Meat, fish, poultry, game, organ meats and shellfish are recommended foods in the GAPS book. The form matters: fresh or frozen foods, the ingredients in a preserved product, and the way the food is prepared all affect what belongs on your plate.[1] Here is how I would use those distinctions while shopping and planning meals.
Choosing Meat and Fish
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride names fresh or frozen meat, game, organ meats, poultry, fish and shellfish. Her recommended-food list includes beef, pork, lamb, chicken, duck, goose, turkey, pheasant, quail and pigeon. Fish preserved in oil or water in glass jars is also named.[1][2]
Read the ingredients as well as the food name. The book distinguishes these foods from preserved meats such as ham, bacon, deli meats and commercial sausages containing starch, sugar, lactose, preservatives or other additives. For a butcher-made sausage, she describes full-fat minced meat, salt and pepper, with fresh garlic, onion or herbs if desired, and no commercial seasoning mixture.[1]
For a simple shopping check, ask: Is it fresh, frozen or the specifically listed jarred fish? What else has been added? Does its preparation fit my stage? Those questions are more useful than assuming that every product with meat in its name qualifies.
The Nutrients the Book Emphasizes
Campbell-McBride gives animal foods a central nutritional role in GAPS. Her explanation emphasizes amino acids, fats, minerals and vitamins in forms she describes as easy to digest and use.[3][4] Her examples include:
- B1: pork, liver, heart and kidneys.
- B2: eggs, meat, milk, poultry and fish.
- B3: meat and poultry.
- B5: meat and liver.
- B6: meat, poultry, fish and eggs.
- B12: meat, poultry, fish, eggs and milk.
- Biotin: liver and egg yolks.
- Vitamin A: liver, fish, egg yolks and butter.
- Vitamin D: fish liver oils, eggs, fish livers and fish eggs.
Use these examples to match the nutrient discussion with concrete food choices.[3] The vitamin A discussion distinguishes ready-made vitamin A in animal foods from carotenoids that require conversion. Our vitamin A guide explains that part of the GAPS nutritional argument.[5]
Why Vegetables Still Belong Beside the Meat
The book discusses vitamin C and vitamin K1 as reasons to include plant foods alongside meat and fish. It also notes research on vitamin C in liver, so “animal foods contain no vitamin C” would be too broad a summary.[6] For a mixed GAPS meal, vegetables are the usual companion to meat. The appropriate cooked or raw form still depends on digestion and stage.
The Fruit-Pairing Guidance
Campbell-McBride generally places fruit between meals rather than with meat. Her meat section names avocado and lemon as exceptions; the fuller fruit section also names fresh lemon juice and sour-tasting apples.[6] A blanket rule against every fruit-and-meat combination would miss those details.
Vegetables combine with meat and fish in her guidance. She also describes a two-way iron relationship: meat supports absorption of non-heme iron from plants, while vitamin C in vegetables and greens supports absorption of iron from meat.[6] Choose the vegetable preparation you tolerate rather than treating a raw salad as necessary on Intro. The book does not give a fixed one- or two-hour waiting period for fruit here.
Fish and Poultry Skin
The book recommends eating poultry skin and fat along with the meat, and fish skin along with the flesh. It therefore says to descale fish before cooking. It favors pieces of meat with fat and connective tissues, and describes meat cooked in water as easier for a sensitive digestive system to handle.[7]
Cooking form has its own sequence. Intro begins with boiled meat and fish in stock and soup. Roasted and grilled meats enter at Stage 4, with the book excluding burned or excessively browned pieces. Use the Stage 1 guide and Stage 4 guide when planning around those forms.
Shopping Within Your Budget
Campbell-McBride prefers naturally raised, pastured meat, while also describing patients on limited budgets who used the meat they could obtain. Her practical suggestions include building a relationship with a butcher, asking about bones and offcuts, and considering bulk purchases from a farmer.[7]
Our own shopping includes Walmart, Costco, WinCo, Azure and nearby Asian and Mexican markets. With six children, having several places to look is useful. The task is to find the right food and check what has been added, rather than assume one store will supply everything.
Does a Food Name Tell Me Its Intro Stage?
No. The same meat may appear boiled in early Intro and roasted later. Likewise, a jarred fish named in the Full GAPS list does not automatically become an early-Intro food. Check both the food and its preparation in the food list and stage map.
Plan One Meal
Choose a meat or fish, the fat that belongs with it, and a vegetable preparation that fits your stage. Our chicken meat stock recipe gives you a complete early-GAPS cooking method. Keep the book’s meat-stock versus bone-broth timing separate from a general stock-making technique.
The Stock Pot Course and Organ Meats Made Easy course are listed in my WFLI Shop.
For the related food-group details, read our fruit and berry guide.
References
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish.”
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Recommended Foods,” meat, fish and shellfish.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish,” nutrient examples.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish,” animal-food nutrition discussion.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish,” vitamin A.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish” and “All Ripe Fruit, Including Berries,” plant nutrients and fruit-pairing exceptions.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Meat and Fish,” preparation and sourcing; “Implementing the GAPS Introduction Diet,” Stages 1 and 4.
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