06/14/2026
Is this what you think of when you think “DIET”?
In this crockpot is the beginning of a GAPS Intro Diet Stage 1 meal. As you can see, you will not be hungry on GAPS! This meal, Chicken Stock with Chicken and Vegetables, is nourishing, healing, soothing, and satisfying.
👉🏼 Heal and Seal the Gut: Meat Stock is loaded with nutrients that gently heal and seal the gut. Amino acids, gelatin, glucosamines, fats, vitamins, minerals, etc. tend to the leaky gut lining, repairing it so your body regains the ability to thoroughly absorb nutrients. If your body is not absorbing nutrients sufficiently, it will call out for more food. This explains why we may be overweight while simultaneously malnourished and hungry. Additionally, leaky gut is the basis for a whole host of health conditions, both physiological and psychological. If you want to get to the root cause of most ailments, address the gut.
After this Chicken Stock has cooked I will shred the chicken and remove the bones. Before serving (either with or without the cooked vegetables) I will add a splash of Beet Kvass or Sauerkraut Brine to add Probiotics. I will not be adding the actual Sauerkraut until Stage 3, only the brine for now. If you don’t have enough brine, Beet Kvass or Fermented Vegetable Medley is a perfect choice. I always add some Cultured Dairy as well. We culture our dairy on GAPS to eliminate the lactose (sugar) and break down difficult to digest proteins. It’s EASY on the gut!
👉🏼 Balance the Gut Microbiome with Probiotic Foods: Our gut microbiome needs to be brought into balance so that pathogenic bacteria do not overtake the territory and wreak havoc on our digestive system. No need to “go to war” with these “bad” bacteria…Simply restore balance to your terrain and starve them out by eliminating their food source (sugar). The pathogenic bacteria will die off to a manageable level. Probiotics are necessary to naturally recover from gastrointestinal issues and they are a known treatment for a great number of health conditions, both physiological and psychological.
Technically GAPS is an elimination diet. We eliminate trash that we should not be eating anyway and harmful foods and introduce healing foods in a systematic way. Yes, this is analogy for life in general, isn’t it?
👉🏼 Eliminate Foods that Cause Harm: What you do not see here are processed foods, grains, unprepared seeds, commercial dairy, sugar of any kind, starchy vegetables, denatured oils. To heal, we have to stop eating the foods that damaged us in the first place, and that, ironically, often cause us to crave even more of those damaging, addictive foods (looking at you, bread and sugar!!).
As a Certified GAPS Coach, my role is to help you source your ingredients, teach you how to properly prepare them for GAPS, and serve as a sounding board as you progress along your healing journey.
I do not heal you.
GAPS does not heal you.
Your body heals itself when given the proper tools.
Since we all have to eat, it just makes sense to consume foods that bring healing rather than further destruction.
Be nourished!
Joanna Francisco, ND, CGC
