The GAPS entry for ankylosing spondylitis offers a practical way to begin: you may start on Full GAPS while learning the meals and organizing the kitchen, then work through Intro later. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride pairs that route with a long-term view of the condition.[1]
This is more useful than trying to change every part of the day at once. Food, the starting phase and prescribed treatment each need a clear place in the plan. The book’s advice should not become an automatic medicine taper or a reason to delay treatment for an infection.
The Book’s Full GAPS Starting Option
The condition entry says you may start with Full GAPS. Its wider food choice and occasional eating out can give you time to learn recipes, find suppliers and make the kitchen workable. It then describes Intro after a few months, or possibly a year, with the length of that pass through Intro depending on the person.[1]
The wording is an option, not a requirement to skip Intro. The general starting chapter also discusses serious digestive symptoms, practical Full-first situations and established constipation that depends on large amounts of fiber.[2] Read the Intro-versus-Full comparison with your digestive history rather than using a condition name as the whole decision.
Build Meals Around the Staples
The 2020 Full GAPS chapter includes meats and organ meats, fish, eggs, meat stock, soups, vegetables, natural fats and tolerated fermented dairy. It keeps baking and fruit from replacing meals and introduces foods gradually, especially when starting directly with Full GAPS.[3]
The usual exclusions include grains, sugar, potatoes, parsnips, yams and sweet potatoes. The food-list guide gives the fuller forms and preparation context. Intro retains its own progression; a Full GAPS list does not move raw salads, nuts or every dairy product into Stage 1.
The book favors fresh or frozen meat and fish prepared at home. Cooking fats include animal fats, ghee and coconut oil; cold-pressed olive oil and other fragile plant oils are used on served food rather than heated.[3]
The official Full GAPS tips favor wild-caught seafood and discuss temporary restrictions on nuts, seeds, fruit and honey when Candida or SIBO is present.[4] That is a separate symptom/tolerance context, not a reason for everyone with ankylosing spondylitis to remove all four. The newer book includes mackerel among oily fish and in a fermented-fish recipe, so an older general tip should not be used to make it a universal GAPS exclusion.[5]
The official tips encourage combining vegetables with meat or fish through the program’s acid/alkaline food rationale.[4] The 2020 book still leaves the proportions to individual needs, rather than prescribing one fixed plate for everyone.[3]
Keep Meat Stock and Bone Broth Distinct
In the 2020 book, meat stock is made from raw meaty parts with bones, joints, skin and connective tissues still attached. A whole bird or a suitable joint provides cooked food as well as the liquid. Lean steak alone is not the same preparation.[6]
Bone broth is the longer-cooked preparation made from bare bones, often previously cooked, with water and acid. The book does not recommend it for at least the first year of GAPS, and for some people much longer, including several years.[6] Neither a shop label nor a joint-health claim makes the two interchangeable.
For collagen disorders, Dr. Natasha emphasizes gelatinous meat stock, soups, stews, organ meats and animal fats as sources of building material for connective tissue.[7] That is the rationale for making those foods regular parts of meals, not a guarantee that a fused joint will reverse.
| Question | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Is this meat stock? | It began with raw meaty parts, joints and connective tissues, and provides a meal as well as liquid. |
| Is it long-cooked bare-bone broth? | That is a different preparation, held back under the book’s timing guidance. |
| Is the meal adequate? | Include the actual food and tolerated fats, rather than replacing meals with cups of strained liquid. |
| Does it fit the current phase? | Keep vegetable forms, fermented dairy and other additions within the foods already introduced. |
The Stage 1 guide explains the early meat-stock and soup context. Mamane’s stock techniques inform the relevant WFLI recipes, while the GAPS book sets this protocol timing.
The Klebsiella and Antibiotic Discussion
The ankylosing-spondylitis entry describes improvement during antibiotics in some people and a return of symptoms after treatment. The author is concerned about prolonged treatment damaging beneficial microbes while targeting one organism.[1] That is her account, not a reason to stop an antibiotic prescribed for an actual infection.
A separate official FAQ answers a question about high amounts of Klebsiella and Clostridium. It puts diet and therapeutic-quality probiotics first. If the microbes are still causing trouble after six months on the program, it discusses an appropriate antibiotic course, with the diet and high doses of probiotics continued during treatment and afterward.[8]
That answer gives no antibiotic name, dose or treatment calendar. It is not a six-month waiting rule for an acute infection, and “high doses” does not identify a safe dose or product for an individual. The probiotic-selection guide covers the source’s product and practitioner context. Bring any actual infection or overgrowth question to the person managing treatment.
Keep Medication Changes With the Prescriber
Dr. Natasha says that the diet can allow people with this condition to stop mainstream medication. Her entry describes gradual reduction of the daily dose and removing one medicine at a time.[1]
Those are the source’s claims and sequence, not a personal taper. They do not establish that everyone can stop treatment or tell you which medicine to change first. Continue the current plan and arrange any reduction with the prescriber, using your symptoms, disease activity and treatment history. Clinical care for ankylosing spondylitis includes individualized medicines and physical therapy.[9]
Plan for the Longer Term
The condition-specific entry recommends GAPS more or less for life, with Full GAPS most of the time after pain and inflammation settle. If stress or an infection brings symptoms back, it discusses another pass through Intro and reports that improvement may come more quickly the second time.[1]
That is an expectation in the author’s account, not a guaranteed recovery time. Keep new or worsening symptoms in the medical discussion rather than deciding that every recurrence needs only a more restrictive menu. The general coming-off timeline does not replace this condition-specific long-term advice.
Make the Routine Easier to Maintain
Choose a small number of accepted meals, identify the stock preparation you will repeat and work out which tasks need help. A heavy pot, chopping or long periods standing can be real practical barriers. The food plan should account for them rather than assume that motivation solves the workload.
Our course, The Stock Pot Course, is among the resources to explore through the WFLI shop. For appointment questions and treatment notes, look for the Care Team Log there too. The history guide helps you decide what information would be useful to record.
Return to the ankylosing-spondylitis overview for the wider explanation. Keep the kitchen routine and the care plan connected, with enough practical help to make both manageable.
References
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Ankylosing Spondylitis,” pp. 408–409.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), Introduction Diet, general starting criteria.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), Full GAPS Diet, staples and cooking fats.
- Official Full GAPS Diet, tips and preparation context.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Fermented Herring or Mackerel” and essential fatty acids, oily-fish sources.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat Stock and Soups,” p. 222.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Collagen Disorders,” p. 413.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Official GAPS FAQs, Infections, question 2.
- NIAMS: Ankylosing Spondylitis, Diagnosis, Treatment and Steps to Take.
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