The GAPS diet aims to heal intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and restore balanced gut bacteria. It works by removing foods that harm the gut and feed bad bacteria, while introducing nutrient-dense, gut-healing foods.

Healing the Gut: The GAPS Approach
The initial Introduction Diet has six stages, designed to drastically reduce food sources for harmful bacteria and ease the burden on a damaged digestive system.
This means eliminating:
All grains and added sugars: These fuel pathogenic microbes and inflame the gut.
Most starches: Difficult to digest, they can ferment and feed undesirable bacteria.

Processed foods: Full of additives and they damage the gut lining.
Pesticides and herbicides: The diet emphasises organic food as these chemicals, often found on conventional produce, disrupt gut bacteria and increase inflammation.
The focus is on easily digestible, healing foods:
Meat stocks also called broths: Rich in collagen and gelatine, which are key to repair the gut lining and reduce inflammation. This can be taken with every meal if desired. Chicken is a common one and this is best with an organic, whole chicken, cooked for about 2 hours, then the ligaments and skin can be added to the meats and blended. This is essential for the best effect on the gut.
Well-cooked meats and non-fibrous vegetables: These are introduced gradually, making them easier to digest.
Homemade fermented foods: Small amounts can be introduced early to begin repopulating the gut with beneficial bacteria.

Restoring Balance: The Full GAPS Diet
After the Introduction Diet, the Full GAPS Diet phase typically lasts 1.5 to 2 years, allowing significant gut repair.
Abundant probiotics: Fermented foods remain central, providing a continuous supply of diverse beneficial bacteria.
Nutrient-dense foods: High-quality meats, fish, eggs, healthy animal fats and a wider variety of non-starchy vegetables provide the building blocks for gut repair. Soaked or sprouted nuts and seeds are introduced cautiously.
This sustained approach helps:
Heal the gut lining: Removing irritants and providing healing nutrients, allows the intestinal walls to repair.
Repopulate beneficial bacteria: Probiotics from fermented foods, combined with removing harmful food sources, re-establish a healthy gut microbiome.
Reduce systemic inflammation: Healing the gut lessens chronic inflammation throughout the body.

Reintroduction Phase
After 1.5 to 2 years, or once digestion is consistently normal, a slow, controlled reintroduction phase can begin. Foods are reintroduced one at a time, in small amounts, with careful monitoring for reactions. Even then, the emphasis remains on whole, unprocessed foods for long-term gut health.

A Vegetarian Diet
It is possible to move over to a vegetarian diet if you really wanted to. But only once the gut is fully healed and maintains its heath and 2 years have passed. Some people are more suited to meat diets than others. If you wanted to be vegetarian after 2 years, I recommend to use a GAPS certified coach to work with you on this.