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The GAPS Diet
SillyPutty
Veteran
Well, against my better judgement, I decided to come back here and post this thread, even after the horrors of this debacle:
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/19172/attachement-aversion-the-middle-way#latest
After randomly thinking back to this forum today, I decided to pop in for a moment because I feel the information I've recently discovered may help a lot of people, especially many people on this board who may suffer from such neurological disorders such as: depression, autism, schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD, and so forth. Not only mental illnesses, but this information can also help with eating disorders (in terms or anorexia or even compulsive over eating), and an array of other health matters.
Anyway, I'm just throwing this out as a suggestion. You all can sit here and debate, but I'll be long gone again after I post this. To be quite honest, I was very hurt by how I was treated when I posted that thread-- not just by Kashi, either. I'm over that hurt now, but I still have a hard time trusting, so, again, this is a one-time post. But I hope my one-time post can help at least one person out there who may need the information. (Ironic thing is, some of the people who hurt me are the ones who will probably benefit the most from this information!) Maybe you don't need the information, but someone you may meet somewhere down the road might. In any case, I think it's important for everyone to be aware of. Am I saying this is a cure-all for everything and everyone? No. But it's definitely showing positive strides with many individuals, including myself.
The GAPS diet is a diet that was created by a neurologist who was dealing with her son's autism. She realized that when an individual's gut flora is out of balance, it can pretty much lead to an array of health issues, specifically neurological issues that affect the mental health of an individual. Once she healed her son's leaky gut syndrome, her son made a full recovery from autism. I'm going to copy and paste a short and sweet summary of what The GAPS diet does, since someone else already put it into better terms than me:
Gut and Psychology Syndrome:
http://www.shop.gapsdiet.com/product.sc?productId=1&categoryId=7
And here is the official site for The GAPS diet where you can read more information there:
http://www.gapsdiet.com/
Anyway, like I said, I'm not going to go into the specifics of the diet. I feel that if you really want to know, you will go research the information yourselves. But I will attest to the fact that, after having been on this diet for only a week, I have seen massive improvements in my own health. And it's funny, because on that other thread I posted above, I saw that I wrote the following:
So, take it for what it's worth. I truly encourage everyone to check out the information. And if you're tired of being sick and tired like I have pretty much all of my life, I urge you to try the diet out. I have actually started to document my progress with the diet, and I have been seeing amazing results. If you wish to read my plight, so to speak, you can find it at:
http://veganongaps.wordpress.com/
Thanks and good luck.
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/19172/attachement-aversion-the-middle-way#latest
After randomly thinking back to this forum today, I decided to pop in for a moment because I feel the information I've recently discovered may help a lot of people, especially many people on this board who may suffer from such neurological disorders such as: depression, autism, schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD, and so forth. Not only mental illnesses, but this information can also help with eating disorders (in terms or anorexia or even compulsive over eating), and an array of other health matters.
Anyway, I'm just throwing this out as a suggestion. You all can sit here and debate, but I'll be long gone again after I post this. To be quite honest, I was very hurt by how I was treated when I posted that thread-- not just by Kashi, either. I'm over that hurt now, but I still have a hard time trusting, so, again, this is a one-time post. But I hope my one-time post can help at least one person out there who may need the information. (Ironic thing is, some of the people who hurt me are the ones who will probably benefit the most from this information!) Maybe you don't need the information, but someone you may meet somewhere down the road might. In any case, I think it's important for everyone to be aware of. Am I saying this is a cure-all for everything and everyone? No. But it's definitely showing positive strides with many individuals, including myself.
The GAPS diet is a diet that was created by a neurologist who was dealing with her son's autism. She realized that when an individual's gut flora is out of balance, it can pretty much lead to an array of health issues, specifically neurological issues that affect the mental health of an individual. Once she healed her son's leaky gut syndrome, her son made a full recovery from autism. I'm going to copy and paste a short and sweet summary of what The GAPS diet does, since someone else already put it into better terms than me:
"How Do Health Problems Start in the Gut?" by Cara from Health, Home & HappinessNow, the explanation is actually much more in depth and in detail, that's why I strongly advise people to Google The GAPS diet as well as read this book if possible:
What does the gut have to do with food allergies, skin conditions, and mental health issues?
The gut depends on good bacteria (flora) to plug holes, neutralize toxins and metabolize vitamins
The intestine is naturally porous, and we depend on a symbiotic relationship with friendly bacteria to ‘plug the holes’. This prevents large proteins (like gluten and casein) from going through the gut wall and into the bloodstream, and the bacteria also provide a barrier against toxins entering our bloodstream. As the gut flora neutralize, metabolize, and further break down our food they also are transporting vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients across the gut wall.
In addition to not having enough good gut flora, the presence of bad ‘opportunistic’ flora creates problems by releasing toxins into the bloodstream, which affect the brain. We get bad flora in our system by wiping the entire system out with antibiotics, allowing the bad bacteria to establish colonies because there aren’t enough good bacteria already established to crowd them out. In the case of a baby, babies get their first dose of bacteria by coming through the birth canal, so if mom has a history of having antibiotics and has bad gut flora, the baby’s first ‘dose’ of bacteria are often bad ones.
Bad bacteria in the gut can emit toxins, which affect brain function like a drug, this is why this diet also works to help autism and mental disorders.
The gut also has our 'second brain' in it, there is actually neural tissue in the gut that helps regulate the emotions. When the gut is not healthy, anxiety, depression, and other moods aren't kept in check.
Copyright © 2013 Health, Home, and Happiness, All rights reserved.
Gut and Psychology Syndrome:
http://www.shop.gapsdiet.com/product.sc?productId=1&categoryId=7
And here is the official site for The GAPS diet where you can read more information there:
http://www.gapsdiet.com/
Anyway, like I said, I'm not going to go into the specifics of the diet. I feel that if you really want to know, you will go research the information yourselves. But I will attest to the fact that, after having been on this diet for only a week, I have seen massive improvements in my own health. And it's funny, because on that other thread I posted above, I saw that I wrote the following:
SillyPutty MemberMy sister-in-law started The GAPS diet to heal her food allergies about four years ago, when the book was pretty much brand new. She tried to convince me that it would help all of my issues, but I thought she was nuts. And many of you will think I'm nuts, too. I expect it-- especially how I was treated by a couple of individuals on that thread I posted in the beginning of this post. But, again, I'm doing this as a service to try to help anyone who may be desperate like I was to find some healing. When and if you're ready to get better, you'll open your mind to what this diet has to say. But I just came back to plant the seed because I know there are so many people out there, let's say, who have a child with autism, and they think that a casein-free/gulten-free diet is helping their child out. No, it's not. You have to heal the gut first, and staying away from ALL grains initially and following the diet to a "T" is the only way to go.
July 23 edited July 23 Flag
Thanks, @Chrysalid. I appreciate the input. Yeah, I agree-- the Candida thing is controversial, like I stated above. We are supposed to have it in our body, but it's claimed that when an imbalance is created we experience all of my aforementioned symptoms, then some. So I'm desperate. I've seen a lot of success stories with this, so I'm hoping it's the answer. Many people have reclaimed their health by trying things like The GAPs diet and this Candida diet, so I figure what have I got to lose? Nothing else has worked so far.
So, take it for what it's worth. I truly encourage everyone to check out the information. And if you're tired of being sick and tired like I have pretty much all of my life, I urge you to try the diet out. I have actually started to document my progress with the diet, and I have been seeing amazing results. If you wish to read my plight, so to speak, you can find it at:
http://veganongaps.wordpress.com/
Thanks and good luck.
1
Comments
Just wondering, your blog name is Vegan on GAPS but the diet doesn't seem very vegetarian friendly, let alone vegan... Are all of the meat suggestions optional?
Also, I'm wondering if they ever mention kombucha. I've had pretty good results with adding this into my diet.
I'm sorry that you felt so traumatized by your last post here. I hope you reconsider and realize that, like everywhere else in life, there's bound to be a jerk here and there but that does not mean that it's not ultimately worth it. A good question for yourself is why the negative voices seem so much louder to you. This isn't meant to be a pass of judgement or anything, I'm pretty hyper-sensitive to criticism and this is something I try to remind myself of frequently, so the advice simply comes from personal experience.
I hope you come back and answer my questions... lol.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060718135246/http://pages.britishlibrary.net/lobster/candida/
I have allergies (specifically food allergies for the sake of this discussion) and I've always been told probiotics can help. I do eat yogurt almost daily but I know there are many more types than you can get just in yogurt. But I've also read a lot that getting the bacteria from probiotic supplements doesn't work (so they claim) because most of them are destroyed in your stomach.
On one hand, that makes sense but on the other, not so much because they got there somehow and I'm pretty sure back in the day we weren't doing fecal transplants. They got there from us eating foods we no longer eat I imagine, largely in part as we talked about elsewhere because we've gotten too clean for our own good.
I should specify that with my allergies I do not have problems with my digestive system. Everything there is normal and none of my nutritional numbers are out of what, nor is my immune system...apart from the allergies, lol. But I can be perfectly fine, go out to eat and if I eat a dinner roll, I will have a sneezing fit with a runny nose (like a faucet) that lasts for hours or even a day or so later. Wheat triggers it pretty much all the time. But I don't have any typical symptoms of wheat sensitivity as far as my gut goes. Other than the nasal allergy, I border on absurdly healthy. I get sick maybe every 5 years, and sick enough to need to see the doctor maybe every 7-8 years. Even with kids in school who bring home tons of germs. So, I'm not entirely sure that my problem is within my gut, or other than avoiding wheat, anything can be done about it. I don't drink milk, either, but that's not a problem for me. I can eat yogurt fine, and I just drink almond milk instead. Milk bloats me like crazy, and ice cream, too.
The internet is full of crank advice and crank means of diagnosis. Like spitting into glasses of water .
I know that this advice means a financial cost to American members, but it can save you a lot of time and possibly a lot of suffering.
Here if you convince your GP ( family doctor ) you can be referred for a whole battery of tests that will determine whether you are sensitive to particular foods, or whether you have widespread systematic Candidiasis ( very unlikely btw ..although localised Candida infections in mucus membrane tissue is common. )
I truly do not know how Americans cope without a Nationalised Health sevice.
Although I like what Obamacare will apparently bring, I have slowly come to the conclusion that national health care is the way to go.
upon his favourite filly
' I'm Thor! ' he cried.
The horse replied
'You forgot your thaddle thilly '.
If it was that important, I would do it. Our 5 year old who is diabetic has to go to the bigger clinic every 12 weeks for his checkups. But considering that I can get rid of my symptoms by simply not eating wheat, I see no need to go to those lengths. If I felt it was truly affecting my health, yes I would. But either way, I'm always curious to learn more about nutritional things, as it is one of my hobbies, so that's why I asked for more information. I'm not diagnosing myself with anything. But I don't care to get a diagnosis, either since other than the nasal allergies, it doesn't affect me and I can prevent that by just not eating what sets it offf. It's just not worth my time or effort at this point. I hesitate because I sought help with a foot problem via a referral and after a bunch of time, travel and money and got no resolution to the problem whatso ever despite an obvious structural problem on the xray because the department at the larger clinic "doesn't like" to do that type of surgery because sometimes it needs to be repeated later in life. Since the only way I get get seen out of that network is to pay out of pocket for it to the tune of $700 just to TALK to another doctor, no thanks.
Thanks for posting but speaking as someone with an eating disorder I can safely say that attempting to follow a diet like this with that level of dietary restriction would perpetuate the problem for me long before any benefits were be obtained (assuming what the author suggests is scientifically accurate in the first place).
I would therefore recommend extreme caution by anyone else with an eating disorder who may be tempted to try this and to look at the current evidence-based treatments first.
Peace and Blessings,
Craig