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Our New GAPS Diet Adventure

In January, I read an article on Mercola.com about the connection between gut disorders and numerous brain symptoms such as learning disorders, mental health issues, and autism. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/29/probiotics-for-good-digestive-health.aspx I was astonished to learn there was a connection. Our lives have been marked, over the years, by serious digestive disorders such as IBS, Crohn's Disease, diarrhea, Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, and Acid Reflux. And,... our lives have been marked by four children with dyslexia, one severe, two with speech issues such as stuttering and pronunciation issues, at least one with high-functioning autism and asperger's, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, and mental health issues ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, trichotillomania, disassociative disorder, Tourette syndrome in at least three.

In the article, Dr. Mercola talks about a book called Gut and Psychology Syndrome. The author of this book used Primal Defense and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to heal her son of autism! Well, I have heard of both of those! The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is the diet that Jordan Rubin used to get well in addition to Primal Defense. I have essentially been on this diet for ten years, but never wanted to impose the diet upon my family because of its prohibition of grains and sugar. It wasn't until reading this article and the book, that I realized that our family is definitely a GAPS family.

People get dysbiosis from receiving too many antibiotics that kill off their good bacteria. When a mother who has intestinal dysbiosis, like myself, gives birth, her children are innoculated with the bacteria that the mother has. So if the balance of bad bacteria outweighs the good, as in dysbiosis, then the child gets that as well. This sets them up for a lifetime of dysbiosis and the whole host of problems seen in the GAPS syndrome.

In dysbiosis, grains and sugars are not properly digested because of the damaged intestinal lining. These undigested foods become food for the pathogenic bacteria. The bad bacteria proliferate, and give off poisonous substances that damage the intestinal lining and the brain. The GAPS diet eliminates these, and provides gut healing foods. Strong probiotics are also used to help move out the bad bacteria causing symptoms. Unfortunately, I have learned, that it is impossible to completely overcome dysbiosis, and when probiotics are stopped, and bad foods are eaten again, the problems will come back with a vengeance.

I believe our problem is complicated by some nasty parasites as well that also spew poison, suck blood and food from us, and incredibly hard for some of us to eradicate.

We are going to begin the new diet on March 11, 2013. For the last couple months I have been trying to use up all the items that are not on the diet. These are all grains and starches and all disaccharide sugars such white sugar. From now on we will have only meats, 24 hour fermented dairy, vegetables, fruits, nuts and honey as a sweetener. I have also spent the last two months stocking up on all the food we will need which are things like nut flours to make breads, fruit juices, bones for making soup, dried fruits and legal snack bars. I have been learning to make a new kind of kefir, saurkraut, dried fruit, and numerous other things.

I know it will be very hard. The food will be hard to get used to, and the die-off from the probiotic will be difficult as well. But from my background of understanding on this, I really think it might work for us. May God help us!