I've been having a hard time getting my head around what exactly you're allowed to eat during each stage of the introductory diet. So I thought I'd reread through the book and type it up in list form. I'm also not clear on when you move from one stage to the other. So I'll make notes on that as well.
Stage One
• Homemade meat or fish stock. (Do not use bouillon cubes!) Include joints and bones when making.
• Unprocessed salt (such as Real Salt from Utah)
• Peppercorns (roughly crushed into soup but later removed)
• Homemade soups using that homemade meat or fish stock.
• Veggies: Onions, carrots, broccoli, leeks, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, etc. Avoid fibrous vegetables such as cabbage and celery. Also to avoid fiber remove skin and seeds from squash and don't include stalks of broccoli and cauliflower. Cook vegetables well until they're very soft.
• Garlic (cooked for much less time than the veggies)
• Probiotic foods: in this stage, only include the juice from homemade sauerkraut, fermented vegetables or vegetable medley. Don't include the vegetables themselves yet. Only add probiotic juice after food has cooled slightly so you don't kill off the good bacteria.
• If there is no reaction to dairy then include whey, sour cream, yoghurt and kefir (all should be homemade so the probiotics haven't been pasteurized out), especially for those suffering from diarrhea. Caution should be taken, however, with people suffering from constipation. They should focus on the probiotic vegetable juices and avoid the dairy sourced probiotics.
• Ginger tea, mint or camomile tea with a little honey between meals. Use fresh or frozen ginger root.
Transition point: As best I can tell, the transition point from stage one to stage two is when diarrhea or constipation is gone. So I'm not sure what that means for the person going into stage one without either problem. I did read in one blog that you shouldn't stay in stage one for longer than a week. It sounds like many people spend less time than that in stage one.
Stage Two - Anything that you were able to eat in stage one, plus the following...
• Raw organic egg yolks carefully separated from the egg white. Start with one a day and eventually add to every bowl of soup and every cup of meat stock. Once raw egg yolk is well tolerated, add soft boiled eggs to soups (whites cooked, yolks runny).
• Stews and casseroles made with meats and vegetables.
• Fresh herbs
• Keep increasing amounts of probiotics (sauerkraut juice, whey, etc.) daily
• Introduce fermented fish (Swedish gravlax) starting with one small piece a day.
• Introduce homemade ghee (or use Purity Farms Organic Ghee which can be bought in stores). Even if you are unable to tolerate other dairy at this point, it is likely that ghee will be tolerated.
Transition point: I guess it's whenever you feel like you're ready to move on - that your digestive system is doing OK with what you've eaten so far and it feels OK to try some new things.
Stage Three - Anything that you were able to eat in stages one and two, plus the following...
• Ripe avocado - starting with a small amount and increasing as it's well tolerated
• Pancakes (Do a little dance of joy at this point! No more soup for breakfast!) Start with one pancake a day and gradually increase the number. The pancakes should be made with organic nut butters, eggs, and squash (with seeds removed). There's a recipe for this type of pancakes at the end of this post by Erin, of Plan to Eat, on stage three of the GAPS diet (which was her fourth week of the intro diet).
• Eggs scrambled with plenty of ghee or goose or pork or duck fat. Serve with avocado and cooked veggies.
• Cooked onion cooked in ghee or animal fat. Cook for 20-30 minutes on very low heat until translucent.
• Sauerkraut and fermented veggies. Start small and increase amounts.
Stage Four - Anything that you were able to eat in stages one, two, and three, plus the following...
• Roasted or grilled meats. (Remember that everything before this point has been boiled in soup or broth.) This does not mean BBQ'd or deep fried. Avoid burned or overly browned bits.
• Cold pressed olive oil added to every meal. Start with a few drops per meal and work your way up to 1 - 2 tablespoons per meal. Don't cook with the olive oil. Just sprinkle it right on top of your food.
• Freshly pressed juices. Start with a few spoonfuls of carrot juice, filtered and diluted with warm water. Gradually increase to a cup a day. Once a full cup of carrot juice is well tolerated, begin to add celery, cabbage, lettuce and fresh mint leaves. Juice should be drunk on an empty stomach.
• Bread made from ground almonds or any other ground nuts and/or seeds. The recipe should include nut flour, eggs, squash (deseeded) and some natural fat (ghee, animal fat or coconut oil) and salt to taste. Start with a small piece a day and gradually increase.
Stage Five - You know the routine. All the old stuff plus this new stuff...
• Cooked apple - pureed. Peal first. Add ghee or animal fat. As always, start slow and gradually increase amounts. If the apples are too sour, you can add a bit of honey.
• Add raw veggies starting with the soft bits of lettuce and peeled cucumber. If those go well, add carrots, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, etc. If diarrhea returns, you're not ready for this step.
• Fruit juice - if the veggie juice is being tolerated, try a bit of apple, pineapple or mango juice. Avoid citrus.
Stage Six - This is the transition stage where you move into the Full GAPS diet.
• Peeled raw apple. Gradually introduce raw fruit and more honey.
• Gradually introduce baked cakes and other sweet things that are allowed on the full diet. Use dried fruit as a sweetener when baking.
Transition Information - Ah ha! After the 6th stage Dr. Natasha gives a better sense of when to transition from one stage to another. She says, "Most indicative are abdominal pain and the stool changes: let the pain and diarrhoea start clearing before moving to the next stage." I guess that means that as long as you don't have abdominal pain and poopy issues, you're ready to level up. She also warns that people with constipation problems may actually get worse on this diet without fiber, so she recommends "regular enemas or colonic irrigation." ... I think if I suggest to one of my teenagers that they receive an enema or colonic irrigation, they'll run away from home. We might just want to run through the diet a little faster in order to get back to fiber-land.
Soups and meat stocks should be happening every day throughout the introductory diet and even once you're into the full diet, there's supposed to be at least one serving a day. (Oh yay. ...says my vegetarian self who is very much not looking forward to such a meatful diet. *sigh*)
According to pages like this one in Journey to Food that Gives Life, tomatoes, mushrooms, and honey are legal from the beginning. I don't see that in the part of Natasha's book that describes the introductory diet, but perhaps it's been gleaned from other parts of the book that I haven't gotten to yet.
(The photo at the top is of veggies that my father-in-law is fermenting.)
I've found another helpful list of what you can eat when on the GAPS Intro diet from the Well Fed Homestead.
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