River Yeo was a nursing student when she first recognized red flags in her health including joint pain, constant exhaustion, brain fog, skin irritation, and headaches.
Yeo felt compelled to try GAPS because of the science-based explanations offered in the book. While the protocol itself hasn’t been heavily researched, it relies on findings in the field of microbiology—the study of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Yeo was curious about the diet’s ability to reverse an imbalance of the gut microbiome known as dysbiosis.
Cultivating the Microbiome
The microbiome, a relatively new frontier in health, refers to any collective of microbes that reside in an area of the body. We have skin, nasal, lung, oral, and other microbiomes. The community living in our gastrointestinal tract—the gut microbiome—is the largest of these collectives. It plays an essential role in digestion, metabolism, immune function, and vitamin synthesis, as well as neurotransmitter production along the gut–brain axis.The GAPS protocol is an elimination diet that begins by mostly deriving nutrition from bone broth to build back the integrity of the intestinal epithelium—the cells that line the inside of the intestines. As tolerated, more whole foods are added to the diet and the gut is gradually fed prebiotics and probiotics to restore balance to the microbiome. Meat stock, soups, meats and organ meats, eggs, animal fats, seafood, and fermented foods are the staples.
How the GAPS Diet Works
The GAPS diet is a six-step plan aimed at the slow and steady work of repairing and rebuilding damaged intestinal lining that plays a role in autoimmune, digestive, and neurological conditions.Many people who try to correct dysbiosis after reading generic advice may feel worse and give up. Campbell-McBride told The Epoch Times that’s because making rapid changes isn’t well tolerated by the body. For instance, adding too much fiber, which is a prebiotic food for good bacteria or probiotics, can upset the system. Unlike well-meaning blanket recommendations, GAPS is strategically designed to undo gut damage while educating and empowering patients.
Who Is Helped by GAPS?
GAPS can be an eating approach for anyone, and Yeo says that understanding the concepts behind it and incorporating even some elements of it is better than eating the standard American diet.“Just pulling out processed foods and cooking from scratch, which is much cheaper, makes a huge difference for people,” said Yeo, who has worked as a GAPS coach. “I’m more of an all-or-nothing person, so I just dove in completely.”
Those suffering from food allergies and sensitivities may already have leaky gut. Others with digestive distress may not realize they are reacting to foods until they eliminate them for a period. Yeo suspected dysbiosis because she had to take Benadryl every time she ate cheese, and all dairy made her feel sluggish.
While food such as grains and potatoes aren’t generally recommended on the full GAPS diet, dairy is permitted—eventually—but raw milk is preferred. The protocol is more than a list of foods you can and cannot eat. It emphasizes growing or buying foods that are organic and sustainable, prepared traditionally and sometimes with special equipment, and eaten mindfully.
“There’s a whole community of people who are moving out in the middle of nowhere to be homesteaders for this reason,” Yeo said.
Nikogosian agreed that the protocol is more challenging in metropolitan areas, where direct access to farms is rare.
“A lot of times patients get hung up on some of the details of it,” he said. “You have to be a little patient with it.”
Some people, Yeo said, even go on GAPS retreats where someone does the cooking for the initial phases of the diet. Others have changed employment or housing because of stress and toxins that contribute to gut damage.
“It’s astronomically more expensive to pay the pharmacy than your farmer in the end,” she said.
Often those drawn to GAPS are people who have run out of options—parents of children with severe health problems who are told there’s nothing that can be done, and people with chronic diseases pronounced as incurable. Campbell-McBride said her patients have shown her what is possible.
“There is not one illness that doesn’t respond to this protocol because every chronic illness begins in the gut,” Campbell-McBride said. “The human body is a microbial community—there are far more microbes in you than human cells. Food is the No. 1 medicine for us because food is the most powerful influence on any microbial community in nature.”
The Nuts and Bolts of GAPS
Much of the protocol can be found online, but working with a practitioner or coach can help with customization and accountability. The GAPS books offer full explanations.The GAPS diet is about 85 percent meat (including organ meat), fish, broth, eggs, vegetables, and fermented dairy if tolerated. Baked goods using nut and seed flours and fruit are allowed in moderation. There are books, tips, recipes, and protocols for dairy intolerant, keto diet, vegan, and others.
- Avoid all grains, sugar, potatoes, parsnips, yams, and sweet potatoes.
- The best foods to eat are eggs, meats, stock, fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, garlic, and olive oil.
- Avoid smoked, canned, and processed meats.
- Fish and shellfish should be fresh or frozen from wild-caught sources.
- Each meal should have vegetables—which are more alkaline—and meats or fish, which accumulate as acids in the body, to balance pH.
- Cook with animal fats, coconut oil, or ghee.
- Plant oils should be cold pressed and organic and consumed raw.
- Baked goods and fruit should be limited to snacks between meals.
- Avoid all processed and packaged foods and all artificial ingredients and preservatives.
- Do not microwave food.
Preparation Is Key
The biggest hurdle with using GAPS is rarely the foods themselves, but rather the mindset and lack of preparation before starting the protocol.“I would rather have people spend more time making their plan, doing their preparation, and then know they’re ready,” she said. Journaling helps them understand how they are feeling as they record eating and symptoms and even bowel movements. They review it every 30 days and look for patterns such as frequent headaches or skin issues. They also record detox baths and how they are feeling afterward.
“They start paying attention because they see these clues or patterns,” she said. “Then when they can’t do it all, they can really double down on the things that are helpful.”
She challenges her clients to think ahead about how they’ll handle the classroom for their children, restaurants for the whole family, social functions, moments of weakness, and how they’ll know whether the protocol is working.
“Don’t just show up and see what happens mentally ... for a lot of us that’s how we got sick because we didn’t state our preferences,” Scribner said.
Instead of feeling like their eating habits are bothersome, her clients flip the script and feel empowered to take their food when they need to, make decisions on where to eat out so they can opt for farm-to-table restaurants, and say “yes” to meeting with friends even if they only order herbal tea.
Making GAPS Realistic
While medication may offer relief for a lot of these diseases, it only masks symptoms without addressing the underlying root issues. The GAPS protocol isn’t a quick fix, which is why Scribner said it probably remains on the fringes even after two decades.In his clinic, Nikogosian speeds up the process by prescribing large doses of herbs, using coconut extracts and colostrum, and also putting patients on commercially available probiotics and prebiotics.
“GAPS is one of the modalities we use to heal the gut. In the end, it will probably do the job, but it just takes longer,” he said. “We are doing it from more angles, and it complements what we do very nicely.”
He also pointed out, as GAPS practitioners did, that food isn’t the only reason for dysbiosis. It’s simply the main reason. Other things to consider are toxic products used on the body and in the home, being overworked, stress, and lack of sleep.
Yeo also recommends going barefoot outside, getting plenty of sunlight, and spending time in nature. Besides healing her gut, she said the GAPS diet reversed eight cavities that were found just before starting the protocol.
“I eat all kinds of things now that I couldn’t eat before, and I feel fantastic. I think that’s really important,” she said.
“I know there’s a big choice in diets out there. GAPS is different because it’s out of the mainstream,“ Campbell-McBride added. ”It was developed out of love, for love. It works.”