This is a very short update. I have wanted to share it with you, but no matter what I do, I can’t make any more words come out. 😉
Last April, my family started the GAPS diet, to help with healing some lingering issues. We stayed on it for seven months, through October. Currently, we are back to a “normal” traditional food diet. Normal = everything on GAPS plus starchy vegetables and soaked/sprouted/fermented grains.
If I’m honest I would have to say our last weeks on GAPS weren’t that fun. But — I blame us for that, not GAPS. Our family was experiencing boredom and disinterest in food. Personally, I missed cooking with sourdough and having more options when it came to cooking.
Going off GAPS, I experienced a recurrence of seasonal allergies almost right away. I was so disappointed, and wondered if I should go back on GAPS just for myself.
I didn’t do that, though, because I figured out that wheat was my trigger. You see, when I started up the sourdough starter after the seven month break, I used whole wheat flour. But my allergies! They came back with a vengeance.
Then I decided to see how I fared if using spelt for all our baked goods. Good news: my allergies subsided and my chronic cough (that had come right back) is once again healed. I have no other issues.
Originally, we started GAPS for my and my son’s allergies, and for digestive (and other) complaints in my husband. My son’s allergies are not only seasonal but present as eczema. He’s pretty clear now and has remained so off GAPS. (Yay.) My husband continues to take digestive enzymes, out of necessity, and go light overall on the grains. We eat more rice and millet than anything else, and all the sourdough is spelt. The broth, healthy fats, fermented foods, honey, pastured meats, etc. continue to nourish us.
As I mentioned in my first podcast of the year, this feels like a good place for us. However, as with anything, we are open to adjusting as needed.
And that’s all I have to say in this personal GAPS update. 🙂
How is GAPS going for YOU???
New to our GAPS series? Get up to speed by browsing past posts in this series or reading what the GAPS diet is.
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Wardee, I really enjoy your site and look forward to each days new stuf. We ( My wife and I ) starte a new program on healthy eating called THE PLAN and thought you would be interested in checking it out. The book is available on Amazon and was released this January. Thanks again for your input.
Al Eubank
I was doing incredibly well on GAPS. I had lost 30 lbs and all of my autoimmune disease symptoms were lessening. I began adding starchy foods back and saw a 5 lb weight increase, but it stabilized there. I was still happy. Enter the kitchen renovation! There were contractor problems and delays and we had no kitchen for over a month.
It wasn’t a question of using a slow cooker or grill, either. We had no sink or water. Couldn’t wash anything larger than a small bowl or cups in our tiny bathroom sink and neither my husband nor I could kneel down to wash things in the bathtub. I gained 14 lbs eating takeout for a month and the day the kitchen was finally finished, I came down with the flu.
I’m eating a traditional diet now, although no wheat products. Things are slowly improving, but I’ve lost about 50% of hand function and knee flexibility. I love my new, bright kitchen, but I wish we’d never done it. I’d rather have my lighter weight and improved physical condition.
I have been on the GAPS diet for three years. And have followed it faithfully.I’m so sad because I feel like I can’t get off of it. Anytime I try to eat a food that is not on the GAPS list I react and get a headache sharp pains in my body and feel like I’ve been drugged. So I feel like I have given myself a life sentence to this diet. Does anyone have any help? I’m working with a Chiro.acupuncturist to heal my adrenals because they are shot. I know this diet can do amazing things but I feel like it hasn’t for me. Also before I started the GAPS diet I was eating a Nourshing Tradition diet for about eight years.
Hi Nancy. I have 2 suggestions that kind of go in opposite directions. 1) Have you considered trying to expand the diet just a little bit, by adding in one food at a time that’s not allowed on Gaps, rather than going off it completely. That way, your diet might be able to become more diverse, while still helping you heal. 2) Have you heard of the Wahls Diet? Terry Wahls is a physician who is reversing her MS through diet. She went from a wheelchair to being able to ride a bike within just a year. She said that for her, she didn’t start improving until she really focused on getting enough micronutrients from vegetables. She recommends 9 cups daily (3 cups greens, 3 cups sulfur-rich like brocc/cauli/onion, and 3 cups colorful veggies and berries.) So that might be worth trying. Her website is http://www.terrywahls.com/
Nancy, I am in the same position. I got stuck on intro. Can you do eggs and yogurt? I haven’t been able to. I found that I was intolerant to chicken which was all I was eating (chicken broth) I also had to start taking enzymes with every meal. I would look into food intolerances. It could be chicken, broccoli, or something else.
Hi Nancy! I’ll add one other thing to look at: oxalates and the trying low oxalate website. I’d never heard of it until we’d been on GAPS for 9 months and it *finally* explained the problems we were having with our son. GAPS didn’t work for him because so many of the foods we were relying on to eat were triggers for him as he has a metabolic condition that limits his abilities to process oxalates. I know that very few people seem to have this problem but it was night & day for him; he’s finally putting on weight and having energy like a normal boy should! They have a nice list of common trigger foods on the website and it may be an “aha!” for you like for us. It was certainly a huge answer to prayer for us. We’re still working it all out but boy do I wish someone had mentioned it to me years ago!
I am interested to know if you did the GAPS intro diet or if you just went straight to full GAPS. I also have had eczema that worsened when I had kids. I have naturally been able to lessen my symptoms to almost nothing, but I still have problems when I try to wear my wedding rings. (They seem to hold moisture to my skin and cause me to break out.) I am trying to decide if GAPS would help me, but I don’t have the time to invest in the intro diet at the moment. If just full GAPS worked for your son then maybe it would help me.
Do you have the same problem if you wear that metal elsewhere such as earrings? It could be a sensitivity to something in the metal. For example: 14k gold is only 58% gold mixed with other alloys. (I write for the jewelry industry in additional to having a gf blog 🙂
Interesting you should ask. My ring has on occasion turned my finger greenish black where I’m wearing it, but not all the time. I keep finding different theories on what that means (any thoughts?) I have not worn earings much in the last decade or so, but the times I did they made my ears sore. I assumed it was because they were cheap metal for the most part and because my ears had to get used to them again. I’ve worn them so little that they have actually recently grown over and I can’t wear them anymore anyway. I really don’t wear much jewelry. Necklaces don’t seem to bother me though. I really just want to wear my wedding rings!
I knew someone who ate so much pineapple on her honeymoon that her finger turned black under her new ring. She had become acidic from the pineapple. It could be your chemistry but it’s my a guess (and just a guess of course) but it sounds like you’re reacting to something in the rings. You may have to get a wedding band in a different metal – non-nickel white gold, platinum, stainless steel, etc.
So many people suffer from the way foods are processed nowdays. I have a freind that is writting and changing the world with his skills. He has gotten me on the natural yeast bandwagon. It is a sweet yeast. So many sourdough recipes start with that overprocessed quick rising yeast strain. This is a very old strain of yeast. I am really finding that I like it. He is finding that people with digestive problems and even celiacs can tolerate the bread made with this yeast. I will include a link below so you and your readers can discover for yourselves.
http://calebwarnock.blogspot.com/2012/06/natural-history-of-yeast-and-why-it.html