Healing My Gut on the GAPS Intro Diet

This blog is going to be about yummy recipes and funny stories - I promise! But I'm christening this blog with it's very first post about my struggle with food. I completed the strict 30-day GAPS intro diet. And I'm sharing photos and my reviews of the meals, along with my personal thoughts and results.

Intro to the GAPS Diet

After years and years of abdominal pain, bloating, [noxious] gas, occasional skin rashes, food intolerance that seem to be increasing by the day and eating disorders, and so on, I was fed up!

So I went to a naturopath (because physicians kept saying it was stressed-induced and tried to put me on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety pills... no thank you!) And they sort of help nudge me in a right-ish direction.

They put me on a Low FODMAP diet, which helped reduce my symptoms a lot, but a life without onions, garlic, many fruits, BREAD, etc. was no life at all... So I scoured the internet for a more long-term healing solution, and I came across the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet.

Long story short, I don't agree with a lot of what the author, Natasha Campbell, says BUT I was desperate and willing to give anything a try.

On January 9th, 2020, I embarked on a health-seeking journey. I started the GAPS diet (a super-strict and labor intensive meal plan). Below are examples of the meals I ate throughout the four weeks. And I've included my final thoughts on the results at the end. Enjoy reading!!

Examples of My Meals

A GAPS intro diet recipe of chicken feet, bones, and celery in a metal colander.

yup... that's chicken feet

A GAPS intro diet recipe of pureed soup in a brown bowl topped with sauerkraut.

mush topped with sauerkraut

A GAPS intro diet recipe of stewed vegetables in a glass dish topped with soft boiled eggs.

I call this GAPS intro diet recipe "mush topped with kimchi and soft boiled eggs." I never realized how much I enjoy soft boiled eggs. When I was hungry on this elimination diet, I found out that I'll eat just about anything!

Boiled vegetables and kimchi in a glass container.

Yummmm... *gag* For the beginning, the only way I could eat [select] vegetables is if they were boiled and served with a probiotic-rich food like kimchi or sauerkraut.

Stewed celery, zucchini, and broccoli in a yellow broth.

This is the one where I put too much turmeric in the soup and it stained everything.

A clear broth with vegetables and homemade meatballs in a bowl.

I call this GAPS intro diet meal "meatball water" lol I could only eat a very short list of spices and seasonings, so the broth was very bland and clear. Plus those are homemade meatballs!

A single GAPS intro diet pancake on a brown plate with a fork.

After a couple weeks, I was able to make GAPS pancakes, which I made with squash + eggs + peanut butter. I literally ate so many of these when I moved onto this stage of the GAPS intro diet, because I was like, "OMG SOMETHING FINALLY HAS FLAVOR!"

A GAPS intro diet egg drop soup in a brown bowl.

Sticking with lightly cooked eggs as a major source of protein, I made egg drop soup with bone broth.

A spoon with homemade yogurt next to the rest of the jar.

And look at this creation I made! It's homemade yogurt from just a can of coconut milk and a packet of store bought probiotics! It was pretty thin and not very creamy. But it had a really delicious tangy flavor.

Bone-in chicken pieces on a brown plate on a kitchen counter.

And this is what rock bottom looks like, my friends. Just kidding! This is what separating the broth (for drinking) and the meat (for eating) looks like with bone-in chicken. I did this several times per week in my Instant Pot as a major source of protein and collagen on my GAPS intro diet.

A GAPS intro diet breakfast of two pancakes and scrambled eggs.

These pancakes and eggs were my typical breakfast throughout the last two weeks of my GAPS intro diet. I was so happy that it finally looked edible and appetizing! But these don't taste like IHOP pancakes, that's for sure.

Five glass airtight containers filled with cooked zucchini and chicken breast.

This was when I finally got to bake my chicken instead of boil it to the point just before jerky. That was a very welcome and nice change for me! Since I was going into work for 8 hours a day while on the GAPS intro diet, meal prepping helped me stay on track.

A plate with scrambled eggs topped with dill and carrot slaw.

The breakfasts during the last and final week of my GAPS intro diet were when I treated myself. 😉 I got to eat scrambled eggs topped with dill and avocado, a cucumber slaw, and a glass of organic carrot juice. Looking back, this sounds really weird and gross. But at the time, it was a culinary masterpiece!

A GAPS intro diet dessert of almond flour and apple cake in a baking dish.

And I saved the best for last! Well, the best of the worst you could say. This "winter squash cake" from the GAPS intro diet book I followed is made of eggs + squash + honey + butter + ground almonds + apples. It was so freaking delicious after a month of bland and unappetizing food.

My Final Thoughts

Root vegetables on a table at a farmer's market.

As I am writing this final part, it is now February 8th, 2020. I survived 30 days on the GAPS Intro Diet, with zero cheats or deviations from the strict protocol! Today was my first day off the GAPS Intro diet (and no, I am not switching to the Full GAPS Diet for like one to two years...)

This exercise was a mountainous test of my discipline, but the hardest part for me was the time and effort to cook about every two to three days the labor-intensive dishes. The bone broth took about three hours in total since I made it in the Instant Pot. Sometimes the other food could be cooked in tandem, but especially in the beginning, I had to use the broth in the soups. So total cooking time in one night would be like six hours. SIX HOURS!!

My Results

Today was my day of celebration for completing the GAPS Intro Diet as well as the first day of cautionary testing of my [hopefully healed] gut! In the morning, we went to the farmers market downtown. We saw the coolest parsnips ever, tasted all sorts of things from cayenne popcorn to coconut oil blueberry chocolate.

I ate my first meal out at a restaurant in a month! Woo hoo! And about eight hours after eating the Mediterranean-inspired meal, I still don't have a tummy ache, so I am so excited and hopeful that I really did do some healing action on my gut! 😀

A half-eaten plate of Mediterranean food in a restaurant.

After the biggest meal I had eaten in a whole month, we needed to walk around a bit. We wandered into a cool vintage decor store and played with all the random stuff. It was such a great day to spend with my husband & my new gut!

In Conclusion

Would I recommend the diet for everyone? Heck no. It's a ton of work and it's probably best to do it under the supervision of a GAPS-trained specialist. I ended up losing 11 pounds over the course of those four weeks, which wasn't my intention.

However, I have seen lasting results from participating in this strict elimination diet. I believe I was able to reduce my inflammation and promote better digestion in my gut. I'm so grateful for that!!