GAPS Diet for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

For Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, GAPS uses the condition of the gut to choose among three starting tools: No-Plant GAPS, the six-stage Introduction Diet, and GAPS Liquid Fasting. The food sequence matters because the 2020 book reserves the most limited routes for a digestive system that cannot yet manage plant matter or solid food.^[1][2] This guide walks through the starting branches, food progression, stock rule, fasting limits, and return to Intro in practical order.

Choose the Starting Route

The 2020 book says some people with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis are too inflamed to tolerate even the small amount of well-cooked plant food used in Intro Stage 1. When diarrhea, abdominal pain, or vomiting continues with those foods, the book removes plant matter and begins No-Plant GAPS.^[1]

For chronic inflammatory diarrhea that may include blood, the source says to consider staying on No-Plant until the diarrhea subsides. When stools become more normal and inflammatory markers reduce or disappear, the person can try moving into Intro Stage 1.^[2] If the gut can already manage the Stage 1 foods, the regular Introduction Diet may be the starting route instead.

The No-Plant GAPS Food Sequence

No-Plant means no plant solids. The sequence begins with animal foods and brings each addition in gradually:

1. Fresh meat or fish stock. The book starts with a few teaspoons a day and gradually increases to a few cups. It uses a whole bird with giblets, a joint of lamb or pork, fresh whole fish, rabbit, goat, or game. Beef is introduced later when it is not tolerated at the beginning.^[3]
2. Gelatinous meat and natural fat. Skin, fat, ligaments, bone marrow, soft fish tissues, and the meat used for the stock are blended into the stock and then eaten as the person can manage them.^[3]
3. Fermented dairy or vegetable-medley liquid. After at least two weeks of stock and gelatinous meat, the book starts raw goat, ewe, donkey, camel, or reindeer kefir or yogurt at one to two drops, increasing slowly. When that route is too difficult, it uses the liquid from the vegetable medley instead. Raw sour cream from the same non-cow milks follows after kefir or yogurt is tolerated.^[4]
4. Raw egg yolk. The source starts with one to two drops a day, uses the two-step sensitivity test when egg allergy is a concern, and increases gradually when tolerated.^[5]
5. Organ meats, fresh fish, and shellfish. Liver, kidney, tongue, brain, heart, tripe, and intestines are introduced gradually. Fresh fish and shellfish are first cooked with water and salt only.^[5]
6. Natural salt. The No-Plant chapter emphasizes salt because very low carbohydrate intake increases sodium loss. The source uses salted meat stock and food to replace it.^[6]

The WFLI Stage 1 meat-stock guide explains the early-protocol stock formula. Rachael Mamane’s Mastering Stocks and Broths is our source for the stock-making technique, while the GAPS book sets when each stock belongs in the protocol.^[7]

Use Meat Stock Before Bone Broth

The current GAPS rule is fresh meat stock first. The 2020 book says it does not recommend bone broth for at least one year and, for some people, for several years.^[8] That timing controls this guide and every early-protocol branch described here.

Meat stock is made from raw pieces that include meat, joints, fascia, cartilage, fat, skin, and other connective tissue and cooks for a few hours. Bone broth starts with bare bones and cooks much longer. They are different preparations and are not interchangeable during the early protocol.^[8][7]

Move From No-Plant Into Intro

The return of plant food begins slowly. The book first cooks a tiny amount of well-fermented vegetables into meat stock and watches for a reaction for three to four days. Roasted garlic follows, then one peeled and deseeded vegetable at a time, such as zucchini, broccoli, or cauliflower, cooked in meat stock.^[9]

Once those foods are tolerated, the person is working inside Intro Stage 1 and can move through the six stages according to symptoms and stool changes. A return of symptoms means the new addition is not ready yet.

The Six Intro Stages

• Stage 1: meat or fish stock, boiled meats and fish, soups with well-cooked permitted vegetables, animal fats, and tiny amounts of the appropriate probiotic liquid or fermented dairy.^[10]
• Stage 2: raw organic egg yolk, then soft-boiled whole egg when appropriate; stews and casseroles, fresh herbs, more probiotic food, homemade ghee, and cod liver oil.^[10]
• Stage 3: ripe avocado, the stage pancakes, eggs cooked in fat, cooked onion, cooked fibrous vegetables, and gradually increased fermented vegetables.^[10]
• Stage 4: roasted or grilled meat, cold-pressed olive oil, fresh-pressed vegetable juice, and bread made with fermented nut or seed flour. The 2020 book explicitly requires the flour to be fermented before baking.^[10]
• Stage 5: cooked apple, raw vegetables beginning with lettuce and peeled cucumber, and fruit added to fresh vegetable juice.^[10]
• Stage 6: raw permitted fruit, gradually increased honey, and later-stage baked or dried-fruit foods as tolerated.^[10]

Foods That Remain Out

Throughout Intro and Full GAPS, the core exclusions remain grains, sugar, starchy vegetables, lactose-containing commercial dairy, processed foods, and other foods on the Full GAPS avoid list.^[11] No-Plant is narrower because it temporarily removes plant solids as well.

GAPS Liquid Fasting During an Acute Flare

The 2020 book names acute ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease that is not improving on Intro or No-Plant as a reason to consider GAPS Liquid Fasting. The fast removes solid food and uses clear GAPS liquids rather than water alone.^[12]

The chapter gives 42 days as the absolute maximum for any GAPS Liquid Fast. Many fasts are much shorter and end when appetite for solid food returns.^[12]

The same chapter sets different duration limits:

• Underweight or slim people should not fast longer than one day at a time, with at least one month between fasts, except that the book says people with acute Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis may need the liquid fast regardless of body weight because the gut cannot handle solid food.^[12]
• Pregnant and nursing women have the same one-day limit. The book allows the liquid fast during early-pregnancy nausea and directs the woman back to Full GAPS when nausea subsides and appetite returns.^[12]
• The fast ends when appetite for solid food returns. The source moves back into Intro Stage 1, or into No-Plant first when plants still cannot be managed.^[13]

Enemas With Active Bleeding

The book gives this group a specific exception: no enemas while diarrhea includes blood and mucus. It says to work on healing the gut wall with Intro, No-Plant, or the liquid fast first. Enemas may be considered after about a year on the diet and only when enough healing has occurred.^[14]

Medication and Illness Setbacks

The GAPS condition entry says not to stop existing medication abruptly. It describes reducing medication gradually only as symptoms improve and gives no universal taper, dose, or schedule.^[15]

In the official FAQ’s viral-illness example, Campbell-McBride recommends returning to Intro and moving very slowly through the stages; No-Plant may be used first when needed.^[16]

Plan the Next Step

Use the complete Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis guide for the diagnosis comparison and recovery account, the mechanism guide for the gut-wall explanation, and the symptoms guide to organize the signs that affect the starting route.

If No-Plant GAPS is the route you are following, my No-Plant GAPS Kitchen course is in the WFLI shop catalog. For keeping food, stool, symptom, and stage notes together, the 90-Day Family Food Diary gives you one place for those daily observations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Bone Broth Replace Meat Stock?

No. The current 2020 rule uses fresh meat stock and waits at least one year before bone broth, longer for some people.^[8]

When Do Fermented Vegetables Return?

After the animal foods and probiotic liquids are tolerated and symptoms have settled, the No-Plant chapter starts with a tiny amount of well-fermented vegetable cooked in meat stock. It watches each addition for three to four days before increasing.^[9]

Does Everyone With IBD Have to Liquid Fast?

No. The book names it for acute Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis when solid food is not being managed and symptoms are not improving on the other starting routes. It is one branch of the protocol, not the automatic starting point for every diagnosis.^[12]

References

1. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “No-Plant GAPS Diet,” pp. 192–194.
2. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Diarrhoea,” p. 371.
3. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “How to implement the No-Plant GAPS Diet,” pp. 194–195.
4. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “How to implement the No-Plant GAPS Diet,” pp. 195–196.
5. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “How to implement the No-Plant GAPS Diet,” pp. 196–197.
6. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “How to implement the No-Plant GAPS Diet,” p. 197.
7. Mamane, R. Mastering Stocks and Broths, meat-stock technique chapters.
8. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat stock and bone broth,” p. 223.
9. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “How to come off the No-Plant GAPS Diet,” p. 200.
10. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “GAPS Introduction Diet,” pp. 177–184.
11. Campbell-McBride, N. Full GAPS Diet: Recommended Food List and Foods to Avoid List.
12. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “GAPS Liquid Fasting,” pp. 208–212.
13. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Coming out of the GAPS Liquid Fast,” p. 214.
14. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Enemas,” p. 375.
15. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis,” pp. 413–414.
16. Campbell-McBride, N. “Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis,” Q66, GAPS FAQs.