When I was searching for answers to my family’s ongoing health issues, I made the decision to alter our diet. I found a great deal of conflicting information and found myself overwhelmed as I tried to sift through the various diet plans.
The role of gut restoration in healing
Yeasts, bacteria, and other microbes exist in abundance in every individual’s digestive tract. The gut lining consists of both beneficial and harmful varieties. When the balance shifts in favor of pathogenic microbes, our immune system suffers.
Symptoms of bacterial and fungal overgrowth include fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, headaches, sugar cravings, OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), skin and nail fungal infections, dizziness, and much more. Antibiotics, environmental toxins, a highly processed diet, stress, and the aging process all contribute to microbial imbalance.
There are a myriad of options for those seeking to boost their immune system through diet. In this article we compare and contrast five popular diets designed to restore or maintain health.
Before contrasting these diets, it’s important to note their similarities.
- Elimination of processed foods
What exactly are processed foods? The Food and Drug Administration defines them as “any food other than a raw agricultural commodity and includes any raw agricultural commodity that has been subject to processing, such as canning, cooking, freezing, dehydration, or milling.”
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome notes that processed foods are natural foods that “get subjected to extreme heat, pressure, enzymes, solvents and countless number of various other chemicals.” In addition, she notes, “fats get hydrogenated and proteins get denatured.” She says the bulk of processed foods are carbohydrates which, in the form of processed foods, are burdensome to the body.
- Elimination of sugar
Sugar is the primary food for pathogenic yeasts and bacteria. By taking sugar out of our diet, we essentially starve these pathogens. For more information on this concept (specifically relating to toxic fungi), see the article Forget Antibiotics, Steroids, and Medication – Starve This Toxin Out of Your Body by natural health advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola.
- Elimination of grains
With the exception of Body Ecology’s inclusion of grain-like seeds such as quinoa or buckwheat, all of these diets are grain-free. Grains and many root vegetables such as yams and potatoes are rich in starch. Digestion of starch requires quite a bit of work for the digestive system, leaving much of the starch undigested. Undigested starch provides food for pathogens. Doug Kaufmann, author of the Phase One diet, notes that mycotoxins are commonly found in grains because “sugar is the staple food of fungi, which makes grains one of their prime targets.”
The following chart offers a comparison of the foods that are permitted on each of the diets. The chart is not a comprehensive assessment of each diet, but rather a tool to assist you in your research. See the individual websites linked above for specific protocols.
5 Gut Restoration Diets Compared
Click on chart to view and download
Other diets to consider:
The FODMAP diet
Autoimmune Paleo
Finding a diet that works for you and/or your family member may require some trial and error. Everyone’s immune system is unique. No matter which diet you choose, you can’t lose to move away from denatured food and toward real, whole food!
For more about our journey see:
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Again..great article and thanks for the time spent on creating the comparable chart. This is very useful!! I do have to say it’s quite sad when you look at the chart. The one common denominator causing gut disruption are “grains”. You would think that researchers could see this and see where we have gone wrong in destroying the original form of most grains.
Yes this is so true, Jennifer. Thanks for the feedback.
This is so interesting! My family will be on a healing journey in the near future … so this was perfect timing for me. Thanks for sharing all of this with us.
This is so great. Gut dysfunction unfortunately just continues to grow and it can be hard to sort through all the natural options. As the other poster said, it is so interesting that none of these diets include grains. Thanks for explaining these diets so well.
Hi, My partner has a fungi toe nail, which he hasnt been able to get rid of for many years. Recently, his fingers cracked and his fingernails started started to go yellow also. We think the cause of the cracking dried fingers was from mixing cement he was building in our garden. He then started to get dry red welts all over his body.
Weve been treating it with apple cider vinegar and coconut oil.
He also been drinking lemon juice with apple cider vinegar first thing in the morning and taking probiotics last thing at night.
We are about 6 weeks in and although the skins looking much better and the finger nails are also. His finger tips are extremely painful and keep splitting. Do you think he would benefit from following an anti – fungal diet?
Kind regards
Julia
Julia,
The great thing about any of these diets is that they eliminate the processed food and sugar. If I had these symptoms remaining I know I would give it a shot. There’s nothing to lose as each of these diets offer plenty of nutrition. It simply depends on what his body requires and honestly he’ll probably get a good idea by trying something like this.
Thanks for this valuable overview! I have tried a few of these plans, GAPS has seemed to help the most. But all have some good things in common, as you mentioned.
A fantastic resource! I have always felt better when I avoid processed sugar and grains. The chart proves this fact across the board!
Love it! I am in the middle of doing a somewhat similar post. Do you mind if I link to yours?
Sure Linda! Thanks!!
Great chart Andrea! I’ve been working on this chart for weeks now but with different diets. Great to see yours already done! Haven’t heard of “Bee’s” or “Phase One”. Good to know!
Thanks Karen! I’ll be excited to see yours.
Very helpful post, and I learned about some new diet options. Thank you so much for sharing this information. I’m currently doing GAPS Intro. It is amazing for me, but I love knowing what the other options are because GAPS is definitely not for everyone.
Your blog is a wealth of information for anyone starting GAPS! Thanks for taking the time to comment, Chloe.
I’m always curious about coconut aminos and mushrooms, especially with people like me and you with past mold exposure. What’s been your experience?
I haven’t noticed anything adverse with either of these, Vanessa. I know that everyone is unique and no two ecosystems are the same. We enjoy the coconut amino’s and certain mushrooms have all sorts of health benefits if tolerated.
I was actually thinking about combining the GAPS and the Body Ecology diet. Might sound crazy to do that but I think that’s what our bodies can tolerate the most in my household. And unfortunately, our income too. So sugar free, sour fruits, limited pseudo grains, sea vegetables, food combining, meat stock, coconut water kefir, milk kefir, fermented veggies, etc.