The problem with the SCD is that they didn't know hardly anything at all about
bacteria back when she wrote her book in the early 1980's. She tries to implicate bacteria, candida, parasites, sugar and resistant starches. That was based on stone age research. They discovered h pylori caused stomach ulcers in 1982 and her book came out just a couple years after that. That is how dated her advice is.
She is also contradictory in her advice. She tries to get you to avoid sugar like the plague -which I agree with and follow, yet she also tells you resistant starches are equally as bad. However, then allows beans in her diet! I read the book. I tried the diet. I know. Looking back now her diet should include much more emphasis on resistant starches now that they know so many good things about
incorporating them in the diet, namely SCFA's - short chain fatty acids. Of which butyrate is one we hope to make dominant. It is important to keep the ratio of butyrate to other SCFA's balanced in favor of butyrate. There are MANY studies about
this in regards to IBD on he web and on pubmed. Look it up yourself. But trying to "starve out" unknown bacteria she as almost no knowledge of that might affect IBD is like following a blind persons advice about
how to drive a car cross country. They still need to classify ALL bacteria in the gut which they haven't done and find out what they secrete and what they feed on and what they do that is so bad to people with IBD. That's a long ways away. Look at how much resistance they had with H pylori. Even now that they know what causes it they still don't have 100% cure.
So what does that tell you?
Once again folks yeasty candida is a OPPORTUNISTIC organism that we will NEVER be able to irradicate ever ever ever ever ever. Yeast is all around us always. It's inside us always. We can only keep it in check.
Visit a cancer ward and an aids patient clinic and look at the yeast overgrowth on these people that have no immune systems. YET, they don't get IBD. Think of all the babies in the world that get thrush from breast feeding yet don't contract IBD. Now for those that do have IBD that go on steroids or imuran that lower the immune system. Do we see mass invasive candida spread all over these people? Nope. Candida will show up on colonoscopes. Think of all the colonoscopies they do and have done in the past all over the planet. Think of all the biopsies. Don't you think they would see this candida on biopsy samples and make some sort of correlation? They've tried all kinds of antifungals and anti bacterials in a shotgun approach for decades. No cures. Why? Because that's not the whole picture obviously.
Biologics come into play now for good reason with anti tnfa's , blood filters, anti il 23's, anti sense nucleotides, etc etc etc. and on and in 1600 different clinical trials for IBD. The researchers know that it is more than bacteria, yeast and parasites and sugar. They are betting and spinding billions that they are right and elaine's approach is wrong.
Her idea of relying on hoop cheese and cottage cheese as a main component of protein is a bad idea because of casein's ability to break down mucus and also cause colon cancer in rats. Let's see what we've got so far. She want's us to eliminate resistant starches th. at produce butyrate in the colon that are the most important fuel source for the colon cells and one of the biggest things that prevents colon cancer. Then she wants to have us eat casein in big doses that does cause colon cancer and thin mucus. HMMMM sounds like a risky thing to do for people that are already at high risk for colon cancer. Butyrate is our friend. I don't think elaine knew about
the importance of butyrate when she eliminated our main way of producing it via fermentation of resistant starches. It's amazing all the good things that do happen to us when we have a predominance of butyrate producing bacteria in the colon. She is simply not up with the times.
Eliminating processed foods is about
her only saving point. However she says so because of sugars , grains and resistant starches. Rice and corn and specifically hi maize resistant starch from corn are you friends. Don't listen to her advice about
resisting all grains. I do agree with eliminating wheat gluten though even if you aren't wheat gluten intolerant. I find I do better without wheat even though
I tested negative for celiac. But the ingredients in processed foods are starting to look like a huge chemical formula. So many preservatives and additives and yeast that you wonder if it is really food
after they're done packaging it. And among all the things that you read on processed food labels that companies can't seem to get away from is autolized yeast extract, MSG, sugar, and black and white pepper
with salt. Seems to be in just about
any kind of processed food. That and a million other hidden herbs and spices that they label as "natural flavors." You just can't trust your food anymore these days.
Where elain's diet really loses me is when she tries to eliminate all grains. No need at all for that. You'd have thought that elaine was some kind of Dr Mercola groupie. Unfortunately insulin is not our biggest concern and that is what mercola designs his diets around, controling insulin. White Rice is about
the most benign grain you can eat. It's wonderfully constipating if you eat enough of it and that helps if you have the big D. Cold rice converts to about
15-20% resistant starch. That's good news for all the butyrate it will produce. And rice goes with everything. You'll never miss wheat. Now corn is another one you can include. Forget all the scare tactics of Dr Kaufman aka Dr Fungus. Fungal mycotoxins in corn is not the problem of our food supply that people with IBD can point a finger at because it's tightly regulated in the food supply and thus we
get a low expose to it. Most likely we'd die of liver cancer before we could blame mycotoxin for permanent gastrointestinal problems. The stuff is extremely powerful at inducing cancer. Besides some of the fungal mycotoxins are deactivated by cooking, some by food processing. Some aren't so much. But no matter. We can point to the fact many of us have achieved remission while on grains.
Lastly I'd like to point out the differences in terminology that you seem to be hung up on. I state that "resistant starches" are good because of the needed butyrate and SCFA that they produce, NOT starches in general. There is a world of difference.
Probiotic said...
Well, if one wants to call the SCD a joke, then it could even more be easily said that adding resistant starches, tapioca, corn starch could well be a cruelrr joke. I agree the research behind the SCD is rather dated, but there is alot of much newer research suggesting that sugars and starches are essentially a "super-food" for pathogenic bacteria. Just as some people don't benefit from approaches like the SCD, some people also flare badly when incraesing sugars and starches... so if you do try that approach, be cautious and be ready to back off if need be. I think that since the SCD eliminates processed foods, it is an innocent thing to try for a few weeks though and see if there is any improvement. Whatever approaches you use (incl. probiotics), keep a food and symptom log and bear in mind that effects of any change can delay by days or more... but over time you'll find what agrees and what doesn't.