I have been on GAPS. This is a dangerous diet. Let us keep this thread alive. I got several problems and I have heard of heart attacks (from potassium imbalance due to enemas and huge liquid intake), and in the groups on FB that I am a member of, I heard of people getting hospitalized. One from acidoketos (don’t know how the baby got that, but after two weeks on GAPS and lowcarb this happened) and one got severe break down of all blood cells.
One case of cancer was missed, cause the person just got “it is die off” when she complained about stomach aches. No die off, of course. It was cancer. She died, did not get help in time (she would have visit the doctor several months earlier if she hadn’t gotten that “DIE OFF!!!” thing.
For me, GAPS lead to an immediately relief of problems, and my thoughts stopped thinking about food food food. I thought this was the Diet above all. After a while I got worse again. A lot worse. Dr Natasha Campbell McBride says we should eat much garlic, to every meal. And eat as many meal as you want. I ended up with 1,5 dl (1 oz = 2,4 dl) garlic per day and a nice Heinz body hemolytic anemia, the kind that animal gets from garlic and onion. Then I started detox with zeolit. Dr N was asked about this, and she said herself this was safe and a good thing to do. Now I got even worse anemia, getting some kind of aplastic anemia. All blood cells decreased fast and I was scared to death, sent to hemologic (dont know the correct word, hope you understand it anyway) doctor. I stopped zeolit and onion/garlic, and what a relief it stopped the anemia. My blood cells stopped breaking down or not getting build, but still, over one year after I have blood cells on the low side.
My constipation got worse from GAPS, and I got really swollen.
I left GAPS last year in the end of September, entering paleo. Same kind of food, but starch was introduced. I for sure can tell I needed starch, but it wasn’t enough.
At last I understood that I got severe electrolyte imbalance from the stuff one should do within GAPS, but did not know what to do about it. Tried potassium, tried sodium. Got swollen and more imbalanced from both (didnt try both at the same time).
After finding Matt Stone and Garrett Smith, I understood I was to try for longer time with sodium, initial swollen is normal.
Everything got better from starting high carb and sodium, but the constipation. I then started potassium at the same time, 1-1,5 grams extra per day. After that, my gut works by itself for the first time in 3 years (of complete total constipation that I had to take harsh laxative drops for). It still is not stable, stress can make gut stop work again, but no laxatives needed since it starts working again 1-2 days later.
Now I am just waiting to get stable and not be needing tons of potassium and sodium (last day I got so VERY hot after eating, so maybe I can start to take less salts).
I still try to eat whole foods, but threw out linoleic acid products that is promoted in GAPS/WAPF/Paleo and phytic acid stuff and so on. And I follow Kressers 80/20 rule (kind of) making exceptions when I eat out or at others, but of course choosing the things with the least linoleic acid and so on.
GAPS should be WARNED about. It is dangerous. At least for those following all the stuff you SHOULD follow if you are fully into this. many just eat “full GAPS”, skipping 2 litres of stock per day, skipping enemas, skipping harsh detox, skipping over eating some things like garlic or ginger. Those people often “cheats” too, making them not getting as sick as we who was dedicated to follow extremely well, to be sure to get well.
I read the book, and it really promoted daily enemas and too big intake of several things.