SCD diet, anyone doing this??

[Ihurt]

I have been thinking about doing the SCD diet. I recently have been trying to alter my diet with the paleo diet but needless to say it has been hard as there is already so much I cannot eat. I was reading up on the SCD diet and I really would like to try this diet, but when I read about what is and is not allowed it seems almost futile. There is only like a couple items on there that are allowed that I "can" tolerate. For instance, I cannot tolerate ANY dairy. I also cannot tolerate fruits. Cannot eat any beef at all and NUTs and beans are a big no-no for me( they cause too much pain and gas). That does not leave much. As far as being gluten free, well I have been gluten free for years, so that is not such a big deal. How does one get energy on this diet when you cannot eat any carbs at all or sugars? ( I cannot tolerate fruit at all, so thats out the window). I really would like to get my digestive tract back in balance, just that my diet is already so restricted, not sure how to proceed.

Has anyone else tried this diet and I mean strictly adhered to it and if so, did it help??

 

[Manzyb]

Snoflaky505 is doing it and as some info for you.

I tried to tag her.... not sure if it helped!

 

[Snoflayk505]

I am currently on the SCD diet I started 2 months ago and have been symptom free, med free ever since .....other than the chocolate cake incident lol

I have lots of tips and tricks, and so many amazing recipe blogs. would you mind if I post them to your thread?

 

[Ihurt]

Please do post them to my thread, I would appreciate that very much, thanks.

I am currently on the SCD diet I started 2 months ago and have been symptom free, med free ever since .....other than the chocolate cake incident lol

I have lots of tips and tricks, and so many amazing recipe blogs. would you mind if I post them to your thread?

 

[LaLaNapa]

I have been on the SCD in the past - about 15 years ago when I first had the onset. I went through 9 or 10 months with horrible medical treatment and mis-diagnosis and I just got worse and worse. I'd lost so much weight, vomiting daily, passing blood and raging fevers. Well around the time the Dr. decided perhaps it was Crohn's and not IBS, I could no longer work and thus could not afford medical care. So I set out to research everything I could and addressed it with supplements and the SCD - my BVC book is all highlighted and post-it'd with everything I could tolerate. (I think all the blogs out there now would have been really helpful back then!)

I'll say this: it was very hard to adhere to, and I never did make my own yogurt but got a very good local one instead. But I cut out all the stuff she said not to have. I stuck to it maybe a little less than 2 years - never saw a Dr. again (until recently, which is another story) - and eventually recovered amazingly. I started out at rock bottom and it took a good 6 months for me to get back to "operating capacity", but I can say 100% it helped me.

Now I'll say this: I found it hard to keep long term. I eventually re-introduced everything again and now I am paying for it. :facepalm:

Now I am trying to hybridize a Paleo-SCD diet plan for myself, as I find I feel much better on a high protein diet. Just trying to keep a really good food log and use FitDay.com to track the nutrients I am getting from my food and monitor my weight.

It worked for me - it takes some time to adjust to it, but if you already have a pretty limited diet then it might not be that hard. It requires strict diligence (I kept a list of the legal/illegal foods and additives for every shopping trip). And give yourself time to see the difference. All the best to you if you decide to try it!

 

[Snoflayk505]

The intro diet while experiencing symptoms
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/beginners_guide/the_intro_diet2.htm

legal/ illegal food list
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/legal/legal_illegal_a-c.htm

For tomato sauces and ketchups I use Hunts brand diced tomatoes or paste. It is 100% natural therefore legal

I can only find one SCD legal coconut milk canned. Its in the chinese section of walmart with a brownish can and a K in the name lol. Ill edit this later when I find it.

We are not supposed to use spices like garlic powder because they might contain hidden starches but I do anyways. If the label doesnt say any illegal ingredients I will use it.

Check every label! Your non perishable pantry will not have many things in it because it is very hard to find legal bottled/canned/packaged things.

Franks original hotsauce is legal. When symptom free mix it with some legal butter for amazing hot wings

You don't have to make the yogurt, but it is used in many baking recipes.

Almond flour makes great fried chicken! Fry it first then put it in the oven to finish.

Favorite recipe blogs. Not all recipes are scd but you can eat or sub most.
www.againstallgrain.blogspot.com
http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/
http://comfybelly.com/
www.foreverscd.blogspot.com (my blog)

I shop by sales. Check your weekly adds and buy your meats, fruits, and veggies when they are on sale. Plan your meals around them.

DRINKS! Never from concentrate!
Yay I can drink again lol White vodkas and dry wines are legal. My drink of choice a screw driver hehehe
OJ - Floridas Natural Orange Juice
Applejuice - 365 brand from whole foods ...OMG SO GOOOOD
Smoothies

Freeze your bananas out of the peel before they go bad! Just blend em with a little water or coconut water with a scoop of pb for ice cream
I have a pb, banana smoothie daily lol.....sometimes twice.

Freeze any baked goods you make! They last longer and will still taste great.

 

[Snoflayk505]

Grind your own almonds
I buy Nice brand raw almonds from walgreens cuz they are on sale alot for 3.99 a lb. Better than 11$ a lb for almond flour =/ Just boil em for 5 minutes then poor em in cold water so you can handle them. Slip the skins off and lay em on a cookie sheet to dry. I put mine in the oven no temp so they are out of the way and stay clean. Then grind away

Freeze nut flours they last longer

 

[Snoflayk505]

Just think meat, fats, aged cheeses, butter, sugar free bacons and sausages, nuts, fruits, and veggies = yummy
No potatoes, grains, carbs, sugars, lactose, starches, gums = no no

 

[Snoflayk505]

honey mustard dipping sauce is my best friend. On a mission to come up with or find a legal ketchup recipe I love

 

[Snoflayk505]

Idk what happened to the entire first part of my orginal post but I was telling you that if you start the intro diet and make this your base diet, you will be able to find out what REALLY flares you cuz all the bad bacteria will be out of your system. I never thought i would be able to eat peanuts and beans or beef just like you. Since I started this diet, that is all I eat and I have no problems. My advice would be to start SCD as a base diet and once you are symptom free, add slowly.

 

[Manzyb]

I had no idea you could take the skin off an almond! Do you put them in a food processor to grind them?

Dummy me probably would have just put the whole almonds in the processor and not have thought about it I use to buy the redmill almond flour and it was seriously expensive!

Almond flour and blueberry pancakes are amazing!

 

[Ihurt]

I really want to try this diet. I looked at the illegals and legals. There are soo many things on the legal side that I cannot eat though. For instance, No tomatoes for me( I have IC and have to avoid ALL citrus). I also cannot eat cheese( lactose intolerant), and I cannot eat nuts at all. Vegetables for me lately have been canned as I do better with them really soft, though I do buy my carrots fresh organic and boil them until they are soft. The only vegis I can eat are carrots and green beans. I guess I could buy them fresh and boil them and then blend them. As far as meat, I can only eat chicken and turkey and canned wild caught salmon. NO beef or pork.

My diet is so limited due to my other health issues. I have to say though that I am still interested, I mean I am willing to try to get some relief naturally anyday.

Also, I am on meds that I cannot get off of at this time. I take zyrtec liquid for allergic reactions which does have sweetner of some sort in it. ( I cannot take the pill form, I have side effects from the inactive ingredients) I also take a low dose antibitoic liquid keflex daily to prevent UTI's. This also has some sort of sweetner in it. For supplements I have to take Dmannose powder which supports the urinary tract. This is a sugar, but it is not like regular sugar, this is a natural occuring sugar and is even safe for diabetics. Not sure if these things will interact with the diet???

I guess I will really have to look into this and see if I can find a happy medium with the foods that are allowed that I can eat. My one worry is energy. I have chronic fatigue syndrome as it is and am always tired. I realize with this diet the only source of sugar is in the fruit, which I cannot eat really. Right now I do not eat many sweets as they are bad for you anyhow, but I get my energy from eating brown rice and potatoes which are starches. These I would have to give up. What other source would I use to give me energy?? I am able to eat one banana a day also, but that is about it. I cannot afford to lose too much weight either. I am at a good weight, but I do not want to lose too much more.

I really would love to do this diet and get relief naturally. Oh, how do you prevent constipation while on this diet as it is high protein and and no starchs? I cannot do the fruits..

 

[Snoflayk505]

I'm so sorry you have SUCH a limited diet No dairy, no cheese, no nuts...... I am going to do some research for you in my recipe world and post some recipes for you It might take a couple days but I am on a mission to help you.

What about beans? I came up with some bread recipes with white beans. I soak the beans for 24 hours which takes out the gas i guess (following SCD instructions) and then cook them and puree them. Let me know

And no red meat at all?

Manzyb Yes! lol I was so excited when I found this was so easy because I LOVE to eat and cook and Nut flours are so wonderful for replacing carbs.

I boil them for 5 minutes, blanch them in cold water so I can handle them. Then squeeze them between 2 fingers and they pop out! Lol its actually fun because I end up shooting a few across the room Then just lay em on a cookie sheet until try. Once dry grind them. I put them in the food processor but my flour is a tad grainy. Going to see if my blender does a better job next time. i will post a tutorial on my blog next week

 

[Snoflayk505]

Oh and as for my energy, it is actually quite low unfortunately but I just get over it cuz im symptom free and its nice You will have such a hard time keeping your weight up because you cant do nuts....... Gluten and grains and starches are so well known for contributing to flares too so those potatoes and rice might not be helping much Honestly Im not really sure it would be such a good idea for you to eliminate the only things keeping your weight up and energy I will still search for some recipes for you but I would be a bit worried cutting the rice and potatoes out even though it might help your symptoms immensely.

 

[ZM1019]

I find it interesting SCD decreases people's energy. Back when I could still tolerate low amounts of starch (starting about 20 + years ago), I didn't eat "starchy" foods, processed foods or sugars. I never thought about lactose intolerance but my ex-husband (who loved to cook and did all the cooking) didn't believe in anything but hard cheeses so they and organic yogurts never bothered me. I didn't eat pork, beef or lamb either. What is interesting to me is that before I started eating that way, I was constantly tired. Whenever I ate bread, pasta, rice or potatoes, I would feel overwehlmingly tired within two hours and then ravenously hungry again. Even sugar didn't affect me like that. At the time I just thought it was a sign that I was pre-diabetic as diabetes runs in my family so I stopped eating all of the so-called starchy carbs and sugars and any kind of processed food (it was basically The Zone way of eating which is all about keeping insulin level by the way you eat). I immediately had a pickup of energy and felt wonderful. I felt like I'd been asleep my entire life before that. Even colors seemed brighter. For me it was completely liberating.

Have you tried eating a piece of chicken or fish the size of your palm and filling the rest of the plate with veggies you can eat? You can always steam veggies until they are pretty much mush which would be better than canned at least.

I think for a lot of people when they quit eating starch they don't realize that carb-wise you can eat a plateful of very low starch veggies like broccoli or cauliflower (carrots a little less because they contain more starch) to equal the same as a tablespoon of pasta or potato. I think maybe you are not getting enough carbs from veggies (especially if you can't eat fruit), because you are not eating enough of them to make up for the amount of carbs you got from starchy foods. You might have to eat these in small servings several times a day, but it sounds like you need to eat significantly more of them.

Also, if you can eat Coconut, it's a great source of fiber (much higher than grains), low in calories, starch free and can be used instead of nuts for flour. Dried, shredded coconut can be added to almost anything to add fiber. It's also legal in SCD. Coconut is also naturally sweet and sweetens almost any food you put it in.

Last, I know you can't eat citrus, but can you eat papaya? The enzyme in papaya is great for digestion and it doesn't seem at all acidic (but you could always look that up).

Watermelon is also great for digestion but that might be too acidic for you.

 

[Snoflayk505]

Idk Zm, my energy always seems lower than it used to be back when I would eat whatever and my diet is extremely well balanced. Sugar is fuel but it's alot harder to get a large amount quickly in fruit than in a candy bar I'm no professional expert but I do know that nothing picks me up as much as sugar used to. I can drink some coffee and get a little energy but it depletes fast. I am very anxious to get my nutrition work up next week and see what eating the SCD diet has done for me, good or bad.

 

[maggied]

I've been doing the SCD for about 8 years, pretty strictly. I was SO sick when I started. Dangerously skinny, fistulas, abcesses, running to the bathroom constantly. It took about two years to get healed and into remission. I stayed on the diet and basically had no crohns symptoms until about a year and a half ago when i started cheating (adding rice and corn). I've since cut them out and gotten strict again and things are mostly back under control. I would say follow the intro diet laid out in Breaking the vicious cycle to start and only start adding things once your symptoms subside a bit. you may be able to eat things (like fruit or beans) once you are on the diet that your body can't tolerate now. That was definitely my case. It takes a while to develop recipes you like and just get into the habit of cooking, making yogurt, etc. But there are a bunch of good websites and a couple of good cook books that have been a big help. In addition to the recipes in Breakign the Vicious cycle, I also really like a cookbook called "Eat Well, Feel Well" by Kendall Conrad and one called "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet" by Raman Prasad. they are good to flip through and get ideas.

 

[Snoflayk505]

Well said Maggied

 

[hugh]

don't give up on diet yet Ihurt.
The foods you can tolerate will increase as your intestines heal.
When i first started out (before i found paleo and SCD) i ate nothing but lamb, rice, avocado and lemon for every meal for over 6 weeks.
Yes it's boring but i stopped s#!ting blood and pus

Most intolerances (to my understanding) are caused by leaky gut-
Molecules of food getting through the intestinal wall that would not normally be allowed.

If you need grain try white rice only and see how that goes
Rice isn't SCD or Paleo legal, but is the least troublesome grain for most people

Try it, eat a boring diet for a while