Dr. Anthony Chaffee speaks with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the creator of the GAPS concept and nutritional protocol. Dr. Campbell-McBride explains that the GAPS concept, developed over 20 years ago, is based on the understanding that the human body is primarily a microbial community, with 90% of its cells being microbes. The largest and most powerful microbial community resides in the digestive system, which acts as the headquarters. She states that food is the most powerful influence on any microbial community, and therefore, the most powerful influence on human health and disease. The GAPS concept defines “gaps” as a state where a person has an abnormal microbiome, characterised by a lack of balance and harmony. This disharmony in the microbial community leads to illness, affecting both gut and psychology (GAPS) and gut and physiology.
Dr. Campbell-McBride attributes the widespread damage to the microbiome in the modern Western world to the constant intake of antibiotics, not just as medicines but also present in agricultural chemicals like glyphosate, used extensively on crops before harvest. She explains that every time an antibiotic is taken, it kills part of the microbial community, disrupting the natural balance and allowing remaining microbes to overgrow. The GAPS nutritional protocol is presented as a programme designed to restore this balance and harmony. While diet is the most important component due to food’s influence on the microbiome, the protocol also includes supplements, lifestyle changes, and detoxification. The dietary approach involves removing foods that feed pathogenic microbes, particularly fungi, and replacing them with foods that are easily digested and absorbed.
A significant focus of the discussion is the difference between animal foods and plant foods in human nutrition. Dr. Campbell-McBride asserts that only microbes can effectively digest plant matter, and the human digestive system, unlike that of ruminants, is designed to digest animal foods (meat, fish, eggs, dairy) using stomach acid and enzymes. These animal foods provide the necessary proteins and fats to build and maintain the human body’s physical structure. Plants, on the other hand, are difficult for humans to digest and do not provide significant nutrition; they act primarily as cleansers. She cites clinical experience with babies and adults with severely damaged digestive systems who recovered on a no-plant GAPS diet. A crucial component of the GAPS diet is homemade meat stock, which is rich in collagen. Collagen is vital for connective tissues and bodily structures, and in the modern toxic world, collagen often gets contaminated, leading to its loss and conditions like arthritis and pain. Meat stock provides an easily absorbable source of this essential protein.
The conversation also delves into the technocratic construct and its impact on health and medicine. Mainstream Western medicine is described as technocratic medicine, largely influenced by the pharmaceutical industry and focused on disease management and symptom suppression rather than healing and root causes. Dr. Campbell-McBride argues that mainstream doctors are often trained to simply prescribe drugs for symptoms, rather than understanding the body’s innate healing processes. She posits that conditions like colds are often the body’s natural cleansing events to expel toxins and should be supported (e.g., resting, staying hydrated) rather than suppressed with fever reducers and other drugs. Autoimmunity is re-framed not as the body attacking itself (a concept she believes is flawed and promoted by the pharmaceutical industry), but as the immune system cleaning contaminated tissues, particularly collagen. Healing chronic diseases, including those with a “genetic” diagnosis, involves cleansing the body, healing the gut wall, and reducing exposure to toxins from food, lifestyle, and the environment.
Finally, the discussion broadens to contrast the sick population of the technocratic construct with the health seen in traditional societies living closer to nature, which is described as the “real world”. The technocratic construct is seen as based on lies, manipulation, and philosophies of individualism, leading to physical, mental, and spiritual illness. The education system is criticised for crushing independent thinking and creating an obedient workforce. Dr. Campbell-McBride and Dr. Chaffee suggest that humanity is increasingly trapped in a slave system within the technocracy, controlled and manipulated. They emphasise that disease can be a spiritual opportunity for growth, forcing individuals to seek change and disconnect from the harmful technocratic paradigm. The episode concludes with the call for individuals to extract themselves from the technocratic construct, reconnect with nature, produce their own food, form communities, and focus on spiritual growth.