Frustrated with SCD

I feel guilty because I cheated on the SCD tonight by having some brown rice pasta. I had only been on the diet for one week so I didn't last long without giving in to a craving. I was getting so miserable eating the introductory diet of fish, chicken soup, yogurt and eggs. I am still having D so my understanding is that i'm not supposed to start introducing other legal foods yet.
I was thin to begin with but started getting scary skinny just in a week on the diet. Plus, I haven't seen any improvement yet. I know I didn't give it much time to work, but I was starting to get nauseous just thinking about having more chicken soup or yogurt (things I normally love!). So I cheated.... I feel fine so far.
Any words of encouragement to get me back on the diet?? How long did it take before people starting seeing less D, and less blood? I know rice is bad, but is it that bad???? ;)

Basil

Rider Fan,
How long did you try SCD?

The SCD is just about the same as Atkins only a bit more restricted to begin with. That's why the weight drops off. You might want to have a look at http://www.pecanbread.com/new/begindiet1.html for more info on the timing and variety of foods that you can add to the diet. It also has more info on common problems encountered when starting up the diet. For some other experiences with SCD, there's a thread here: https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=17&m=1262312&p=4. Just wondering about your yogurt - are you buying it or do you make your own? Commercial yogurt is not completely lactose free, so it should be avoided.

Lack of sugars is probably what causes much of the weight to come off, in conjunction with orthorexia- an excessive fixation on consuming healthy foods. ("Orthorexia" may be a bad term here, as while the diet is extreme, it must be adhered to stringently to achieve the desired effect.) Ingesting sugar results in a release of insulin, which in turn is an anabolic compound- it builds things, including fat. In the short run, consuming honey may help as it is comprised almost entirely of fructose and glucose, which are absorbed quickly, and do little (if anything) to feed the organisms responsible for this disease. Therefore, yogurt with fruit and honey is good, as is SCD-compliant custard- lots of egg, lots of cheese, lots of fat and protein with enough honey to make it palatable.

I never tried rice while on the SCD; I started only 2-3 months ago having a bol from "Chipotle" with a small amount of rice, along with chicken, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. The first couple of times, it didn't go so well, but now I find I can have half of a bol with absolutely no discomfort at all. I used to consume one ECPO (enteric-coated peppermint oil) capsule with each meal, but recently have been consuming capsules with amylase- an enzyme that breaks up starch. Although we secrete amylase to digest our food, maybe a bit more pushes the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch a little faster? I don't know.

A few observations:

If you find you can't stick to the SCD- that's fine. Don't kill yourself trying. If it's not working for you, you can always try again later. If you are comfortable with trying, the approach recommended by Lutz in "Life Without Bread" says you can eat whatever you want- just keep carbs to under 72 grams/day. He reported an 85% success rate going out as far as three years. Read the book, give it a whirl. The mechanism is the same as that with Gottschall- get the "bad carbs" out of the diet, or at least to a lower level. You can also take the approach as advised by Ebringer: eliminate the starch. This would be similar to gluten-free, except you can't swap out goodies like potato and cassava, etc. for wheat. Just get the starch out and keep it out. If you can maintain on one of these diets, you may also find comfort in the long run. You're trying to starve out something that likes starch and sugar; stay away from those components.

As for less D- for me, it's 72 hours. I found this out when I thought I had celiac disease. Take out the gluten, and within 72 hours, I felt great- every time. As for the end of blood- I started on 19 December, 2007, and by mid-February, bleeding had stopped. I've had 4-5 incidents since, each one of which can be tracked back to specific dietary "excursions," where I learned I was not ready for something I just ate. Each one has been less severe than the last, and the time between each event has increased. My last one was over 6 weeks ago.

Good luck.