL and Pepsin. Which is it? Does it matter empty stomach or not?
Thanks for clarifying.
Hi Rebecca,
Meat broth is all that’s required and is the best to start with. It involves a 1-3 hour simmer of a meaty bone.
Your second question is answered in the post above
All my best,
Baden
Hi Baden,
I ordered your book last week and want to start GAPS intro next week. I have an 8 week window between business trips and hope I can complete intro during that time. I am doing GAPS because I developed several food intolerances following an ill-advised gluten challenge. I have been following a paleo diet for 6 months and have had no improvement.
I know intro is very important for healing food intolerances, but I can’t seem to determine how to pace from one stage to the next. I don’t have any digestive symptoms. I am worried about finishing intro within 8 weeks. Any advice is appreciated. Looking forward to reading the book when it arrives, but I am obviously impatient to begin.
Thanks so much for all you do,
Regina
Hi Regina,
Even if you don’t completely finish intro within eight weeks (some do, some don’t), you should be well into it with a decent amount of initial healing and a good variety of foods to choose from.
As you will have noted in the post above, pacing is more an art than a science. The GAPS Guide book you’ve ordered will help you a lot. But basically, you’ll introduce a new food, prep style or amount every few days. Only if you experience noticeable problems with something will you will then remove it, wait a few days, and move on to the next item in the list. It’s a bit of something one needs to do and learn by experience.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read everything in the “intro” category on this blog. That should occupy you ’til your book arrives
Glad to have you with us!
All my best,
Baden
I know there is big emphasis on raw milk. However, in my state, raw milk cannot be sold in stores. What is your suggestion in regards to having kefir and yogurt etc.?
Hi Rebecca,
There isn’t really an emphasis on raw milk.
You can do a search via my blog’s internal search engine for my story on that, as well as the bottom of the dairy insert you receive(d) with your GAPS Guide book.
In the meantime, I’m in the same position as you, and did organic pasteurized, then organic raw, then organic pasteurized again. Just use what you can get.
Best,
Baden
Rebecca, if you do want raw milk, try http://www.westonaprice.org and click on “real milk”. It links you to farmers in your state. There are ways of getting around the law of selling it in stores, you have to “buy a share” from a farmer (usually a small fee) then it is partially your cow so it’s legal.
Hi, Baden,
Thank you so much for your book and your website! I haven’t started the diet yet, but I’m already taking probiotics. Should I go off of them before starting GAPS, and then reintroduce them? Also, is your recommendation about doing full GAPS before Intro only for nursing moms, or for everyone? If for everyone, how long should I do full GAPS before starting Intro? As you can see, I’m still trying to sort all this out.
Best regards,
Paula
Hi Paula,
You’re welcome!
Yes, please go off the probiotics before starting intro, then follow the guidelines in the GAPS Guide book.
I recommend that everyone -except those with severe conditions that need to be addressed quickly- transition slowly to full GAPS, then stay on that for 2-3 months before moving to intro. (Women who are pregnant or nursing will skip intro altogether.)
All my best,
Baden
Thank you, Baden. I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the information, but I’m hopeful I can sort through everything. I’ve read part of your book, but am still trying to finish Dr. Natasha’s book first. I’ve cut way down on grains and starches in preparation for beginning the diet. My health problems are minor, but I want to deal with them before they become major. Thank you again for all your work.
Baden,
I am on stage 3 now and still have issues with constipation. I normally have to take magnesium citrate to help, but want to wean myself off of it so that I can truely see how the foods in the intro help with constipation. I looked on pg 39 as you suggested above to find more info on promoting a BM, but it doesn’t specifically relate to constipation issues or how to trigger one – another sections goes over enemas or epsom salt baths (I simple don’t have the time to do an enema weekly and I’m not sure if the baths are helping – I use about 1/2 cup salt in the bath). You mentioned CLO and carrot juice in stage 3? Are there any other ways (food wise or other) to help? Thanks!
Hi Carol,
For information specific to triggering bowel movements, please go directly to the ‘Constipation’and ‘Die-Off Relief’sections in your GAPS Guide book, pages 89-91 & 87 respectively.
All my best,
Baden