Full GAPS Diet Food List

Note: This is a list for people who are on the FULL GAPS Diet. If you want more information about the Intro Phases and the Carnivore/No Plant GAPS Diets, then stay tuned because I have content coming about that soon. I highly suggest joining my Weekly Digest Newsletter so you don’t miss when they go live!

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. If you are interested in trying GAPS or anything I mention in my blogs or videos, please consult a practitioner first. I’m just a dude sharing my journey and what I’m learning along the way.

G’day Gut Gang! 👋

If you’ve been following my videos on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook… all the things… then you’ll know that I’m working my way towards the ‘Full GAPS Diet’.

Starting on the Carnivore/GAPS Diet has been perfect for my sensitive body, and as I’m able to I’ll be introducing more foods.

The eventual goal is to be able to safely eat all the foods on the ‘Full GAPS Friendly Food List’. I’ve had friends that had chronic health issues, went through the different intro phases on the GAPS diet, healed their body and eventually ended up on the Full GAPS Diet.

Some moved onto being able to eat more ‘normal’ and include potatoes, grains, and other fun stuff that I miss… While others prefer to stay on Full GAPS. It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve

What Is The Full GAPS Diet Tho? 🤔

I’m glad you asked. Firstly, I recommend reading the book ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ or ‘Gut and Physiology Syndrome’ by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride. It will give you so much context that I can’t. Her work is incredible and it’s helped me more than anything else I have tried in my 14 year health journey.

Long story short, it’s a similar to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), keto/primal/paleo protocols… but with a stronger focus on gut healing through different phases.

The GAPS Diet is a largely an animal-based diet focused on meat stocks/broths, meat on the bone, organs, eggs (when tolerated), fermented dairy (if tolerated) plus boiled and/or fermented vegetables and foods. (I’ll do a proper longer post and YouTube video on The GAPS Diet soon, but this is just a quick run-down)

The intention is to heal the gut through these different means. Different people at different stages of the GAPS Diet will be able to tolerate other things too – such as baked goodies made from nut/seed flour, and fruit too… but ideally these things are consumed in moderation.

Essentially you’re avoiding grains, sugar, seed oils, processed foods, refined carbs, artificial/additive crap and all starchy foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, parsnips…

Some people stay on Full-GAPS for 18-24 months before they are ready to move on, however others stay on it for longer.

While some people can eat Full-GAPS, others will need to go through the 6 stages of the Intro Diet at their own pace, or do a modified version of GAPS like the Carnivore/No Plant-GAPS, Keto GAPS etc.

Just like special old me.

But the goal for me is to move towards the Full-GAPS. It could take me a year or two before I get there… but I know that by the time I reach it, that my body will be in a tremendously good space. I am prepared!!

Anyway, I’ve pulled this list from the official GAPS book just incase there are people who don’t have access to the book or wanna google it.

You’ll find the list of foods that are OK, and foods that are NOT. I recommend listening to Dr Natasha. She knows what’s up and has successfully supported tens of thousands of people with this.

Anyways, onto the lists!

✅ FULL GAPS FRIENDLY FOOD LIST (RECOMMENDED)

For a fully detailed guide of the Full GAPS Diet and why Dr Natasha recommends these foods and says to avoid the ‘avoid list, I hiiiighly recommend reading the ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ book OR the ‘Gut and Physiology Syndrome’ book. They are the bibles of modern day gut health.
 

• Almonds, including almond butter and almond oil
• Apples
• Apricots, fresh or dried
• Artichoke, French
• Asiago cheese
• Asparagus
• Eggplant (aubergine)
• Avocados, including avocado oil
• Bananas (ripe only with brown spots on the skin, as green are starchier)
• Beans, dried white (navy), string beans and lima beans properly prepared
• Beef, fresh or frozen
• Beetroot or beets
• Berries, all kinds as tolerated
• Black, white and red pepper: ground and pepper corns
• Black radish
• Blue cheese
• Bok Choy
• Brazil nuts
• Brick cheese
• Brie cheese
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Butter
• Cabbage
• Camembert cheese
• Canned fish in olive oil or water only
• Capers
• Carrots
• Cashew nuts, fresh only
• Cauliflower
• Cayenne pepper
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Cellulose in supplements
• Cheddar cheese
• Cherimoya (custard apple or sharifa)
• Cherries
• Chicken, fresh or frozen
• Cinnamon
• Citric acid
• Coconut, fresh or dried (shredded) without any additives
• Coconut milk (pure, nothing added)
• Coconut oil
• Coffee, weak and freshly made, not instant
• Collard greens
• Colby cheese
• Courgette (zucchini)
• Coriander, fresh or dried
• Cucumber
• Dates, fresh or dried without any additives (not soaked in syrup)
• Dill, fresh or dried
• Duck, fresh or frozen
• Edam cheese
• Eggplant (aubergine)
• Eggs, fresh filberts
• Fish, fresh or frozen, canned in its juice or olive oil
• Game, fresh or frozen
• Garlic
• Ghee.- homemade is best, but pure storebought is fine too.
• Gin, occasionally
• Ginger root, fresh
• Goose, fresh or frozen
• Gorgonzola cheese
• Gouda cheese
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Haricot beans, properly prepared
• Havarti cheese
• Hazelnuts
• Herbal teas
• Herbs, fresh or dried without additives
• Honey, natural
• Juices (freshly pressed from permitted fruit and vegetables)
• Kale
• Kiwi fruit
• Kumquats
• Lamb, fresh or frozen
• Poultry, fresh or frozen
• Prunes, (dried without any additives or in their own juice)
• Pumpkin
• Quail, fresh or frozen
• Raisins
• Rhubarb
• Roquefort cheese
• Romano cheese
• Satsumas
• Scotch, occasionally
• Seaweed fresh and dried (once Intro Diet has been completed)
• Shellfish, fresh or frozen
• Spices, single and pure
• Spinach
• Squash (summer and winter)
• Stilton cheese
• String beans
• Swedes
• Swiss cheese
• Tangerines
• Tea, weak, freshly made, not instant
• Tomato puree, salted or unsalted is ok
• Tomato juice, without any additives apart from salt
• Tomatoes
• Turkey, fresh or frozen
• Turnips
• Ugly fruit (yes there is a fruit called the ugly fruit lol)
• Uncreamed cottage cheese (dry curd)
• Vinegar (cider or white); make sure there is no allergy
• Vodka, very occasionally
• Walnuts
• Watercress
• White navy beans, properly prepared
• Wine dry: red or white
• Yogurt, homemade
• Zucchini (courgette)

🚫 FOODS TO AVOID ON GAPS LIST

If you’re wanting to get the most out of GAPS, I would avoid these with a passion. Treat your life like it depends on you staying away from this stuff – because it kinda does!

I’ll be sharing recipes with alternatives to some of this stuff soon, but in the meantime there are plenty of recipes in the GAPS books.
 

• Acesulphame
• Acidophilus milk
• Agar-agar
• Agave syrup – the main carb is a complex form of fructose
• Algae – can aggravate an already disturbed immune system
• Aloe Vera  (refer to the GAPS books for more info on when it can be re-introduced)
• Amaranth – is a grain substitute, contains starches
• Apple juice (from concentrate and commercially prepared ones suck)
• Arrowroot (is a mucilaginous herb and loaded with starch)
• Aspartame – avoid for eternity
• Astragalus – contains polysaccharides
• Baked beans
• Baker’s yeast – contains saccharamyces cerevisae
• Baking powder and raising agents of all kind (baking soda can be used for specific medical/health issues too, just check out the FAQ section in the GAPS book)
• Balsamic vinegar (most found in stores have added sugar and heaps of other garbage)
• Barley
• Bean flour and sprouts
• Bee pollen – can be irritating to a damaged gut
• Beer
• Beyond Burgers 💀💀
• Bhindi or okra
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Bitter Gourd
• Black-eye beans
• Bologna
• Bouillon cubes or granules
• Brandy
• Buckwheat
• Bulgur
• Burdock root – contains FOS and mucilage
• Butter beans
• Buttermilk
• Canellini beans
• Canned vegetables and fruit
• Carob
• Carrageenan – it’s a seaweed and high in polysaccharides, plus can be damaging for the gut
• Cellulose gum
• Cereals, including all breakfast cereals
• Cheeses, processed and cheese spreads
• Chestnuts and chestnut flour
• Chevre cheese
• Chewing gum – contain sugars or sugar substitutes, I would even stay away from chewing gum with stevia or xylitol
• Chick peas
• Chickory root – contains high amounts of FOS
• Chocolate
• Cocoa powder – see FAQs” for more information
• Coffee, instant and coffee substitutes. Unless it’s mould free coffee going in your butt with your enemas lol
• Cooking oils – avoid all seed oils
• Cordials
• Corn
• Cornstarch
• Corn syrup
• Cottage cheese
• Cottonseed
• Cous-cous
• Cream – contains lactose
• Cream of Tartar
• Cream cheese
• Dextrose – in commercial products it is not the pure form
• Drinks, soft
• Faba beans
• Feta cheese
• Fish, preserved, smoked, salted, breaded and canned with sauces
• Flour, made out of grains
• FOS (fructooligosaccharides)
• Fructose – as an additive (naturally occurring in fruit and honey is allowed but must be kept to a limit)
• Fruit, canned or preserved
• Garbanzo beans
• Gjetost cheese
• Grains, all
• Gruyere cheese
• Ham
• Hot dogs
• Ice-cream, commercial trash
• Impossible burgers 💀💀
• Jams
• Jellies
• Jerusalem artichoke (starchy)
• Ketchup, commercially available stuff – full of rubbish… make your own!
• Lactose
• Liqueurs
• Margarines and butter replacements
• Meats, processed, preserved, smoked and salted
• Millet
• Milk… From any animal, soy, rice, oat, grain, and canned coconut milk with additives
• Milk, dried
• Molasses
• Mozzarella cheese
• Mungbeans
• Neufchatel cheese
• Nutra-sweet (aspartame)
• Nuts, salted, roasted and coated
• Oats
• Okra – mucilaginous food
• Parsnips
• Pasta, of any kind. Sad face. Unless it’s cooked zucchini pasta!
• Pectin
• Postum
• Potato white. Another sad face.
• Potato sweet
• Primost cheese
• Quinoa – it’s like 60% starch
• Rice
• Ricotta cheese
• Rye
• Saccharin
• Sago
• Sausages, commercially available ones are full of rubbish and preservatives. Try get a good one with natural casing.
• Semolina
• Sherry
• Soda soft drinks
• Sour cream, commercially made
• Soy
• Spelt
• Starch
• Sugar or sucrose of any kind
• Tapioca – starch
• Tea, instant
• Triticale
• Turkey loaf
• Vegetables – canned or preserved
• Wheat
• Wheat germ
• Whey, powder or liquid. No whey protein shakes, sorry bro.
• Yams
• Yogurt, commercial

So you’ve now probably come to the conclusion that your life is over because you can’t have your favourite foods.

Well that’s not entirely true…

There are lots of things you CAN eat, so lets focus on those.

I have plenty of recipes coming, but you can start with the GAPS book recipes, and also find a bunch of recipe books online or Amazon.

p.s. If you’d like to be informed when more Recipes, Tips, Videos and Info come out about the GAPS or Carnivore Diet… then I invite you to join my Newsletter – the Weekly Digest – with the link down below!