The Heal Your Gut Cookbook: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS Diet

by Natasha Campbell-McBride, Hilary Boynton, Mary G. Brackett

With more than two hundred straightforward, nutrient-dense, and appealing recipes, The Heal Your Gut Cookbook was created by GAPS Diet experts Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett to help heal your gut and to manage the illnesses that stem from it.

Developed by pioneering British MD Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who provides the book's Foreword, Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) refers to disorders, including ADD/ADHD, autism, addictions, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, stemming from or exacerbated by leaky gut and dysbiosis. GAPS also refers to chronic gut-related physical conditions, including celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type one, and Crohn's disease, as well as asthma, eczema, allergies, thyroid disorders, and more. An evolution of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the GAPS Diet will appeal to followers of the Paleo Diet, who are still struggling for optimum health, as well as anyone interested in the health benefits of fermentation or the Weston A. Price approach to nutrition.

In The Heal Your Gut Cookbook, readers will learn about the key cooking techniques and ingredients that form the backbone of the GAPS Diet: working with stocks and broths, soaking nuts and seeds, using coconut, and culturing raw dairy. The authors offer encouraging, real-life perspectives on the life-changing improvements to the health of their families by following this challenging, but powerful, diet.

The GAPS Diet is designed to restore the balance between beneficial and pathogenic intestinal bacteria and seal the gut through the elimination of grains, processed foods, and refined sugars and the carefully sequenced reintroduction of nutrient-dense foods, including bone broths, raw cultured dairy, certain fermented vegetables, organic pastured eggs, organ meats, and more.

The Heal Your Gut Cookbook is a must-have if you are following the GAPS Diet, considering the GAPS Diet, or simply looking to improve your digestive health and--by extension--your physical and mental well-being.

Genres: Cookbooks, Health, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Nutrition, Reference

302 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2014

About the author

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride holds a degree in Medicine and Postgraduate degrees in both Neurology and Human Nutrition. In her clinic in Cambridge she specializes in nutrition for children and adults with behavioral and learning disabilities, and adults with digestive and immune system disorders.

Dr. Campbell-McBride set up The Cambridge Nutrition Clinic in 1998. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning disabilities, she was acutely aware of the difficulties facing other parents like her, and she has devoted much of her time to helping these families. She realized that nutrition played a critical role in helping children and adults to overcome their disabilities, and has pioneered the use of probiotics in this field.

She believes that the link between learning disabilities, the food and drink that we take, and the condition of our digestive system is absolute, and the results of her work have supported her position on this subject. In her clinic, parents discuss all aspects of their child's condition, confident in the knowledge that they are not only talking to a professional but to a parent who has lived their experience. Her deep understanding of the challenges they face puts her advice in a class of its own.

from http://gapsdiet.com/

Reviews

[Elizabeth Luscomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book did not work out for my family's lifestyle, I do highly recommend this book to others looking to heal their body with the use of food. The book is well written, educational, and beautifully illustrated. I think it can help many. :)

However...I purchased this book in hopes to heal my sons eczema.

The book is heavy on the meats and dairy. We don't enjoy eating very much meat, my son is allergic to eggs, and dairy happens to be what he is sensitive towards.

I ultimately changed our diet to a plant based lifestyle and it has cleared up my sons eczema beautifully.
Although this book didn't work for our family's lifestyle, I do think what it offers can help so many others who lean more towards eating meats/dairy/vegetables.

[Exina]

DNF at 31%, no rating.

Homemade everything (milk, butter, flour, yogurt, ghee) - I don't have time for this.
The recipes are nothing I haven't seen before - the point is to use healthy ingredients.

[Shannon Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my line of work selling grassfed meat, I am always crossing paths with folks who are on a quest to regain their health through nutrient-dense foods. Those hardest hit by the effects of the Standard American Diet are often faced with the GAPS diet (an acronym for Gut And Psychology Syndrome). This diet is advocated for everything from diabetes and epilepsy to autism spectrum disorders, food sensitivities, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and myriad autoimmune diseases. The basic premise is that all health begins in the gut.

And I've seen countless customers who are confronting this diet for the first time greett me at the farm stand with drooping shoulders, hung heads, and other signs of despair. Nobody wants to go through this.

...Until now. Quite frankly, in spite of my years of familiarity with nutrient-dense eating, this book inspires and excites me. I want to play with it, to spend time better understanding the concepts within it. My fire is stoked to once again seek ways to improve my family's diet. The photography is enticing, the writing inviting, and the meals appetizing. I know that, among my readers, there are those of you who are faced this holiday season with the seemingly austere restrictions of a GAPS diet. This book MUST be your gift.

[Shendoah · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, this is a very beautiful cookbook. The pictures are colorful, vibrant, and appropriately placed near the actual recipe.

The recipes and instructions are found on the same page. It drives me nuts when the ingredients to a recipe are on one page, and the directions are on a separate page.

From a general population perspective, this makes it easy to use.

Now if you follow GAPS, you will love this. If you are new to GAPS, and wonder what I am referring to, read the book to learn more about healing yourself and your family. The nutritional protocols have helped recover many from food allergies, auto-immune disorders, digestive disorders, mental health struggles, and autism spectrum disorders.

If you are just starting GAPS, this book is laid out with recipes for each stage of Intro. What to add, when to add it, and tips on how to follow the protocol for each and every stage. Recipes for Full GAPS protocols follow after the Intro recipes. Full GAPS recipes are broken into the usual logical sections. Fish, Beef, Chicken, condiments, salads, etc. There are recipes for juicing at stage 4 and 5.

If you are an old hand at cooking for GAPS nutritional protocols, this is a lovely book with some great ideas. It never hurts to get some new ideas, learn a new favorite. If you are done with GAPS, chances are, just like most graduates, you've kept a lot of the GAPS favorites in your family's meal rotation, because they are just that good. These recipes are simple, healthy, and promise to be very tasty.

I can't wait to get cooking!

[Tif · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must have cook book for anyone using the GAPS diet or indeed just wishes to eat hearty homemade goodness which your body will thank you for.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great honey BBQ sauce recipe

[Adrianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors did an amazing job of taking a complex and confusing and unpalatable diet plan and organizing it in a way that made sense and had surprisingly appetizing recipes. The pictures are gorgeous, the anecdotes are helpful, and the lists of allowed foods for each stage are indispensable. They even detail how to make your own yogurt, almond/coconut flours, and nut butters. I highly recommend this cookbook for those interested in the GAPS Diet plan.

[Mwalkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The information is explicit, easy to understand, and delightfully illustrated. A must have for people who realize they need to heal their gut. The GAPS book tells why one needs to heal their gut. This book tells how.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful cook book,very informative and lots of great easy to make recipes. Not extravagant!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think a lot of these recipes are for a beginner cook. The recipes I tried though, I liked.

[Jeanene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great information and recipes. I have a lot of sources and resources to help me learn more. This may be one to purchase eventually.

[Mary Curran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent cookbook and rule book for the GAPS Diet. Wish I would have read this 30 years ago. Fantastic recipes and lists of what you can have at each f the 6 stages.

[Deidrah Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some recipies were not as strict as I wanted for the Intro Stages, but overall a very useful book. I bought a copy for my very own! The photos and instructions are easy to follow and very helpful.

[lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

I'm not a good chef mama, with this book i. I'm able to serve things i never imagine before. Healthy yet yummy

[Gretchen Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great recipes, even some family not on GAPs liked the recipes.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good recipes. I am skeptical about any diet that restricts some vegetables (chickpeas? Sweet potato? I’m keeping those) but the recipes are nice.

[Dawn Younger · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than just a cookbook, this book has great explanations about the GAPS diet and how to go about each stage. It is much more concise and easier to follow than “Gut and Physiology Syndrome” (see my review of that book). The personal stories the authors share are encouraging as well. I haven’t tried the recipes yet since I just read the book today, but the recipes are very well written, and there are beautiful pictures of the foods as well as the processes for making some things that are not familiar to everyone.

[Elana Boise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this cookbook is really great just for the information regarding gut health and the recipes for homemade sauces, broths and fermented foods. The diet itself, however, is not only daunting but sounds so awful I think I would rather have the leaky gut its trying to prevent. To each their own, and while this was helpful, I think I'll just be utilizing it in a much more casual way.

[Mskychick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somebody recommended this book to me for GAPS soups. Except there’s no darn soup chapter 😡 . There is no list of recipes either, in the table of contents nor in any index, which is just damned dumb for a cookbook.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book breaks down GAPS protocol into a somple way that is easy to underatand and also has some really great recipes for each of the stages of GAPS. I definately plan to hold on to this book and keep it around for a very long time. I love this book and the recipes are awesome!

[Leahlady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, lots of food lists and recipes, but doesn't really provide the background info on how/why. If you want to understand more about this eating plan, you need to read the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS diet) book first.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource for GAPS diet. The beginning sets you up with all of the essential knowledge in words and pictures to execute this way of eating and the recipes that follow. Love it!

[Gail Coffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful information and recipes. Recommend for anyone dealing with food allergies, especially gluten issues, but not limited to gluten.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

not very allergy-friendly (many recipes use eggs, nuts, coconut, dairy) but perhaps this will help someone else.

[Julie Gentile · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook includes engaging images and practical recipes to help heal the gut (and the body) and boost the good bacteria in the belly.

[Carola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am definitely going to prepare a whole jar of fermented mustard 🤤✨🥄

[Stephie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource. Some of the information conflicts with the actual GAPS books, but still worth having in your collection.

[Shirin Reh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could’ve been shorter but still has useful information
The recipes feel a bit hard for a beginner to cooking

[Paige Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much helpful information and tasty looking recipes! Looking forward to trying out several of these meals. The photographs in the book are so beautiful as well!

[Sian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Good recipes and explanations of cooking methods. Full color pics of step by step directions for making broth, soaking nuts, making nut milk, fermenting, making butter, etc..
I think having this book on hand would be good for those who are pursuing a traditional foods diet or even for those meat eaters who have had a bout of the intestinal flu and need some gentle foods while healing. I would keep this on hand just for reference.