What about the SCD diet??? Anyone try that?

Thanks for the replies. Today I am feeling a bit better, but weak. I'm losing weight which worries me, I'm already underweight. I need to find some of the Dry Curd Cottage Cheese and make some fattening stuff. Anyone else got some idea's for fattening legal stuff that is good for a beginner? I had some diarheea w/ blood this morning, but the urgency was less then normal. I've also had a lot of strange gurgling in my gut the past couple of days - there are definably some adjustments going on.

Someone in this thread didn't tolerate the juice early on - I also had that some problem. A couple of days ago I got SCD legal grape juice that I mixed 1:1 with water like the book said and had diarrhea about 2hrs later that smelled like the juice! I ended up taking 4-5 trips to the loo in an hour. This happened at the start of this week too. So no more juice until things settle down.

Matt> I practically lived on baked chicken thighs for weeks with the diet. Throw them into a pan, bake at 375F until internal temperature is 160F or better. (I think the USDA's recommendation is 165F, which makes the meat tough. I pull them at 155F and let them finish cooking in the pan.) Also lots of full-fat yogurt.

basil> Don't go wacky with new foods just yet. If you're on a plateau- no pain, no bleeding, no D, no nothing- then try a small amount of something new. Wait a couple of days for "fallout." Try a larger quantity. Wait two days. Continue.

One may need to restrict themselves to a fairly narrow diet for months before experimenting widely. I'm 9 months into it, and trying maybe one new food a week. Keep them related when you can; if you do well on cauliflower, try broccoli, for example.

Combine the SCD with "Life Without Bread," and just keep your total carbohydrates under 72 grams/day, and it's harder to make mistakes.

Nobody said this was the easy route. When I first read, "YEARS?!" all I did was redoubled my determination. I've come a long way since then.

Sweettea> I missed your question about the tongue blisters- sorry about that. I wish I had a better suggestion, but I can comment on this from a nutritional standpoint.

Crohn's damages the digestive tract; with damage comes inability to absorb nutrients properly. With nutrient deficiencies come strange symptoms; I had a fantastic biochem prof who noted that some nutrients- particularly B vitamins- are prone to causing all kinds of oral ulcers. I suspect this is one reason why many individuals with Crohn's suffer from aphthous ulcers- B vitamin deficiencies. Even supplementation may not work as the damage may be quite serious. I noticed mine went away when I went gluten free. Deficiencies of B12 and folate may cause them.

Gamma oryzanol (derived from wheat- probably not legal on the SCD) has been advocated as effective on ulcers in the past, although that application seems to have fallen out of favor.

emsgigi said...
What is the difference between life without bread and the scd diet. I am so confused! And then there is the makers diet......
I just want a plan that is simple to follow, become healthier and help my crohn's. Thoughts, opinions, anyone-everyone?

Your question is tricky to answer. I advise reading the books. I recommend starting with the Maker's Diet. It's not technical, is very easy to read, and explains the reasoning behind eating in this ultra-healthy way (no need to feel like you should buy his supplements, imo). I read the MD first. After it I read "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" (SCD) by Elaine Gottschall. It's a little more technical. The nice thing about the SCD is the amount of free information and recipes online as well as the many cook books written to be SCD compliant. I only recently began reading Life Without Bread. Parts of it are a bit more technical still, but most of it is easy enough to grasp.

LWB limits carbs even more than the others but allows "cheats" as long as you stay within the 72g of carbs for the day. So if you want that little cookie or piece of cake, it says go ahead. Both the SCD and MD remove all processed foods from the diet, since that's where bad carbs (and other offending ingredients) are. So no sugar, no flour, no junk, no "cheats." These two diets are very similar. A couple differences that quickly come to mind is that the MD allows bread in the form of sprouted grains only, while the SCD allows no grains--so no bread. Also the MD allows raw milk (please don't do this unless you *own* the cow!) while the SCD allows no milk or dairy except in 24 hour fermented yogurt and aged hard cheeses.

So that's my tiny little tutorial on the differences of the three. Others may have more to add. As for which is simpler to follow, it probably comes down to personal opinion. Again, I like the SCD because of the vast amount of information online and the cook books that are available. I learned a lot from the MD that I still incorporate, though--like using coconut oil, for instance. Personally, I didn't think either was terribly difficult to follow once I got up to speed.

Please consider reading the books, though, because they're VERY inspiring!!!!! Good luck!

emom and osprey,

Thanks for all the info, very,very helpful. I'm going to order all the books today! I am hesitant to go cold turkey on carbs because I have often relied on toast and mashed potatoes to ease flares. But change is good and I am ready to venture forth! Thank you. Thank you!

The SCD says coffe is legal but not instant coffee...What is instant coffe??? lol

Chase> Use [email protected].

Note I am not a nutritionist; I do not speak on behalf of the author or anyone behind the SCD, I make no money off of this, etc. I'm just a biochemist (and not a very good one) who got very angry at the idea of being on drugs the rest of my life.

The problem with going low-carb these days is that the food options are limited, yes. Between commerce and agriculture, the type and quantity of food products that can be used to generate sugars (either as simple sugars found in fruit, or complex sugars found in grains and starchy root vegetables) have exploded in the past hundred years. Just 10,000 years ago there was no wheat; there was no barley, no rice, no spelt, no oats, and no citrus (except perhaps as some small, wild-type fruit trees with relatively small amounts of sugars). There was no sugarcane, and no sugar beets. Corn and potatoes are plants of the New World, which were unknown to Europeans until just 500 years ago (at the very most); both have been vastly improved over existing cultivars through selective breeding, as have other crops (mainly wheat).

It's tough to go into a supermarket these days and find something other than wheat, corn, potatoes, and rice- I know. It's brutal. But it seems likely that our ancestors didn't eat the huge amounts of sugar that we do today; the only available sugars were from honey (and just TRY collecting it without a bee suit), and some small amounts from native fruits and vegetables- which (again) are greatly enhanced through breeding in the modern day.

Remarkably, some civilizations were virtually free of "Western" diseases until flour and sugar arrived. Doctors practicing medicine under primitive conditions noted that cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, etc. were very rare in these cultures- even when compared to Europeans of similar age. But after sugar and white flour were introduced, all bets were off. Read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taubes- it's very revealing.

One can work around milk quite simply by eating lots of yogurt. I go through a gallon of whole milk for yogurt making at least every 7-10 days. Plus- you can have all the cheese you want. (And bacon! And eggs! And steak! And fish!)

For veggies- although not recommended for starters, I always did well on cauliflower. My favorite recipe is so simple even I can manage it: wash and cut cauliflower into large chunks. Dump in metal baking pan after lightly greasing it. Cover cauliflower with chicken thighs. Bake at 375F until internal temperature is 160F; pull pan from oven to finish cooking. The cauliflower absorbs all the fat and flavor. Also good: broccoli. Carrots are OK if they are thoroughly cooked, and- yes, I hate mushy vegetables, too.

See also: everything on the Pecanbread website, including this:

http://www.pecanbread.com/new/Improvethediet.htm