One of the reasons I love Nourishing Traditions is that is helps you cook in a way that’s easy on the gut with many of it’s different cooking principles. But since some people need a more specific diet, Sally Fallon asked Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who wrote a book devoted to helping people with health issues to come to the some of the Weston A Price Foundation Conferences to share. She wrote the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome.
I have recently being reading a little about the GAPS diet (which stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome) as outlined by Natasha. I admit, it’s name was not eye catching to me personally. But I would like to tell you a little more about it.
I would also love to hear of any personal experience you have had with it, or with the The Body Ecology Diet (a.k.a BED) which I will also be sharing about in part.
While I’ve read The Body Ecology Diet, I’ve yet to actually read Gut and Psychology Syndrome (though I hope to soon). So please don’t think that I consider myself an expert on the topic! I am just excited about some of it’s basic principles and think it could prove to be very helpful for many people. Allow this post to introduce you to the diet.
One Main Principle
One of the main principles of both the GAPS diet and the BED diet is addressing the digestive tract and dealing with any yeast issues. So many of the practices of our “modern” society do not help us in this area. We have high sugar diets, we don’t generally eat lacto-fermented foods (which contain healthy probiotics), we have chlorine in our water which we drink and bathe in (and kill healthy intestinal flora with), and we don’t all make digestive soothing bone broths either.
What’s the difference between the two diets?
The BED diet concentrates on a gluten free diet, with a high amount of “alkalizing “vegetables in it. Seaweed, coconut kefir and lots of cultured veggies are strongly encouraged. You can eat gluten free grains, but you have to food combine. No meats and grains together, for example.
The GAPS diet concentrates on homemade broth. On the intro diet you eat a high amount of broth with certain vegetables and “boiled meat”. Then you add add one thing in at a time, watching to see how your child or “patient” reacts to the new food. There is a concentration on nourishing egg yolks, meats and broth, especially at the beginning. Cultured, or lacto-fermented foods and probiotics are also an important part of this diet. You can read here a list of what’s on the full GAPS diet (no grains) and read here about how the introduction diet is done.
Have any thoughts on either of these diets? Like always, I am not giving medical advice, simply sharing as one mom to another!
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Very interesting. I’ve never really heard of either of these. Although I have read Nourishing Traditions and a lot of Weston A. Price stuff.
GAPS sounds very similar to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Interesting.
Yes. I was jut reading that GAPS came from usin the SCD and modifiying it to work with her patients—so she wrote the GAPS book based on her modifications of it!
I think GAPS sounds great. We did a bit of a modified version towards the end of December for a couple of weeks and it was great. I had a lot of antibiotics growing up and after the birth of my first son I was on them for a week due to an infection. So, just like your daughter, my first son has had minor issues due to the antibiotics.
We could do GAPS, easily, except for the cost. I’d love to hear how you manage to do GAPS on a tight budget since grains and legumes are pretty much out. We felt really good when we were eating no grains, beans or dairy (except homemade yogurt from grass fed cows). But again – it’s costly.
Personally I think I do best on an almost paleo diet, but now I am rambling :).
I have dyslexia and always believed it was hereditary. My cousins and grandfather have it. They are all on my Dad’s side. I wonder how it can be cured by diet? From what I understand dyslexia happened when the brain has trouble connecting the sounds of written words with the sounds of spoken words. I also have Dyscalculia. I function perfectly well with both of these, I actually have been called a liar by people when I tell them, as I don’t seem to have symptoms. I am very interested in reading this book and seeing how diet effects this.
This is a pretty good link about it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia)
You may just be very high functioning in these areas if you have a high IQ. The problem is that you may not be functioning as well as you could have without the disabilites. The official educational label is “twice exceptional” when you are both gifted intellectually and learning disabled. I have a husband and two sons with these exceptionalities. Many times these students are not identified as gifted or learning disabled because the giftedness covers the disability and the disability covers the giftedness. The gut and psychology syndrome diet, while it did not cure my younger son who is dyslexic, it certainly helped his digestion, his overall health, and his school performance. I think the GAPS diet can either improve or eliminate a great deal of learning problems if the cause of these problems are caused by “leaky gut syndrome.” The Body Ecology diet is specificly for those adults or children who suffer from an overgrowth of Candida. Both diets are widely used with children who have developemental disabilites such as Autism, ADHD and learning problems. Didn’t mean to lecture you, just letting you know that this might help. My experience with the GAPS diet has been a good one. I also have benefitted from GAPS as I have Crohn’s disease, a digetive disorder.
Interesting. I too have an antibiotic story that I believe wrecked my intestinal flora. Thank you for posting this. And guess what–I’m going to see Sally Fallon speak this weekend! I’m so excited!
Here’s a PDF that you can print out. The GAPS diet food list:
GAPS Diet Food List
I kept seeing the GAPS diet come up in my reading, but I had no idea what it was- Thanks for all the information you posted. I am really interested in reading more about these. My brother has a son with autisim and his daughter has had about 2 zillion antibiotics (she’s 3)- she has been on antibiotics for ear infections since Thanksgiving!! I really pray that they will see that the high sugar and rarely nourishing foods that these children eat is effecting their health. i am sorry to hear that you had a diffcult post partum period. I am wondering if these diets would help with stress issues?
I’d love to hear your advice – I’m looking at starting the GAPS diet for my son for food sensitivities, but he’s still nursing. What are your thoughts about doing this while still nursing, and should the mama be on it also?
I can say that I have tried the Body Ecology Diet. I had experienced yeast problems vaginally for 7 years. My Dr. told me to use over the counter products and then a prescription. Nothing would touch it. I don’t even remember who or what introduced me to the BED way of life, but I am so thankful that I was.
I followed the BED principles completely for 3 months. It was not a hard diet to follow, just time consuming with 3 children aged 7 and under and homeschooling. By the end of the 3 months, I had no trace of the yeast and felt better than I had in years. It healed my body.
In the past 10 years since then, I practice most of the principle most of the time. I have only experienced a problem if I binged on sugar (maybe a whole bag of cookies), otherwise I am free of it.
If you need to alkanize your body in a safe and healthful way, this would be one to check into. There are great tasting recipes to follow and much, much information on why the principles are important.
The principle I adhere to the most is what foods to eat with what. For us Americans eating a SAD (standard American diet), we combine our proteins and starches. Our digestions are slowed down incredibly when we have both a protein and a starch in our stomachs at the same time causing fermentation and then of course yeast overgrowth.
Check it out and see if you feel better!!
I am gearing up to do B.E.D with my family but am wondering what kind of recipes are out there for filling up kids and kid friendly
This is a very good comparison of the two :
http://bodyecology.com/gapsdiet
I’m starting BED because it fits my beliefs and. otmakes sense to me. GAPS does n
What kind of diet do you eat now that you did the 3 months on BED? What did you add back in first and what do you eat now? I’m just starting the diet now due to pretty severe bloating whenever I eat sugar or flour products so I’m very interested. I have 2 kids and so far the diet is pretty hard so I’m hoping it’s not a forever thing! Thanks for your insight!
This was a great comment. Thank you so much for sharing!
I love a lot of things about the BED, but the grains (even soaked) just didn’t work for me. I also have needed to tweak the 75% veggies, 25% animal protein rule. I really like that Donna Gates supports each person finding what works for his own body (principle of individuality). Overall, I learned so much from that book. I’m very thankful for it!
Oh I am so thankful you blogged about this. I just started learning about GAPS and BED and any info is so appreciated. I really need to get reading and “experimenting.” We follow WAPF kind of eating about 80% of the time. I try not to make it too strict. My kids have eventually come around to preferring to eat wholesome, nutrient dense food. But one of my boys really struggles with sugar- like to the point where he should not eat it AT ALL! And my littlest has some signs of poor digestive health. So I am really concerned about those two.
Do you know if the coconut water kefir is better than dairy kefir? Does it matter which probiotic/lacto-fermented drink/foods you consume? I know, I still need to read the book! LOL
Blessings,
mel
Kimi, again thank you for the wonderful, and timely, information! These both sound like more “Nourishing” versions of “Ultrametabolism” (& Ultrawellness and Ultramind), which I recently read on my chiropractor/nutritionist’s recommendation. I liked the principles of Ultrametabolism, but disagreed with his reliance on soy and low fat dairy products. We now suspect that what I’ve been trying to get over is yeast overgrowth, and Husband could benefit from it too, so I’ve been researching various yeast-cleansing diets. A couple of my cousins did a 13-week version, whose name escapes me, that included supplements and steam baths to detox the body. My chiro also suggested I look at the Hotze yeast-cleanse diet (basic info available on the web) – this is an interesting mix of diet and yeast-killing pharmaceuticals, and it seems the diet is only a month long.
There seems to be agreement about yeast overgrowth and the need to kill/control it, but there seems a fair bit of disagreement about certain specifics. No grains? Gluten-free grains? All meats? No pork? Etc. I’m looking forward to reading more and figuring out what will work for us, and be feasible for our lifestyle as well.
Thanks again for the insights and information!
I’m in agreement with the above postings that I would love to learn more…Keep us updated! My brother is a chiropractor and has been trying to “school us all” on what we should be eating. This sounds very similar to what he has been taught. He is very much against gluten and dairy (even raw!). And says that even sprouted/soaked grains & beans should be eaten in small quanitites. My understanding is that they create an acid environment in the gut where “bad bacteria” flourish (disease) and “good bacteria” can’t. I love N.T., but it is very obvious when my son has had too much dairy (fluid in his ears, snotty nose). And, I know for myself, that when I start to get into my phases where I’m experimenting a lot with soaked bread/muffin/pancake recipes that my sugar cravings come back. I have thinking myself about cutting out the milk and cutting back on the grains, but need some family-friendly strategies and recipe ideas. Please share! This week I am going to try and make yogurt from coconut milk (not coconut kefir-I’m still looking for kefir grains). I have read that I can use canned coconut milk and my same yogurt starter, just add a couple of tablespoons of honey. I hope it works!
I just had to respond to Divakitty’s comment about Hotze’s anti-yeast protocol (I hope that’s okay; kill this comment if it’s not). I have personally seen Dr. Hotze, and so have both of my parents and many people we know. First, when you see Hotze or one of his fellow practitioners in person, if you have really severe symptoms, you are told to continue the diet for 2 to 3 months. So I wouldn’t count on 1 month doing the trick if you’re having a whole lot of problems. Second, while his yeast diet and pharmaceutical recommendations *do* help in the short term, they have not proven to be good long term solutions for anyone I know. Most people experience a yo-yo effect. As long as they’re on the diet and taking the drugs, they’re fine. When they stop the drugs and add in a few extra foods (like whole grains, dairy, and fruit), after a while, the symptoms come back. Then Hotze tells you to start the protocol over again, including a new round of drugs. This is just my opinion and my personal experience, and I really hope this isn’t offensive, but I have found homeopathy combined with diets like BED and GAPS far more effective than Hotze’s protocol in dealing with yeast.
So, what would you suggest as far as getting rid of a yeast overgrowth? Surely the diet alone wont do it, at least for someone with severe issues I’m guessing. What kind of homeopathic remedies would you take for yeast overgrowth? Thanks!
Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that I will be doing a GAPS update post on friday! So stay tuned for that. It’s been wonderful getting everyone’s feedback! Thanks!
Here’s just a few comments
Shannon,
I think that a modified GAPS diet is just fine, unless you need to go on the full version for some reason. 🙂 It is costly, which means that we would have a hard time maintaining it.
Shantana,
I found that what I ate really effected Elena when she was nursing (and I know other nursing mothers say the same). If you really concentrate on nourishing broths and cultured foods, I think it will be a huge step forward in helping your child hopefully not have too many food issues. Everyone is different, so what road you end up taking may look different then the one I take. But I think that broth and cultured (or lacto-fermented foods and drinks) are very safe and very beneficial. Keep up the nursing! That helps with food allergies so much!
Kim May,
I have to say that the BED diet was very helpful for some of my yeast issues too. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience, that was very helpful.
Alison,
Yet soaked legumes work fine for you right? I always thought that was so interesting. The GAPS diet allows a few types of legumes, but no grains. Interesting! I also really appreciate how Donna Gates talks about finding out what works for you. And THANK YOU for sharing your experience with Divakitty. That’s just the kind of comments we all want. 🙂
DivaKitty,
I hope you find your answers! Alison has some great thoughts for you. As far as the disagreements in the diets, I think it’s all about finding out what works well for you. Like Alison said, she couldn’t handle grains. Others do better with grains, but don’t tolerate nuts or legumes. I don’t think one diet fits all. 🙂
Karen,
I think balance is key. Of course the hard thing is that “balance” can look different depending on where we are in life, and what our family tolerates! But I will be sure to share updates and any tricks I learn from cutting out problem foods. 🙂
Alison, not at ALL offensive! I was truly curious about that approach, so *thank you* for sharing your experiences!
This post was the first time I’d heard of either GAPS or BED, and the timing is great, since we are going to try to start a yeast cleanse for Lent. (I find doing it that way helps my motivation.) The hardest thing for us will be giving up alcohol – we LOVE our red wine! but apparently we’ll need to avoid it a while to get rid of the yeasts.
Thanks to all for the wonderful comments and suggestions!
Kimi,
Great post! I just wanted to share my experience briefly (catching up on my blog reading, can you tell?!?!) We found great success with my daughter (whose long saga of birth trauma and other ailments can be found at http://oreganicthrifty.blogspot.com/search/label/our%20healing%20journey)
when we were doing GAPS for yeast and constipation issues. I had also hoped that GAPS would help the behavioral issues as well, but it did not. Fortunately, I found out about “Neurodevelopmental Retraining” which is a movement-based therapy that builds new neurological growth in the brain. Interestingly enough, children with neurological impairments (the whole spectrum) have digestive issues, as Dr. Campbell-McBride has noted as a pediatric neurologist.
After some more health sleuthing as to my daughter’s issues, we began Neurodevelopmental Retraining (which recommends the GAPS diet in conjunction). I also had Nutritional Response Testing done on her by a local Naturopath, Dr. Daniel Chong (awesome) and he detected mercury issues and major wheat, rice, corn, and gluten intolerances. I guess mercury can cause persistant yeast issues, which my daughter definitely dealt with. Interestingly enough, almost the day after we started our herbal supplements for her (pre-digested, fermented chlorella) the yeast issues practically disappeared as the chlorella helps chelate heavy metals. Even though she’s eating plenty of fruit and honey on GAPS, she has not a single yeast issue. So the only thing that’s changed is the chelating agent, which I think Dr. NCM discusses in her book.
Anyway, it’s all very interesting . All this to say, sometimes diet alone isn’t enough; it might also take some mild chelation and movement therapy if the underlying cause of the digestive disorders is neurological. But the latter can never be healed without the change in diet.
I also have been on BED and I love the principles. I didn’t do well with any of the grains, and just feel better when I eat GAPS. I think a person with type A blood would do really well on BED, while I (a type B) prefer more meat and fat and less carbs.
I’m so glad I didn’t offend anyone! 🙂 I am also very motivated to investigate GAPS further. It sounds like a better fit for me than BED in terms of allowing some legumes, no grains, and a bit more meat and fat than BED. I have just started making bone broths, so this might be a good time for me to try out GAPS. I’m SO thankful for all of the things I learn through blogs and comments.
I agree everyone eating refined foods need gut support. Our family eats WAPF style for 95% of our meals. The last 2 months, I have been eating a GAPS diet because I want to see its affect in helping me heal a decade worth of antibiotics from my youth which I hope will help with some autoimmune conditions. Those who think it is expensive, I do not agree. I think it takes planning and organization. I find that the “wheat” based quick food in our society, even if it is organic, fermented sourdough bread, gives us access to fast food when we need it, like in the mornings. I make my own almond milk, use the almond meal and make crackers. I use one chicken and make soup, shred the meat and use it in 2 dishes for dinner and boil the “h_ _ _” out of the carcass for broth. This one chicken becomes 3 dinners (for 5 people). The chicken is $7 a lb, but, it stretches. One remark, I’d like to add is that if you want to try GAPS, read the book. I do not believe there is an “almost” GAPS diet. If you are feeding your gut with disaccharides, then you’re defeating the purpose of the diet. This diet is similar to SCD because that is where Natasha started with her own journey. She gives credit to Elaine Gottschall in her book. The main difference is that Natasha does not recommend any dairy in the beginning if the patient is acute and displaying symptoms of autism, ADD etc.. I heard her speak and she believes that healing can take 1 – 3 years, but, that the goal is to eventually have a healed gut that an occasional piece of pizza is not going to hurt you. If you want to hear her speak, you can purchase her CD on the WAPF site. I highly recommend it.
Good luck to all those who choose this journey.
Angela,
Thanks for the excellent thoughts! I think that it is important to do the full diet if you have major issues you want to heal. But as an “all or nothing” type of gal, I think that it’s also important to say that everyone could benefit from adding in bone broths and cultured foods into their diet, and that many people will see improvements in their health even from just adding in nourishing foods like bone broths. I wish it were that easy for all of us! 🙂
I think that you can definitely cut corners and by not wasting anything, really be able to utilize your resources well. I do think that it would cost more to eat grain free, however. It would be worth it for those of us who have health issues to resolve, but you may want to have at least a slightly higher food budget while on the diet. But it would be worth the extra cost if you were able to resolve health issues (that could cause doctor bills!).
Kimi: I absolutely agree that everyone would benefit from nutrient dense foods. My children eat their fair share of processed foods from visiting friends and birthday parties. So, I look to the probiotics of cultured foods to zap some of those “poisons” out of their body!! The last 2 months have been an interesting journey. I appear to be seemingly healthy. However, I developed some hip pain this past year. I’ve been doing massage for a year to work on some of the pain, which has helped, but always only temporarily. Then, a spark of thought developed that eliminating wheat and helping to heal the gut could reduce inflammation similar to an arthritic condition. (I tested negative for wheat intolerance.) Well, I’m happy to report the hip pain has reduced 75%. What I am trying to say to those who want to try the GAPS diet is that you need to try it 100% to get it’s full benefit. Of course, you can work up to that point. Eliminating wheat first, then other grain, then potatoes, then unacceptable beans.
Thanks for the great post, Kimi, and to everyone for the informative comments.
My family is ovo-vegetarian/ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and gluten-free, but we’re moving toward a trial-month on the GAPS diet. (I bought my first meat in 20 years today – a free range chicken that is simmering on the stove right now, well on it’s way to becoming stock and more).
I have found over the past year+ of eating gluten-free that I don’t tolerate any grains very well. My older son is definitely gluten intolerant and is also behaviorally challenging. My 2 year old son, who is still nursing, has recently developed constipation issues that I’m hoping GAPS will help.
As was mentioned above, the GAPS diet allows a few less-starchy legumes. I am wondering if anyone has experience or knowledge of whether the Indian dals, such as moong dal and urad dal, could be eaten on the GAPS diet? Thanks!
Regarding stress issues…. my family has been on GAPS for 8 months. I’m 40 years old with 2 kids, (3 & 6) so I am exhausted. After the first week on the GAPS diet, I felt an energy that I’ll try to describe, it was like this sack of potatoes that I had been carrying on my back had disappeared. I felt light & energetic, not bogged down. Like I did when I was a teenager. It felt so right, like the way things SHOULD be. I also felt my “mommy brain fog” completely lift for a couple days. I felt clear headed and the main word I kept thinking, was “capable” I finally felt capable of doing anything, which I had never before.
About three months into it, I had one piece of bread. The next day, I had two. That night, I was up until 3am “organizing Legos” like I had OCD. Amazing!! During the day, I snapped at my kids and yelled at them over nothing. At that moment, I realized I used to do that ALL THE TIME, but I hadn’t in 3 months, since I started the diet. So YES, GAPS does absolutely work on stress levels. I felt completely capable of handling anything, thus never yelled or got stressed out. And I have to stress again, my body and mind felt really right, like it should feel.
Now, 8 months into it, I’m cheating again. The yelling has started again and now I’m having sleep issues which adds to the stress. But I know I have a tool now to make it go away.
Two more things, dairy used to immediately clog up my nose and my chest would feel tighter. That no longer happens. And my son who has allergies and asthma, hasn’t had an asthma attack in 2 months now. Just wanted to share my experience. I think this diet is very important for physical & mental health.
I have 7 children and 3 of them have health issues. One has type 1 diabetes, one has premature ovarian failure and one has severe autism with seizures. These are children who got these problems while still young. We all have allergies and I get migraines along with a 4th child.
When I watched the videos of Donna and Natasha I was floored, it all made sense and I am very excited to start the diet. I am doing BED since I had already ordered the book.
Thank you to all for posting here, it answered alot of my questions as to the diet differences.
I will post here when I have good news as I know my son will be recovered from his autism.
Maryjo
Can you tell me which chlorella you use/used? I am trying to detox heavy metals and am on the GAPS diet.
actually the difference is that BED is specifically for candida, while GAPS heals the gut globally in every way. (and the foods are different of course)
Tiff,
I feel that the GAPS may be a better system to use for healing the gut, but the BED diet is also supposed to help heal the gut. 🙂
My family has been on the GAPS intro diet for the past 4 weeks trying to address a range of digestive and autoimmune issues. The first week or two were really rough due to die-off and withdrawal symptoms, but it’s been getting better since then. Already, my 4-year-old son can eat eggs and nuts again after 2 years of being intolerant to them. My wife’s asthma and migraines have subsided considerably too.
The diet takes A LOT of planning and CONSTANT food preparation, and the lack of any grains and relative increase in meat means it will cost more. Our food budget for a family of 4 has ballooned to over $1500 / month on GAPS so far.
I’m just now learning about the BED diet, and I am confused by some of the conflicting claims it makes with regard to consumption of fats and “acidic” foods, including meats as well as nuts/fruits. My approach is to continue GAPS to see how much healing we can get, and if we find that it’s not enough, we may investigate the more strict BED diet later. One common complaint on BED seems to be that it is lacking in scientific backing and is overly commercial. GAPS is not commercialized at all, which lends a lot to its credibility, in my opinion.
Having had experience with both BED and GAPS, my body prefers GAPS hands down. I am a blood type B, btw.
Last winter I attempted BED, but felt progressively worse and more fatigued, bloated, uncomfortable, low thyroid and adrenals, etc. Then in the spring, I switched to a paleo diet and felt immensely better in a few short weeks, after months of misery. The “seed-like grains” of BED just didn’t and don’t work for me-they are indigestible and irritating to leaky gut. I was starved for carbs I could digest. I craved fruits and have no problem with them, which are not allowed on BED. I was also starved for protein and fats. Having to do food combining when one is starving and craving everything all at once was really hard. I couldn’t feel satisfied and nourished on BED.
This autumn I completed GAPS intro and after the initial detox, feel good improvement in energy, strength, soothed digestion, calmness, clarity, etc.
Clearly, GAPS and primal diets work much better for me. I have given up on vegetarianism.
I was dismayed to go onto the Body Ecology Diet’s website and see that Donna Gates had written a critique of the GAPS diet. She wrote that GAPS has poor food combining, lack of akalinizing foods, etc. Whatever. I wonder why Ms. Gates felt the need to write about GAPS in such a way? Is she under the influence of that vegetarian mindset?
The proof for me is what works for me. GAPS works while BED simply depletes me.
I appreciate your comment about Donna Gates. Only because I am just preparing to start the intro GAPS diet and then I saw and read Donna’s article about GAPS. The vegetarian mindset does have some appeal to me as an ex raw vegan, so I was a little shaken by it at first and wondered if GAPS is right for me. However I threw my body way off without animal protein. I am a blood type O negative and I feel so much better eating meat and broths.
However I believed I damaged my thyroid by going to low carb on Paleo, so I just have to find something in the middle. And I have to eliminate fruits…I haven’t done it yet and I don’t know how I am going to deal with the cravings.
Are you still following GAPS?
HD
The article “Critical Differences Between GAPS Diet and Body Ecology Diet, Compare Two Gut Healing protocols” at: http://gaps-diet.com gives a detailed point by point explanation of issues that cause the GAPS diet to be far less effective than the BEDiet. To anyone wanting to get to the core of healing the gut and creating a healthier and more comfortable lifestyle should read this article before choosing to embark upon the GAPS regimen.
I just wanted to add my 2 cents in here even though I know this post is a few years old! I’ve read both books. I’ve have a lot of issues the last few years with stress, anxiety, panic, loss of balance, low energy, difficulty with low blood sugar and a laundry list of other symptoms, but those are the worst. I’ve tried gluten free and it helped but didn’t “cure” my issues like I was hoping. I’ve tried a few other things over the last few years and then heard about the GAPS diet and read the book. I had heard of the Body Ecology Diet (BED) and decided to buy that book as well. After reading both I felt like for me the best diet was the BED. I tried GAPS for only a few days and just got more and more shaky, irritable, weak and was hating that I couldn’t have ANY grains!!! The BED takes blood type into consideration which I liked and for me being type A this diet works great for me, I love the gluten free grains you’re allowed and enjoy switching from a meat and vegetable meal to a grain and veggie meal so I never feel deprived. It cuts out ALL sugar included most fruits which has made such a difference for me. I realize sugar really takes it’s toll on me very quickly, I get hot flashes (I’m 30) and irritable, light headed, shaky, dizzy, it’s no good. This just makes me want to stick to the diet even more! I never feel deprived and feel so good after meals and energetic instead of tired and lethargic.
I’ve been on it for only 2 + weeks and have seen great improvements. I’ve diverged a couple times and have paid the price. Today I made some delicious soaked banana muffins and instead of trying a bite had 3 whole muffins and all the symptoms started, my stomach kills and I have no energy. I immediately had a salad and some cultured veggies and perked up. I intend to stay on the BED for 3 months and then experiment by adding some traditionally prepared foods and honey and maple syrup and see how it goes.
You must read both books and get a feel for them and follow what resonates with you. It’s wonderful that there are so many diet programs out there than help so many, you just have to remember that you need to find what works for you, and what feels right. Go with your instincts. I really thought at first GAPS was my answer but then after reading and testing out BED I found that was the one that was much better suited for me. Good luck!
When you follow the BED diet, do you also take her supplements? I’ve been wondering that as I read through all these to see how many actually also took her supplements versus just choosing the foods she suggests.