GAPS diet update

I've been dragging my feet lately when it comes to blog posting! I've been meaning to post about our progress and my changing philosophy on the GAPS diet.

After Lucy was in the hospital last month (and there was a possibility that the GAPS diet made her symptoms more likely to occur), I decided to back off 100% adherence to GAPS and reevaluate what's good about it and what I want to move away from.

The good:

• Going on GAPS has greatly broadened Nate's diet and improved his eating habits. 
• Whole foods meals--almost nothing processed
• No sugar--and no ketchup addiction for Nate! Eliminating sugar alone definitely helped with hyper behaviors.
• Helps me stay away from the "easy fix" meals like peanut butter and jelly on gluten-free bread EVERY day for lunch for Nate

The bad:

• Completely eliminating all grains, including super healthy ones like quinoa
• No wiggle room for occasional off-diet treats

My updated philosophy has been to stick with the good stuff from the diet--whole foods meals, no sugar, no easy fix meals every day--but back away from the extremes. I've added quinoa into the daily rotation (the boys don't care for it, so I've been mixing soaked/cooked quinoa into other things like the breakfast sausage I make). I am not making every single dish for every single meal from scratch (today the kids had Trader Joe's packaged roasted seaweed as part of lunch). On Sundays after church, we get In-n-Out meat patties for the kids and one order of fries so they can each have a handful. Fruit is still a between-meals snack, separate from other foods, since it is digested differently. I'm not making Nate drink broth with every meal anymore. I feel like adhering to the GAPS diet with total dedication for three months was a good thing, and now it's time to back away, holding on to the great things we've taken from it.