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Think I'm gonna give up on the SCD

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Posted 2/12/2012 3:30 AM (GMT 0)
Has anyone tried that apple supplement that was mentioned a while ago?
Posted 2/12/2012 4:40 AM (GMT 0)
I would suggest you do one thing at a time: moderate diet, or lower Lialda. If you have an improvement or get worse, then you'll know what it was.

I tried a modified version of SCD during the summer. However, since we were on vacation and I couldn't prepare my own meals it was a real hassle. I also lost A LOT of weight, as there was hardly anything I could easily eat. Like at the mall food court, an amusement park, etc.

It's also so depressing. I am a chef and a foodie, and not being able to even eat ketchup was depressing.

I'm still flaring though, so I'm still searching for the right balance....
Posted 2/12/2012 9:19 AM (GMT 0)
Kudos for trying!
I don't trust any suggested diets simply because most of them are for commercial reasons and at the end of the day your body will tell you what works for you.
I find usually diet are one dimensional. While it might work sometimes you might need to top up with something opposite to whats suggested.

For me it's better I find what works for my body and take small tips along the way and ajust it. It a bit like a bespoke tailored suit you see? A diet made for your body. mind, soul.
We all hope we would have easy guidance in diet to make us feel better but even doctors don't agree.

If you have no energy and it stops you from being you or doing things you love why bother really. Find step by step what you like and works for you. And go out and have an indecent roman banquet!! (dont worry romans had toilets)
Posted 2/12/2012 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
@tournevice

if you can explain me why SCD is a commercial diet, and with arguments, I will drop the diet the next moment even if it was the best thing for me in the past 2 years.
Posted 2/12/2012 3:13 PM (GMT 0)
I think the commercial part stems from needing to buy the book and various supplies to maintain the diet (yogurt maker, nut flours, kosher supplements online, etc).

That said, if the diet *does* work for YOU, stick with it! No point in giving up something that's given you good results just because there are some negative reviews on it.
Posted 2/12/2012 4:58 PM (GMT 0)
I'm breaking the rules of this diet and have been since the beginning. I continued using my herbs, my aloe and few ingredients (like gums for example) in my almond milk and whey powder. And of course I would treat myself to going out every other friday to happy hours, and always did okay. I think it was the fact that I got rid of gluten... but this may not be the same for everyone.

I never bought the book, all i did was go on the website and look at list of legal/illegal foods, but I can say once I started getting rid of grains/sugars, my symptoms have disappeared.

I'm actually infuriated this isnt more of commercial diet because I would've refused medications from the start and tried all of these alternatives if dumb ass medical doctors practiced anything other than pill-popping their patients.

That was a little harsh, but even my naturopathic doctor was unaware. =/
Posted 2/12/2012 6:10 PM (GMT 0)

stereofidelic89 said...
I'm breaking the rules of this diet and have been since the beginning. I continued using my herbs, my aloe and few ingredients (like gums for example) in my almond milk and whey powder. And of course I would treat myself to going out every other friday to happy hours, and always did okay. I think it was the fact that I got rid of gluten... but this may not be the same for everyone.

I never bought the book, all i did was go on the website and look at list of legal/illegal foods, but I can say once I started getting rid of grains/sugars, my symptoms have disappeared.

I'm actually infuriated this isnt more of commercial diet because I would've refused medications from the start and tried all of these alternatives if dumb ass medical doctors practiced anything other than pill-popping their patients.

That was a little harsh, but even my naturopathic doctor was unaware. =/

Don't worry man. the medication you take is ok. There's athletes that take anabolic steroids and other weird crap that are ten times more dangerous than what you take...and these people are healthy.

SCD a commercial diet!?!?! You are dreaming. Did you know about SCD before you were sick?! Probably not, neither did I. Neither do 90% of the population. The only reason we know and we are on these diets is because we are sick.
Posted 2/12/2012 8:36 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry the diet is not working for you. I have been having some wonderful results with it, and I have just been on it a month. However, at the time I started it, I started prednisone and mesalamine enemas. Are you doing night enemas? They work wonders, really.

imagardener2 swears by diet mods and night enemas. I do too. In the old days, low res diet + hydrocort at night I could be in remission in about 10 days. However the disease has caught up with me and takes a bit more time now. I am experiencing great results with SCD & mesalamine nighters.

Before you quit the diet, I would try 2 things that I believe are super beneficial to SCD:
1. try to find a farm that will sell you raw milk, preferably goat milk (google real milk). If you can't, make your yogurt with goat milk from the store.
2. make the brasco broth (google this). The gelatin that melts from the chicken into the stock is sooooo good for your colon, along with all the vitamins, this will give you lots of energy.

And lack of energy? Why aren't you consuming the almond flour? This is loaded with energy.

I understand what you mean, about how Elaine cooked for her daughter. I am 21 and am away at university and all of my time not in classes or studying is spent preparing my meals. I have foods always ready to go for social events, Yes I decline a lot, and I drink water at parties and decline all foods and say I am on a diet. People think I'm crazy because I'm 6'2" 70kg and think whats this freak on a diet for? They ask why, and I tell them I'm starving out bad bacteria. Then tell them how you make your own yogurt for it, this might get you laid!

I really wish you well, and am sorry for the people who tried the diet and it did not work.
Posted 2/12/2012 8:50 PM (GMT 0)

mindoverbutter said...
Sorry the diet is not working for you. I have been having some wonderful results with it, and I have just been on it a month. However, at the time I started it, I started prednisone and mesalamine enemas. Are you doing night enemas? They work wonders, really.

imagardener2 swears by diet mods and night enemas. I do too. In the old days, low res diet + hydrocort at night I could be in remission in about 10 days. However the disease has caught up with me and takes a bit more time now. I am experiencing great results with SCD & mesalamine nighters.

Before you quit the diet, I would try 2 things that I believe are super beneficial to SCD:
1. try to find a farm that will sell you raw milk, preferably goat milk (google real milk). If you can't, make your yogurt with goat milk from the store.
2. make the brasco broth (google this). The gelatin that melts from the chicken into the stock is sooooo good for your colon, along with all the vitamins, this will give you lots of energy.

And lack of energy? Why aren't you consuming the almond flour? This is loaded with energy.

I understand what you mean, about how Elaine cooked for her daughter. I am 21 and am away at university and all of my time not in classes or studying is spent preparing my meals. I have foods always ready to go for social events, Yes I decline a lot, and I drink water at parties and decline all foods and say I am on a diet. People think I'm crazy because I'm 6'2" 70kg and think whats this freak on a diet for? They ask why, and I tell them I'm starving out bad bacteria. Then tell them how you make your own yogurt for it, this might get you laid!

I really wish you well, and am sorry for the people who tried the diet and it did not work.

Hmm, you're low for 6'2...154 pounds... you should be around 190lbs or 85kg
Posted 2/12/2012 9:34 PM (GMT 0)
stereofidelic89,.
After my daughter was diagnosed with severe pancolitis we put her on pred and pentasa as per her GI's wishes. We got home and found the scd. As we were preparing for it (waiting for the yogurt maker etc) we started the pred taper. She started to show symptoms so we started the scd immediately. Within a few days she was in a solid remission. We tapered off of pred and she was symptom free for a few months (best "remission" she's had in two years). She stayed on pentasa. I had the same attitude that you do. I was sure the scd was our cure and that the GIs were negligent if not criminal etc. Two months of being off pred, she caught a cold and an uncontrollable flare started. We went back to the intro and she got worse. We went back on pred eventually.
I'm not saying this will happen to you and I hope it does not. All I'm saying is that it's early days for youand even those who are successful on the diet often need meds for a good while. Elaine Gottschall was actually very conservative about meds and only recommended going off of them after a very long time of no symptoms if then. She acknowledged that some people would need to stay on meds with the diet. This is a brutal disease so don't be surprised if you find that the answers you've found are not a cure. They might be (and I hope they are for you) but most people on the diet have many ups and downs for the first few years. My guess is that if your UC/CD was very severe you would not have gotten into remission without the meds. If you flare again, I guess you'll find out if it's possible (and it is for some but I think it's mostly those with small bowel upper GI disease). Good luck to you!
Posted 2/12/2012 9:44 PM (GMT 0)

mindoverbutter said...


Before you quit the diet, I would try 2 things that I believe are super beneficial to SCD:
1. try to find a farm that will sell you raw milk, preferably goat milk (google real milk). If you can't, make your yogurt with goat milk from the store.
2. make the brasco broth (google this). The gelatin that melts from the chicken into the stock is sooooo good for your colon, along with all the vitamins, this will give you lots of energy.

And lack of energy? Why aren't you consuming the almond flour? This is loaded with energy.

No farms around here but I already make the goat yogurt. Nothing miraculous has come from eating it but I do like the taste which is why I'm keeping the yogurt around.

I already make a very similar soup to brasco broth minus the chicken feet (never seen this at the store before), but with bones instead. I make this every sunday and eat leftovers until about Wednesday.

I do not tolerate the almond flour. Every time I have tried, which was rarely, it has caused me nothing but problems. Nuts in general cause massive problems so I just don't eat them very often.
Posted 2/12/2012 10:28 PM (GMT 0)
@mindoverbutter

please keep in mind that there's no CURE. there are ways to manage your condition and to keep you into remission. do not have high expectations, because the higher they get, the higher your disappointment will be... i am well on SCD, but i do not think of it as a cure but as a permanent mean to keep me safe from bigger problems.
Posted 2/13/2012 4:34 AM (GMT 0)
Speaking of, does anyone suggest a nice and cheap brand of Almond flour?!?! IT IS SO EXPENSIVE. It's 10 bucks for a tiny bag at my grocery stores! I really need to avoid the cravings of crackers/breads by starting to make these recipes.
Posted 2/13/2012 1:42 PM (GMT 0)
why don't buy raw almonds, skin them - it's been posted on the forum - and then grind them?

much cheaper.
Posted 2/13/2012 2:10 PM (GMT 0)
I tried the SCD and was totally true to the diet for several months, but didn't notice any improvements.  I was always hungry and lost a lot of weight.  Interestingly, I noticed an improvemnt just AFTER I officially stopped the SCD.  I decided I would cut out all gluten, sugar, and anything remotely artificial or processed.  I started eating just a little rice a few times a week, and other things like millet or quinoa.  That satisfied the constant hunger, I gained weight back, and I stopped bleeding.  This didn't happen overnight like a miracle, obviously.  I think the SCD benefitted me in that I became SUPER aware of what I was eating and how it all affected me.  Now I have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with some fruit and a dab of coconut oil, and an egg.  For snacks I eat fruit, veggies with homemade hummus dip, celery with peanut butter, or a handfull of nuts.  Lunches I usually eat leftovers.  Dinner is varied - maybe tacos; maybe chicken, veggies and sweetpotatoes; tonight it's chili...  For a while I obsessively kept a food journal and wrote down everything I ate and how I felt during the day.  Anything that didn't seem to agree with me got flagged.  Sometimes I had to take a break from a certain food and then try again to see if I had the same reaction twice (usually not, of course, so frustrating!).  But anyway, the SCD helped me do this and I'm not sorry I gave it a try, but like you, definitely frustrated that it didn't work like I had hoped.

Also to note, I am not relying entirely on my fabulous diet, but I have been seeing a couple of different alternative medicine folks and I think they have made a difference as well.

Good luck to you on your journey!

Also: if you have a Trader Joe's grocery store near you, it's a great place to stock up on Almond meal.

Posted 2/13/2012 4:35 PM (GMT 0)

Alinus said...
why don't buy raw almonds, skin them - it's been posted on the forum - and then grind them?

much cheaper.

Lol, why not? I'll just spend another hour in the kitchen. You might as well start referring to me as "UC Homemaker".
Posted 2/13/2012 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
It's unfortunate that ground almonds or most nuts are so expensive in north america. When i was in canada i couldnt cook as much natural as here in the uk. At my corner grocery store the 200g groud almonds are one pound wich is 1.65$!

Is there any store that sells in big quantity? But I feel for you cause in canada it was around 5 dollars a bag of 200g!

By the way how do you skin manually almonds?
Posted 2/13/2012 7:57 PM (GMT 0)
stereo asked
Speaking of, does anyone suggest a nice and cheap brand of Almond flour?!?! IT IS SO EXPENSIVE. It's 10 bucks for a tiny bag at my grocery stores! I really need to avoid the cravings of crackers/breads by starting to make these recipes.

I buy whole blanched almonds in Publix (southern US grocery) 10 oz. for $4-something and then pulverize them in my food processor to make almond flour. Takes under 4 minutes. I'm sure Trader Joe's (which isn't in my area) must sell blanched almonds. The 10 oz. makes enough cookies/biscotti for the week for me although I add sunflower seeds and walnuts to the mix to pump it up a little.

Alinus said:
why don't buy raw almonds, skin them - it's been posted on the forum - and then grind them?

I did this for a while and gave up due to too much labor involved. I finally discovered how to loosen the skin easily (pour boiling water over the almonds) but even so too much work when I can buy skinless for the same price.

You don't have to use blanched almonds but whenever I eat too many almonds with the skin on it is too much fiber, or whatever the skin is composed of. Skinless are better for my colon.
Posted 2/13/2012 9:49 PM (GMT 0)
in my country almond flour has same price as raw almonds (about 10 $ per kg). so i am lucky i guess. but i only use almond flour once a weak, for a nice pancake made with blackberries.

when i need a treat i eat walnuts&honey or cashew nuts.

doing SCD is easy for me and my wife because all we cook for me it's the meat - the rest i eat raw. so we spend less time in the kitchen than we use to when I started SCD and craved for the old western diet and even more less than when we ate western diet.
Posted 2/13/2012 11:42 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Imagardner2, we do have a publix here! I will definitely start doing this...
Posted 2/14/2012 12:04 AM (GMT 0)
stereo
then I need to tell you where to find them lol. In my Publix the 10 oz. blanched whole almonds (brand=Delicious) are in the produce section hiding with other nuts underneath the fruit display. The ones on the baking aisle are more expensive and not whole/blanched.
Hope your store has them, if not they can order them.
Posted 2/14/2012 12:20 AM (GMT 0)
imagardener2,

Would you be kind enough to post your biscotti recipe for us, and perhaps another favorite that is easy to make?

Many thanks :-)

Posted 2/14/2012 1:34 AM (GMT 0)
SCD as prescribed in Breaking the Vicious Cycle is not the optimal way to do the diet. I've found that most people that have success with the diet discover other resources that present the diet in a manner that works much better. For me, and many others, that means no eggs and no diary. Fructose is also a problem for many people with compromised guts so I've had to watch my fructose intake as well.

If not for good, quality meat sources and healthy fats, I would be in bad, bad shape. Also, I handle simple starches like white potatoes and white rice very well. They are staples in my diet as well. Those are not allowed on the SCD.

P.S. One teaspoon of L-Glutamine is NOT enough as a treatment for UC. The recommended dosage is 15g per day.
Posted 2/15/2012 3:02 AM (GMT 0)
imagardener2, YES please post your recipe for Biscotti ?? :) Also, never mind we do not have a Publix in my rural college town, but I found blanched almonds anyway at Kroger for 4.99 (10oz) and didnt buy them because I chose the prepared Almond flour 9.99 (16oz). I got lazy, but I made SCD brownies!

But you all should check out this recipe I found! Coconut Butter Blondies. www.primal-palate.com/2010/10/coconut-butter-blondies-with-coconut.html It's pretty obvious I have a sweet tooth. This whole website is amazing for recipes.

XtraOrdinaryGuy, i'm sure you're aware that Fructose is illegal on the SCD diet. I don't follow the diet to a T also (but I'm not about to give up my herbs and aloe). I just added potatoes as well. Sweet potatoes have never tasted so good in my life.

I have to admit, I think in a short month my taste buds have finally started to reset! My sister baked those Pillsbury processed cookies, and I had no interest in them! ;)
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