Can the GAPS Diet Heal Your Brain?

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) was proposed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with a specialty in neurology. McBride believes that many neurological and psychological conditions, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and many others,  are actually due to problems in the gut.

Broadly speaking, McBride’s theory is that intestinal permeability allows toxins to escape through the lining of the intestinal tract and into the bloodstream, where they travel to the brain and impair function. McBride has developed a dietary protocol which is intended to heal the gut, thereby clearing the toxins from the brain and restoring normal function. McBride claims to have cured her own child of autism using this protocol. 

What is the GAPS diet? 

The GAPS diet protocol begins with an elimination phase that lasts up a year. It is extremely restrictive and starts out with bone broth, fermented vegetable juice, and herbal tea.Very gradually, you introduce small amounts of other foods, including egg yolks, meat, cooked vegetables, small amounts of fruit and nut flours. But your diet consists primarily of bone broth, meat, and vegetables.

After completing the elimination phase, you enter the maintenance phase. Your diet consists of the GAPS protocol-approved foods introduced in phase one and you continue to avoid refined carbohydrates, preservatives, and artificial colorings.  This phase continues for another one to two years.

Finally, during the reintroduction phase, you are allowed to reintroduce some starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes and whole grains, but you continue to avoid all processed foods and refined carbohydrates

Obviously, you’d have to be intensely motivated to follow a regime this restrictive for this long.

Obviously, you’d have to be intensely motivated to follow a regime this restrictive for this long. Which is why the GAPS diet generally only appeals to people (or the parents of people) suffering from severe symptoms. You’d have be pretty desperate to sign on for something like this. But if it works, might if be worth it?

What’s the Evidence?

Unfortunately, there are no studies to support the...

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