If the Full GAPS Diet is best for you at this time, here’s Dr. Natasha’s recommended foods vs. foods to avoid:
RECOMMENDED FOODS:
Almonds, including almond butter and almond 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 properly prepared
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
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 (zucchini)
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
Eggs, fresh
Filberts
Fish, fresh or frozen, canned in its juice or oil
Game, fresh or frozen
Garlic
Ghee, homemade or reliable source
Gin, occasionally
Ginger root, fresh
Goose, fresh or frozen
Gorgonzola cheese
Gouda cheese
Grapefruit
Grapes
Haricot beans, properly prepared
Havarti cheese
Hazelnuts
Herbal teas
Herbs, fresh or dried without additives
Honey, unpasteurized, fresh raw
Juices 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 (Jack) 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 (any roasting must be done at home)
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
Seaweed fresh and dried, once the Introduction Diet has been completed
Shellfish, fresh or frozen
Spices, single and pure without any additives
Spinach
Squash (summer and winter)
Stilton cheese
String beans
Swedes
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
White navy beans, only when properly prepared
Wine dry: red or white
Yogurt, whole fat, homemade or high quality
Zucchini (courgette)
The best foods are eggs (if tolerated), fresh meats (not preserved), fish, shellfish, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts and seeds, garlic and olive oil. Apart from eating vegetables cooked, it is important to have some raw vegetables with meals, as they contain vital enzymes to assist digestion of the meats. Fruit should be eaten on their own, not with meals, as they have a very different digestion pattern and can make the work harder for the stomach. Fruit should be given as a snack between meals.
It is very important to have plenty of natural fats in every meal from meats, butter, ghee, coconut (if tolerated) and cold pressed olive oil. Animal fats on meats are particularly valuable. Fermented foods (sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir) are also a very important part of this diet in addition to homemade meat or fish stock. It is recommended to take a cup of warm meat or fish stock with every meal as a drink as well as soups and stews made with the meat or fish stock (see Intro Diet details). The stock, kefir and fermented vegetables will over time restore the stomach acid production, which will improve digestion.
It is best to avoid processed foods (any packaged or tinned foods). They are stripped from most nutrients that were present in the fresh ingredients used for making these foods. They are a hard work for the digestive system and they damage the healthy gut flora balance. On top of that they usually contain artificial chemicals, detrimental to health, such as preservatives, food coloring, etc. Try to buy foods in the form that nature made them, as fresh as possible.
FOODS TO AVOID
Acesulphame
Acidophilus milk
Agar-agar
Agave syrup – main carbohydrate is a complex form of fructose
Algae – can aggravate an already disturbed immune system
Aloe Vera – please go to “FAQs” on GAPS.me for additional information on when it can be introduced
Amaranth – is a grain substitute, contains starches
Apple juice – usually has sugar added during processing
Arrowroot – is a mucilaginous herb and loaded with starch
Aspartame
Astragalus – contains polysaccharides
Baked beans
Baker’s yeast – contains saccharamyces cerevisae
Baking powder and raising agents of all kind – baking soda can be used for specific medical issues, please view the “FAQs” section on GAPS.me
Balsamic vinegar – most found in stores have added sugar
Barley
Bean flour and sprouts
Bee pollen – irritating to a damaged gut
Beer
Bhindi or okra
Bicarbonate of soda
Bitter Gourd
Black-eye beans
Bologna
Bouillon cubes or granules
Brandy
Buckwheat
Bulgur
Burdock root – contains FOS and mucilage
Butter beans
Buttermilk
Canellini beans
Canned vegetables and fruit
Carob
Carrageenan – is seaweed and high in polysaccharides
Cellulose gum
Cereals, including all breakfast cereals
Processed cheeses and cheese spreads
Chestnuts and chestnut flour
Chevre cheese
Chewing gum – contain sugars or sugar substitutes
Chick peas
Chickory root – contains high amounts of FOS
Chocolate
Cocoa powder – please see “FAQs” on GAPS.me for more information
Coffee – instant coffee and coffee substitutes are not allowed, however weak and freshly made coffee is allowed
Cooking oils
Cordials
Corn
Cornstarch
Corn syrup
Cottage cheese
Cottonseed
Cous-cous
Cream – contains lactose
Cream of Tartar
Cream cheese
Dextrose – in commercial products it is not the pure form
Soft Drinks
Faba beans
Feta cheese
Fish that has been preserved, smoked, salted, breaded and canned with sauces
Flour, made out of grains
FOS (fructooligosaccharides)
Fructose – extracted from corn and has a mixture of other trisaccharides
Fruit that is canned or preserved
Garbanzo beans
Gjetost cheese
Grains, all
Gruyere cheese
Ham
Hot dogs
Ice-cream of the commercial kind
Jams
Jellies
Jerusalem artichoke
Commercial ketchup, as it usually contains corn syrup. Some organic ketchup has improved ingredients.
Lactose
Liqueurs
Margarines and butter replacements
Meats that are processed, preserved, smoked and salted
Millet
Processed milk from any animal, soy milk, rice milk, canned coconut milk
Milk, dried
Molasses
Mozzarella cheese
Mungbeans
Neufchatel cheese
Nutra-sweet (aspartame)
Nuts that are salted, roasted or coated
Oats
Okra – mucilaginous food
Parsnips
Pasta, of any kind
Pectin
Postum
Potato white
Potato sweet
Primost cheese
Quinoa – 60% starch
Rice
Ricotta cheese
Rye
Saccharin
Sago
Sausages, commercially available
Semolina
Sherry
Soda soft drinks
Sour cream, commercial
Soy
Spelt
Starch
Sugar or sucrose of any kind
Tapioca – starch
Tea, instant
Triticale
Turkey loaf
Vegetables that are canned or preserved
Wheat
Wheat germ
Whey, powder or liquid
Yams
Yogurt with added sugar or other additives must be avoided