Gotta love the Sandbox Cafe — the mud pies are cheap, the waitress is cute as a button, and there’s a great view of the slide. There is this one thing, though . . . the cook can be a little temperamental. Ask for a fully loaded baked potato and you’re gonna hear “That’s not on your GAPS diet.” ** Sigh**
Do you have questions about GAPS beyond what’s on the diet? Perfect! The Sandbox Cafe is hosting a Q&A today with Cara of Health, Home & Happiness. Grab a slice of that Mississippi mud over there and pull up a chair, this is gonna be good. 🙂
**All questions below answered by Cara unless otherwise noted.
First up is Anni. You’ve got the floor, missy. What’s your question?
Great question, Anni! I’ve created this guide to help families maintain the GAPS diet on a busy schedule. I think that for a family that works outside the home, it would be doable, but at least one 6-hour block each weekend would need to be devoted to meal preparation for the coming week. Thankfully lots of things like bone broths, ferments, roasts, etc on GAPS can be made ahead of time.
It’s for as long as you’re ‘on the GAPS Diet. You may find that you prefer to eat GAPS foods forever, but others just go on the diet temporarily to heal certain issues, and then return to a Nourishing Traditions type diet.
Right, fruit isn’t allowed until the end of intro and coconut milk isn’t allowed at all on intro. I spent some time with my kids working to get them to like soup, they like drinking it out of my lidded coffee cup, out of a Klean Kanteen, or through a straw.
No kidding! I have used coffee, both decaf and regular, on GAPS and I didn’t feel it harmed me 😉 I’ve done it all three ways, without coffee, with regular, and with decaf.
The GAPS diet can be done on a budget, but that would be harder with ‘Intro GAPS’. ‘Full GAPS’, or what’s allowed on the full version of the diet allows beans and lentils, which can stretch grocery dollars well. I have a budget stretching lentil burger recipe if you are interested. On Intro GAPS most people find they eat so. much. food that it’s very hard to stay on a limited budget, but it is only temporary. For grass-fed meat, I had good results independently contacting local producers that had their meat sold at our health food store, and ordering in bulk.
We use nuts more as snacks and treats on the GAPS diet, nuts aren’t really supposed to be the main focus of the diet anyway. But meat and bone broths are important to the healing process, so it isn’t usually possible to do this on a very limited budget. Grains are very cheap filler calories.
It has increased. There’s no doubt about it, meat is more expensive than grains. But I’ve seen amazing health benefits for my family, so I don’t mind this change.
We tend to not eat out at friends’ houses when we’re on GAPS, just because it’s such a limited diet and usually getting anything off the diet will make the GAPS person sick. It’s usually easier to just suggest an alternative activity, like visiting a park or the zoo. About eating out, we’ve found a few things that worked well- Fuddruckers here has all beef (or wild elk or bison) patties, with just plain vegetables. Outback has a gluten free menu, so they’re familiar with food restrictions, and we’ve ordered plain salmon and steamed veggies with butter there and had a good experience. It’s generally easier to just pack some soup in a thermos.
Cara: Could he have a crockpot going and a cooler of meat for stock and fresh veggies? I do think the entire intro could be done in a crockpot if necessary, if this was at all possible.
Heather: I’m not sure how much down time a pilot has between flights, but here’s an idea. Pack some essentials: a supply of frozen stock, frozen meat (maybe) and a pot/hotplate or crockpot. Then at each destination go to the grocery store for veggies and cook in the hotel room? Would that work?
We make all our meals GAPS, and then after the kids go to bed we’ll eat ‘off GAPS’ food. We also will make GAPS version of foods like ice cream, and give the kids GAPS ice cream while we eat regular if desired.
I would stay away from doing any major detox right before conception, but I don’t think I’d be too nervous if it was 6 months away. That’s just my personal opinion. During pregnancy I would stick with ‘full GAPS’ and not go through intro though.
I would try to start ASAP! It won’t get easier as they get older. My son (he was 11 months when we did it the first time, then I put him back on when he had just turned 2) had started becoming very picky, limiting to carbs mostly. Within a week of putting him back on GAPS he was eating everything again.
First question- you might like the Body Ecology Diet better than GAPS, it’s similar, but would work well for those who feel they do better on a vegan type diet. As for children, I feel that the GAPS diet has been very healthy for my children. My daughter with autism has been on it strictly for over a year now, and my son has been on it, but not so strictly, since he first started solids.
I was pretty hungry during the first part of intro, but my milk supply never suffered and it got much easier by the second week. I ate A LOT and there were times I tiptoed off to the garage to polish off a jar of peanut butter in secret. I have a busy schedule and didn’t have a lot of time to make our soups interesting, so that was hard, but it also led to a lot of jokes around the dinner table as we commiserated together. Rather than getting cranky and irritable with each other my family actually deepened our bonds doing intro together. Who knew??
Cara: I can share my experiences with nursing, too – I was HUNGRY! LOL! Other than the amount of food you need to consume, the full GAPS diet is good while nursing. I went through intro while nursing a toddler and did well, but he was down to nursing 1-3 times a day.
You can start by skipping the intro if you’d like, or waiting until you’re at least past the first year of nursing is a totally understandable option as well!
I’d recommend the Body Ecology Diet for you 🙂
I think Dr. Natasha recommends being symptom free for 2 years. Some of us don’t wait quite that long, and we just start with a few gluten free grains, or raw milk that hasn’t been cultured, or maple syrup, and see how it goes 😉
Once you get the hang of it, and the family is used to the new food, it really doesn’t take much work at all! No more soaking grains, making bread… a simple meal can just be a beef patty with guacamole and a piece of fruit! I did start the Grain Free Meal Plan and an Intro e-book to help those overwhelmed with the idea of this new way of eating get started.
Heather: I use Rosita Cod Liver Oil and make my own yogurt. I have a recipe that is made from unheated raw milk (which makes it runny) and Cara has a great recipe using the cooler method here.
Cara: I use Green Pastures Salty Cod Fermented Cod Liver Oil. I have gotten their capsules as well. I make my raw yogurt, and I make dairy free coconut milk kefir for my kids, who don’t seem to handle dairy well.
Just try it for a short period of time that seems manageable to you- even trying it for a week is better than not trying it at all! Look at it as a fun challenge, and more likely than not the benefits you get will motivate you to continue!