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GAPS™ Eating & Gathering
I held my 3rd GAPS™ Group December 30, Monday. Nancy Funke came up from her farm in St David and a few others joined us. Nancy prepared a delicious turkey soup. I offered some grain-free pumpernickel bread and some raw food dessert 'balls' -- 'cinnamon girls' and 'carob-coconut haystacks'. I presented the third power point and we got into some great discussions and tips on our health, the diet and program.
BTW, the initial stages of the diet are the bone broth and stocks. They help rebuild the epithelium of the gut wall. Fermented vegetables and dairy are also a big part of the diet as they reseed the good microbes.
I felt I learned so much from the group and Nancy. Each person comes to this diet in his or her own way and motivation. I learned a few lessons about how to make changes in diet and nutrition. Plus a few of us have been on the diet for some time, and we had longevity insights to share.
On GAPS™, I might eat lighter some days and more heavily on others. The 3 meals a day or continuous snacking syndrome is over. Eating and hunger are in a flow not a compulsion or obsession. Sometimes, I will have long periods of no hunger. That state is so different from former states of continuous hunger, compulsive eating, binge eating and conditioned hyper eating.
Taste is dynamic not static. My taste can change over time. Taste on the GAPS™ diet evolves over time. I remember when I first saw bottles of tahini (sesame butter basis of hummus, baba ganoush) I thought it was disgusting. Then I found myself years later eating it by the jar. Now I have no taste for it except occasionally. Point yourself in the right direction and the magic happens.
How do I recover from a binge? Take lots of probiotics, enzymes, bone broth and raw juices. For people on the GAPS™ diet, going off the diet for a moment can cause a lot of pain or the recurrence of serious symptoms like diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, migraines, muscle and joint pain, hives, itching and other skin reactions.
How do I begin? Jump in the river exactly where you are and follow it long enough to know if you are on the right track. Elaine Gottschall says give it 30 days of religion. Campbell-McBride knows it takes about 2 years to turn difficult situations around. However, you've got to follow it 'religiously' for minimum 30 days. The diet and program have 6 stages and you can jump in at the top and work yourself into the beginning levels or begin wherever you are capable of maintaining and figuring it out at that level.
One of the women who attended the Group has a history of lifelong constipation, has had severe intestinal pain and has lost weight. She is doing the introductory levels. She is also doing colon hydrotherapy. Colon hydrotherapy is the detoxification component of the GAPS™ diet that is healing and reseeding the gut wall. Colon hydrotherapy also addresses the lifelong constipation issue.
FODMAP (Fermentable oligosacchides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols)
The subject of the FODMAP diet also came up. A woman who initially presented at her doctor with thyroid and fibroids then said she was so tired of her chronic, bloated belly that went from 3 to 6 months pregnant in size on any given day. What was causing it? How could she get rid of it? And what the @#$% are polyols, fructans, galactans and oligosaccharides? Her NMD recommended the FODMAP diet.
I find the subject fascinating. I believe it is a subset of the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) and GAPS™. FODMAP restricts short chain sugars and sugar alcohols (erithritol, sorbitol, maltilol, manitol, xylitol). The only difference is that SCD allows fruit and vegetable monosaccharides whereas FODMAP restricts some fruit and vegetable monosaccharides such as onions, cauliflower, mangoes and figs that are high in short chain fructose molecules.
Shifting your diet to a higher ground by initiating and practicing the GAPS™ diet is a form of detoxification and rebuilding. Be prepared to take care of yourself, gain insight into how foods are affecting you and be in the moment interpreting internal changes.
As one woman said Monday night, you really have to wrap your head around it. Yes, that's right. Planning, preparing, thinking, contemplating and visualizing are part of the process and the practice of any change to higher ground.
For Colon Hydrotherapy or GAPS™ counseling, please email/text [email protected] or call/text 520-325-9686.
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