Cooking for SCD

[Yanick]

Hi,

For those of you following SCD, I thought I would pass a few pearls of wisdom I had acquired while on this diet:

1. Try the diet. Once I started it, I felt truly better for the first time since the original diagnose. It's not THAT bad, if you put in in context of feeling better.

2. Do not try to make fake foods you had always loved. Nut flour will never taste like real flour, and no matter how hard you try, you will never make anything that tastes like wonder bread. Instead, focus on making delicious foods that are within the reach of the SCD.

3. Do not spend too much time reading SCD-specific recipes. Instead, get a few good cook-books and look for recipes that can be easily modified. For example: Ratatouille is a delicious veggie stew which would be very satisfying and nutritious. It's only SCD illegal item is the tomato paste and canned tomatoes. So, I substitute illegal ingredients with skinned, seeded, and chopped fresh tomatoes, with a little tomato juice. To make it even more fulfilling, you can throw in some cooked chicken or raw white fish, shrimp, and / or scallops. Amazing dinner, and nothing was sacrificed for adhering to SCD.

4. Don't stress about foods you can no longer have. Instead, focus on those foods that you can eat. For example, my family is REALLY into zucchini and carrot muffins that I make with almond flour, which taste like a desert I would be likely to order if went to a pastry shop.

5. Don't eat out... much. Honestly, this is the most frustrating part of the diet for me. In order to avoid stress, aggravation, and rolling of the eyes by the waiter (who will undoubtedly think you are on some health kick) in trying to customize a menu item, just bring your own food. I bought a few REALLY nice coolers and look and feel cool, and I have no shame about whipping them out and eating home-cooked delicious foods.

6. Know where you can eat out... For those times when eating out is an expected social activity (company meeting, lunch with client or manager), develop a list of restaurants where you KNOW you can eat. I've gone as far as to call the chef of a local rotisserie chicken joint and discussing ingredients in a marinate. So, now I have 3-4 restaurants near the areas where I work where I know I can find something to eat. If you are prepared in advance, it will feel less awkward and more natural to simply suggest a place for lunch, and not stress out about it.

7. Remember why you are doing this. Yes, SCD is a restrictive diet, and it's important to know why you are attempting this in the first place. I wrote down things I wanted to change about my symptoms with this diet. Trust me, after a few months, it's easy to start taking the benefits for granted.

8. Don't expect a pat on the back from your GI. Most doctors do not support dieting as a way of influencing the course of your illness... and for good reason. It's almost impossible to conduct clinical trials (how can I make you believe that a steamed carrot is really a cake or vice-versa), and getting funding for this would be nearly impossible. However, remember that it is you who is in charge of making yourself feel better. If this diet helps you (this may truly not help everyone), what else matters?

Sorry about the long post, but I figured some people may find it useful.

-- Yanick

 

[D Bergy]

Great suggestions for anyone with Crohn's.

I would add that most prepared foods in the grocery store that contain Corn or Soy also contain genetically engineered Corn and or Soy Beans.

There has been absolutely no testing of this "food" on humans, and there are animal studies that do not support its safety. One of the animal side effects was a thickening of the small intestine when genetically altered potatoes were ingested.

You cannot even sell this stuff in most of Europe, yet we are eating it in the U.S. and most people are not aware of it.

Genetically altered Fruit and vegetables can be identified by the code on the sticker.

Dan

 

[ChefShazzy]

Thanks for the post, Yanick... When I was between flares last year, I had incorporated a lot of the principles from SCD and was doing quite well... Then, around the New Year, I let my diet and stress get a little out of control and that landed me in FlareUp Land... I am thinking of getting back on the SCD train, your post was very helpful.

 

[Mark33180]

Ok so what is the SCD diet

 

[Yanick]

SCD = Specific Carbo. Diet. It was originally written up and published by Elaine Gottschall, and it focuses on starving the kind of bacteria that may contribute to flare-ups and symptoms we all suffer.

If you really want to learn about it, I recommend buying her book. You can get more information on http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

This diet seems very complicated in the beginning, and even impossible. Bread and Kefir used to be my "safety food", so believe me, the concept of not eating bread was truly frightening. But, once you get over the initial shock of having to actually read labels on foods you are about to eat, you will hopefully begin to notice welcoming changes that will make following the diet longer worth your while. Actually, since I started to really read ingredients when I shop for groceries, learned to appreciate simple ingredients and simple food. Probably something I will follow even after (hopefully) I will not need this diet some time in the future.

-- Yanick

 

[Naps22]

Good post, especially number 7. I did 4 months of SCD/paleo diet and felt great, but like you said I started taking things for granted. I slowly started cheating and I slowly got worse until finally I flared up.

I really believe these diets work, it's just SO HARD to give up certain foods you have loved your whole life, and it's so hard to cook every meal yourself, from scratch.

Couple things to do if SCD doesn't work.

-eliminate beans, lentils, and legumes which are allowed. Elaine talks about getting the long chained sugar molecules out of your diet and only keeping the single sugars, but legumes are comprised of chained oligosaccharide sugar molecules. It doesn't make sense to eliminate sucrose (a disaccharide) and not eliminate longer chained sugar molecules.
-Stop the yogurt. Yes, I know it helps many people but I've noticed that a lot of people say their symptoms get worse when on the yogurt. You should take into account that yogurt does come from milk, and the problem might not lie with the lactose. There could be other things in the milk that are causing you problems.
-Don't go overboard on the almond flour. You gotta be careful with this stuff. Because for some reason nuts can really cause people with Crohns problems.