Then they are "enriched" with preserva-tives, pesticides to keep the insects away, chemical substances to prevent it 
absorbing moisture, colour and flavour improvers, softeners, just to men­
tion a few. Then the bakerymakes breads, pastries, cakes, biscuits, etc., out 
of these chemical cocktails for us to eat. The producer is quite happy to 
take the gluten out of these mixtures and make gluten-free products. So, 
you will get all the processed carbohydrate with all the chemical additives 
in it, but this time without gluten. Once swallowed, a piece of white bread 
turns into a glue-like mass, which feeds parasites and pathogenic bacteria 
and fungi in the gut, contributing to the general toxic overload a GAPS 
patient already has got Being a staple in the western world, wheat is also a 
number one cause of food allergies and intolerances. Sugar and anything made with it 
Sugar was once called a "white death" It deserves 100% of this tide. The 
consumption of sugar in the world has grown to enormous proportions in 
the last century It is estimated that an average western person consumes 
about 160-200 lb. of this highly processed substance per year. Sugar is 
everywhere and it is hard to find any processed food without it Apart from 
causing the blood-glucose roller coaster and having a detrimental effect on 
the gut flora, it has been shown to have a direct damaging effect on the 
immune system, which is already compromised in GAPS patients. On top 
of that, to deal with the sugar onslaught, the body has to use available min­
erals, vitamins and enzymes at an alarming rate, finishing up being 
depleted of these vital substances. For example, to metabolise only one 
molecule of sugar the body requires around 56 molecules of magnesium. Consumption of sugar is a major reason for widespread magnesium defi­
ciency in our modern society leading to high blood pressure, neurological, 
immune and many other problems. A GAPS patient is already deficient in 
magnesium and many other vital nutrients and should not have sugar in 
any form. Cakes, sweets, and other confectioneries are made with sugar 
and wheat, as the main ingredients, plus lots of chemicals like colours, 
preservatives, flavourings, etc. It goes without saying that they should be 
out of the diet (with or without gluten). Soft drinks are a major source of sugar in our modern diets, not to men­
tion all the chemical additives. A can of soda can contain from 5 to 10 tea­
spoons of sugar. Fruit juices are full of processed fruit sugars and moulds. Unless freshly pressed, they should not be in your diet either. Aspartame, a 
sugar replacement in so-called "diet" drinks, has been found to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic and most definitely should be avoided by 
GAPS children and adults. Sugar and wheat are so insidious that it can be very hard to find any 
processed food on the supermarket shelves without sugar and wheat. To summarise, any GAPS patient, be it autistic, schizophrenic, hyper­
active, dyslexic, asthmatic, etc., should have no processed foods at all in 
his/her diet. All foods should be bought fresh, as close to the way Nature 
made them as possible, and prepared at home. A digestive tract is a long 
tube. What you fill that tube with has a direct effect on its well being. A 
GAPS digestive system is damaged and very sensitive. You cannot trust any 
food manufacturer to fill it in. You have to fill your GAPS child's (or GAPS 
adult's in your care) digestive system yourself by freshly cooked nourishing 
food, where you are in control and in charge of what the exact ingredients 
are and how they are processed. No Soya, please! Soya is a very big business, particularly in the USA. A large percent of the 
industry uses genetically modified soya. Soya is cheap to produce and fol­
lowing some research showing that it can be beneficial for menopausal 
women, the whole market has exploded with soya products. It can be 
found in many processed foods, margarines, salad dressings and sauces, 
breads, biscuits, pizza, baby food, children's snacks, sweets, cakes, vege­
tarian products, dairy replacements, infant milk formulas, etc. Is there a 
problem with that? Let us have a look at some facts. 1. The benefits to menopausal women, seen in Japan and other eastern 
cultures are due to the form in which soy is traditionally used: as a 
whole bean or fermented as a soy sauce, tofu, miso and tempeh. The 
form in which soya is used in the west is called soy protein isolate . How is it made? After removing the fibre with an alkaline solution the 
soybeans are put into large aluminium tanks with an acid wash. Acid 
makes the soybeans to absorb aluminium, which will remain in the 
end product. Aluminium has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer's 
disease and indeed there has been a lot of publicity recently linking 
soy consumption with these mental disorders. After the aluminium-
acid wash the beans are treated with many other chemicals including 
nitrates, which have been implicated in cancer development. The end 
product is an almost tasteless powder, easy to use and add to any food. Up to 60% of processed foods including soya milk and soya infant 
formulas contain this powder. 2. Soya is a natural goitrogen. What does it mean? It means that soya has 
an ability to impair iodine absorption and reduce thyroid function. Due to various toxins found in GAPS patients they are, almost without 
exception, hypothyroid, which means that their thyroid function is 
already impaired. Low thyroid function has very serious implications 
for a growing child, including abnormalities in brain development 
and maturation. Having soya in the diet will reduce the child's thyroid 
function even further. 3. Soya beans have a very high concentration of phytates, These are sub­
stances, found in all grains as well, particularly in their bran. Phytates 
have a great ability to bind to minerals and not allow them to be 
absorbed, particularly calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. We already 
know that GAPS children and adults are deficient in these vital min­
erals. Adding soy to their diet would make these deficiencies even 
worse. 4. Great Plains Laboratory, which have performed allergy testing on a 
large number of autistic children, found that almost every child had 
extremely high allergies to soy. Based on their experience the head of 
the laboratory Dr W. Shaw directly advises against the use of soy in 
autistic children. 5. Soy has gained its popularity as a treatment for menopause because it 
contains natural oestrogens or phytoestogens. These substances may 
be useful for menopausal women, but not for small children. There is 
a growing concern among health professionals on the amount of phy­
toestogens infants and small children might be getting from soya milk 
and infant formulas. Again, due to toxicity in their bodies the whole 
hormonal balance is already upset in GAPS children. Adding another 
interference in the form of phytoestogens does not seem like a good 
idea. What about soy in the natural traditional form as a soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, 
etc.? It is very common among people with Candida overgrowth to be aller­
gic to fermented foods. Traditional soy products are fermented. So, 
whichever way you look at soya it is best to be avoided by GAPS patients. A letter from a parent (23 November 2003) 
Walker was 3V 2 years old [when he] was diagnosed with moderate-severe autism and 
dyspraxia. He was non-verbal and the specialists were telling us that he may never speak. We followed the advice of researchers and put him on a strict gluten/casein (gf/cf) free 
diet. We did have success with this, but felt there was more that could be done. It wasn't 
until I consulted with you about a nutritional plan for Walker that I realised we had a long 
way to go in terms of eating healthy and healing Walker's gut! The ironic thing was that 
we always considered ourfamily as being relatively health-conscious. Upon analysing our 
diet, I quickly realised that we had fallen into the trap of eating nothing but processed, 
chemically-treated, convenience food. We began to follow your advice by eating foods in 
their natural, raw state and saw almost immediate changes in Walker. Within a few 
weeks, Walker spoke his first sentence and the rest is history! The nutritional advice you gave us was invaluable to Walker's recovery. I use the word "recovery" here because as of today, my son (who is now 5 years old) 
is attending mainstream school and has many friends. In fact, he's a social butterfly! He 
is learning at a normal rate and his autism and dyspraxia are almost undetectable!! Anyone who knew Walker 2 years ago cannot believe the "transformation" which has 
taken place. How could a boy who was completely emotionless and cut off from the 
world be the same boy he is today? It's just amazing. When I talk to people about "diet and nutrition" today, they don't quite understand 
how food can affect a person in that way. After all, it is quite difficult for someone who 
hasn't seen what we've seen to fully comprehend his miracle in its entirety! Although there are many books written on special diets for children with autism, ADD, 
ADHD, etc., (and I've read them all) I haven't come across one that is similar to the nutri­
tional advice you suggested for Walker. In fact, I've found many of these books suggest­
ing foods that I know would actually cause Walker great harm. The older research that 
specifically talks about a strict gf/cf diet is just the tip of the iceberg ... there is much 
more to this story! I get very frustrated when I see many families following this advice 
and buying "processed" gf/cf products that contain many other harmful ingredients. These are often the same parents who are elated to discover that Diet Coke and potato 
crisps are gf/cf and go out and buy them in bulk!! Ugh! Holly Branch, mother of Walker 
Surrey, UK 2. THE APPROPRIATE 
DIET FOR GAP SYNDROME 
We have concentrated on some diet aspects in the previous chapter. Now, 
let us discuss, what is the right diet for GAPS people. GAP Syndrome essentially is a digestive disorder and should be treated 
as such. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to designing 
a diet for digestive disorders. There is a diet already invented, a very effec­
tive diet with a more than 6o-year excellent record of helping people with 
all sorts of digestive disorders, including such devastating ones as Crohn's 
disease and ulcerative colitis. This diet is called Specific Carbohydrate Diet 
or SCD for short. SCD was invented by a renowned American paediatrician Dr Sidney 
Valentine Haas in the first half of the 20th century. Those were the good old 
days, when doctors used to treat their patients with diet and natural 
methods. Carrying on with the work of his colleagues Drs L. Emmett Holt, 
Cristian Herter and John Howland, Dr Haas has spent many years 
researching the effects of diet on celiac disease and other digestive disor­
ders. He and his colleagues found that patients with digestive disorders 
could tolerate dietary proteins and fats fairly well But complex carbohy­
drates from grains and starchy vegetables made the problem worse. Sugar, 
lactose and other double sugars also had to be excluded from the diet. However, certain fruit and vegetables were not only well tolerated by his 
patients, but improved their physical status. Dr Haas treated over 600 
patients with excellent results - after following his dietary regimen for at 
least a year there was "complete recovery with no relapses, no deaths, no 
crisis, no pulmonary involvement and no stunting of growth". The results 
of this research were published in a comprehensive medical textbook The 
Management of Celiac Disease, written by Dr Sidney V Haas and Merrill P. 
Haas in 1951. The diet, described in the book, was accepted by the medical 
community all over the world as a cure for celiac disease and Dr Sidney V 
Haas was honoured for his pioneer work in the field of paediatrics. Unfortunately, "happy end" does not happen in human history too 
often. In those days celiac disease was not very clearly defined. A great 
number of various inflammatory conditions of the gut were included in the diagnosis of celiac disease and all those conditions were treatable by the 
SCD very effectively. In the decades that followed something terrible hap­
pened. Celiac disease was eventually defined as a gluten intolerance or 
gluten enteropathy which excluded a great number of various other gut 
problems from this diagnosis. As the "gluten-free diet" was pronounced to 
be effective for celiac disease, the SCD diet got forgotten as outdated infor­
mation. And all those other inflammatory gut conditions, which fell out of 
the sphere of true celiac disease, got forgotten as well. The true celiac dis­
ease is very rare, so the "forgotten" gut conditions would constitute a very 
large group of patients, which used to be diagnosed as celiac and which do 
not respond to treatment with the gluten-free diet. Incidentally, a lot of 
"true" celiac patients do not get better on the gluten-free diet either. All 
these conditions respond very well to the SCD diet, developed by Dr Haas. GAP Syndrome would fall into this group. Following the whole controversy about celiac disease, the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet would have been completely forgotten if it wasn't for, 
you guessed it, a parent! Elaine Gottschall, desperate to help her little daughter, who suffered 
from severe ulcerative colitis and neurological problems, went to see 
Dr Haas in 1958. After two years on SCD her daughter was completely free 
of symptoms, an energetic and thriving little girl. Following the success of 
the SCD with her daughter Elaine Gottschall over the years has helped 
thousands of people, suffering from Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, 
celiac disease, diverticulitis and various types of chronic diarrhoea. But the 
most dramatic and fast recoveries she has reported in young children who, 
apart from digestive problems, had serious behavioural abnormalities, 
such as autism, hyperactivity and night terrors. She has devoted years of 
research into the biochemical and biological basis of the diet and has pub­
lished a book, called Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through 
Diet This book has become a true saviour for thousands of children and 
adults across the world and has been reprinted many times. A number of 
web-sites and web-groups have been set up to share SCD recipes and 
experiences. Dr Gottschall is in her eighties now, still very active and help­
ing many people around the world with the implementation of the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet. For the full details on how to implement this diet I 
would highly recommend Elaine Gottschall's book. The diet appropriate for GAPS patients is largely based on the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet. However, there is one issue that has to be taken into 
account - the use of dairy products. What about dairy? The Specific Carbohydrate Diet permits lactose-free dairy products. Lactose 
is a milk sugar with a double molecule. It is present in fresh milk and many 
commercially available dairy products. According to various sources from 
25% to 90% of the planet's population cannot digest lactose due to the lack 
of the lactose digesting enzyme, called lactase. Children and adults with 
GAPS and people with gut problems most certainly cannot digest it and 
have to avoid it. Well-fermented milk products, such as yoghurt, soured 
cream and natural cheeses are largely free of lactose because in the process 
of fermentation the fermenting bacteria consume lactose as their food. However, apart from lactose milk contains other substances which GAPS 
people have to avoid. The most researched substance is the milk protein 
casein. In the previous chapters we have discussed casomorphins - pep­
tides with an opiate structure, which are found in the urine of autistic, 
schizophrenic, depressed and other patients. Casomorphins come from 
misdigestion of milk protein casein. They absorb through the damaged gut 
lining into the bloodstream of the GAPS person, cross the blood-brain bar­
rier and affect the functions of the brain. And indeed when dairy products 
get completely removed from the diet of an autistic child or a 
schizophrenic patient we observe an improvement in the clinical picture, 
sometimes quite dramatic. There is a debate about what particular form of 
casein is the problem. The group of proteins called beta-caseins have 
received most attention. For example, Cade and other researchers have 
shown that in an unhealthy digestive system they convert into beta-
casomorphin-7 which gets taken up by 32 various areas of the brain, many 
of which are responsible for vision, hearing and communication. Another problem with dairy is its great ability at creating allergies and 
intolerances. Real allergy to milk is one of the most common allergies in 
existence, because dairy products have a wide range of antigens (various 
immunoglobulins). According to various research papers it is the main 
reason for infantile colic. Even in breast-fed babies if the mother consumes 
dairy products the child may develop colic due to sensitivity to dairy anti­
gens being passed through the mother's milk. In many cases when the 
breast-feeding mother stops consuming dairy foods the colic in her baby 
goes away. Whether it is lactose or casein or allergies or a combination of factors, 
the clinical experience shows that GAPS children and adults should not 
consume dairy products until their digestive system is well enough to handle them. The only exception is for the milk fat, which contains virtu­
ally no milk proteins or lactose and is generally well tolerated. Pure milk fat 
is called ghee or clarified butter. It is easy to make at home from butter 
(look in the recipe section). Unfortunately commercially available ghee 
often contains preservatives and other additives. To make sure that your 
ghee is pure it is best to make it at home. Ghee contains a lot of valuable 
nutrients and is excellent for cooking and baking. Some people with severe 
dairy allergy can not tolerate even ghee and have to avoid it. However, in 
my experience the majority of GAPS children and adults have no reaction 
to ghee and can use it in their diet right from the beginning. The good news about dairy products is that for many patients they do 
not have to be out of the diet forever. As the gut lining starts to heal many 
GAPS patients are able to re-introduce other dairy products. The first product to add to their diet is butter. Butter is virtually pure milk 
fat and contains only very small amounts of whey, which at a certain stage in 
the diet the patients can usually handle. Butter should be bought organic, 
because non-organic butter contains a lot of pesticides, hormones and 
antibiotics, which non-organic cows consume. I generally recommend to try 
introducing butter after 6 months on the diet. It is preferable to have unsalted 
butter as a lot of salt products which are used to preserve butter contain flow 
agents and other additives. I would like to emphasise here that butter and 
ghee contain a lot of valuable nutrition for children and adults and should not 
be avoided, unless there is a true allergy. Butter and ghee provide various fatty 
acids with important health giving benefits, vitamins A, D, E, beta-carotene 
and other nutritious substances in an easy to digest form. In about a year gradual introduction of protein containing lactose free 
milk products is possible: yoghurt and cheeses. As the gut flora gets estab­
lished and the digestive system heals many GAPS patients are able to digest 
milk protein without absorbing it in an opiate-like form of casomorphin. However, all patients are different Some are ready for this step in a few 
months, some require much longer. It is critical to proceed very carefully and 
slowly, introducing milk protein containing foods one at a time and starting 
from tiny amounts watching for any reaction. Any signs of regression in a 
child or an adult with GAPS would indicate that he/she is not ready. It may 
be an increase in self-stimulation and worsening of eye-contact, sleep dis­
turbances and increase in anxiety, mood alterations and hyperactivity, 
eczema flare-up or worsening in allergies. Every patient would have symp­
toms typical for him or her. Generally from clinical experience I can say that 
the younger the patient is the sooner he or she is ready for this step. Adults on average take longer than children. In some cases dairy proteins have to be 
avoided indefinitely, particularly in long standing cases of schizophrenia 
and cases complicated by epilepsy, asthma and eczema. The first protein containing milk product that can be introduced is 
home-made yoghurt. Why home-made? Because commercially produced 
yoghurts are often not completely lactose-free due to short fermentation 
time. Yoghurt has to be fermented for 24 hours at least to be completely lac­
tose-free. So initially the only yoghurt which the GAPS child or adult can 
have has to be home-made (look in the recipe section for instructions on 
how to make yoghurt). Apart from consuming lactose the fermenting bac­
teria pre-digest milk proteins, making them easier for our digestive sys­
tems to handle. That is why fermented milk products in general are much 
easier for us humans to digest. There is a question about what is the best milk to use for making yoghurt 
- cow's or goat's. There are some other rare milk products on the market, 
like sheep and deer, which are not researched to any degree yet and are not 
practical to discuss here. Goat's milk is considered to be more digestible by 
humans as it contains less casein and different types of fats and proteins. However, when it comes to beta-casein, which is supposed to be the prob­
lem for autistic and schizophrenic patients, the goat's milk contains more of 
it compared to cow's milk. Unfortunately, there is not much scientific data 
on this subject for us to rely on. However, in a clinical setting patients do 
report that goat's milk is much better tolerated than cow's milk. So, initially 
I recommend making your yoghurt from goat's milk rather than cow's milk. If it is not possible to find goat's milk in your area try to make yoghurt from 
cow's milk, as indeed Elaine Gottschall used to treat her child and thou­
sands of other patients very effectively. A very important point here is to use 
only organic milk, as there is a noticeable difference in the clinical observa­
tions of the effects of non-organic and organic yoghurt. People who react to 
non-organic yoghurt often tolerate an organic one perfectly well, because 
non-organically reared animals have to consume a whole array of chemi­
cals from antibiotics to pesticides, most of which finish up in the milk. It is important to introduce home-made yoghurt gradually, starting from 
one tea spoon a day slowly increasing the daily amount to one or two cups 
a day. It can be added to home-made soups and stews, served as a desert 
with fruit and honey or mixed with fruit smoothies and drinks. You can 
drain it through a cheese cloth to produce cottage cheese. It gives a nice 
variety to the diet. However, I would repeat that the patient's digestive 
system has to be ready for it! So, do not rush with this step! Once the GAPS patient can tolerate home-made yoghurt without any 
problem natural organic cheese can be tried. It has to be said that cheese is 
one of the more difficult dairy products to introduce as it provides a very 
concentrated milk protein. Cheese is also a great breeding ground for 
yeasts and moulds, which a lot of GAPS people can not tolerate. Some 
GAPS patients find that they can have home-made yoghurt without any 
problem but can never have cheese. However, in the majority of cases, pro­
viding that their digestive system had a good chance to heal, the GAPS chil­
dren and adults can enjoy a good variety of natural cheeses, like cheddar, 
dry curd cheese and others (for a full list look at the end of this chapter). As 
with yoghurt introduce cheeses one at a time, starting from a very small 
amount (no more than one mouthful) and watching the patient's reaction. In a few months after safely introducing cheese many patients find that 
their digestive system is in a good enough state to handle commercially 
produced live natural yoghurt (with no additives), soured cream and 
cr&me fresh. At the end of the second year on the diet, fresh cream can be 
added to the list. How to introduce dairy products - the summary 
Stepi,  Only home-made ghee is allowed. This stage lasts on average six 
months. If your GAPS patient can not tolerate ghee, you may find that 
this patient will never tolerate any dairy product. However, it is worth 
leaving it out for six months and then trying again to introduce it. Step  2. Organic butter can be added gradually. Watch for any reactions. Step  3. Home-made yoghurt can be introduced, starting from one tea 
spoon a day and gradually increasing the daily amount. If there is any 
negative reaction, wait for a month then try again. The majority of GAPS 
patients are ready for this step at the end of the first year on the diet. Step  4. Try a mouthful of organic cheddar cheese with a meal. Watch for 
any negative reaction for three to five days, as the reaction may be 
delayed. If there is no negative reaction, gradually increase the amount. Once the cheddar cheese is well tolerated, try to introduce another 
natural cheese (for a full list of allowed cheeses look at the end of the 
chapter). Introduce this step only after home-made yoghurt is well 
tolerated. Step  5. Try some commercially available live natural yoghurt, soured 
cream and creme fraiche. Do not rush with this step. The majority of 
GAPS people are ready for this step by the end of two years on the diet. After two years on the diet a lot of GAPS people find that on an occasional  
basis  they can have any natural dairy product without any apparent prob­
lems, including milk, cream and cheeses off the allowed list. However, I 
recommend limiting these products to only occasional use and staying 
safe with those milk products which are allowed on the diet. So, what is for dinner? In the previous chapter we have talked in detail about the kind of carbohy­
drates or sugars allowed on the diet: mono-sugars. They are found in fruit 
and non-starch vegetables. All complex carbohydrates, those found in 
grains and starchy vegetables have to be rigorously excluded from the diet. I cannot over-emphasise how important it is to make sure that not even a 
speck of anything made from sugar, grains or starchy vegetables sneaks 
into the menu. This is the point when I usually see the panic on the parent's 
faces, particularly parents who went through all the pain of implementing 
the GFCF diet. No rice! No biscuits! No cakes! No pasta! No bread! Even 
gluten free! No chips! No crisps! No popcorn! No ice-cream! No sweets! But 
that is all my child would eat! My child is going to starve! Indeed GAPS children and adults usually limit their diets to processed 
carbohydrates, which they crave due to their abnormal gut flora. So, the 
important thing is to find replacements for all those foods, which are com­
patible with the diet The fact that the GAPS people can not have grains and 
sugar does not mean that they have to be deprived of breads, cakes, bis­
cuits, crackers, pancakes, waffles and muffins. This diet provides you with 
excellent and very nourishing recipes, where you will replace wheat flour 
with ground nuts or nut flour (the same thing) and instead of sugar you will 
use unprocessed natural honey and dried fruit. In the recipe section you 
will find a number of different delicious recipes. Elaine GottschalFs book 
will provide you with many more wonderful recipes, and if you have access 
to the Internet, you will find even more on: www.scdiet.org 
www.breakingtheviciouscycle.com 
www.geocities.com 
www.pecanbread.com 
www.uclbs.org 
Far from starving, your child will be receiving a most nourishing diet. Let's just have a look at what our GAPS person is going to eat. Recommended foods 
For a full alphabetic list of recommended foods and foods to avoid please 
look at the end of this chapter. Meats and fish 
All fresh or frozen meats, game, organ meats, poultry, fish and shellfish. Meats and fish are an excellent source of nutrition. Contrary to popular 
belief it is the meats and fish and other animal products that have the high­
est contents of vitamins, amino acids, nourishing fats, many minerals and 
other nutrients which we humans need on a daily basis. All this nutrition in 
meats and fish also comes in the most digestible form for us humans. I find 
it deceptive to see some vitamin tables in some books on nutrition show­
ing that grains provide all our vitamins. First of all the form in which grains 
contain these vitamins is difficult for us to digest. Secondly if you compare 
the amounts of vitamins in meat, fish or other animal products with grains 
it is the animal products which are at the top of the list. Let us just have a 
look at some of them. Vitamin Bi (thiamin): the richest sources are pork, liver, heart and 
kidneys. Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): the richest sources are eggs, meat, milk, poultry 
and fish. Vitamin B3 (niacin): the richest sources are meat and poultry. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): the richest sources are meats and liver. Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine): the richest sources are meat, poultry, fish and 
eggs. Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin): the richest sources are meat, poultry, 
fish, eggs and milk. Biotin: the richest sources are liver and egg yolks. Vitamin A: the richest sources are liver, fish, egg yolks and butter. Vitamin D: the richest sources are fish liver oils, eggs and fish. The three well-researched vitamins which meats and fish do not have 
are vitamin C, folic acid and vitamin K. These three have to come from veg­
etables and fruit. Fruit, apart from avocado, generally interferes with the 
digestion of meats and should be eaten between meals. Vegetables how­
ever combine with meats and fish very well and would provide the missing 
nutrients. There is another important reason for eating meats and fish with 
vegetables, which is the way we metabolise food. After digesting and utilising meats and fish our body tissues accumulate acids. After digesting 
most vegetables our body becomes alkaline. By combining the meats and 
vegetables in one meal we balance the acidity in the body, which is impor­
tant because both too acid and too alkaline states are not very healthy. Raw 
vegetables have stronger alkalising ability than cooked. However, make 
sure that your patient's digestive system is ready for raw vegetables before 
introducing them. The majority of GAPS patients are anaemic. It is essential for people with 
anaemia to have red meats on a regular basis (lamb, beef, game and organ 
meats in particular) because these foods are the best remedy for anaemia. They not only provide iron in the haem-form: the form which the human 
bodies absorbs best, they also provide the B vitamins and other nutrients 
essential for treating anaemia. Meats also promote better absorption of 
non-haem iron from vegetables and fruit while vitamin C from vegetables 
and greens promote absorption of iron from meat. Large epidemiological 
studies show that eating red meat is associated with much lower incidence 
of iron deficiency in different countries of the world. An absolute resuscitation for an anaemic person is eating liver. Liver is a 
true powerhouse of nutrition. Whichever nutrient you take, you will find it 
in abundance in liver, including all the nutrients which GAPS people are 
deficient in. Making sure that your GAPS patient eats some liver on a regu­
lar basis will do immeasurably more for his or her nutritional status than 
the best and the most expensive supplements in the world. An anaemic 
person should eat liver and other organ meats once a week at least. A child 
needs a small amount: one to two tablespoons of cooked ground liver 
every other day, which can be mixed with any meat dish or a full liver meal 
once a week. For some ideas on how to cook liver look in the recipe section. Make sure that you buy meats and fish fresh or frozen, but not pre­
served, as preserved meats and fish will have a lot of additives (E-numbers, 
preservatives, starches, sugar, too much salt, lactose and other ingredients) 
which will not allow the digestive system heal. Hams, bacon, delicatessen 
meats and all commercially available sausages are preserved meats and 
should be avoided. Sausages are a popular food, which children in particu­
lar like. I recommend finding a local butcher, who makes his own sausages 
and ask him to produce pure meat sausages for you. The only ingredients 
in these sausages should be full fat mincemeat, salt and pepper. If you wish 
to add some fresh garlic, onion or fresh herbs to the mince, that is fine. It is 
important to specifically emphasise that no commercial seasoning or 
sausage mix should be added. Most commercial seasonings for sausages contain a flavour enhancer MSG (mono-sodium glutamate) which GAPS 
people must not consume. Meat and fish stock is a wonderful nutritional and digestive remedy. As 
you cook meats and fish in water a lot of nutrients from the meats get 
extracted into the water. Use these meat stocks for making soups, stews 
and simply as a warming therapeutic drink with and between meals. In the 
recipe section you will find detailed instructions on how to make meat and 
fish stocks. It goes without saying that all commercially available stock 
granules and cubes are to be avoided. They do not possess any of the heal­
ing properties of a home-made meat stock and are full of detrimental 
ingredients. Meats cooked in water are easier to digest for a person with a 
sensitive digestive system. Eggs are one the most nourishing and easy to digest foods on this planet. Raw egg yolk has been compared with human breast milk as it absorbs 
almost 100% without needing digestion. Egg yolks will provide you with 
most essential amino acids, many vitamins (Bi, B2, B6, B12, A, D, biotin), 
essential fatty acids, a lot of zinc, magnesium and many other nutrients, 
which GAPS children and adults are deficient in. Eggs are particularly rich 
in Vitamin B12 vital for normal development of the nervous system and 
immunity. The large majority of GAPS patients are deficient in B12 and 
hence anaemic. Egg yolks are very rich in cholin - an amino acid essential for the nervous 
system and the liver to function. Cholin is a building block of a neurotrans­
mitter called acethylcholin, which the brain uses for cognitive or learning 
processes and memory amongst its many functions. Cholin supplementa­
tion is recommended for people with neurological damage, memory loss 
and poor learning ability. Cholin is also prescribed to people with liver 
problems. GAPS patients almost invariably have cognitive problems and 
an over-stressed liver and benefit from extra cholin in their diet. Egg yolks, 
particularly uncooked, would provide the best food source of cholin. It is sad that based on some faulty "science" and commercial publicity 
eggs have been made unpopular despite their wonderful nutritional value. This happened because eggs contain cholesterol. In the last decade there 
has been a number of clinical studies confirming that consuming eggs has 
nothing to do with heart disease or atherosclerosis. In fact people who con­
sume eggs show lower risk of these health problems. The majority of people do not know that 85% of blood cholesterol does not come from food 
but is produced by the liver in response to consumption of processed 
carbohydrates and sugar. So, these are the foods to avoid in order to 
protect your heart, not the eggs. I suggest getting your eggs from a source you trust. Free-range organic 
eggs are the best because the hens have much better nutrition, are not fed 
antibiotics and agricultural chemicals and are exposed to sun and fresh air. Free-range organic eggs are also better from another important point of 
view - the concern about Salmonella. According to the National Egg 
Marketing Board around one in 7000 eggs may harbour Salmonella. These 
are the numbers for battery eggs laid by hens in cages. Salmonella-infected 
egg comes from an infected hen. Free-range organically reared hens are 
much less likely to have Salmonella, as they possess much healthier 
immune systems. Raw egg yolks are more nourishing than cooked. However, if you feel unsure about raw egg yolks, then cook the eggs 
whichever way you prefer. Salmonella gets destroyed when eggs are 
cooked thoroughly. Egg whites are usually cooked well, simply because most of us don't like 
the taste of raw whites. Though one case of biotin deficiency was described 
in the literature where a person lived on a self-fashioned diet of raw egg 
whites, there is no conclusive evidence as to why we should not eat them 
raw as well. However, when it comes to egg allergy whites are usually the 
part of the egg which the majority of sufferers react to, because the whites 
contain very complex proteins and antigens. Egg yolks contain single 
amino acids, which virtually do not need digestion. That is why a lot of 
people with egg allergy can tolerate the egg yolks if carefully separated 
from the whites. If a GAPS child or adult has a true allergy to eggs and must avoid them, 
you will find a lot of delicious egg-free recipes in the recipe section of the 
book. If there is no allergy eggs should be a regular part of your GAPS 
patient's diet. Non-starch fresh vegetables 
French artichoke, beets, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, 
cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, celery, marrow, courgette (zucchini), 
aubergine (eggplant), garlic, onions, kale, lettuce, mushrooms, parsley 
green peas, peppers of all colours, pumpkin, squash, spinach, tomatoes, 
turnips, watercress. Frozen vegetables can be used, as long as they are not coated with 
starch, sugar or anything else. All vegetables should be peeled, de-seeded 
and cooked until diarrhoea has completely cleared. After that raw vege­
tables can be slowly introduced with meals or as snacks. There is a plethora of publications on the virtues of eating vegetables, so 
we will not concentrate on this subject here. However, one point is impor­
tant: organic vegetables are better than non-organic. I had patients who 
were getting persistent diarrhoea from eating particular vegetables until 
they switched to organic ones. A GAPS patient's sensitive digestive system 
would undoubtedly react to pesticides and other chemicals in non-organic 
vegetables. All fruit, including berries 
Fruit can be fresh, cooked or raw, dried (no sorbates, no sulphites, sugar, 
starch or anything else added), and frozen (providing there is nothing 
added to the fruit). If the patient has diarrhoea, avoid fruit initially. As the 
diarrhoea settles, start introducing cooked fruit (peeled and de-seeded 
prior to cooking). When the stool becomes consistently normal then you 
can slowly introduce raw fruit as a snack between meals. It is not a good 
idea to have raw fruit with the meals as the fruit may interfere with the 
digestion of meats. Fruit should be ripe as unripe fruit has too much starch. For example, 
bananas have to have brown spots on their skins. Avocado is a wonderfully nutritious fruit and the only fruit which com­
bines with meats well. It is easy to digest and is particularly rich in nourish­
ing oils. Make sure it is ripe and serve it with meats, fish, shellfish and 
salads. Great drinking smoothies for children can be made with avocado 
(lookin the recipe section). Berries are wonderful powerhouses of nutrition. They are very rich in 
vitamins, minerals and a whole host of anti-cancer and detoxifying sub­
stances. All sorts of edible berries are allowed on the diet: strawberries, 
blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, black­
berries, elderberries, etc. However, do not give them to a person with diar­
rhoea. When the diarrhoea has cleared completely introduce berries grad­
ually starting from cooking them or baking in pies and muffins. If cooked 
berries are well tolerated then go ahead with raw berries. In some cases 
when the digestive tract is too sensitive you have to remove the seeds by 
putting your cooked berries through a sieve. Nuts and seeds 
Walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, chestnuts, 
peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds. Nuts and 
seeds should be bought in their shells or freshly shelled. They should not 
be roasted, salted, coated or processed in any other way. Peanut butter 
with just peanuts and salt is allowed providing the person is not allergic to 
peanuts. A lot of peanut allergy is due to contamination with moulds and 
their toxins, so make sure to get good quality peanuts. Blanched ground 
almonds (nut flour) can be purchased for baking in health food shops. Nuts and seeds are highly nourishing. They are very rich sources of some 
vital minerals, amino acids and fats: magnesium, selenium, zinc, omega-6 
and omega-3 oils. Epidemiological studies show that people who regularly 
consume nuts and seeds have lower rates of heard disease, cancer and 
many other degenerative diseases. This diet uses nuts and seeds extensively. However, they are fibrous and 
should not be introduced until the diarrhoea is settled. After the diarrhoea 
is cleared baking with ground nuts can be introduced. When baked 
products with ground nuts (nut flour) are well tolerated then raw nuts can 
be gradually and slowly introduced as snacks between meals. If for any 
reason ground almonds are not well tolerated you can try to bake with 
ground pecans, cashews or walnuts, which you will have to grind yourself. Seeds also should not be used until the diarrhoea has settled. Sunflower 
seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds are best soaked in water for about 
12 hours or slightly sprouted. This way they are much easier to "digest and 
are more nourishing. Sprinkle your soaked or sprouted seeds on salads and 
ready-made dishes. You can add them to your baking mixtures and grind to 
use as flour. You can use tahini (creamed sesame seeds) and pumpkin seed 
butter in your baking providing they are pure without any additives. Beans and pulses 
Dried white (navy) beans, lima beans (dried and fresh), string beans as well 
as lentils and split peas. Apart from the ones mentioned, all other beans are 
too starchy to give to GAPS patients and should be avoided. With dried 
beans, lentils and peas it is very important so soak them in water for at 
least 12 hours, drain and rinse well under running water to remove some 
harmful substances (lectins and some starches) before cooking. Do not use 
commercially available bean flours, as the beans are not usually pre-soaked before grinding them into flour. In cases of nut allergy cooked 
and mashed white (navy) beans can be used instead of nuts in baking. Beans, lentils and peas should be avoided until the diarrhoea has cleared 
completely. Honey 
All natural honey is allowed. Cold-expressed honey is preferable because 
many honey producers heat it in order to speed up the process of extrac­
tion from the honeycomb, which damages some micro-elements in the 
honey. Try to buy your honey as unprocessed as possible. Honey is sweeter 
than table sugar and contains two monosaccharides: fructose and glucose, 
which the GAPS digestive system can handle. Use honey as a sweetener. In 
the initial stages of the diet try to limit all sweet things, including honey, 
because they may encourage growth of Candida albicansin the gut. Before the introduction of sugar in the 17th Century honey was the only 
sweetener which humans used in their diet. At the end of the 17th Century 
sugar, being cheaper and more available, replaced honey in people's diet 
starting an era of sugar-related health problems. Honey is far more natural for our bodies and far from damaging health 
has a lot of health-giving properties. It has been used as food and medicine 
for thousands of years. In Greek mythology honey was considered a "food 
fit for the gods". There are dozens of books written about health-giving 
properties of natural honey It works as an antiseptic and provides vita­
mins, minerals, amino acids and many other bio-active substances. Depending on the variety of flowers, which a particular honey has been 
collected from, different flavour and composition of nutrients and bio-
active substances can be found in the honey. Traditionally it has been used 
to treat digestive disorders, chest and throat infections, arthritis, anaemia, 
insomnia, headaches, debility and cancer. It can be applied therapeutically 
to open wounds, eczema patches, skin rashes, skin and mouth ulcers and 
erosions. Beverages 
A GAPS child or adult should drink water, freshly pressed juices and 
meat/fish stock. For an adult weak tea and coffee without milk is allowed. Tea and coffee 
must be freshly made, not instant. A slice of lemon in tea is beneficial. Herbal teas are allowed as long as they are made from fresh single herbs 
and not from commercially available herbal tea bags. Freshly made ginger 
tea is a good digestive. Some milk replacements are allowed; home-made almond milk and 
home-made coconut milk. Please look in the recipe section on how to 
make them. Drinking water is a very healthy habit. Children should be encouraged to 
develop this habit. An adult on average should drink 1.5-2 litres of water a 
day It is not advisable to drink tap water unless it is filtered. Tap water is 
chlorinated and damages the gut flora balance. It is best to drink bottled 
mineral water or filtered water. A GAPS person's day should always start 
with a glass of still mineral or filtered water cold or warm to personal pref­
erence. A slice of lemon in the water is beneficial. The same should be 
drunk between meals. Drinking a lot of water with meals is not advisable, 
as it may interfere with digestion. It is better to drink warm home-made 
meat stock with meals, which stimulates production of digestive juices in 
the stomach. Freshly pressed fruit and vegetable juices are highly recommended. They will speed up the detoxification processes in the body and support 
the liver. You will need to have a good juicer at home to make these juices. A good juicer often comes with a recipe book, but you can experiment with 
your own mixtures and combinations (look in the recipe section). For more 
on juicing look in the chapter Detoxification for people with GAPS, 
Apart from freshly pressed juices I do not recommend any commercially 
available juices for a number of reasons. Commercial juices get pas­
teurised, which destroys a lot of nutrition in the juice and turns it into a 
source of processed sugar. Some commercial juices can be mislabelled by 
not mentioning added preservatives, sweeteners and other substances. Most commercially available juices are prone to having moulds and fungi 
in them, which GAPS people very often react to. It goes without saying that 
all cordials and other soft drinks have to be out of the diet. Alcoholic beverages are best avoided by people with GAP Syndrome as it 
adds more toxicity for the liver to deal with However, on rare occasions a 
small amount of dry wine, gin, Scotch whisky, bourbon and vodka are per­
missible. Beer has to be completely avoided as it has a high content of 
starch. Fats and oils 
All natural fats on meats - lamb, pork, beef, poultry, etc.- are acceptable. These are the best fats to cook with because they do not change their 
chemical structure, when heated. All cooking oils or vegetable oils are full 
of harmful trans-fatty acids and should be avoided. Cooking should be 
done with butter, ghee, pork dripping, beef fat (lard), lamb fat, goose fat, 
duck fat or chicken fat. If you roast a duck collect the fat from the baking 
tray, put it through a sieve or a cheese cloth and you will have a large jar of 
excellent cooking fat. If you roast a goose you will have enough for half a 
year. You can bake with these fats too if you have any concerns about using 
butter and ghee in your baking. If you can find natural non-hydrogenated 
coconut oil, you can use it for cooking and baking. Unfortunately most 
brands of coconut oil available in the west are hydrogenated and best 
avoided. Avoid all commercially available oils apart from vir gin cold pressed  olive 
oil. You should not cook with it as heating will destroy a lot of nutrients and 
change unsaturated fatty acids into trans-fats. Use it as a dressing on your 
ready served meals, salads and vegetables in ample amounts. Other cold-
pressed oils, like flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil, avocado oil, etc., are 
very beneficial but, again, should never be heated. Avoid all artificial fats like margarine and butter replacements. Avoid all 
foods cooked with these fats. For detailed explanation about fats and oils please look at the chapter: 
Fats, the good and the bad, 
A typical menu 
Start the day with a glass of still mineral or filtered water with a slice of 
lemon. It can be warm or cold to personal preference. If you have a juicer 
your patient can start the day with a glass of freshly pressed fruit/vegetable 
juice. A good juice to start the day is 40% apple + 50% carrot +10% beetroot (all 
raw of course). You can make all sorts of juice mixes, but generally try to 
have 50% of therapeutic ingredients: carrot, small amount of beetroot (no 
more than 5% of the juice mixture), celery, cabbage, lettuce, greens 
(spinach, parsley, dill, basil, fresh nettle leaves, beet tops, carrot tops), 
white and red cabbage, and 50% of some tasty ingredients to disguise the 
taste of therapeutic ingredients: pineapple, apple, orange, grapefruit, grapes, mango, etc. Your patient can have these juices straight or diluted 
with water. Every day our bodies go through a 24 hour cycle of activity and rest, feed­
ing and cleaning up (detoxifying). From about 4am till about 10am the 
body is in the cleaning up or detoxification mode. Eating fresh fruit, drink­
ing water and freshly pressed juices will assist in this process. Loading the 
body with food at that time interferes with the detoxification. That is why 
many of us do not feel hungry first thing in the morning. It is better to have 
breakfast around 10am when your body has completed the detox stage and 
is ready for feeding. At that stage we usually start feeling hungry. Children 
maybe ready for their breakfast earlier than adults. Breakfast choices 
• Eggs cooked to personal liking and served with sausages and vegetables, 
some cooked, some fresh as a salad (tomato, cucumber, onions, celery, 
any fresh salad greens, etc.) and/or avocado and/or meat. The yolks are 
best uncooked and the whites - cooked. Use plenty of cold pressed olive 
oil as a dressing on the salad and eggs. Mix a tablespoon of pre-soaked or 
sprouted sunflower and/or sesame and/or pumpkin seeds with the 
salad. Sausages (full fat) should be made of pure minced meat with only 
salt and pepper added. Make sure that there is no commercial seasoning 
or MSG (MonosodiumGlutamate) in the sausages. I recommend finding 
a local butcher, who would make pure meat sausages for you on order. If 
diarrhoea is present then the vegetables should be well cooked and the 
person should not have seeds at this stage. • Avocado with meat, fish or shellfish, vegetables raw and cooked, 
lemon and cold pressed olive oil. Serve a cup of warm meat stock as a 
drink with food. • Pancakes made with ground nuts. These pancakes are delicious with 
some butter and honey, or as a savoury snack. If you blend some fresh 
or defrosted berries with honey, it will make a delicious jam to have 
with pancakes. Weak tea with lemon, ginger tea or mint tea. • Any of the home baked goods: muffins, fruit cake or bread. Lunch 
• Home-made vegetable soup or stew in a home-made meat stock. • Avocado with meat, fish, shellfish and raw or cooked vegetables. Use olive oil with some lemon squeezed over it as a dressing. Serve a cup of 
warm home-made meat stock as a drink. • Any meat/fish dish made with vegetables. Dinner 
One of the dishes from the lunch or breakfast choice. For snacks between meals your patient can have fruit, nuts and home-
baked products. A few words about vegetarianism 
I had a few families where parents are dedicated vegetarians and want 
their children to be vegetarians as well. These cases are the most difficult to 
treat because after eliminating all grains, sugar and starchy vegetables 
from the diet there is not much left to eat. What these parents need to know 
is some statistics: 
1. Vegetarian children are more prone to health problems than children 
who eat meat, particularly to psychomotor impairment. 2. Vegetarians are prone to muscle loss and bone damage. They, on 
average, have lower muscle strength. 3. According to census data vegetarians die younger than people who eat 
meat. From my clinical observations I have yet to meet a healthy vegetarian. In 
the process of evolution we humans have evolved to be omnivores, eating 
everything we can find in the environment: plants, eggs and meats. Our 
physiology is designed to work on these foods. To be healthy and full of 
energy we require a substantial amount of protein every day. GAPS people 
are particularly in need of high-quality proteins from meats, fish and eggs 
because their digestive systems are not in a fit state to handle hard-to-
digest proteins from plants. Imposing vegetarianism on your GAPS child 
will undermine his or her chance of recovery. Vegetarians have every right to follow their beliefs and to make decisions 
about their personal eating habits. But I strongly advise not imposing these 
beliefs on your GAPS child! Get your child healthy and well first through 
using GAPS nutritional protocol! Then allow your child grow and be 
mature enough to make his/her own decision whether to be a vegetarian 
or an omnivore. After all our children have a right to chose for themselves! THE APPROPRIATE DIET FOR GAP SYNDROME 
Recommended foods 
Almonds, including almond butter and oil 
Apples 
Apricots, fresh or dried 
Artichoke, French 
Asiago cheese 
Asparagus 
Aubergine (eggplant) 
Avocados, including avocado oil 
Bananas (ripe only with brown spots on the skin) 
Beans, dried white (navy), string beans and lima beans 
Beef, fresh or frozen 
Beets or beetroot 
Berries, all kinds 
Black, white and red pepper: ground and pepper corns 
Black radish 
Blue cheese 
Bok Choy 
Brazil nuts 
Brick cheese 
Brie cheese 
Broccoli 
Brussels sprouts 
Butter 
Cabbage 
Camembert cheese 
Canned fish in oil or water only 
Capers 
Carrots 
Cashew nuts, fresh only 
Cauliflower 
Cayenne pepper 
Celeriac 
Celery 
Cellulose in supplements 
Cheddar cheese 
Cherimoya (custard apple or sharifa) 
Cherries Chestnuts 
Chicken, fresh or frozen 
Cinnamon 
Citric acid 
Coconut, fresh or dried (shredded) without any additives 
Coconut milk 
Coconut oil 
Coffee, weak and freshly made, not instant 
Collard greens 
Colby cheese 
Courgette 
Coriander, fresh or dried 
Cucumber 
Dates, fresh or dried without any additives (not soaked in syrup) 
Dill, fresh or dried 
Duck, fresh or frozen 
Edam cheese 
Eggplant (aubergine) 
Eggs, fresh 
Filberts 
Fish, fresh or frozen, canned in its juice or oil 
Game, fresh or frozen 
Garlic 
Ghee, home-made 
Gin, occasionally 
Ginger root, fresh 
Goose, fresh or frozen 
Gorgonzola cheese 
Gouda cheese 
Grapefruit 
Grapes 
Havarti cheese 
Hazelnuts 
Herbal teas 
Herbs, fresh or dried without additives 
Honey, natural 
fuices freshly pressed from permitted fruit and vegetables 
Kale 
Kiwi fruit Kumquats 
Lamb, fresh or frozen 
Lemons 
Lentils 
Lettuce, all kinds 
Lima beans (dried and fresh) 
Limburger cheese 
Limes 
Mangoes 
Meats, fresh or frozen 
Melons 
Monterey (lack) cheese 
Muenster cheese 
Mushrooms 
Mustard seeds, pure powder and gourmet types without any non-allowed 
ingredients 
Nectarines 
Nut flour or ground nuts (usually ground blanched almonds) 
Nutmeg 
Nuts, all kinds freshly shelled, not roasted, salted or coated 
Olive oil, virgin cold-pressed 
Olives preserved without sugar or any other non-allowed ingredients 
Onions 
Oranges 
Papayas 
Parmesan cheese 
Parsley 
Peaches 
Peanut butter, without additives 
Peanuts, fresh or roasted in their shells 
Pears 
Peas, dried split and fresh green 
Pecans 
Peppers (green, yellow, red and orange) 
Pheasant, fresh or frozen 
Pickles, without sugar or any other non-allowed ingredients 
Pigeon, fresh or frozen 
Pineapples, fresh 
Pork, fresh or frozen Port du Salut cheese 
Poultry, fresh or frozen 
Prunes, dried without any additives or in their own juice 
Pumpkin 
Quail, fresh or frozen 
Raisins 
Rhubarb 
Roquefort cheese 
Romano cheese 
Satsumas 
Scotch, occasionally 
Shellfish, fresh or frozen 
Spices, single and pure without any additives 
Spinach 
Squash (summer and winter) 
Stilton cheese 
String beans 
Swiss cheese 
Tangerines 
Tea, weak freshly made, not instant 
Tomato puree, pure without any additives apart from salt 
Tomato juice, without any additives apart from salt 
Tomatoes 
Turkey, fresh or frozen 
TUrnips 
Ugly fruit 
Uncreamed cottage cheese (dry curd) 
Vinegar (cider or white); make sure there is no allergy 
Vodka, very occasionally 
Walnuts 
Watercress 
Wine dry: red or white 
Yoghurt, home-made 
Zucchini Foods to avoid 
Acesulphame 
Acidophilus milk 
Agar-agar 
Agave syrup 
Algae 
Aloe Vera 
Amaranth 
Apple juice 
Arrowroot 
Aspartame 
Astragalus 
Baked beans 
Baker's yeast 
Baking power and raising agents of all kind 
Balsamic vinegar 
Barley 
Bean flour and sprouts 
Bee pollen 
Beer 
Bhindior okra 
Bicarbonate of soda 
Bitter Gourd 
Black eye beans 
Bologna 
Bouillon cubes or granules 
Brandy 
Buckwheat 
Bulgur 
Burdock root 
Butter beans 
Buttermilk 
Canellini beans 
Canned vegetables and fruit 
Carob 
Carrageenan 
Cellulose gum 
Cereals, including all breakfast cereals Cheeses, processed and cheese spreads 
Chestnut flour 
Chevre cheese 
Chewing gum 
Chickpeas 
Chickoryroot 
Chocolate 
Cocoa powder 
Coffee, instant and coffee substitutes 
Cooking oils 
Cordials 
Corn 
Cornstarch 
Corn syrup 
Cottage cheese 
Cottonseed 
Cous-cous 
Cream 
Cream of Tartar 
Cream cheese 
Dextrose 
Drinks, soft 
Faba beans 
Feta cheese 
Fish, preserved, smoked, salted, breaded and canned with sauces 
Flour, made out of grains 
FOS (fructooligosaccharides) 
Fructose 
Fruit, canned or preserved 
Garbanzo beans 
Gjetost cheese 
Grains, all 
Gruyere cheese 
Ham 
Hot dogs 
Ice-cream, commercial 
Jams 
Jellies 
Jerusalem artichoke Ketchup, commercially available 
Lactose 
Liqueurs 
Margarines and butter replacements 
Meats, processed, preserved, smoked and salted 
Millet 
Milk from any animal, soy, rice, canned coconut milk 
Milk, dried 
Molasses 
Mozzarella cheese 
Mungbeans 
Neufchatel cheese 
Nutra-sweet (aspartame) 
Nuts, salted, roasted and coated 
Oats 
Okra 
Parsnips 
Pasta, of any kind 
Pectin 
Postum 
Potato white 
Potato sweet 
Primost cheese 
Quinoa 
Rice 
Ricotta cheese 
Rye 
Saccharin 
Sago 
Sausages, commercially available 
Seaweed 
Semolina 
Sherry 
Soda soft drinks 
Sour cream commercial 
Soy 
Spelt 
Starch 
Sugar or sucrose of any kind Tapioca 
Tea, instant 
Triticale 
Turkey loaf 
Vegetables, canned or preserved 
Wheat 
Wheat germ 
Whey, powder or liquid 
Yams 
Yoghurt, commercial 3. RECIPES 
1. Condiments 
Ketchup 
Guacamole 
Mayonnaise 
Salsa 
Aubergine dip 
Basic liver pate 
2. Salads 
Beetroot salad 
Tuna salad 
Salad with cabbage and apple 
Salad with tomatoes and cucumber 
Russian salad 
Carrot salad 
3. Soups 
How to make a meat stock: 
Lamb, pork, beef or game stock 
Chicken stock 
Fish stock 
The basic soup recipe 
A spring nettle soup 
Russian Borsch 
Fish soup 
Meatball soup 
The beautiful winter squash soup 
Meat jelly 4. Fats for cooking 
Ghee 
Goose or duck fat 
Pork, lamb or beef fat 
Coconut oil 
5. Main dishes 
An Italian meat casserole 
Stuffed peppers 
Meatballs 
Meat cutlets 
Fish cutlets 
Swedish Gravlax - the best way to eat fresh salmon 
Baked beans or French Cassoulet 
Casserole with turkey legs 
Liver pudding 
Liver in a clay pot 
Quick liver recipe 
6. Vegetables 
Sauerkraut 
A nice way to cook cabbage 
Quick vegetable risotto 
Cauliflower "potatoes" 
Baked vegetables 
7. Baking at home 
The basic bread/cake/muffin recipe 
Pizza 
8. Desserts 
Baked apples 
Creme-caramel 
Apple crumble 
Apple pie 
Winter squash cake 
Cake Pinocchio 
Peanut butter pie 
Russian custard Birthday cake 
Ice-cream 
Fresh coconut 
Coconut sweets 
9. Egg-free recipes 
Egg-free bread/cake/muffin mixture 
Egg-free banana muffins 
Egg-free Easter Eggs 
Egg-free crackers/biscuits 
Egg-free fruit dessert 
Egg-free apple pie 
Egg-free cookies (biscuits) 
10. Beverages 
Nut/seed milk 
Coconut milk 
Ginger tea 
Freshly pressed juices 
Fruit smoothies 
11. Yoghurt and crfeme fraiche 
You can find many more recipes in Elaine GottschalTs book "Breaking the 
Vicious Cycle" and on the following sites on the Internet: 
www.scdiet.org 
www.breakingtheviciouscycle.com  
www.geocities.com  
www.pecanbread.com  
www.uclbs.org I. Condiments 
Most fresh salads can be dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. When 
home-made yoghurt is well tolerated it can also be used as a salad dressing. Ketchup 
2 cups tomato juice 
2-3 tablespoons white vinegar 
honey to taste 
bay leaf (optional) 
salt and pepper to taste 
Mix all the ingredients except the honey and simmer on the stove until 
thick, stirring often to prevent sticking. When almost the desired thickness, 
add honey to taste and complete cooking. Ladle into sterilised jars and seal 
immediately or place in small containers and freeze. (Recipe courtesy of Elaine Gottschall) 
Guacamole 
2 ripe avocados 
juice ofi orange 
l clove of crushed garlic 
small amount of water 
In the food processor blend together all the ingredients. Reduce the 
amount of garlic, if the guacamole is too hot. Use as a dip for vegetables 
and a spread for home-made bread. Mayonnaise 
i whole egg 
i cup olive oil or slightly more 
i tablespoon white vinegar or fresh lemon juice 
lU teaspoon dry mustard powder 
salt and pepper to taste 
a little honey to taste 
Blend in your food processor for a few seconds: egg, lemon juice (or 
vinegar), mustard, salt, pepper and honey. While the machine is running, add the oil in a fine stream. Do not add oil quickly; it should take at least 60 
seconds. As mayonnaise thickens, the sound of the machine will deepen. Suggestions: 
Use to thicken gravy: add 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise to about 1 cup of 
meat stock and heat gently for about 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Use as a base for tartar sauce by adding lk cup chopped dill pickles 
(unsweetened) and lU cup of chopped onion. Use as mock Hollandaise sauce by adding grated cheddar cheese (if well 
tolerated). Spread over vegetables such as cooked cauliflower or broccoli. Cover and heat in oven. Mix with home-made yoghurt (1 part mayonnaise, 1 part yoghurt) and 
use as salad dressing. (Recipe courtesy of Elaine Gottschall) 
Salsa 
4 medium-size tomatoes 
half a pepper (green, red, orange or yellow) 
1 medium onion (white or red) 
1-3 cloves of garlic 
dill and parsley 
olive oil 
salt and pepper to taste 
Put all ingredients into the food processor and chop coarsely. Can be served 
with meats and vegetables. You can also use it for cookingmeats. To do that 
bring salsa to simmer, add diced meat (beef, pork, lamb or chicken) and 3-4 
tablespoons of butter (or goose/duckfat), cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Aubergine dip 
2 aubergines (eggplants) 
salt 
3 medium-size tomatoes 
3-4 cloves of garlic 
7? cup olive oil 
fresh dill or parsley 
Cut the aubergines into 1 cm-thick slices, rub well with salt and duck fat. Place 
on a baking tray and bake at i5O 0C for 30-40 minutes or until soft. Cool down. In the food processor blend together the baked aubergines, tomatoes, 
garlic, herbs and olive oil. Serve with meats and fish and as a dip with 
vegetables. Basic liver pate 
wog liver 
1 large onion finely chopped 
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped 
Fry the liver, onion and garlic in ghee (butter, goose or duck fat) until well 
cooked through. Blend in a food processor with mayonnaise. To make variations you can add one of the following when blending: 
• l raw tomato 
• 4-5 cooked prunes (unsweetened and without stones) 
• raw garlic 
• greens (dill, parsley, basil) 
• raw onion 
• peeled, cored and grated apple 
2. Salads 
Salads should be served when diarrhoea is no longer present. To increase the nutritional value of your salads it is good to sprinkle 
coarsely chopped walnuts or seeds on top. Seeds: sunflower seeds, pump­
kin and sesame should be soaked in water over night. It makes them more 
nourishing and easier to digest. Beetroot salad 
8 small beetroots 
'Is cup of shelled walnuts 
2 cloves of garlic 
8 dried prunes without stones 
mayonnaise 
7» teaspoon of salt 
Wash the beetroots and cut all tops and ends off.
Gut_and_Psychology_Syndrome.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Then they are "enriched" with preserva-tives, pesticides to keep the insects away, chemical substances to prevent it 
absorbing moisture, colour and flavour improvers, softeners, just to men­
tion a few. Then the bakerymakes breads, pastries, cakes, biscuits, etc. , out 
of these chemical cocktails for us to eat. The producer is quite happy to 
take the gluten out of these mixtures and make gluten-free products. So, 
you will get all the processed carbohydrate with all the chemical additives 
in it, but this time without gluten. Once swallowed, a piece of white bread 
turns into a glue-like mass, which feeds parasites and pathogenic bacteria 
and fungi in the gut, contributing to the general toxic overload a GAPS 
patient already has got Being a staple in the western world, wheat is also a 
number one cause of food allergies and intolerances. Sugar and anything made with it 
Sugar was once called a "white death" It deserves 100% of this tide. The 
consumption of sugar in the world has grown to enormous proportions in 
the last century It is estimated that an average western person consumes 
about 160-200 lb. of this highly processed substance per year. Sugar is 
everywhere and it is hard to find any processed food without it Apart from 
causing the blood-glucose roller coaster and having a detrimental effect on 
the gut flora, it has been shown to have a direct damaging effect on the 
immune system, which is already compromised in GAPS patients. On top 
of that, to deal with the sugar onslaught, the body has to use available min­
erals, vitamins and enzymes at an alarming rate, finishing up being 
depleted of these vital substances. For example, to metabolise only one 
molecule of sugar the body requires around 56 molecules of magnesium. Consumption of sugar is a major reason for widespread magnesium defi­
ciency in our modern society leading to high blood pressure, neurological, 
immune and many other problems. A GAPS patient is already deficient in 
magnesium and many other vital nutrients and should not have sugar in 
any form. Cakes, sweets, and other confectioneries are made with sugar 
and wheat, as the main ingredients, plus lots of chemicals like colours, 
preservatives, flavourings, etc. It goes without saying that they should be 
out of the diet (with or without gluten). Soft drinks are a major source of sugar in our modern diets, not to men­
tion all the chemical additives. A can of soda can contain from 5 to 10 tea­
spoons of sugar. Fruit juices are full of processed fruit sugars and moulds. Unless freshly pressed, they should not be in your diet either. Aspartame, a 
sugar replacement in so-called "diet" drinks, has been found to be carcinogenic and neurotoxic and most definitely should be avoided by 
GAPS children and adults. Sugar and wheat are so insidious that it can be very hard to find any 
processed food on the supermarket shelves without sugar and wheat. To summarise, any GAPS patient, be it autistic, schizophrenic, hyper­
active, dyslexic, asthmatic, etc. , should have no processed foods at all in 
his/her diet. All foods should be bought fresh, as close to the way Nature 
made them as possible, and prepared at home. A digestive tract is a long 
tube. What you fill that tube with has a direct effect on its well being. A 
GAPS digestive system is damaged and very sensitive. You cannot trust any 
food manufacturer to fill it in. You have to fill your GAPS child's (or GAPS 
adult's in your care) digestive system yourself by freshly cooked nourishing 
food, where you are in control and in charge of what the exact ingredients 
are and how they are processed. No Soya, please. Soya is a very big business, particularly in the USA. A large percent of the 
industry uses genetically modified soya. Soya is cheap to produce and fol­
lowing some research showing that it can be beneficial for menopausal 
women, the whole market has exploded with soya products. It can be 
found in many processed foods, margarines, salad dressings and sauces, 
breads, biscuits, pizza, baby food, children's snacks, sweets, cakes, vege­
tarian products, dairy replacements, infant milk formulas, etc. Is there a 
problem with that. Let us have a look at some facts. 1. The benefits to menopausal women, seen in Japan and other eastern 
cultures are due to the form in which soy is traditionally used: as a 
whole bean or fermented as a soy sauce, tofu, miso and tempeh. The 
form in which soya is used in the west is called soy protein isolate. How is it made. After removing the fibre with an alkaline solution the 
soybeans are put into large aluminium tanks with an acid wash. Acid 
makes the soybeans to absorb aluminium, which will remain in the 
end product. Aluminium has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer's 
disease and indeed there has been a lot of publicity recently linking 
soy consumption with these mental disorders. After the aluminium-
acid wash the beans are treated with many other chemicals including 
nitrates, which have been implicated in cancer development. The end 
product is an almost tasteless powder, easy to use and add to any food. Up to 60% of processed foods including soya milk and soya infant 
formulas contain this powder. 2. Soya is a natural goitrogen. What does it mean. It means that soya has 
an ability to impair iodine absorption and reduce thyroid function. Due to various toxins found in GAPS patients they are, almost without 
exception, hypothyroid, which means that their thyroid function is 
already impaired. Low thyroid function has very serious implications 
for a growing child, including abnormalities in brain development 
and maturation. Having soya in the diet will reduce the child's thyroid 
function even further. 3. Soya beans have a very high concentration of phytates, These are sub­
stances, found in all grains as well, particularly in their bran. Phytates 
have a great ability to bind to minerals and not allow them to be 
absorbed, particularly calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. We already 
know that GAPS children and adults are deficient in these vital min­
erals. Adding soy to their diet would make these deficiencies even 
worse. 4. Great Plains Laboratory, which have performed allergy testing on a 
large number of autistic children, found that almost every child had 
extremely high allergies to soy. Based on their experience the head of 
the laboratory Dr W. Shaw directly advises against the use of soy in 
autistic children. 5. Soy has gained its popularity as a treatment for menopause because it 
contains natural oestrogens or phytoestogens. These substances may 
be useful for menopausal women, but not for small children. There is 
a growing concern among health professionals on the amount of phy­
toestogens infants and small children might be getting from soya milk 
and infant formulas. Again, due to toxicity in their bodies the whole 
hormonal balance is already upset in GAPS children. Adding another 
interference in the form of phytoestogens does not seem like a good 
idea. What about soy in the natural traditional form as a soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, 
etc. It is very common among people with Candida overgrowth to be aller­
gic to fermented foods. Traditional soy products are fermented. So, 
whichever way you look at soya it is best to be avoided by GAPS patients. A letter from a parent (23 November 2003) 
Walker was 3V 2 years old [when he] was diagnosed with moderate-severe autism and 
dyspraxia. He was non-verbal and the specialists were telling us that he may never speak. We followed the advice of researchers and put him on a strict gluten/casein (gf/cf) free 
diet. We did have success with this, but felt there was more that could be done. It wasn't 
until I consulted with you about a nutritional plan for Walker that I realised we had a long 
way to go in terms of eating healthy and healing Walker's gut. The ironic thing was that 
we always considered ourfamily as being relatively health-conscious. Upon analysing our 
diet, I quickly realised that we had fallen into the trap of eating nothing but processed, 
chemically-treated, convenience food. We began to follow your advice by eating foods in 
their natural, raw state and saw almost immediate changes in Walker. Within a few 
weeks, Walker spoke his first sentence and the rest is history. The nutritional advice you gave us was invaluable to Walker's recovery. I use the word "recovery" here because as of today, my son (who is now 5 years old) 
is attending mainstream school and has many friends. In fact, he's a social butterfly. He 
is learning at a normal rate and his autism and dyspraxia are almost undetectable. Anyone who knew Walker 2 years ago cannot believe the "transformation" which has 
taken place. How could a boy who was completely emotionless and cut off from the 
world be the same boy he is today. It's just amazing. When I talk to people about "diet and nutrition" today, they don't quite understand 
how food can affect a person in that way. After all, it is quite difficult for someone who 
hasn't seen what we've seen to fully comprehend his miracle in its entirety. Although there are many books written on special diets for children with autism, ADD, 
ADHD, etc. , (and I've read them all) I haven't come across one that is similar to the nutri­
tional advice you suggested for Walker. In fact, I've found many of these books suggest­
ing foods that I know would actually cause Walker great harm. The older research that 
specifically talks about a strict gf/cf diet is just the tip of the iceberg. there is much 
more to this story. I get very frustrated when I see many families following this advice 
and buying "processed" gf/cf products that contain many other harmful ingredients. These are often the same parents who are elated to discover that Diet Coke and potato 
crisps are gf/cf and go out and buy them in bulk. Ugh. Holly Branch, mother of Walker 
Surrey, UK 2. THE APPROPRIATE 
DIET FOR GAP SYNDROME 
We have concentrated on some diet aspects in the previous chapter. Now, 
let us discuss, what is the right diet for GAPS people. GAP Syndrome essentially is a digestive disorder and should be treated 
as such. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to designing 
a diet for digestive disorders. There is a diet already invented, a very effec­
tive diet with a more than 6o-year excellent record of helping people with 
all sorts of digestive disorders, including such devastating ones as Crohn's 
disease and ulcerative colitis. This diet is called Specific Carbohydrate Diet 
or SCD for short. SCD was invented by a renowned American paediatrician Dr Sidney 
Valentine Haas in the first half of the 20th century. Those were the good old 
days, when doctors used to treat their patients with diet and natural 
methods. Carrying on with the work of his colleagues Drs L. Emmett Holt, 
Cristian Herter and John Howland, Dr Haas has spent many years 
researching the effects of diet on celiac disease and other digestive disor­
ders. He and his colleagues found that patients with digestive disorders 
could tolerate dietary proteins and fats fairly well But complex carbohy­
drates from grains and starchy vegetables made the problem worse. Sugar, 
lactose and other double sugars also had to be excluded from the diet. However, certain fruit and vegetables were not only well tolerated by his 
patients, but improved their physical status. Dr Haas treated over 600 
patients with excellent results - after following his dietary regimen for at 
least a year there was "complete recovery with no relapses, no deaths, no 
crisis, no pulmonary involvement and no stunting of growth". The results 
of this research were published in a comprehensive medical textbook The 
Management of Celiac Disease, written by Dr Sidney V Haas and Merrill P. Haas in 1951. The diet, described in the book, was accepted by the medical 
community all over the world as a cure for celiac disease and Dr Sidney V 
Haas was honoured for his pioneer work in the field of paediatrics. Unfortunately, "happy end" does not happen in human history too 
often. In those days celiac disease was not very clearly defined. A great 
number of various inflammatory conditions of the gut were included in the diagnosis of celiac disease and all those conditions were treatable by the 
SCD very effectively. In the decades that followed something terrible hap­
pened. Celiac disease was eventually defined as a gluten intolerance or 
gluten enteropathy which excluded a great number of various other gut 
problems from this diagnosis. As the "gluten-free diet" was pronounced to 
be effective for celiac disease, the SCD diet got forgotten as outdated infor­
mation. And all those other inflammatory gut conditions, which fell out of 
the sphere of true celiac disease, got forgotten as well. The true celiac dis­
ease is very rare, so the "forgotten" gut conditions would constitute a very 
large group of patients, which used to be diagnosed as celiac and which do 
not respond to treatment with the gluten-free diet. Incidentally, a lot of 
"true" celiac patients do not get better on the gluten-free diet either. All 
these conditions respond very well to the SCD diet, developed by Dr Haas. GAP Syndrome would fall into this group. Following the whole controversy about celiac disease, the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet would have been completely forgotten if it wasn't for, 
you guessed it, a parent. Elaine Gottschall, desperate to help her little daughter, who suffered 
from severe ulcerative colitis and neurological problems, went to see 
Dr Haas in 1958. After two years on SCD her daughter was completely free 
of symptoms, an energetic and thriving little girl. Following the success of 
the SCD with her daughter Elaine Gottschall over the years has helped 
thousands of people, suffering from Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, 
celiac disease, diverticulitis and various types of chronic diarrhoea. But the 
most dramatic and fast recoveries she has reported in young children who, 
apart from digestive problems, had serious behavioural abnormalities, 
such as autism, hyperactivity and night terrors. She has devoted years of 
research into the biochemical and biological basis of the diet and has pub­
lished a book, called Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through 
Diet This book has become a true saviour for thousands of children and 
adults across the world and has been reprinted many times. A number of 
web-sites and web-groups have been set up to share SCD recipes and 
experiences. Dr Gottschall is in her eighties now, still very active and help­
ing many people around the world with the implementation of the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet. For the full details on how to implement this diet I 
would highly recommend Elaine Gottschall's book. The diet appropriate for GAPS patients is largely based on the Specific 
Carbohydrate Diet. However, there is one issue that has to be taken into 
account - the use of dairy products. What about dairy. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet permits lactose-free dairy products. Lactose 
is a milk sugar with a double molecule. It is present in fresh milk and many 
commercially available dairy products. According to various sources from 
25% to 90% of the planet's population cannot digest lactose due to the lack 
of the lactose digesting enzyme, called lactase. Children and adults with 
GAPS and people with gut problems most certainly cannot digest it and 
have to avoid it. Well-fermented milk products, such as yoghurt, soured 
cream and natural cheeses are largely free of lactose because in the process 
of fermentation the fermenting bacteria consume lactose as their food. However, apart from lactose milk contains other substances which GAPS 
people have to avoid. The most researched substance is the milk protein 
casein. In the previous chapters we have discussed casomorphins - pep­
tides with an opiate structure, which are found in the urine of autistic, 
schizophrenic, depressed and other patients. Casomorphins come from 
misdigestion of milk protein casein. They absorb through the damaged gut 
lining into the bloodstream of the GAPS person, cross the blood-brain bar­
rier and affect the functions of the brain. And indeed when dairy products 
get completely removed from the diet of an autistic child or a 
schizophrenic patient we observe an improvement in the clinical picture, 
sometimes quite dramatic. There is a debate about what particular form of 
casein is the problem. The group of proteins called beta-caseins have 
received most attention. For example, Cade and other researchers have 
shown that in an unhealthy digestive system they convert into beta-
casomorphin-7 which gets taken up by 32 various areas of the brain, many 
of which are responsible for vision, hearing and communication. Another problem with dairy is its great ability at creating allergies and 
intolerances. Real allergy to milk is one of the most common allergies in 
existence, because dairy products have a wide range of antigens (various 
immunoglobulins). According to various research papers it is the main 
reason for infantile colic. Even in breast-fed babies if the mother consumes 
dairy products the child may develop colic due to sensitivity to dairy anti­
gens being passed through the mother's milk. In many cases when the 
breast-feeding mother stops consuming dairy foods the colic in her baby 
goes away. Whether it is lactose or casein or allergies or a combination of factors, 
the clinical experience shows that GAPS children and adults should not 
consume dairy products until their digestive system is well enough to handle them. The only exception is for the milk fat, which contains virtu­
ally no milk proteins or lactose and is generally well tolerated. Pure milk fat 
is called ghee or clarified butter. It is easy to make at home from butter 
(look in the recipe section). Unfortunately commercially available ghee 
often contains preservatives and other additives. To make sure that your 
ghee is pure it is best to make it at home. Ghee contains a lot of valuable 
nutrients and is excellent for cooking and baking. Some people with severe 
dairy allergy can not tolerate even ghee and have to avoid it. However, in 
my experience the majority of GAPS children and adults have no reaction 
to ghee and can use it in their diet right from the beginning. The good news about dairy products is that for many patients they do 
not have to be out of the diet forever. As the gut lining starts to heal many 
GAPS patients are able to re-introduce other dairy products. The first product to add to their diet is butter. Butter is virtually pure milk 
fat and contains only very small amounts of whey, which at a certain stage in 
the diet the patients can usually handle. Butter should be bought organic, 
because non-organic butter contains a lot of pesticides, hormones and 
antibiotics, which non-organic cows consume. I generally recommend to try 
introducing butter after 6 months on the diet. It is preferable to have unsalted 
butter as a lot of salt products which are used to preserve butter contain flow 
agents and other additives. I would like to emphasise here that butter and 
ghee contain a lot of valuable nutrition for children and adults and should not 
be avoided, unless there is a true allergy. Butter and ghee provide various fatty 
acids with important health giving benefits, vitamins A, D, E, beta-carotene 
and other nutritious substances in an easy to digest form. In about a year gradual introduction of protein containing lactose free 
milk products is possible: yoghurt and cheeses. As the gut flora gets estab­
lished and the digestive system heals many GAPS patients are able to digest 
milk protein without absorbing it in an opiate-like form of casomorphin. However, all patients are different Some are ready for this step in a few 
months, some require much longer. It is critical to proceed very carefully and 
slowly, introducing milk protein containing foods one at a time and starting 
from tiny amounts watching for any reaction. Any signs of regression in a 
child or an adult with GAPS would indicate that he/she is not ready. It may 
be an increase in self-stimulation and worsening of eye-contact, sleep dis­
turbances and increase in anxiety, mood alterations and hyperactivity, 
eczema flare-up or worsening in allergies. Every patient would have symp­
toms typical for him or her. Generally from clinical experience I can say that 
the younger the patient is the sooner he or she is ready for this step. Adults on average take longer than children. In some cases dairy proteins have to be 
avoided indefinitely, particularly in long standing cases of schizophrenia 
and cases complicated by epilepsy, asthma and eczema. The first protein containing milk product that can be introduced is 
home-made yoghurt. Why home-made. Because commercially produced 
yoghurts are often not completely lactose-free due to short fermentation 
time. Yoghurt has to be fermented for 24 hours at least to be completely lac­
tose-free. So initially the only yoghurt which the GAPS child or adult can 
have has to be home-made (look in the recipe section for instructions on 
how to make yoghurt). Apart from consuming lactose the fermenting bac­
teria pre-digest milk proteins, making them easier for our digestive sys­
tems to handle. That is why fermented milk products in general are much 
easier for us humans to digest. There is a question about what is the best milk to use for making yoghurt 
- cow's or goat's. There are some other rare milk products on the market, 
like sheep and deer, which are not researched to any degree yet and are not 
practical to discuss here. Goat's milk is considered to be more digestible by 
humans as it contains less casein and different types of fats and proteins. However, when it comes to beta-casein, which is supposed to be the prob­
lem for autistic and schizophrenic patients, the goat's milk contains more of 
it compared to cow's milk. Unfortunately, there is not much scientific data 
on this subject for us to rely on. However, in a clinical setting patients do 
report that goat's milk is much better tolerated than cow's milk. So, initially 
I recommend making your yoghurt from goat's milk rather than cow's milk. If it is not possible to find goat's milk in your area try to make yoghurt from 
cow's milk, as indeed Elaine Gottschall used to treat her child and thou­
sands of other patients very effectively. A very important point here is to use 
only organic milk, as there is a noticeable difference in the clinical observa­
tions of the effects of non-organic and organic yoghurt. People who react to 
non-organic yoghurt often tolerate an organic one perfectly well, because 
non-organically reared animals have to consume a whole array of chemi­
cals from antibiotics to pesticides, most of which finish up in the milk. It is important to introduce home-made yoghurt gradually, starting from 
one tea spoon a day slowly increasing the daily amount to one or two cups 
a day. It can be added to home-made soups and stews, served as a desert 
with fruit and honey or mixed with fruit smoothies and drinks. You can 
drain it through a cheese cloth to produce cottage cheese. It gives a nice 
variety to the diet. However, I would repeat that the patient's digestive 
system has to be ready for it. So, do not rush with this step. Once the GAPS patient can tolerate home-made yoghurt without any 
problem natural organic cheese can be tried. It has to be said that cheese is 
one of the more difficult dairy products to introduce as it provides a very 
concentrated milk protein. Cheese is also a great breeding ground for 
yeasts and moulds, which a lot of GAPS people can not tolerate. Some 
GAPS patients find that they can have home-made yoghurt without any 
problem but can never have cheese. However, in the majority of cases, pro­
viding that their digestive system had a good chance to heal, the GAPS chil­
dren and adults can enjoy a good variety of natural cheeses, like cheddar, 
dry curd cheese and others (for a full list look at the end of this chapter). As 
with yoghurt introduce cheeses one at a time, starting from a very small 
amount (no more than one mouthful) and watching the patient's reaction. In a few months after safely introducing cheese many patients find that 
their digestive system is in a good enough state to handle commercially 
produced live natural yoghurt (with no additives), soured cream and 
cr&me fresh. At the end of the second year on the diet, fresh cream can be 
added to the list. How to introduce dairy products - the summary 
Stepi,  Only home-made ghee is allowed. This stage lasts on average six 
months. If your GAPS patient can not tolerate ghee, you may find that 
this patient will never tolerate any dairy product. However, it is worth 
leaving it out for six months and then trying again to introduce it. Step  2. Organic butter can be added gradually. Watch for any reactions. Step  3. Home-made yoghurt can be introduced, starting from one tea 
spoon a day and gradually increasing the daily amount. If there is any 
negative reaction, wait for a month then try again. The majority of GAPS 
patients are ready for this step at the end of the first year on the diet. Step  4. Try a mouthful of organic cheddar cheese with a meal. Watch for 
any negative reaction for three to five days, as the reaction may be 
delayed. If there is no negative reaction, gradually increase the amount. Once the cheddar cheese is well tolerated, try to introduce another 
natural cheese (for a full list of allowed cheeses look at the end of the 
chapter). Introduce this step only after home-made yoghurt is well 
tolerated. Step  5. Try some commercially available live natural yoghurt, soured 
cream and creme fraiche. Do not rush with this step. The majority of 
GAPS people are ready for this step by the end of two years on the diet. After two years on the diet a lot of GAPS people find that on an occasional  
basis  they can have any natural dairy product without any apparent prob­
lems, including milk, cream and cheeses off the allowed list. However, I 
recommend limiting these products to only occasional use and staying 
safe with those milk products which are allowed on the diet. So, what is for dinner. In the previous chapter we have talked in detail about the kind of carbohy­
drates or sugars allowed on the diet: mono-sugars. They are found in fruit 
and non-starch vegetables. All complex carbohydrates, those found in 
grains and starchy vegetables have to be rigorously excluded from the diet. I cannot over-emphasise how important it is to make sure that not even a 
speck of anything made from sugar, grains or starchy vegetables sneaks 
into the menu. This is the point when I usually see the panic on the parent's 
faces, particularly parents who went through all the pain of implementing 
the GFCF diet. No rice. No biscuits. No cakes. No pasta. No bread. Even 
gluten free. No chips. No crisps. No popcorn. No ice-cream. No sweets. But 
that is all my child would eat. My child is going to starve. Indeed GAPS children and adults usually limit their diets to processed 
carbohydrates, which they crave due to their abnormal gut flora. So, the 
important thing is to find replacements for all those foods, which are com­
patible with the diet The fact that the GAPS people can not have grains and 
sugar does not mean that they have to be deprived of breads, cakes, bis­
cuits, crackers, pancakes, waffles and muffins. This diet provides you with 
excellent and very nourishing recipes, where you will replace wheat flour 
with ground nuts or nut flour (the same thing) and instead of sugar you will 
use unprocessed natural honey and dried fruit. In the recipe section you 
will find a number of different delicious recipes. Elaine GottschalFs book 
will provide you with many more wonderful recipes, and if you have access 
to the Internet, you will find even more on: www. scdiet. org 
www. breakingtheviciouscycle. com 
www. geocities.
Pesticides, colour and flavour improvers, softeners, and other chemicals.
What are some common additives found in processed foods that should be avoided by GAPS patients?
Start with a small amount (one to two tablespoons) and monitor for any adverse reactions, gradually increasing the amount if tolerated.
What is the recommended approach to introducing dairy products to a GAPS patient's diet?
Goat's milk, as it contains less casein and different types of fats, making it more digestible.
What type of milk is recommended for making yoghurt?
Cakes, sweets, and other confectioneries; soft drinks; and fruit juices, unless freshly pressed.
What are some common sources of sugar that should be avoided by GAPS patients?
Cold-pressed olive oil, as it is not heated and preserves the nutrients.
What type of oil is recommended for cooking and baking?