For psoriasis, the GAPS book pairs its nutritional protocol with the topical care described for eczema and its tallow skin cream. The starting food phase depends on digestion and circumstances, not on the skin diagnosis alone.[1][2]
You can keep this manageable by choosing the food phase first, then reviewing dairy and the things that touch affected skin. The psoriasis and GAPS overview explains why the book connects those parts of care.
Choose Intro or Full GAPS First
The 2020 book recommends Intro at some stage for most people and particularly emphasizes it for serious digestive symptoms and food intolerances. It also allows Full first for people without serious digestive symptoms or when cooking, work, travel or compliance make Intro difficult. Chronic constipation is a specific Full-first situation because removing fiber may worsen it.[2]
The official quick-reference guide does not recommend Intro during pregnancy or nursing. It also flags poor fat digestion and histamine issues as reasons to begin with Full or tailor Intro. Use the Intro-versus-Full comparison for those starting situations rather than assuming psoriasis automatically calls for the most restricted phase.[3]
Match Food to the Actual Stage
| Phase | Food Detail |
|---|---|
| Intro Stage 1 | Homemade meat or fish stock, soups, well-cooked meats and suitable well-cooked vegetables. Fermented vegetable juice is introduced before the fibrous vegetables themselves.[2] |
| Intro Stage 2 | The usual point for raw organic egg yolks, then soft-boiled eggs when tolerated; also stews, fermented fish and homemade ghee. The newer book permits earlier gradual yolk introduction in its specific profuse-watery-diarrhea situation.[2] |
| Intro Stage 3 | Ripe avocado, the specified nut-butter pancakes, gently cooked eggs and gradual amounts of the fermented vegetables themselves.[2] |
| Intro Stage 4 | Roasted or grilled meat without burned pieces, gradual cold-pressed olive oil, filtered freshly pressed juice and bread made with fermented nut or seed flour.[2] |
| Full GAPS | Meat, fish, stock, eggs, vegetables and introduced fermented foods form the main meals. Fruit, nuts and baking are introduced as tolerated; fruit and baking do not replace meals.[4] |
The Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 and Stage 4 guides give the complete instructions and exceptions. Progress follows tolerance, with a return to the previous stage if digestive symptoms come back. Cod liver oil belongs to the supplement guidance; the newer book’s Stage 2 food list does not add it as a new food.[2]
Use Meat Stock and Introduce Ferments Gradually
The 2020 book emphasizes meat stock made with raw meaty bones, joints and connective tissues. It distinguishes that from long-cooked bone broth and does not recommend bone broth for at least the first year, and for some people several years. Starting with Full does not remove meat stock, soups and ferments from the beginning.[4][5]
For fermentation, use the foods and amounts allowed at your current stage. Stage 1 vegetable juice and Stage 3 fermented vegetables are not interchangeable. Full GAPS guidance starts new fermented foods at one to two teaspoons a day and builds gradually. Fermented dairy is conditional on its introduction and tolerance.[2][4]
Cook with animal fats, coconut oil or ghee. Add good-quality cold-pressed plant oils, including olive oil, to ready meals rather than heating them. The GAPS food list supplies the allowed and avoid lists without turning this page into a second food directory.[4]
The Temporary Dairy Option
The official quick-reference guide names eczema, acne, dermatitis and psoriasis as skin conditions for which some people may want to temporarily eliminate all dairy, including homemade dairy. It is an option in the source, not a requirement that every person with psoriasis remove dairy.[3]
The dairy-introduction guide keeps that process separate from simply choosing lactose-free products. Record what was removed or reintroduced and what happened, rather than declaring a dairy reaction from one difficult day. The source does not give psoriasis a fixed dairy-elimination period.
What the Book Describes for Skin Care
The psoriasis entry directs readers to the Eczema entry. That entry describes soothing baths with half a cup of bicarbonate of soda per bath, or uncooked oatmeal held in a cotton bag with the bath water run through it. The oatmeal application is topical; it does not put oats on the GAPS food list.[1][6]
Its moisturizer choices include cold-pressed edible oils, raw butter, sour cream, tallow and mashed ripe avocado. For very severe wet and cracked eczema patches, it describes alternating raw honey and seaweed applications overnight. Seaweed powder is mixed with hot water into a paste, covered with fresh leaves of burdock, cabbage, sage, plantain or lettuce or, if leaves are unavailable, cling film or parchment, then wrapped with cotton cloth. In the morning the application is rinsed away and edible oil or animal fat applied.[6]
Those are the preparations the psoriasis entry points to. They are not a diagnosis of an unfamiliar rash or a way to assume that wet, painful skin is free of infection. If a product irritates the skin or an area seems infected, have the skin assessed before continuing an occlusive application.
Tallow Cream, Toiletries and Clothing
The book specifies inner fat from a grass-fed animal, usually beef or lamb, for rendering tallow. Its skin-cream formula fills a glass jar two-thirds with warm tallow and adds olive oil to fill it, plus ten to fifteen drops of an essential oil, with lavender named as a common preference. It is mixed and set in the refrigerator, then kept at room temperature and used daily. The jar size is not specified, so the drop count does not define a standard dilution for every container.[7]
Campbell-McBride’s general skin rule is to use edible substances, wash with plain water and avoid soaps, shampoos, commercial moisturizers and other man-made chemicals on skin affected by eczema or another skin problem. That describes her personal-care guidance; prescribed skin medicines still need their own treatment discussion.[6]
She recommends naturally processed superfine merino wool and avoidance of synthetic fabrics and conventional cotton for skin conditions. The study she cites concerns eczema in young children, not psoriasis: it compared superfine merino garments with cotton. Keep the fabric, processing and individual comfort in mind rather than treating all wool products as equivalent.[6][8]
Keep the Next Change Practical
The 2020 book describes No-Plant, Ketogenic, More-Plant and Liquid-Fasting GAPS for particular needs. Its psoriasis entry does not select one of them as the required psoriasis route. The phase decision above and the foods you tolerate still matter.[1][4]
My course, Your First 30 Days on GAPS, is listed in the WFLI Shop for organizing the beginning. Choose the correct phase, identify one meal you can prepare and use the psoriasis appointment notes to keep food and skin changes dated.
References
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), A–Z, Psoriasis.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), The GAPS Introduction Diet, starting situations and Stages 1–4.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Official GAPS Introduction Diet quick-reference guide, Quick Facts (CORE-01), temporary skin-condition dairy option and starting-route cautions.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), The Full GAPS Diet.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), What We Shall Eat and Why, Meat Stock and Soups.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), A–Z, Eczema, topical preparations, skin products and clothing.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), What We Shall Eat and Why, tallow and Tallow Skin Cream.
- Su et al., Determining Effects of Superfine Sheep Wool in Infantile Eczema (DESSINE). British Journal of Dermatology 177 (2017): 125–133. doi:10.1111/bjd.15376, the original study cited by the GAPS book.
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