Why We Stopped the GAPS Diet and I no longer believe it’s a good choice

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Why We Stopped the GAPS Diet and I no longer believe it’s a good choice shares the downsides of the GAPS Diet. As a mother and former “patient”, I share my personal experiences and health problems that resulted from the diet, including: thyroid problems and Hashimoto’s, vitamin A toxicity, histamine intolerance, food sensitivities and a total stagnation in my wellness process.

I also share the experiences of two of my kids on the diet.

Some good things about GAPS

The GAPS diet gave me some good things, too.

Sugar addiction

I love that it opened my eyes to the dangers of sugar. After eliminating it, I did see significant short-term health improvements. I also appreciate that it took me three years to overcome my addiction to sugar, and the GAPS diet helped me to do that.

Note: Another better-suited real food diet could have helped me do this (perhaps faster), too, but GAPS at least started me on this journey (albeit it hurt me in other ways simultaneously).

No more processed foods creeping into my cooking

From the diet, I learned to cook healthier foods in new ways, and I learned how to make delicious soup.

Gut health education (albeit omitting important insights on the liver)

Dr. Natasha educated me about gut lining integrity, when that kind of information wasn’t yet spoken of in the mainstream (I started the diet about 13 years ago, shortly after the second edition of the first [yellow] GAPS book was published, before the term leaky gut was commonly discussed).

The philosophy of hard work, truth and actual healing

Lastly, I like the emphasis in GAPS that healing is hard work, but that it’s better than medications that suppress symptoms.

The right real food diet is a key long term piece of the healing equation. And the hard work is a gift, actually, that helps us choose a higher path in life in general.

Dr. Natasha believes this, that pain and symptoms can even bring about a spiritual dedication to truth and love, and I agree with her.

GAPS may have helped my son

My oldest son was born with serious food sensitivities and dyslexia. When he weaned, he became anemic.

GAPS did help him (although not in a deeper way [liver health] that a better diet would have, which I’ll discuss more specifically). He may be one of the success stories (in at least that arena of his health).

If only I’d known at the time that we didn’t need as long on the diet; a couple of years would have sufficed for him; and then we could have phased in more complex carbs, phased out all the fat … and more.

If I’d known more at the time, I would never have included all of the foods so high in vitamin A, like liver, kale and bell peppers. This gets into a main issue I’ll discuss more below. We needed winter squash for carbs, but ate way too much of it, given its vitamin A content.

The only GAPS diet I could espouse now really isn’t the GAPS diet at all. It’s a hybrid that includes no sugar, gentle meats and homemade foods, but excludes the extra high fat and high vitamin A foods.

So now let’s talk about the problems with this diet.

Why We Stopped the GAPS Diet: More problems than solutions

What I see in GAPS communities more than anything else is confusion, symptoms, major health problems (like thyroid issues, histamine overload or hair loss) and then lots and lots of suggestions and possible explanations. The women asking the questions have often been doing the diet already for years.

I feel so badly for these people who are committed to this diet that is obviously making them worse in certain ways. They are advised to just keep going.

Diets that are fully working should not cause us confusion and more symptoms that are as bad/worse than the ones we came in with. Yes, some detox symptoms can be part of real healing, but what many people are experiencing is a decline in health.

It’s okay to stop the diet if it’s making you have new significant health problems or not solving your issues. (I know some people don’t know how. We’ll talk about that more below because that’s what happened to me.)

In this post, I will provide an alternative suggestion, that perhaps you will find helpful, if this is you.

The GAPS Diet is too low carb, no improvement to leaky gut

Having no starchy vegetables or grains for years wreaked havoc on my thyroid and energy levels.

Because I was among the first to start the diet, there was no support beyond Dr. Natasha’s first book. As a result, I just kept doing it, thinking I would improve the longer I adhered. I did not cheat.

Over the course of years, my energy levels got worse, while ironically, my digestion never got better.

(Meanwhile, my kids ate huge amounts of winter squash just to get enough carbs.)

Low carb leads to low functioning thyroid

Long story short, I got Hashimoto’s, (but no healing of my leaky gut!).

Regarding Hashimoto’s and thyroid health, when carb intake is kept low over time, conversion of T3 from T4 declines. (I was crushed emotionally [and surprised] to get a new autoimmune disease after years of adhering so strictly to GAPS.)

Low functioning thyroid also leads to common GAPS symptoms, both of which I had: constipation and insomnia.

What happened when I added in starchy complex carbs

After six years on the diet, I finally decided to try cassava flour — and oh, what a boon of energy. I felt so much better, so I also added in tiger nut flour. Both offered prebiotics, fiber and complex carbohydrates that my body badly needed.

Living off winter squash for carbs, long term, was not good. My body was starved for complex carbs.

Just a reminder that simple carbs are not a good idea, but that complex carbs are needed for energy production.

Of course, now I’ve read many testimonies similar to mine: People who feel weak, and often have pains, until they add grains (or other complex carbs) back into their diet.

Why We Stopped the GAPS Diet: Chronic “vitamin” A toxicity

Living off of winter squash wasn’t good for my body in other ways, too.

While still in the early years of experiments, many hundreds of patients have now seen significant improvement through diagnosis and dietary treatment of chronic vitamin A toxicity.

While acute vitamin A toxicity is commonly understood and observed in medical research, chronic (the long-term building up of) vitamin A toxicity has only begun to make its appearance in studies.

The GAPS Diet is very high in vitamin A

Most long term GAPS dieters are creating vitamin A overload in their bodies.

From personal experience, now that my eyes are open, it’s hard to ever look at a red bell pepper, kale or winter squash in the same way again — not to mention liver and cod liver oil!

The GAPS diet gave me vitamin A toxicity, through eating foods and supplements extremely high in this compound, in much greater proportions than is natural for humans.

We need to stop force-feeding ourselves “super foods”. This is not an Ancestral way of eating. We need to enjoy tried and true real foods the way nature is designed: in season, in balance.

Foods and supplements encouraged on the GAPS Diet are very high in vitamin A.

Just a few symptoms of vitamin A toxicity

Vitamin A toxicity: While the liver gets sicker (the liver holds toxins, including vitamin A, until they can be detoxed safely) and bile ducts function less well (get clogged), symptoms may also present in the kidneys, skin, eyes and even mood (and more)!

Been on the GAPS diet and don’t feel awesome emotionally? It’s no wonder.

I’ve now spent five years detoxing vitamin A, and I feel great, with almost all of my health issues resolved.

If GAPS made my health issues worse, a low vitamin A diet continues to make them all better!

It makes me so sad to see families increasing retinol foods, in babies and children especially, to try and improve their symptoms, when these foods are really making them sicker.

It is encouraging that word is beginning to get out on the dangers of vitamin A.

The GAPS diet recommends too much fat

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is now a major health risk for over 100 million Americans. But, if you’re part of most Ancestral food communities, especially the GAPS community, you’ll be told to eat more fat.

I believed it for years, and I ate loads of butter, lard, schmaltz, as well as cod liver oil, only to end up with a very sick liver.

In fact, high fat diets lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). (So does high vitamin A consumption.)

GAPS’ high fat diet, ironically, is also bad for one’s gut microbiome.

Why We Stopped the GAPS Diet: High fat, low carb combo

Short term improvements give way to long term damage

As this study elucidates, short term benefits of a low carb diet could include weight loss and reduced triglycerides, but … long term: Fatty liver and glucose intolerance result.

Regarding the latter, I was diagnosed with pre-hypoglycemia on GAPS — a warning to prevent type 2 diabetes. While it might seem strange to struggle with one’s blood sugar levels while thin and on GAPS, this is exactly one result of a high fat diet.

A high fat diet causes insulin resistance.

Impaired digestion

A diet high in protein and fats requires optimum digestive mechanisms. Mine were impaired, and GAPS did not improve them.

This meant I was tied to digestive enzymes, bitters or similar in order to avoid stomach aches. My digestion never improved while on the GAPS diet.

It wasn’t until I started the Vitamin A Detox diet that my digestion improved. Now I no longer need digestive support.

The testing for food sensitivities doesn’t work

Reintroduction stages and the “dot on the wrist” method don’t work in many cases.

It turned out that my oldest daughter had a major food intolerance to dairy that was literally THE cause of her asthma.

No food sensitivity diagnosis method of GAPS showed us she couldn’t have dairy, so she kept eating cultured dairy.

Finally, we found an amazing naturopathic doctor who diagnosed her in a unique way (story here). Her asthma went away quickly once we removed dairy.

Nothing about the GAPS protocol helped her asthma.

The GAPS diet does not come with enough warnings

I appreciate that over the years, the GAPS protocol has changed in certain ways, as Dr. Natasha and her practitioners have learned more of the nuances that apply to their patients.

For example, the diet now includes insights on oxalates, heavy metals, Lyme disease and the nervous system.

However, the diet is still too confident in itself and does not realize the dangers it causes to many patients.

The reality: GAPS combines a few helpful truths with many falsehoods based in limited science.

A dangerous diet and form of blindness — because it’s making many people sicker.

The GAPS diet is creating studies for its own advancement

Instead of sharing with readers the limitations of the diet, Dr. Natasha is working hard to establish its benefits in the scientific community.

She writes, ” To establish the GAPS Nutritional Protocol in the professional community, we started publishing scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals showing the effectiveness of this protocol.”

This is the worst approach with science: to use it to prove your point. We need to approach science allowing it to show both sides, and nuances, so we truly better understand physiology. Again, I’m afraid she is blind to only the benefits. And this greatly endangers and hurts many people’s health.

Dr. Natasha created a whole book of testimonies. Efforts would be better spent sharing who the diet isn’t working for and why.

Is GAPS a mini cult

I started the GAPS diet before the book on physiology was published. We just had one book, and it did not tell you when to stop. There was no such thing as a Pause button, or a Totally Change Course button.

It was like: Go until you’re healed.

So I went for six years! Oh my.

Unfortunately, many families have had a similar problem: Guilt and confusion about how to stop if it’s not working. The message in the books is to keep going, that things will get better, if you just do more steps and persevere.

There is a Shift button: You can switch to the no-veggies version of the diet. But this plan still includes dairy kefir and ferments, both of which can be problematic.

I had so many food sensitivities, even after years on the diet, I didn’t know where else to go.

Now I know this was one of many indicators that I was on the wrong path (completely).

GAPS needs to provide an honest route out, for those who do not find what they need. But no road out or alternative is provided for those who are still sick.

I understand that GAPS practitioners don’t often know of another method that’s better than what they consider Traditional (to ancient cultures).

No, GAPS isn’t a cult … but one often feels there is: No way out!

The best alternative to the GAPS diet

Actually, the best alternative to the GAPS diet is a more Ancestral diet than the GAPS or WAPF community report. Turns out, cultures that load up on organ meat and tons of veggies don’t live longer healthier lives.

A true Ancestral diet focused on wild game, in season produce and complex carbohydrates. The Bible gives an excellent example of the healthiest foods:

• vegetables that are mostly low in vitamin A: beans and lentils, onions and leeks (limit these because of sulfur if you have health issues), summer squash (peeled), melons, cucumbers (peeled)
• fruits like grapes and figs
• barley, sourdough, oats

The Bible also tells us which foods to avoid: They were burnt on the altar, not to be consumed:

• Organ meat: “Then take all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar.” (Exodus 29:13)
• Fat and blood: “This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.”(Leviticus 3:17)
• Shellfish: High in copper (a heavy metal) and other toxins. (Leviticus 11:10-12)
• Pork: Now linked in multiple studies with multiple sclerosis (MS) and liver cancer. “And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.” (Leviticus 11:7)

Dramatic recovery

If you need wellness restored to your body, there is no better diet than a low vitamin A diet, which also includes several other key emphases, like low copper. Learn more here, or see my doctor’s website and network here. (I do not benefit in any way if you join this wonderful community, but I will be VERY happy for you!)

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