Looking into SCD diet...any tips?

Hey Emma,
I have just started looking into this diet also. There seem to be many testimonies of UC suffers that have had amazing results. I just got the book that explains it and has recipes in it and have just started reading it. Have you looked at sdcdiet.com ? they have some of the recipes and tips about cooking them on it, it helped me to decide to order the book to look into it further. :)
Traci

wow 3 new scd'ers. I wish you all well on your diets. It's not at all easy in the beginning but the results are soooo worth the hard work.
I hope you will all encourage and support one another.

I've been on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for almost 6 months now and am amazingly better. Nothing...and I mean nothing including Rx has given me any real remission until I tried this diet for the 2nd time. I tried every diet possible with no results over 10 years time. I tried SCD several years ago with no positive results but this time paid strict attention to how my gut was reacting to certain foods, even if they were "legal" on SCD and removed them.

I had to remove fruit, juices and homemade yogurt before the diet worked for me this time. When I started I just went gluten-free without the whole diet and bleeding stopped in just a couple days. That encouraged me to go full-bore into the whole diet. It took several months to see slow results on other more upsetting symptoms such as urgency and diarrhea but at 5 months those symptoms were 95% gone.

Now my final struggle is with C (constipation) lol.

Here's my good news: I have been able to eat some fruit and homemade yogurt now! My colon has healed to the point that these don't upset it at all.

I think some people don't want to start SCD because they think they will have to give up a lot of foods they love the rest of their life. For me that isn't true. But bread and gluten will probably not be in my life and that's OK.

My life was hell at the time I gave SCD one more last try. Not eating bread is a VERY small price to pay.
Best wishes on your recovery. Take it one day at a time, keep a food journal and if you are successful pay it forward by posting here.
No one is out there getting paid for spreading the SCD word and without the internet I would never have known about it.

BabeintheWoods said...
If you were not afraid to make subtle changes to SCD and at first avoid some foods that were technically legal, perhaps testing out another minor change such as adding a soluble fiber like psyllium might help with the constipation. Just a thought.

Babe
You are correct. I am not afraid to tinker with SCD so psyllium is a possibility. This week I am trying out another supplement: boswellia. 1 day on and so far so good. Next week if all goes well I'm trying turmeric pills (turmeric powder in food is fine with me).
THEN I could think about psyllium.

The Citrucel seem to be just right so far for my C but I am very open-minded about natural supplements that people on this forum have said works for them.

I have been doing the SCD for 17 days now.  I was diagnosed with UC in May and I'm feeling pretty anti-drugs.  My only symptoms at first were blood and mucous, no cramping or anything, but a little bit constipated.  Then when the Dr. did a sigmoidoscopy to find the UC, I had a month of diarrhea and cramping and feeling blah following that procedure.  Now I'm finally back to feeling just fine, as I was before being diagnosed, and started the SCD to see if I can get my body into a state of happy harmony again.  It's kind of funny eating so much fruit and veggies and still being constipated.  (I wonder why some people get constipated and some get diarrhea?) 

Anyway, I would highly recommend buying the Breaking the Viscious Cycle book, read all about it, it was a pretty interesting book to read, and the whole thing mosely makes sense to me.  There are some recipies in the book, but not too many, so I bought a couple other SCD cookbooks too.  Don't have a favorite one yet, since I'm still pretty much getting started.  I did buy a yogurt maker and have been making my own yogurt for 2 weeks now and love it.

Good luck, I am VERY interested to hear how other people react to the SCD, if it works for you, doesn't work, etc.

:) zucchini

My advice is not to expect a miracle cure. It is really difficult and expensive to follow the SCD diet and it doesn't help everyone. It actually made me sicker because I wasn't eating right for my body. I was losing tons of weight and my symptoms were as bad as ever. Goodluck to you, it is definitely worth giving a long, hard try but it may or may not help you.

Also watch out for your cholesterol on this diet. I did it for about six months and my LDL almost doubled in that time.

-Scott

Oh man it would be pretty hard to start the whole thing on a trip with share food. Maybe start small and just eliminate one thing to get used to it. Wheat maybe? Or sugar? I think Imagardener said she started by first eliminating wheat gluten. And to Scott How the heck did your cholesterol go up? Did you just eat meat, cheese and nuts or something?! I'm living on fruit, veggies, lean protein and one almond flour muffin in the morning. I feel so much better its amazing.

emma
don't start the entire diet while on vacation. toooo difficult and frustrating. But do try and go gluten-free ASAP. Search and look up the foods that have gluten and don't eat them (yeah that means no pizza). That alone is big part of a lot of people's problem. Step-by-step you can get there.

scott
my cholesterol went down but that's me. I'm having another blood test soon and will see what happened in the last few months.

hey emmadog... i'm on day 24 and have seen some definite improvement so far... not an overnight miracle, but i am definetly hopeful from the results i've seen. i say, go for it, you have nothing to loose, that's why i did it. i actually was a huge diet skeptic and tried it to prove it wrong... haha.

i agree with imagardner... do not do this on your vacation. my advice until the vacay is over... don't eat bread or grains or anything high in sugar. Those are the two main things that go, as well as avoiding dairy. That will get you a good start and then you can jump in when you get home. I did day 7-11 of my diet at my parents house away from from home for a funeral and an anniversary celebration... I basically had to make all my food before hand and had to watch everyone eat while i basically fasted... don't do it, you don't have fun:)

a website i just found that is super helpful with recipes and encouragement is nomorecrohns.com. they are on facebook too... very very helpful and encouraging.

this has been one of the hardest things to do, but its getting easier as i add foods very slowly. in the first few weeks, just try not to freak out, knowing that the limited options will not last forever. once you add in things slowly, your options will get really good. i made some pancakes today with almond flour and they were amazing!!

that's all i got, but i'm glad to have other beginners to talk with:)
blessings to you

emma ann

I would definitely wait until you get the book and have a chance to read through it.  It would be really reallyhard to totally follow the diet to start with while you are traveling.  But you could certainly do as others have suggested and cut out gluten and other grains as much as possible, and ditch the sugar too.

I'm going on vacation for a couple of weeks this summer, and that's going to be really hard eating out all the time.  Looking for lots of grilled chicken salads and fresh fruit I guess...

Good luck!

I'm following the SCD diet and it's not too bad. I actually enjoy making food from scratch. I made an almond banana bread loaf last week and my husband loved it. I made my own marinara sauce today and ate it with chicken (It tastes better than the ones at the store ;). But, I agree its hard to leave home for a couple of days because you have to figure out what you are going to eat...
I'm going camping this coming weekend, but I'm already preparing for it .
I started the diet about 3 weeks ago and I have noticed improvement (the food I'm eating now seems to soothe my stomach). I am still taking my meds (rowasa and apriso), scared to get off of them just yet. Had a doctor's appointment today and she said that my blood count went up and that my crp levels were back to normal so that made me happy. I'm not in remission yet but I think I'm very close. I don't see much blood anymore, some days none at all. I hope it continues to heal. SCD is a great way of living healthy (my opinion)!

Thanks again everyone for all your support and info. Here is what I have decided now. Going to the Dr. on Thurs. Thought this was important as I am starting to have some pain which I have never had before. I'm going to start cutting out some foods also. Going to buy the book and take it on vacation so I can read through it and start when I get back. I would still love to hear more stories and info so feel free to keep posting.

Lisa