gaps diet

I haven't tried it. I looked at the web site, and they are selling a lot of products to enable this diet - not a good sign in my book. The Koufman diet has reduced my LPR symptoms significantly, you could try that for free. It is based mostly on grocery store foods. I can't say that aloe vera or honey have helped my symptoms, though they are encouraged on the Kaufman diet. If you don't see any improvement after the first two weeks of the most strict part of this diet, which Dr. Koufman calls the induction diet, it probably won't help you. If you do see any improvement at all during the two weeks, the improvements may continue, you may get a lot better. That is what has happened for me.

I wanted to bump this old thread instead of creating a new one in regards to the GAPS diet because I gave it a good try for several weeks. I think there are some good things about the GAPS and some bad things about it. I have two issues with the GAPS diet:

1. There is very little science behind it. Yes, I realize that a doctor from Russia created the GAPS diet and claims it cured her child of autism, but there is no documented proof of this, nor did she keep and document any case studies. She also makes a lot of claims in her book that contradicts what my own allergist and gastroenterologists tells me (that's nothing new, but in this case there are a lot of unsubstantiated claims).

2. There are parts of the diet that can be detrimental to you, especially if dairy bothers you.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride makes a lot of claims that are not substantiated by the medical community, such as having a leaky gut. And the "sensitivity test" that she talks about made my allergist laugh out loud (really). Also eating raw egg yolks is also not a good idea.

There are some good things about the GAPS diet such as making your own bone broth. I have found homemade bone broth to be a great asset in terms of relieving many of my GERD symptoms. However, the key to making this work is make sure you're not eating chicken skin and really fatty parts of any meat, at least not until you can tolerate them (for me it took about 3-4 weeks before I could start eating that).

There is a lot of emphasis on eating butter, ghee, and other fats as you progress through the GAPS diet. Well, for someone with GERD this is usually a bad idea. And for someone like me (erosive esophagitis and gastritis), it's a really bad idea.

I could easily write a 20-30 page essay on why the GAPS diet is not a good idea for someone with GERD, gastritis, or esophagitis, but I won't torture you with that.      It does seem to help people with IBS and Chron's disease, but those are completely different illnesses.

So my conclusion is that the GAPS diet is not good for someone who has GERD, though there are aspects of it that can be (such as homemade bone broth, introducing probiotics slowly, etc.).