Gut and Psychology Syndrome - GAPS

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Has anyone read about the GAPS diet? It's new since 2008 pretty much. My daughter, 23, and myself, her mom, have started the diet to relieve symptoms of Bipolar. Anyway, if anyone has tried it, let me know. Apparently you have to cut out all sugar, starches, grains for about 2 years to heal your "gut," and also take probiotics. And then you will be able to see huge changes in issues, depending on your age and the severity of your symptoms and length of time. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is the doctor who discovered it. She cured her 3-year old son of Autism apparently through this diet.

There's no way that diet can cure Autism. It can only help as it does with anyone to feel better and to be more healthy overall.

Don't think of it as a "cure" to Autism. How can food NOT have an effect on our bodies and minds? It's really what this is all about. Eating the right type of foods to heal a toxic body. People use a food program to help fight against cancers! My family and I are one year into this program and I thank my lucky stars and the person who referred it to us. I read the book. We also work alongside a Nutritionist who is GAPS certified. She also has a child with Autism who was non-verbal. She put him through this program and although it didn't "cure" his Autism, it did help elliminate a lot of his symptoms. Afterall, Autism is all about symptoms.. sensory, behavioural, executive functioning deficits (focus, memory, yadda yadda). Her son speaks now - quite fluently. He's quite the social butterfly!

I am on this diet and it is working great. Here is a list of things that have improved, just can't even begin to express how much things have changed for the better.
Memory, depression, motivation, coping witness stress without having a meltdown or brain freeze, I can't hear light bulbs humming, I can choose to block out background noise and focus on just one person speaking, my wife says I'm more empathetic (I do cry at movies and even songs sometimes now), I like to listen to the radio instead of silence because I'm not overwhelmed, not getting information overload I am able to process things one at a time and not shut down , I can think my way through a stressful situation, making choices is easier, no more anxiety talking on phone, coordination improved (this is exciting because things like ice skating I was okay at I am now very good and haven't practises for years), the screen is currently flickering and I'm not going crazy with distraction, less awkward in conversation - I can notice now when someone isn't interested in the topic or is looking uncomfortable, eye contact isn't something I think about too much-not sure if I do it right but I must be looking to notice non verbal cues, I can process new information because my tank doesn't feel full, things that used to bother me as not being logical I don't care anymore (was only slightly Ocd , but I feel very free now ), I am a farm manager and have to simultaneously manage several interrelated systems which I am doing well and never thought I could manage because it was so stressful, my energy is way better-i now have a second wind I stead of getting exhausted easily, I lost weight without trying too but this was the least of my excitement.
There have been so many experiences that I notice I wouldn't have handled, my wife said it has made such a huge difference in our marriage, I don't check out anymore, no more zombie wandering into rooms and forgetting why or staring off into space, I am able to be emotionally supportive to Bbecause I am not needing the support all the time.
If you are still considering trying the gaps diet, do. I have all these changes on the full diet without having done the intro yet. I do take fermented cod liver oil, supplement magnesium, eat liver cooked in fat (this is better for me then a multivitamin ) , pro biotic food (water kefir with Molasses, a2 milk kefir , saurkraut, had some beer kvass, all recuperate in book nourishing traditions), my wife does the diet with me and she can give you a list of things that improved for her energy and digestion and weight loss as well as others. I believe it's the diet for everyone.

Hey there.
This sounds very much like a lo-carb gluten-free diet. As I'm having very severe symptoms, but am still looking for causes, I came across a lot of studies about celiac disease, i.e. gluten-triggered auto-immune reaction.
And these studies seem to agree that a gluten free diet can alleviate autistic tendencies.
btw., so can a lactose free diet.
And there seems to be a correlation between GI issues and autism in general, so chances are, that, if you're on the spectrum, you will have celiac disease or be lactose intolerant or any of the hundreds of other things that can go wrong, and going gluten-free, lactose-free, maybe low-carb and whatnot will actually help a lot of our issues.
Just not feeling slightly ill all the time can alleviate autistic symptoms for sure.

I have followed an extremely similar diet & treatment protocol over the last couple of years and have had amazing success with it. I shared my story here on the forums last January and the general response was that people don't believe me. It doesn't change the fact that my symptoms are minimized and I'm living a second life for having done this.

If you'd care to read exactly what I've done, feel free to PM me an email address and I'll send you my story.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

While I've cheated a bit on my diet over the holidays & I haven't been as intense about it w/ as many soups/teas over the last handful of months, I've been following a very similar diet for about 2 years now. I've not only survived on it.. but I've thrived. Seriously. I'm way healthier and stronger, both physically and mentally.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I personally believe that simply being vegetarian and eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and drinking lots of water is as good as any faddish diet. I can not live without eating grains and starches or drastically reducing carbohydrates - my energy levels just plummet.

The main part of that diet is the sugar cut, high volumetric intake of simple carbohydrates has been linked to an increase psychophysiology related issues. Healing your gut is a bit questionable as what you are essentially doing is stabilizing the glycemic load of your food. This is a very good idea as high daily sugar intake can lead to a very long list of issues.

If you want to speak about healing your gut you should be looking more towards ingredients like capsaicin found in nightshades such as chilli peppers. These are anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial ( which eliminates bad bacteria that won't reproduce in your gut ) and anti-parasitic. Another great ingredient that should be staple in any healthy diet is garlic, which has a compound that has a unique property of being able to bind to heavy metals. Especially good if you eat a lot of crops or fish which inevitably contains a small amount of heavy metals.

Might be some value in reading this in Wikipedia and following it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP

Because fresh fruit is relatively cheap in Australia I used to eat masses of it - apples, pears mangoes, bananas, etc. and would feel incredibly sick a few days after. But never put two and two together, until I read about FODMAP's. The term FODMAP is an acronym, deriving from "Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols." The fresh fruit was providing lots of Fructose which I couldn't digest and was going on to feed bacteria in my gut, with resultant pains. Cut out the high fructose fruit and many of my digestive problems went away. So did my perceived IBS issues.

Alison