The Maker's Diet

After hearing so much about this diet, I checked the book out at the library.  I'm a bit disappointed because it seems that it will be fairly expensive to implement.  Organic products do not come cheaply, neither do the supplements.  Is it worth it?  For those of you on the diet, did you see the dramatic improvements you hoped for?  Did you alter the diet any?  What parts of the diet did you keep/ discard?

Thank you!

bonwilsky,
I'm in the same boat as emom when she says "No sugar, nothing refined, nothing processed." More than anything, the Makers Diet has showed me that I can function without all of that stuff. Not buying these types of items also saves money. (ie. a candy bar at work, a soda with lunch, etc.) Having water as basically my only liquid is a big saver too. as to the probiotics...I have yogurt once a day and kefir once a day. I'm not taking any special supplements. As to dramatic improvements...I think I have seen dramatic improvements, but's its hard to know for sure, because I started prednisone at the same time I started the Maker's Diet...I'm tapering off the prednisone now and doing well...so something is working! I have to believe that a healthy diet is a big part of why I'm feeling well now.
I'm off to make french toast! (spelt bread, eggs, cinnamon, and maple syrup, yum!)

bonnie - imho this diet is legit. i saw results in like 2-3 days. i was suffering from colonic inertia at the time - basically my colon stopped working and was lying inert, hence my docs recommended an ostomy. but shortly after starting the diet (and i cheated by starting on phase 3) my colon started to work again and i've been able to save it. right now i am feeling the best i can ever remember. after 14 years of living with chronic fatigue and constant abdominal pain, i forgot what it felt like not to feel like that. i also have bowel movements under control and i am not rushing off the to use the restroom which has cured me of my agoraphobia. this diet has been a real god send for me. i did redo the diet in january 2007. i had the opportunity to meet jordan rubin and he put me on a special version of the maker's diet, starting at phase 1. this is what really got me feeling fantastic.

yes, the food is more expensive, but to me it is a wash cos you no longer eat out, or at least not as much. it took a while to not swallow hard at paying like $9/lb for ground beef or $24 for fish but it is worth it imho. the food tastes better and is truly better for you. it will take a while to adjust though. shopping is very hard at first. take the book with you and use the resource guide in the back, starting with products he recommends. once you get the hang of it is easy. scrutinize the labels - you must learn how to shop all over again. look for things that are not or minimally processed and learn all the hidden words for sugar, as it should be avoided as best you can. you'll have to rebudget your time. both for shopping and preparing meals. make a big dinner as that becomes lunch for tomorrow. use a crock pot so dinner is ready when you get home and you can use it to make a lot of food at once and have meals for the entire week. a blender is a must for smoothies.

it is scary at first. the diet is difficult and intimidating. it comes to down to you and your desire to try this and have self control. your will power will get you through. once you get used to it it becomes easy. it is a lifestyle change. i've lost my sweet tooth and food has really never tasted better to me. i like to make my own meals and go grocery shopping. i even make my own yogurt and cookies and breads as i can control the ingredients, making them healthier for me. i've even experimented with cultured foods in the recipe section. good stuff. you can eat out, you just need to scrutinize the menu and make wise decisions of where you eat.

i've started a bunch of threads on this subject. you should be able to search these through my name. ask the moderators for help.

i no longer take any medication and i believe that is because of the maker's diet. i follow it pretty strictly, but on occasion i'll indulge. granted my definition of indulging is different now though.

best of luck to you!

welcome to the forum, lilturbo!

Bonwilsky, after I read CrazyHarry's post I remembered those first few weeks on the diet...Like he said, you learn to grocery shop all over again. I don't enjoy cooking all that much, so it was a challenge at first. It took a few weeks before I felt really comfortable with the new way to shop and cook.... Shopping at our grocery store for me is now truly perimeter shopping. I'd always heard perimeter shopping was the healthiest way to shop, but never completely got it. Now I do. I go in, get my produce, meats, eggs, dairy and bread, and I'm out the door. Seldom do I have reason to go down an aisle. It's really something...

I also use our local health food store for many items. For instance, you can buy taco seasoning there in bulk that doesn't have sugar, corn starch, or other additives. I buy all my herbs there in bulk, too. Much, much cheaper. Stevia, a natural sweetener, can be purchased in bulk at health food stores for about 1/3 the cost of pre-packaged Stevia.

One more thing. The Maker's Diet touches on juicing (higher nutrient value, plant enzymes, etc.). I know I've said it before, but we *love love love* our juicer!!! We make vegetable juice 4-5 times a week. Usually just carrot/celery and a little apple. It's great and I think it helped keep us all healthier this winter. Just don't buy an inexpensive juicer... we made that mistake and ended up returning it. Buy a "masticating" type if you're in the market. It will last forever!

I have yet to purchase a yogurt maker but probably will in the near future. I'll need remedial help from you experts to get started, I'm sure. We're eating so much of it, though, I think it's time to make it. We love that fruit dip you make w/yogurt: Plain yogurt, honey, vanilla (organic, without corn syrup) and cinnamon. YUMMY!!! We also make smoothies with yogurt a lot.

Emom - yogurt maker is totally the way to go. i got the yogourmet one recommended by the scd diet website. it had a high start up imho, like $60 i think, but i didnt shop around. i just bought that cos they recommended it. i can find their starters at whole foods and other health food stores, but you can also order them on line. i can make a half gallon of yogurt cheaper than buying it in the store. it does take some time to do it, all of like 15 min, and then you incubate it in a water bath for like 24 hours, put it in the fridge for 8 hours to stop the process, and then you are good to go. i seem to eat a lot so a half gallon lasts me like a week. everyone i've let try it loves it. i get better results using organic whole milk (which i cadillac up with raw cream) than using whole raw milk. bummer, but then it is cheaper this way. i dont use goat milk cos i can only find ultra pasteurized and the directions recommends not using ultra pasteurized milk. cant find any sheep milk so i cant experiment with that. and with the yogurt you can make your own cheese. so pretty cool.

sprouted grain bread works great as toast. i like a little butter or coconut oil and then cinnamon to lessen the GI effect.

lilturbo said...
Is organic whole wheat bread safe?

Do you mean as far as the Maker's Diet goes? The answer according to the MD would be no. Only sprouted bread is allowed.

Another thing to consider. Many folks w/CD *seem* to have some level of gluten sensitivity. For those folks, whole wheat bread--whether organic or not--would not be good for them. I think my son may be one of those folks. On the occasion that he eats bread, since he doesn't like sprouted bread he eats organic spelt bread. Spelt is an ancient grain which *supposedly* is low in gluten. He seems to tolerate it well, so right now we'll stick with it. My thanks to Rudi's Organic Bakery....Ugh...it's expensive...

CrazyHarry, you're right though. If he toasted the sprouted bread he'd probably like it better. We'll try that. But here's what I've been wondering. Does the actual sprouting of the grain decrease the gluten content?

Roni, I wish I knew how to make bread. We do like sourdough...well, everyone except my son. If you figure out how to make it from spelt flour let me know! I'll add that to my list of things to do along with learning to make yogurt. That one is a must!

emom - i dont know about sprouting reducing the gluten content. i would assume no in that sprouting is going to unlock the nutrition of the grain via pre-digestion and change the disaccharides to monosaccharides.


i believe bottom line is not eating bread from any combo of enriched bleached white flour. sprouted is probably the one of the best you can get, while whole wheat is probably a step down. from what i've been told, the best is sprouted bread from the actual (wheat) berry. ezekeil is not from the berry. alvarado st is the only brand i can find that is.

I also had good luck with changing my diet.  I was hospitalized for 4 days and the doc wanted me to take Imuran.  He told me if I don't take the medicine, there is a 75% chance I will have to have part of my intestines removed. 

I decided to try eating healthier (no bleached flour and no hydrogenated oils, etc.) before I take the toxic medication.  So two weeks went by and I stuck to my good eating habits and went in for another colonoscopy to see how things were healing.  Before the doc put me under, he asked me if I've thought about the Imuran. I told him I don't want to take it because I feel great. 

After the scope the doc told me, "as of right now I am going to say you don't even have Crohn's.  There are no more signs of Crohn's or Colitis." 

I don't know if it is because of the change of diet but it sure sounds like it to me.  Really...how would our immune system recognize bleach and all that other crap in our bodies?  Maybe it recognizes the junk as foreign invaders and sends out the white blood cells to attack, and attack and attack because we keep eating it and then after a while an ulcer develops and gets worse and worse.  I read some on the net about bleached flour and hydrogentated oils and hydrolyzed, etc. It doesn't sound like anything our immune systems should let go through our bodies. I don't know. Just a thought.

Anyways, I have been eating whatever, whenever and guess what.......IT'S BAAAACK!  Ugh!  It is so hard to find the right food at a good price and it is NOT convenient like junk food.

 

emom - i've only seen alvardo st. bread at health food stores.

a good cookbook on sprouting and fermented foods is sally fallon's "nourishing traditions". i just got it (finally after a year on the list) and i am slowly making my way through it. lots of good recipes but they require some prep time in that you do a lot from scratch. but all worth it imho. you just gotta make the time.

i gave up sugars and grains for like 4 months. when i reintroduced them everything tasted different. and i lost my craving for bread and sweets.

cow milk is ok, just get the organic kind if you can. makers diet goes the next step and recommends raw milk. just to let you know, it is about twice as expensive, but man does it taste a lot better.

i suggest you try all the other grains - spelt, amaranth, buckwheat, etc etc. they are readily available in health food stores. the maker's diet will open up your palate to a lot of new and interesting and tasty foods. i am sure you'll find a lot of new favorite foods, so dont be afraid to experiment and try new stuff.

Bonwilsky said...
I'm not sure how closely we're going to follow the MD, but we are going to eliminate processed and refined foods and move towards organic meats and dairy. We're going to try to stick to whole wheat products and see how it goes (I love my wheat). What does spelt taste like compared to wheat?

I think spelt tastes very similar to whole wheat. It is a species of wheat. (Maybe a precursor to today's wheat?) The brand I buy is a bit dry, but I have to remind myself it has no preservatives and no high-fructose corn syrup. (I never realized hf corn syrup is in 99% of breads out there--but that's another discussion!) I think it's also shipped in frozen from Colorado...

I suppose I really should learn how to make the stuff...

CH, I'll look for the Alvaredo St. bread at my local health food store. I'm also going to look for the Sally Fallon cookbook! Is that referenced in the Maker's Diet?

Bonwilsky, good luck to you and your hubby! I hope these changes really help!

In response to the Maker's Diet question... I was diagnosed with Crohn's in May of 2006. I tried Remicade, and had a horrible allergic reaction to it on my third infusion and so couldn't continue. I was also on Entocort at the time, which I didn't find really helped. The doctor then put me on Pentasa, which caused me to throw up and not be able to hold food down for a week straight. I was completely bedridden because I had no nutrients in my body (lost about 5 pounds because I could only have maybe one ensure a day). So, the doctor took me off that, and tried to put me on 6mp. I declined, since it had been about a year at this point that no medication was helping me. My mom found the book the Maker's Diet, and I figured it couldn't hurt to try the diet (this was April of '07). I did the 40 day diet (I cheated once with a piece of chocolate cake at a wedding =) ), and by the end of the second week, my symptoms had subsided. After the 40 days were up, I continued to stick to it for the most part, but not strict like during the 40 days. During the year after I completed the diet, I have not had one symptom of Crohn's whatsoever. I lead a completely normal life now, and I personally feel as if this diet has saved my life. This is just my personal experience. Since I started the diet, I have also not been on any medication at all, but I take probiotics to help with digestion. To the people who feel as if they have tried everything, I just think why not try it? I did, and it was the best decision I've ever made. I hope this helps someone out there, the way it's helped me.

LSUgal
Crohn's since 2006
Symptom free for a year
No medicine
Probiotics
Maker's Diet

hey ingrid norway - question on the yogurt machine. are you using the yogourmet brand one recommended by the scd? that is what i use. i've found that sometimes my yogurt comes out all runny. it always turns out this way when i use raw milk. i am following their instructions exactly and using their starters and incubating for 24 hours so i dont get it. any tips/advice?