GAPS Diet: Critical Differences Between GAPS and BED, Two Gut-Healing Protocols
Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet (GAPS):
Understanding the Gaps
2.GAPS addresses detoxification with the popular method of juicing, using sweet fruits and sweet vegetables. These intensify the candida infection and feed pathogens in the gut.
Campbell-McBride calls juicing a “time proven way of detoxing, taking out of the body not just heavy metals but a lot of other poisons as well without any side effects or harmful complications.” However, the recommended juices are harmful—immediately feeding pathogens in the gut and fueling candidiasis. These quotes emphasize the GAP point of view:
- “Pineapple, carrot and a little bit of beetroot in the morning will prepare the digestive system for the coming meals”
- “A mixture of carrot, apple, celery and beetroot has a wonderful liver-cleansing ability.”
- “To disguise the taste of the less tasty ingredients 50% of the juice can be made of pineapple, orange, grapefruit, apple, grapes, mango, etc.”
- “In freshly extracted juice the natural sugars are balanced with enzymes, minerals and other nutrients which turn them into energy for the body.”
Body Ecology has a very different point of view. Yes, the natural sugar does provide energy—at least short term—but as far as the yeast are concerned, the sweet fruits eaten on the GAPS diet help them multiply and thrive. In fact, you might as well eat a candy bar.
On the BED, all sugars are eliminated, including complex carbohydrates found in grains (especially in stage one of our diet). Indeed, on the BED you would not eat wheat, rye, oatmeal, barley, spelt, and kamut, just as you would not on the GAPS diet. Rice (and rice milk), though gluten-free, is also not eaten in stage one of the BED diet because it, too, is rich in natural sugars and also feeds the yeast. Moreover, rice is a source of arsenic as it is fertilized with chicken manure from chickens that have been fed an arsenic-containing drug to kill parasites.
Instead of juicing, Body Ecology prefers that you make a morning smoothie. Smoothies are superior to juices because they include fiber. From the BE Diet perspective, the blended fiber is very important to a healthy gut. It slows down the assimilation of the easily digested vegetables while providing an important food source for the healthy bacteria in the gut. In contrast, GAPS is anti-fiber and contends that “juicing removes the fibre, which impairs absorption of many nutrients in fruit and vegetables and aggravates the condition in the already sensitive digestive system of the GAPS patient.”
As for detoxification, it’s an important part of the Body Ecology program and one of its 7 Universal Principles. The foods on the BE Diet are naturally very cleansing, especially the young coconut kefir (YCK) and the fermented vegetables. Body Ecology also encourages the use of cleansing therapies that open up the detoxification pathways, such as saunas, enemas, colemas, and colon hydrotherapy. The goal is to allow the many internal and external toxins to be eliminated as the body was naturally created to do, but faster and more efficiently.
