GAPS Diet Chat and Support - Page 6 « Back to Group Discussions

[Abraisme]

We also had a really nice Thanksgiving.  We got invited over to a friends house last minute, which turned out to be a great time!  I bought all of the GAPS food that I made to his house and we all shared a huge meal.  I made turkey, faux-tatoes, gravy, coconut bread stuffing, and biscuts made with walnuts.   

I decided to do the intro diet this week and have it done by Christmas.  I'm on day 3 and really starting to feel like crap, so I guess it's working!  I plan on doing the whole thing in about 2 weeks.  I also cut WAY back on my probiotics, as I was constantly bloated and I think I increased things too fast.  I'm now having 3 tbs of kraut juice and 2 bio-kult caps per day.  Before I was having 9 bio-kult caps and all the fermented foods that I desired.  I'm going to ease into it slower this time, like the book suggests!  It really is easy to jump into in and go over-board with fermented foods. 

Joanie:  Yes, you can use less salt, but then you run the risk of mold.  It's a fine balance and some people do it without salt entirely, but like I said, it's much more likely to mold.  You should try small batches and see what happens.

An interesting comparison between commercial organic butter and raw grass-fed butter...  I've been making ghee now for months, I LOVE it and tend to use it in a lot of my cooking.  Anyway, I had been making it from raw grassfed butter, but this week my lady ran out, so I used organic store butter.  The color difference is amazing!  The grassfed ghee is bright and golden and the store ghee is dingy and almost brownish.  I hope she makes more butter next week, I want those vitamins!!  :)

[LunaLady]

Glad you both had fun Thanksgivings! It can be hard with a strict diet, but I'm glad we all made it work!

I decided to start making gravy for our eggs and sausage in the morning. We had some leftover last week and it was so delicious! Another great way to get broth, fats and vegetables into our diet. Yum.

Abra: Wow - you WERE taking a lot of probiotics. Why were you taking so many?? I haven't had any bloating, so I guess I know I'm not taking too much. I just take one probiotic cap a day and about 6 tablespoons of kraut juice. Plus, about 1/2-3/4 cup kraut and a pickle or two. 

Joanie: How are you doing? Have you started intro? You mentioned not being tempted when making Sora's plate - is she not doing GAPS with you? 

As for us - we're still doing great! We've been eating some really yummy stuff now that we're on full GAPS. We did jump right in and I've had a few minor tummy aches and a bit of gas here and there, but I haven't been very good about tracking exactly what's giving me upset. I think we're going to do the intro again in January for like a week and then introduce things slower. We were just getting a LITTLE tired of soup... we had soup nearly every meal for almost 6 weeks!

Anyone else doing epsom salts baths? We have been doing them and really enjoying it. It has helped us build a bedtime routine, too. Embarrassed to say that we haven't had one until we started doing the baths, and R's night time behavior has improved dramatically. Duh. We tend to take full baths (all three of us in the big bathtub) about two or three times a week and then R gets nightly baths (just water and salts, not soaping up) in his little ikea tub with just a bit of salts.

Have any of you watched this Cooking with GAPS dvd? I checked it out from the Library and we've started watching it. I think it's for real beginners, but it's fun to watch! I've made a lot of the things they demonstrate in the dvd, but I did learn a few new things. Like - you can juice cabbage and ferment that to make kraut juice! I'm really kicking myself... in my spring cleaning last year I got rid of my juicer because we never used it anymore. I'm trying to convince my husband we need to buy another one! I'll keep my eye out at Goodwill...

[Jaimee]

reCAP fermenting cap kit giveaway on my friend's blog: http://www.nwedible.com/2012/11/giveaway-farm-curious-wide-mouth-recap-fermenting-kit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NorthwestEdibleLife+%28Northwest+Edible+Life%29

I want one of these!

[birdhappy85]

Abra, this is probably a stupid question, but what color would mold look like on jarred vegetables...? How will I know if my stuff is molding?

As for probiotics, I'm taking one Biokult before bed. I was taking it in the morning and getting so drowsy and sluggish afterward, I would have to take a morning nap right away. I'm definitely not increasing it right now.

Christina, no and no. I haven't started the intro yet, and Sora isn't doing GAPS with me. I feed her kraut, probiotics, bone broths, and soups for the health benefits - but I'm not restricting her diet. I'd never be able to, between her being at daycare 4 days a week and then DH feeding her on the evenings I work and sometimes in the morning. I don't know that it's really necessary anyway?

[Abraisme]

I was taking that many probiotics, because that's how much the book recommends.  I DID increase the amount over time, but I really did it too quickly.  It should have probably taken me months to get to that many!  I read online that one lady take the equivilent of 24 bio-kult caps a day (she takes powdered).  As far as I understand it, the goal is to be taking a lot, but increasing VERY slowly.  Joanie, you might try splitting 1 cap into 3 portions and taking a bit with each meal.  I'm pretty sure that it's supposed to be taken with meals.

Joanie, it's pretty obvious when it's moldy, it tends to look white and fuzzy.  

My kids are doing 98% full GAPS, so I feel like they're getting good benefit from it.  I still allow them to eat a few whole grains here and there (popcorn, oatmeal, etc) and a tiny bit of organic sugar in an occasional treat.  They are still eating A LOT of soup by default.  While I think it's a good diet for everyone, none of my kids have any issues, so I allow some 'illegals'.  My sister however has her 10mo on full baby-gaps.  They have a TON of allergies between them and he's had really awful reflux issues since birth.  My sister also has had lymes disease, so she really wants to be sure that her son is getting the best start.

Edited by Abraisme - 11/29/12 at 9:17am

[ZippyGirl]

I have a question about probiotics.  When I looked at Bio-Kult, it looks like each capsule is about 2 billion units.  I take the equivalent of 125 billion units a day of probiotics from Ultimate Flora and Sunbiotics.  Am I taking too much?  And is there a reason why Bio-Kult, even though it has fewer units, may be more powerful (if that is the right word) than 100 billion units from Ultimate Flora?  I haven't looked super closely, but they have similar strains (Bio-Kult has two additional strains that Ultimate doesn't.  Haven't compared Bio-Kult to Sunbiotics yet.)

My sweet neighbor brought me a ton of fermented foods from her brother's fermented food shop in Berkeley (The Cultured Pickle Shop).  Last week, I hosted a big fermented foods tasting for the moms at my daughter's school (they are all really into this sort of thing).  It was so much fun...and delicious!    
 

[LunaLady]

Joanie, the only reason I assumed you'd have Sora doing GAPS, too, is just because you (like me!) have had a history of gut issues and the book does say that babies get their gut flora (either good or bad) from their mothers. That's all

I'm not sure I'll be taking that much probiotic... That would be so incredibly expensive!! I think the probiotic I'm taking is pretty potent, though. Perhaps we'll up our intake to two a day in the future.

We have R doing GAPS with us... he's a classic GAPS baby, though, I think... got my poor gut flora, had antibiotics in the NICU, had infant reflux, clear dairy allergy, etc. Hopefully starting early will help to really heal his gut and give him as good a start as we possibly could. He still hasn't had any grains, and to be honest I won't be giving him any until I just can't keep him away from them anymore.

Has anyone tried making navy bean brownies? I found a recipe to try. We decided to do 'no honey' this week seems how we had quite a bit with Thanksgiving, so I'll try it next week.

[birdhappy85]

Originally Posted by LunaLady 

Joanie, the only reason I assumed you'd have Sora doing GAPS, too, is just because you (like me!) have had a history of gut issues and the book does say that babies get their gut flora (either good or bad) from their mothers. That's all
I'm not sure I'll be taking that much probiotic... That would be so incredibly expensive!! I think the probiotic I'm taking is pretty potent, though. Perhaps we'll up our intake to two a day in the future.
We have R doing GAPS with us... he's a classic GAPS baby, though, I think... got my poor gut flora, had antibiotics in the NICU, had infant reflux, clear dairy allergy, etc. Hopefully starting early will help to really heal his gut and give him as good a start as we possibly could. He still hasn't had any grains, and to be honest I won't be giving him any until I just can't keep him away from them anymore.
Has anyone tried making navy bean brownies? I found a recipe to try. We decided to do 'no honey' this week seems how we had quite a bit with Thanksgiving, so I'll try it next week.

Oh, I wasn't trying to sound defensive in any way, if I came across that way! Sorry.  I am for sure concerned about Sora's gut flora being inherited from me.  I try to remind myself that she has both mine and DH's genes, and in that way she seems way better off than me already, in addition to the good start we've given her in so many ways. If she showed any signs of food intolerances or other health problems, I'd for sure revisit the idea of having her do GAPS with me. I'm so thankful that she has been doing so well with food. I tip the scales towards offering her GAPS-friendly foods at least. I'm populating this baby's gut with tons of probiotics, that's for sure. Ha! Now if I could just get her to stop catching so many bugs from other children, I'd be much happier. At least she fights things off well.

I wouldn't be able to take that much probiotic either, Christina! I can barely afford the minimal amount I take right now.

Abra, thanks for the suggestion, I'll start taking the probiotic with meals!

Sorry, Zippy, I don't have the answer to your question. I'm sure someone else here will have some input!

[LunaLady]

Nope, I didn't think you were being defensive Just was curious. That's great she hasn't had any food reactions. R hasn't had any besides dairy, but I'm still not entirely sure I like the idea of eating dairy, anyhow. He DOES do fine with butter, though, and my god I love butter.

Zippy, I'm sorry I don't know much about the different probiotics and stuff. I think Abra knows more!

[LunaLady]

Has anyone tried making a GAPS legal bread recipe for sandwiches? I'm not a big 'bread' person (I liked a sandwich okay, but I've never been interested in like eating a lot of them very often. Quick breads, though..... watch out!!) but I'd be interested in trying to make this recipe for trying some turkey sandwiches or fried egg sandwiches.

[Abraisme]

I actually don't understand why some probiotics have 2,000 and some have 100,000!  It seems like a huge difference to me too.  I'm pretty sure that I read that you're supposed to get to around 20,000 units per day, spread out over several meals.  The reason that bio-kult is supposed to be good is because it has human strains and dirt strains, I'm not sure which is which.  The ultimate goal is to be able to wean off of pro-biotic pills and get all of your healthy bacteria in your food.  The pills are just a jump start on over-coming bad gut flora and then perhaps you'd take them again if you had to use anti-biotics or get sick.  I see the investment as a short term thing.

I did try to make a very similar bread to that, but I turned it into stuffing for Thanksgiving.  I really didn't like it as much as the almond bread, I thought it was kind of blah.  However, it might hold together a bit better, as the almond bread is more like cake.  I will likely play with it more later.

This week we bought 1/2 of a pig.  Today I am rendering lard for the first time!  Wish me luck!  :)  I'm also trying kefir cheese, as we had way too much extra milk this week.  So far it's dripping out nicely, we'll see how it tastes later today.  Oh, and I bought 5 gallons of honey because it was nearly half price that way!  I figure it never goes bad, so why not.

[LunaLady]

I just looked and our probiotic has 30,000 units. 

That's great about the pig, Abra! Did you get all ground meat, or like bacon, chops, etc? I think next year we will be buying a chest freezer and going in on pork and beef that way. Sounds really economical. I really like US Wellness meats, but I've found that about 75% of our vacuum sealed packages have rips or holes in them. It looks to me like when they are packing them they slide them across something that catches and tears the plastic. 

When we used to buy raw milk from our milk shed co-op they had local grass fed ground beef there for $3 a pound. It was amazing. They took a whole cow and made ground beef from it all - all the cuts. It was the best ground beef ever. Just reminiscing... 

Anyway, I do need to look more into a local source of meat that is entirely grass fed. Or whatever fed for pork. Just not grain fed.

[Abraisme]

We got all the different kind of cuts.  There was 109lbs of meat and only about 11lbs of ground pork.  It all came to $4.65lb in the end, which is a way better price than retail.  This farm charges around $10lb for their pork chops and $6lb for ground, it's really worth it!  I'm having the farm cure my bacon for me with HONEY!  They are doing a special one-tine order for us, as most bacon has sugar.  I am paying $2.50lb for the curing, but it's totally worth it for something custom.  The farm I got this pig from uses pasture/rotation techniques like Polyface Farms, which produces the most delicious fatty meat.  I have an order in to purchase 1/2 a cow in January, which is a killer deal and should only come to $2.50lb!!

We go through so much meat, that I would find it hard to order everything I need from a website.  Plus, it must cost more than local?  I found most of the animals I have bought either from vendors at the farmers market or on Craigslist.

Yeah, so if you are taking 1 pill at 30,000units, then I was still taking less with all 9 of my bio-kult pills (9 = 18,000units).  I do get the impression that it's best to spread it out throughout the day, which a lower dose pill will help with.  I did see a comment somewhere that you can get powdered bio-kult (which has no fillers) and it's a way better deal.  I think I might investigate that for my next order.

Lard is super easy to render and it came out perfectly.  It's nice to have one more savory oil flavor to play with.

[birdhappy85]

What do you ladies think of detox programs? My new chiropractor thinks it would be really beneficial for me to do a Standard Process Purification Program. I am really interested in it and think it's worth trying in hopes of eliminating heavy metals and other toxins from my system. Maybe once that's complete, then I'd go right into the GAPS intro diet.

[LunaLady]

Joanie, I don't know. I don't know enough about that.

I read this blog post today and thought it interesting... food for thought!!
http://www.pvnutritionaltherapy.com/three-reasons-you-should-stop-taking-probiotics/

[Abraisme]

I would think that it isn't necessary, as the GAPS diet is naturally detoxing in a slow and healthy way.  Everything I've read says that you really can't detox and heal quickly.  As far as I understand, if you are populated with good bacteria, your body will remove heavy metals on it's own and chelate them naturally.  Maybe I would say a raw juice fast (or something similar) might be useful, but it's so individual that it's impossible for me to say.  Is the detox program pricey?  What are the results that your chiro has seen and how much faith does he/she have in it?

[ZippyGirl]

I wouldn't do a detox program while breastfeeding, especially if it involved chelation.  Juice fasting I would do later in the breastfeeding relationship, but more for maintenance and a boost rather than for detox.
 

[LunaLady]

Here's another rebellious blog post I just read! http://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/

Hmmm....

[Abraisme]

Seems good to me.  I've never been against pressure cookers, but haven't really used them all that much.  I had a huge one, but sold it when we moved.

[LunaLady]

I've just always heard that if you're a natural or traditional 'foodie' that they are bad bad bad. NT says they should be avoided. I'll need to read the studies she posts, but it seems like they are fine to use.

I'd love to be able to can more veggies, so a pressure cooker/canner would be great.