Oh hello there. You’ve found some very old content. Please read the disclaimer on this page before thinking I’m still a total sheep who has been sucked into a bone-broth worshipping fad diet. Been there, learned from that and am now a much less rigid human.

In my last post I mentioned how I have undertaken the GAPS diet. I explained that GAPS is a gut healing protocol that seals the gut lining, re balances gut flora and ultimately guides the body back to optimal function* – groovy, huh?

What does the GAPS diet involve exactly? In a nutshell, foodgasm-worthy delights. The ‘introduction diet’ is the initial recovery period for the gut and is divided into 6 stages. After the ‘patient’ has worked through these stages they transition to ‘Full GAPS’.

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The first stage has three main principles;

1. Meat stock (or fish stock) alongside any meat, connective tissue or marrow from the bones. The more broth you drink and connective tissue you eat, the quicker Dr Natasha Campbell McBride (founder of GAPS) reckons your gut will heal. Excuse me whilst I go gnaw on gelatinous tissue and rich, creamy bone marrow.

2. Well cooked vegetables (simmered in stock): you can make this into a soup by blending (I highly recommend this!) or serve drained (drain broth into a mug and sip away) and seasoned with pink or sea salt and pepper.

3. Probiotic foods; starting with the sauerkraut juice, or alternatively, homemade whey or homemade yoghurt. You start with a little and gradually increase your portions.

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From here you meet stage 2, which is similar to stage 1, except now you can tolerate more probiotics than in the beginning and start adding egg yolks to broth or soup, cooking with grass-fed ghee (and then eventually organic grass-fed butter if you’re sweet with ghee), herbs and fermented fish (if desired – I’ll probably skip this one).

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Stage 3 (after subsiding solely on the foods listed above) is pant-wetting excitement-worthy as you get to introduce actual sauerkraut, avocado (praise coconuts!!!) and pancakes made from blended pumpkin and egg, and fried in coconut oil, ghee or tallow.

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By Stage 4 you can introduce cold pressed veggie juice, roasted or grilled (not fried or barbecued!) meats, cold pressed oils and homemade bread (a combo of nuts, eggs, pumpkin an/or coconut oil).

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Stage 5 allows for homemade apple puree, raw veggies and cold pressed fruit juice (as part of a veggie juice).

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Stage 6 is the jackpot; fresh fruit and more raw honey than before – a small amount of honey was allowed from stage 1.

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Full GAPS allows for all fresh meats, egg, fish, homemade fermented dairy products, all non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, herbs, spices, therapeutic fats (coconut oil, tallow, lard, grass-fed ghee, grass-fed butter and cold pressed oils) and honey.

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Dr Natasha is adamant that those on GAPS COMPLETELY AVOID all (refined) SUGARS, GRAINS (unfortunately this even includes ‘seedy’ grains like buckwheat and quinoa and the ever-gentle rice grain), STARCHY VEGGIES (sweet spud, regular spud, plantain etc. … a massive downer, but you CAN have pumpkin, beets and carrot), PROCESSED FOOD (well, duh), CONVENTIONAL (and NON-FERMENTED) DAIRY PRODUCTS (step AWAY from the milk carton) and TOXIC LIPIDS (generic ‘vegetable oils’, margarine, Copha and anything labelled hydrogenated).

It may sound restrictive, boring, bland and extreme, but trust me when I say mindset can make a massive difference

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In stage 1, appreciate  humble veggies cooked in deliciously rich meat stock and the healing orgasmic delight; gelatinous connective tissue. You’re allowed salt and pepper, so don’t be shy with seasonings. Fermented veggie juice adds a snazzy tang to soups. Relish the above and ponder the healing taking place inside of you.

In the next 4 stages, take time to delight in each new flavor and texture being brought back in. Remember how healing all of these foods are. You’ll get your raw cacao back eventually and your Kombucha – these are allowed on full GAPS (thank F A R K!).

By the time stage 6 rolls around, fruit will taste akin to candy – tastebud reset for the bloody win! First stop; Medjool dates with natural peanut butter, am I right?

The process is slow and steady, and any upsets (symptoms returning) probably warrant a bit of backtracking to an earlier stage, but the reward of no longer being a walking gas tank (or is that just me and my windy anus?) sounds well worth it.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people need to endure (and it is an endurance, no grains is a big deal!) GAPS for 2 years, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on their progress.

A quirky rule of thumb is one month per year of illness.

So, if you’ve struggled with mental illness since you were 11 and you’re now 20 that’s 9 months. But that’s just an example – a loose example, looser perhaps than your stools before you start the diet … sorry, maybe that’s also just me – so it pays to consult a nutrition professional before even starting, because let me tell you. This is a medical diet. Not a ‘oh, that’s interesting, I’ll start Monday’ sort of arrangement.

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As for carving out the time to continuously make broth, soups, homemade ferments etc. it really doesn’t take that long. Put your meat bones in the slow cooker before you go to bed and turn the slow cooker on. In the morning you’ll have delicious slow cooked meat/gelatinous tissue and a rich broth. Yoghurt literally takes 15 minutes to prep and then you just leave it for 24 hours to ferment.

Is it expensive – hells NO! The cheaper the cut of meat the better – so long as it’s grass-fed, preferably organic. I purchase massive beef marrow bones for $3 each.

Chicken or lambs livers in a 50/50 blend with regular mince is cost effective and densely nutritious – are you dry-reaching yet? No worries, swap the word ‘liver’ for ‘pate’.

Lamb neck chops; bargain.

Then all you need is veggies – I buy anything from the dirty dozen list organic. The rest I just wash really well.

Oh, and some local organic milk for yoghurt making.

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One last thing; if you’re like me and despise (as in, would rather be Vegan than eat them) expensive cuts of meat (steak and chicken breasts, I’m frowning at you) because cheaper, melt-in-your-mouth cuts are way more satisfying, GAPS is a cracker of an excuse to trade overpriced chewiness for slow cooked goodness.

Big healing hugs,

Rachie xxx