Summary

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.

Library Journal Review

Mind the GAPS! GAPS stands for either "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" or "Gut and Physiology Syndrome." In either case, the GAPS diet is meant to address mental health and physical issues that arise from "leaky gut" and abnormal stomach bacteria. This combination cookbook and guide provides a road map and tools for those attempting to improve their intestinal biome. Beginning with a strict introductory program that also serves as an allergen screening tool, readers who choose to follow certified holistic health counselor Boynton and nutritionist Brackett's program start with a severely limited diet and then add specific food categories every few days for about a month. After this initial period, the authors recommend a less restrictive (but still fairly limiting) diet to be followed for at least two years. Meat, eggs, and coconut products are heavily featured, so cholesterol may be an issue for some. VERDICT Not for the fainthearted, this serious dietary regime will nonetheless be embraced by those who feel they have not been helped by other medical solutions. Purchase where there is interest.-Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.