This blog is part of a series on the GAPS diet and No Plant GAPS. I had the pleasure of spending time with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, learning directly from her expertise. The information shared in these blogs comes from our private conversations, public interviews, and exclusive content from a special interview included in the No Plant GAPS training session.
Monika Holland asked Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride: “What are your thoughts about including fruits on No Plant GAPS and the GAPS diet?
Fruit is the hardest thing for human beings to digest because they are sweet and they have many anti-nutrients, and they put seed and majority of fruit that people on this planet consume are not natural. They’ re hybridized.
They’ ve been created by human beings to be bigger and sweeter and juicier. And, and, you know, nicer strawberries, for example, the natural strawberries are tiny, the wild strawberries, they’ re tiny, and those are good for us. But because people put everything on the tarmac and sprayed everything, you know, in the Western world, you can hardly find those. You find them in other countries, you know, less polluted and less industrialized countries. You find them and they’ re difficult to collect and they’ re only available end of June and July. You know, sort of a couple of weeks, three weeks maybe, and that’ s it. You can dry some for the winter or you can preserve them for the winter or freeze them. That’ s fine.
The commercial strawberries, what people call strawberries, is the most, in a supermarket in particular, is the most contaminated piece of food you can put in your mouth. They use arsenic on it. It is really, really toxic and it causes abnormalities in everyone. Even organic strawberries, I find that many people cannot tolerate them because they’ re not created by humans. They’ re created by nature. They’ re created by humans. They’ re hybrids, all of them. The same with apples. All the apples we consume are hybrids. The real wild apple is small and doesn’ t taste very good. The same with pears. The pears, the real wild pears are small and don’ t taste very good. So you wouldn’ t eat much of them. You might eat one and it’ s enough.
But you know, that one is so rich in those minerals and whatever else, in those phytonutrients and antioxidants, that you will, your body will get enough. But because the taste is not so luxurious and so enticing, you will not overeat and damage your digestive system because fruit in particular damages your digestive system. And the majority of fruit that you buy in supermarkets or buy in shops are from that category. They only damage us. They don’ t do any good for us. We want wild fruits and we can only introduce it when your digestive system becomes strong and robust enough, to tolerate the fiber, to tolerate the seeds, to tolerate the structure of the fruit. And if you’ re eating commercial fruit, you’ re eating so much sugar, you will create a fungal of growth in your body.
You’ ll get diarrhea, you’ ll get headaches, you’ ll get cramps, your liver will get blocked up, your skin will get worse. So, a lot of people in the Western world have come to the sad conclusion that they cannot eat fruit, which is so sad, isn’ t it? Everybody loves fruit. It’ s just so sweet and so delicious and juicy and so on that they cannot tolerate fruit. In this book, in the Guttman Physiology book, in the blue book, I talk about the concept of pleomorphism. It’ s a very important concept that microbiology is now very interested in, though it was first introduced by Antoine de Champs in the middle of 19th century, 1800s.
So, isn’ t a new concept and what it basically explains that every creature in this world is born with the microbiome the microbial community in the body made out of the most tiniest and the basic creature called an endobiont different researchers call it different things some call it protid other called but we’ ve settled on endobiont and these little creatures are indestructible they don’ To die when we die, and your body decays. The endobiont survives, and it just moves to other life forms; it goes on living. You cannot destroy it with high temperature, with chemicals, with pressure, with anything – boiling, freezing, nothing can destroy the endobiont. And this endobiont is completely benign and neutral. And when your body starts getting contaminated with chemicals, with bad emotions, with stress hormones, with debris of inappropriate food, and other things, then the endobiont will evolve into a virus and cause you a common cold or another viral infection.
Every viral infection is cleansing you get a temperature which is one of the most powerful tools of our immune system to destroy toxicity, to burn all the toxins, to kill all the cancer cells, to remove parasites, and to just cleanse you vomit, you have diarrhea, you feel awful for those few days, but after that, you’ re as clean as you; you’ re as good as new you are cleansed. You are repaired. Your endobiont can come down and go back to its original benign form. The problem is many people don’ t allow the virus to do the job for them they start taking paracetamol aspirin ibuprofen new ibuprofen and so on they don’ t stay in bed they don’ t allow the temperature to run and they just go to work and they try to continue with their life as if nothing has happened so as a result that virus doesn’t achieve what it’ s been created for you’ re still polluted and you keep piling more pollution into yourself so in that at that stage you know the virus doesn’t go back to endobiont, it just sits there and it waits for its next uh chance. It evolves then into bacteria because every microbe what pleomorphism states that every microbe in the world can turn into every other microbe. We do not have species of microbes; we just have one endobiont and it evolves because microbes have a free market of genetics.
They throw genes out, and they pick up genes that they want, and the body will decide what microbe you need at what stage in your life to cleanse you, to repair damaged tissues, and to store itself back to normal. So a bacterial infection is far more serious than a viral infection. You get pneumonia; you get bronchitis; you can get meningitis or any other bacterial infection. Some changes are more drastic, and it will cause a temperature again and again; people run to the doctor and get antibiotics to kill this bacteria, so the bacteria don’ t achieve what they want, what they were designed to achieve to cleanse you, to save you from future degenerative diseases, something like cancer for example.
And in that, at that point, the bacteria, antibiotics we now discovered do not kill bacteria; what they do is make them lose their cell wall and become stealth bacteria; they go inside cells and they become stealth, and they become far more dangerous; they’ Ve have become cell- deficient bacteria, we have quite a lot of research on that now. So when there is a next chance for the body to deal with all this accumulated toxicity because you haven’ t cleansed yourself, you’ ve taken antibiotics, you haven’ t allowed the bacteria to do the job. This bacteria then evolve into fungi and fungal stage is what’ s behind every chronic disease in the world what immunity allergies mental illness infertility you know cancer. Anything, fungi are behind your body is in a fungal stage and the fungal stage is the final stage.
Fungi are designed to dismantle anything decaying anything dying. It’ s basically the final stage of of the body living it is death, it moves you towards death. So fruit, fruit feeds fungi if you Re- in that stage in a fungal stage, you have overgrowth of not only Candida but all kinds of fungi in your body. And if you are in a fungal stage, then you’ re in a fungal stage; and if you are in a fungal stage, then are indulging in fruit, you are feeding them, they will flourish, they’ ll produce lots of toxins, and make you very sick, make you very uncomfortable. Large percent of the Western population and other industrialized countries live in a fungal stage of endo-piont evolution of this pleomorphism so it It is very important for us to understand that, that is why, fruit is the most dangerous thing, for humans, for gaps people to consume at any stage in their life.
Very sad, I have to say, that I haven’ t met a person, a client who does not have issues with um, with fungal overgrowth because obviously as you said, that microbiome is so unbalanced but um, so is it fair to say that let’s say the same fruit can make very different impact of on the on the same person depending on where they are on the healing journey. So let’s say if somebody’ s got severely damaged gut severely unbalanced microbiome when they have that fruit let’ s say even wild strawberry um, so I m even excluding the the commercially produced uh fruits and they have that uh wild strawberry and at that point of on the healing journey that wild strawberry is going to mess them up it’ s going to feed the the fungi it’ s going to feed the pathogens and their health is going to get worse however if the same person follows no plant gaps heals heals heals heals heals and gets to the point where the gut is restored the gut lining is all it’ s not leaky anymore and and the microbiome is quite sturdy we’ ve got more good guys than the opportunistic pathogens when they eat that strawberry that straw will it strawberry will feed the good guys and then that body benefits from from the nutrients from that fruit would you would you yes many people reach that stage yeah yeah they can’ There to have fruit, and you see the wild strawberries.
They are difficult to find; they are difficult to collect. And the aromatic ones which grow in the forest, you know, the bright red ones because the natural varieties this, those forest ones which are very delicate and very fragrant and absolutely delightful. And they’ re for the dog, and they’ re also very healthy, etc. The underneath of this one, and then there are the ones which grow on uh hills, and they’ re like a carpet. I don’ t know whether you come across those in Poland, I don’ I think, yeah, I think we do have plenty of those one in the forest, yeah, but but in Russia we collect them, you just stand on your knees, you crawl up that hill and you collect the whole bucket of them, they’ re absolutely delightful as well, so they they’ re different and they’ re just differently, but those wild ones, you know, they are bush only has one, you know, every square meter will probably have one.
It’ s so difficult to put it in a bucket. You just want it straight, straight in the mouth, you know. So that’ s how nature limits how much we can consume of wild fruit. It doesn’ t give us too much. It doesn’ t give us an abundance. Where the commercial fruit, of course, is grown with chemicals and they Re all hybridized and you can’ t over it. And they’ re all too sweet, far too sweet. They’ re specifically bred to be too sweet. And you know what? I’ ve had my personal story in the past. If I had, let’ s say, a banana, it would send me to hospital straight away, straight away. It was eating any type of fruit was a suicidal mission for me. But now I feel so much better.
And when I go, especially when I go abroad and let’ s say we went to Madeira. And they have a beautiful banana plantation. The bananas are much smaller than we see those here in the UK. And and I can eat them without problem, and it just proves like how much. But it took tons of meat stock to get to that stage. But there is a hope. So for our listeners, I just want you to take one point away if you’ re on the more severe side. Your gut is damaged. You’ ve got schizophrenia, mental issues, Crohn’ s, arthritis, colitis, Abia, SIBO, just park those fruits. But don’ t think about don’ t even research them. Just park them for now and just focus on the No Plant GAPS.
The protocol for the No Plant GAPS diet is outlined comprehensively in the book “Gut and Physiology Syndrome” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the creator of this approach. Further information on the protocol can also be found here.
Image by Katharina N. from Pixabay