Foods Allowed on the GAPS Diet

What foods are “allowed” on the GAPS Diet?

When we hear the word “diet”, we tend to have negative thoughts of “restriction”, “hunger”, “fad”, “calories”, “weight management” associated. Fortunately, this is not necessarily the case with the GAPS diet! Focusing on the foods we CAN eat, especially when making a transition to a more nourishing diet, can be much more helpful than thinking of all the foods we no longer want to put in our bodies.

The good news, is the GAPS diet is bursting with incredibly satiating foods. I try to make every recipe something our whole family will love while also providing deep nutrition for our bodies. Sometimes this means re-creating a recipe with more nourishing ingredient substitutes, and sometimes this means experimenting with new foods. I have found that in the case of the GAPS Diet, we can have our cake and eat it too! Speaking of cake, check out our favorite cake recipe here– Gaps Diet and Picky Eater Approved!

What Foods Can I Eat on the Gaps Diet?

We can enjoy countless varieties of meals and recipes on the full GAPS diet (to learn more about the diet, see this post), using the following foods allowed on the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome book, pages 159-167). To print or download this list for easy reference to keep in your kitchen, click here.

• Almonds, including almond butter and oil
• Apples
• Apricots, fresh or dried
• Artichoke, French
• Asiago cheese
• Asparagus
• Aubergine (eggplant)
• Avocados, including avocado oil
• Bananas (ripe only with brown spots on the skin)
• Beans, dried white (navy), string beans and lima beans properly prepared
• Beef, fresh or frozen
• Beets or beetroot
• Berries, all kinds
• 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 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
• 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 oil
• Game, fresh or frozen
• Garlic
• Ghee, homemade (many store varieties contain non-allowed ingredients)
• 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 Introduction Diet has been completed)
• Shellfish, fresh or frozen
• Spices, single and pure without any additives
• Spinach
• Squash (summer and winter)
• Stilton cheese
• String beans
• Swedes
• Swiss cheese
• Tangerines
• Tea, weak, freshly made, not instant
• Tomato puree, pure without any additives apart from salt
• Tomato juice, without any additives apart from salt
• Tomatoes
• Turkey, fresh or frozen
• Turnips
• Ugly fruit
• 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)

What Foods Should I Avoid On The GAPS Diet?

• Acesulphame
• Acidophilus milk
• Agar-agar
• Agave syrup – main carbohydrate is a complex form of fructose
• Algae – can aggravate an already disturbed immune system
• Aloe Vera  (go to “FAQs” for more information on when it can be introduced)
• Amaranth – is a grain substitute, contains starches
• Apple juice (commercially prepared)
• Arrowroot (is a mucilaginous herb and loaded with starch)
• Aspartame
• 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 issues, view the “FAQs” section)
• Balsamic vinegar (most found in stores have added sugar)
• Barley
• Bean flour and sprouts
• Bee pollen – irritating to a damaged gut
• Beer
• 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 – is seaweed and high in polysaccharides
• 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
• Chick peas
• Chickory root – contains high amounts of FOS
• Chocolate
• Cocoa powder – see “FAQs” for more information
• Coffee, instant and coffee substitutes
• Cooking 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 limited)
• Fruit, canned or preserved
• Garbanzo beans
• Gjetost cheese
• Grains, all
• Gruyere cheese
• Ham
• Hot dogs
• Ice-cream, commercial
• Jams
• Jellies
• Jerusalem artichoke
• Ketchup, commercially available
• Lactose
• Liqueurs
• Margarines and butter replacements
• Meats, processed, preserved, smoked and salted
• Millet
• Milk from any animal, soy, rice, canned coconut milk
• 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
• Pectin
• Postum
• Potato white
• Potato sweet
• Primost cheese
• Quinoa – 60% starch
• Rice
• Ricotta cheese
• Rye
• Saccharin
• Sago
• Sausages, commercially available
• Semolina
• Sherry
• Soda soft drinks
• Sour cream, commercial
• 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
• Yams
• Yogurt, commercial

To print or download this list for easy reference to keep in your kitchen, click here.

How to Cook With Whole Food Ingredients?

If you are just getting familiar with the GAPS diet, whole foods cooking, or transitioning from the standard American diet, know that I was once there. If I can do this, so can you! Our family has been so blessed by these changes.

What questions and goals do you have for meal plans and healthier eating? Comment below!

Resources

• I made the free, short e-book: 10 Steps to an Easier Diet Overhaul – A How To Guide For Families With Picky Eaters. It is a downloadable and printable, and I’ve created it based on the transition steps our family took as we made a *system* out of healthy eating. When we have a meal/eating system, it removes the overwhelm!
• Check out our family favorite whole foods recipes here. I have shared from our go to recipe meal systems, and most of these can be made in large batches, frozen for future meal use, and picky eater approved! They all contain foods allowed on the GAPS diet.
• If you haven’t read the official Gut and Psychology Syndrome book by Dr. Natasha McBride, I highly recommend it for the science behind the healing power of this way of eating.

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