Difference between Paleo and Gaps diet?

Can someone tell me the differences between the Gaps diet and the Paleo diet? Ive been researching them both and they look almost identical. Are there any major or minor differences?

the paleo jumps straight in there and attempts to cut out all grains/starches/ non-fruit sugars from the start and certainly the gaps diet does similar.

The big differences are the introduction diet:

http://gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html

which is about starthing the healing process of the gut.

Also fermented foods and the use of probiotics are huge huge HUGE.
Real bone stocks are probably one of the best things you can drink i can really feel the difference.

However I made the mistake of jumping in head first and consumed way too much fat which really doesnt suit me. But the 'diet' (lifestyle) has given me some new foods that are a great addition. Like every single diet out there, everything isnt for everyone. I still eat half a cup of brown rice a day. It just suits me.

the book is quite a good read but you prob get most of the stuff on the website.

I second lambjay.

GAPS ROXXXZ!

I would eat fruit and some white rice and similar. GAPS doesn't have to be devoid of carbs.

I'd be implementing it fully if it wasn't for my current situation, have little time and no space

But will do as soon as I can.


Good luck

nuts and seeds are acceptable on the Paleo type of diets. Almonds, walnuts and olive oils etc seem to be used a lot right? Is this also the case with the GAPS diet? It seems like now people keep saying that you should only consume saturated fats. Almonds have been a staple in my diet for quite some time and nuts just seem to make sense from a "caveman" point of view I guess. Man, Im really confusing myself. I want to find a diet that can help to fix my gut while also allowing me to consume enough calories that I have energy to exercise and not completely shrink. Im not that big really 5'11 180-185lbs lean.

I'm on GAPS fully with no cheats. The idea of GAPS is to consume easily digestible foods (monosaccharide sugars only - no grains/starch, sucrose, lactose) and include lots of nutrient dense animal fats/meat and veg). Organ meats should become a staple. Ripe fruit is allowed (contains mostly the mono sugar fructose). All seeds and nuts are permitted on the 'full' gaps dietary list, but they are regarded as 'advanced' foods because they are relatively hard to digest. The gut should be (quickly) healed via the intro part of the program which strictly limits the diet to very few food groups.

Supplemental probiotics are optional, but preferred and meat/bone broths play a big part. Fermented foods are essential, but you have to make these yourself. These 'new' fermented foods help to replace the foods you have to give up. Kimchi is excellent and fermented fish is surprisingly good.

I found giving up grains and non fermented dairy very easy. Once you learn about the lack of nutritional density of grain foods then you realise that they are no great loss....plus the lectins, phytates etc. They just provide empty calories (even unrefined, due to the phytates binding the mineral content). I do not feel deprived/hungry on this programme at all - it encourages you to try many different nutritious foods. Once a certain amount of healing has taken place, then previously problematic foods can be carefully reintroduced. After two years or so on the full GAPS diet, then fermented (non gluten) grains may be tried, but strictly limited.

I've had chronic tongue inflammation (geographic tongue) for many years now which I concluded was related to my gut condition - although I suspect my amalgam fillings play a part. GAPS has so greatly reduced this condition especially since totally eliminating dairy foods. The programme also includes limited (food) supplementation and detoxification regimes.

Hair improvement......well we all know that is a long term issue. We shall see.

Good luck to anybody using GAPS.

MAO

soccerguy wrote: It seems like now people keep saying that you should only consume saturated fats.

This is something that in my opinion has probably gone too far. I think the whole point of the articles on Healthyfixx etc was to show that saturated fat is not bad, but by all means do not eliminate other fats. When you consume monounsaturated fats they are used by your body for many essential functions. As regards polyunsaturated fats, they are of course shown to decrease cholesterol levels. The way in which it does this is simple and really shows how stupid our medical proffessionals are. PUFAs being oily, lubricate our cells. our cells want to be rigid so they attract cholesterol from our bloodstream (our bloodstream contains an insignificant amount of the total cholesterol in our body - thus a typical blood cholesterol test is essentially useless in some ways).

Saturated fats are used as fuel for your body but branding all saturated fats as just saturated fats is like saying all proteins are the same. They are not. Different saturated fats are composed of different acids (coconut being mainly the slower to break down stearic acid). i have not read into it enough yet but it would seem that different SAFAs have different effects on our bodies. Therefore the shorter and easier to break down acids in the butter are certainly not bad for you at all I would say. To get a nice dose of calories quickly, have 2 very soft bolied eggs with a good dollop of butter with maybe even a squeeze of lemon juice. Its only been good for me, my skin and my hair.

In regards all the nuts, im not sure how the Ray Peat followers would regards this with all those PUFAs....though at the same time all EPA, DHA etc are all polyunsaturated. Can anyone tell me or give me a link as to why ye believe them not to be so fantastic?

lambyjay wrote:

soccerguy wrote: It seems like now people keep saying that you should only consume saturated fats.

This is something that in my opinion has probably gone too far. I think the whole point of the articles on Healthyfixx etc was to show that saturated fat is not bad, but by all means do not eliminate other fats. When you consume monounsaturated fats they are used by your body for many essential functions. As regards polyunsaturated fats, they are of course shown to decrease cholesterol levels. The way in which it does this is simple and really shows how stupid our medical proffessionals are. PUFAs being oily, lubricate our cells. our cells want to be rigid so they attract cholesterol from our bloodstream (our bloodstream contains an insignificant amount of the total cholesterol in our body - thus a typical blood cholesterol test is essentially useless in some ways).

Saturated fats are used as fuel for your body but branding all saturated fats as just saturated fats is like saying all proteins are the same. They are not. Different saturated fats are composed of different acids (coconut being mainly the slower to break down stearic acid). i have not read into it enough yet but it would seem that different SAFAs have different effects on our bodies. Therefore the shorter and easier to break down acids in the butter are certainly not bad for you at all I would say. To get a nice dose of calories quickly, have 2 very soft bolied eggs with a good dollop of butter with maybe even a squeeze of lemon juice. Its only been good for me, my skin and my hair.

In regards all the nuts, im not sure how the Ray Peat followers would regards this with all those PUFAs....though at the same time all EPA, DHA etc are all polyunsaturated. Can anyone tell me or give me a link as to why ye believe them not to be so fantastic?

lamby.

Pufa's lowering cholesterol is arbitrary and not a good thing. They are either essential in very small amounts or not needed at all. They oxidize extremely easily.

With regards to nuts. They are ok in small amounts as they contain a lot of vitamin E and other anti oxidants. For other theoretical reasons, I would not eat them at all. Anti nutrients, high omega 6, and saturated fat > pufa. There are trials showing the benefits of nuts, but in my opinion that is because of the horrid baseline diet (SAD).

PUFAs being oily, lubricate our cells. our cells want to be rigid so they attract cholesterol from our bloodstream (our bloodstream contains an insignificant amount of the total cholesterol in our body - thus a typical blood cholesterol test is essentially useless in some ways).

lambyjay, can you post some reviews/articles explaining this theory in more depth? I'd like to learn more about it.

Ray Peat claims that the cholesterol-lowering effect of polyunsaturated fats stem from their thyroid-suppressive properties. The idea is that PUFA increase oxidative stress in the liver, thereby impairing the conversion of thyroid hormone into its active form. I'll have to read more about how thyroid suppression results in lowering of cholesterol.

CS has stated that elevated cholesterol levels are caused by pathogenic infection.

I'd like to interlink these different viewpoints so I have a more integrative understanding of how dietary fatty acid composition affects health.

I've seen some convincing epidemiological studies showing a positive correlation between PUFA consumption and lower cholesterol levels. But I haven't seen any convincing arguments showing that saturated fats are bad.

Of course lowering LDL will lower the incidence of CVD, since LDL is required for the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. But there are other pathological factors such as inflammation of the vascular endothelium, and oxidation of the lipids stored in the LDL.

Considering the fact that LDL (and cholesterol) have important physiological functions at the cellular level, inhibiting the synthesis of LDL is like cutting off your hand because your finger hurts.

For me, the most compelling reasons for avoiding excessive PUFA are these:
(1) Once incorporated into your cell membranes, they increase intracellular oxidative stress because they are susceptible to oxidation.
(2) They are enzymatically converted into eicosanoids, and derivatives of linoleic acid (the parenteral omega-6 fatty acid) are generally pro-inflammatory, and the derivatives of alpha-linolenic acid (parenteral omega-3) are anti-inflammatory. Eicosanoids have been shown to have powerful immune-modulating effects. The more I read about this stuff, the more it seems like every disease state stems from impaired immune response. Chronic subclinical inflammation around hair follicles has been implicated in MPB.

There's quite a bit of overlap between paleo and GAPS. This is encouraging because different schools of thought are independently arriving at the same conclusions, while using different types of reasoning.