diff --git a/dist/showdown.js b/dist/showdown.js
index a3a24da..e4240a3 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.js and b/dist/showdown.js differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.js.map b/dist/showdown.js.map
index 2e24154..483b81d 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.js.map and b/dist/showdown.js.map differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.min.js b/dist/showdown.min.js
index 230391b..2a4788f 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.min.js and b/dist/showdown.min.js differ
diff --git a/dist/showdown.min.js.map b/dist/showdown.min.js.map
index 13fc3d5..7a42788 100644
Binary files a/dist/showdown.min.js.map and b/dist/showdown.min.js.map differ
diff --git a/src/showdown.js b/src/showdown.js
index db816d3..b3e6269 100644
--- a/src/showdown.js
+++ b/src/showdown.js
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ var showdown = {},
       literalMidWordUnderscores: false,
       strikethrough:             false,
       tables:                    false,
-      tablesHeaderId:            false
+      tablesHeaderId:            false,
+      ghCodeBlocks:              true  // true due to historical reasons
     },
     globalOptions = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(defaultOptions)); //clone default options out of laziness =P
 
diff --git a/src/subParsers/githubCodeBlocks.js b/src/subParsers/githubCodeBlocks.js
index c59a2b0..149849a 100644
--- a/src/subParsers/githubCodeBlocks.js
+++ b/src/subParsers/githubCodeBlocks.js
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@
 showdown.subParser('githubCodeBlocks', function (text, options, globals) {
   'use strict';
 
+  // early exit if option is not enabled
+  if (!options.ghCodeBlocks) {
+    return text;
+  }
+
   text += '~0';
 
   text = text.replace(/(?:^|\n)```(.*)\n([\s\S]*?)\n```/g, function (wholeMatch, m1, m2) {
diff --git a/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.html b/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35dc1c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.html
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<p>this is some text</p>
+
+<p><code>php
+function thisThing() {
+echo "some weird formatted code!";
+}
+</code></p>
+
+<p>some other text</p>
diff --git a/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.md b/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d307ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/features/disable_gh_codeblocks.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+this is some text
+
+```php
+function thisThing() {
+  echo "some weird formatted code!";
+}
+```
+
+some other text
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/node/showdown.js b/test/node/showdown.js
index bc65a30..e72849b 100644
--- a/test/node/showdown.js
+++ b/test/node/showdown.js
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ describe('showdown.options', function () {
         literalMidWordUnderscores: false,
         strikethrough:             false,
         tables:                    false,
-        tablesHeaderId:            false
+        tablesHeaderId:            false,
+        ghCodeBlocks:              true
       };
       expect(showdown.getDefaultOptions()).to.be.eql(opts);
     });
diff --git a/test/node/testsuite.features.js b/test/node/testsuite.features.js
index 8de4923..e6d60de 100644
--- a/test/node/testsuite.features.js
+++ b/test/node/testsuite.features.js
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ describe('makeHtml() features testsuite', function () {
       converter = new showdown.Converter({literalMidWordUnderscores: true});
     } else if (testsuite[i].name === '#164.3.strikethrough') {
       converter = new showdown.Converter({strikethrough: true});
+    }  else if (testsuite[i].name === 'disable_gh_codeblocks') {
+      converter = new showdown.Converter({ghCodeBlocks: false});
     } else {
       converter = new showdown.Converter();
     }