Specific Carb Diet the majority of the time

Didn't work out for me. Felt like fainting all the time on it. Felt like a concentration camp survivor

Felt better by adding in "safe starches" like rice, plantains, potatoes, tapoica, etc.

I follow a variation of this diet, except I consume legumes and raw milk.

I started scd and was very strict with it but feel better doing a more paleo/perfect health diet. I still have to avoid eating too much fiber because of constipation so i limit myself to 1 piece of fruit and 1 cup of veggies per day. I think the info in scd is really dated and there are so many benefits to the foods that are deemed illegal.

Thanks all for the responses. I have been kicking myself for not being more diligent!

Eliminating certain foods (Doug Kaufmann's phase one antifungal diet) for a period of time was what helped me get well. It involved eating only whole, natural foods including most veggies (no corn- a grain, no potatoes, no mushrooms), fruits including all berries, grapefruit, avocados, green apples, lemons, limes, nuts-most except peanuts/pistachios -mold foods, most unprocessed meats/fish/poultry/eggs, and plain organic yogurt, real butter, and cream cheese sparingly. That, along with taking natural antifungals (olive leaf extract and caprylic acid) gave me my life back. Still no recurring symptoms or meds 9 years later. I am since now GF(wheat-free) and lactose-free. I still try to limit processed foods. No sweat. I prefer to feel well than eat the stuff I know makes me feel sick.

Think of food as your medicine. I eat to live, not live to eat! :) It doesn't have to be costly buying particular "legal" foods. Good for you for experimenting with diet. One size does not fit all; what works for some may not work for others. Don't give up too soon. Another thing, I felt waaay worse after starting my diet before I started feeling better again. You could experience toxin die-off. Good luck!

I think perhaps the biggest cost contributor is your mixed diet household. If you have all of the family eating packaged/processed food, nibbling on SCD food and just you eating SCD and trying to make mixed meals then you have to buy almost double the groceries in a way. If it's just one person (a single person) like myself then my bills SCD vs. Reg are equal. I just replace the cost of packaged food with fresh food.

Hope that makes sense, but I think that's your biggest cost contributor. Maybe try budgeting ~$100/wk for "your" food separately. Put it in separate area in the fridge/freezer that no one eats but you and plan your meals I think you would find things work out the same.

Also, frozen veggies or even organic frozen veggies can be inexpensive compared to fresh. Organic pasta sauce, with frozen veggies and spaghetti squash can go quite far and be very filling on a budget.

Just get's boring eating the same thing over and over... that's what I hate.

EDIT: Maybe the above doesn't make much sense, but after roughly 7 years now on SCD or Palio type diet my grocery bill is the same as it was prior. My fridge and cupboards look a lot different though. Friends come over and say - What the heck do you eat? or Don't you eat? after looking in the fridge. It took me a while to clue in that there's no packages of stuff.... so they can't figure out how or what to eat cause they would have to actually ummm make something from scratch. It's kind of funny in a way. I look in and see a weeks worth of food and snacks. They look in and scratch their head...

Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 6/15/2014 9:39:37 PM (GMT-6)

Technically SCD "most of the time" isn't SCD because SCD by definition requires total commitment. The book says you have to never eat SCD-illegal foods, ever. That said, SCD "most of the time" might help but you shouldn't expect it to work the wonders people often report if you don't follow it to the letter.

SCD helped me a ton when I first started it but it did not put me in remission. However, that encouraged me to take the "build-it-yourself" approach which means, you start our with almost no foods (just chicken, pureed carrots, and a few others things) and add one new food every 3 or 4 days (eating some of it on each test-day) to see how well you tolerate it. If it doesn't give you issues then it should be safe to eat. This way I found some trigger foods that I would never have expected, like garlic, which is SCD legal but which I do not tolerate. This approach put me in remission after a couple of months.

I had no clue how to cook before SCD but I also had no idea how to chew food before I had teeth. Cooking is essentially required on SCD so you will learn what you need. I don't think eating SCD is too expensive unless you currently just eat pasta every day.