When the GAPS diet doesn’t work….

You’re doing it wrong. There, I said it. The fact is that the research is only just catching up to explain why it works (more on that another time). But, if the root cause of your health difficulties is an imbalanced microbiome, then the GAPS diet IS your solution. Read on to find out if the GAPS diet is for you, and what you need to do it right. Or skip down to read how to succeed on GAPS.

How to figure out the root cause of your health issues:

Generally speaking, from a functional medicine perspective, there are only three true root causes: nutrient deficiency, toxicity, and stress.

We can group nutrient deficiencies and toxicity into one group because they feed each other: toxicity prevents nutrients from getting assimilated in the body, and nutrient deficiencies cause your body to absorb more toxicity. In this case, your microbiome will be imbalanced and is your root cause (or part of it).

Before we get back to this, let’s aside to talk about stress and the second (or perhaps first) major root cause of health issues.

GAPS when your root cause is not the microbiome:

If your root cause is stress, this would be your “psyche”, mental and/or emotional experience and/or trauma. Based on the research of Dr.Hamer, from the point of view of your brain, you will be able to see these conflicts or shock on a brain CT. In this case, your root cause is not your microbiome, but supporting it may still be helpful.

So let’s break that down. If your root cause is emotional, such as inability to “digest” the trauma in your life, then you probably have other work you need to do. Can the GAPS diet still help in this situation? Yes

Read more about emotional root causes based on GNM/GHK

How can the GAPS diet work for other root causes?

It can help because if you spend your time and energy pouring into yourself- cooking the “correct” foods, eating them with intention, spending time on detoxification support and putting up boundaries (based on what you can eat)…then you are energetically supporting yourself. You are prioritizing your own wellbeing which will in turn help you to “digest” situations outside of your control or in the past.

The energetic input to invest in yourself, IS the healing. The diet gives you a framework. A framework which provides the most nutrient dense foods in a correct balance of building and cleansing foods. Without dogma, apart from rejecting modern industrialized and processed junk, the framework of GAPS brings you back into connection with nature and thus, yourself.

How do you know if the root cause IS the microbiome?

Well if you have any type of digestive disturbance such as IBS, chronic diarrhea or chronic constipation- then you need to address the microbiome.

If you have a history of antibiotic usage (meaning you took antibiotics, or your MOTHER had antibiotics during pregnancy or birth)- then we need to repopulate the beneficial bacteria.

If you have high heavy metals based on functional testing of any kind (or based on certain symptoms)- then your microbiome needs help. Good gut bacteria will support gentle chelation.

Metals have the potential to disturb any function in the body depending on where they deposit. So if you suspect a toxic metal burden big or small, dialing in nutrient density will be your number one support. No “diet” framework supports nutrient density like GAPS. Full stop.

If you want to test your heavy metals inexpensively, reach out to me via email or leave a comment below.

When is GAPS a good solution?

So who is GAPS for? The GAPS diet could theoretically be used for any type of health situation, but here are some examples where it shines.***

(Caveat: These are my observation for who makes the most progress on GAPS based on clinical experience. If you do not fall in these categories and GAPS worked for you, I’m so happy to hear, so please let me know in the comments).

If you’re young…up to about age 30 and have any type of complex health issues. Especially for children, especially for autism and neurodiversity, especially for autoimmune “disease”.

If you’re an adult of any age and feel mentally strong but physically frail. Let’s say you were vegan or vegetarian for a long time and need to re-nourish and rebuild. Or if you had multiple pregnancies in a row and feel depleted, then GAPS will be amazing for you. Or if you had lots of antibiotics for any reason, GAPS is a gentle way to support your physical health.

If you are an adult and are wanting to get off of a plethora of supplements or medications AND you have a local doctor or practitioner that will support you in that effort. GAPS will raise your nutrient status, so that you can dial down the external supports, but working to eliminate anything that is suppressive is imperative.

Everyone else, it will be a case by case situation but often times I don’t feel like the sacrifice of GAPS is worth it, because you need multiple modalities in conjunction to diet or even before implementing the diet. (Maybe that’s too honest for a website focusing on GAPS…eeek. Let me know in the comments!)

If you want to know if GAPS is a good idea for your particular situation, I now offer low-cost clarity calls for this exact purpose.

*You also need to make sure you’re actually doing it right. So use the GAPS book, and/or get a personalized protocol.