Question for Imgardener2: SCD

I enjoy hearing your experiences about your attempts with trying the SCD diet. I know from reading your posts that it took you a few attempts for it to work for you.

In the beginning intro diet, how long did you stay on it? Did you find that anything on the intro diet you could not have? Eggs? Juice? Farmer's Cheese? Carrots?

Thanks! I am really gonna give this a go again.

Thanks for answering! I have stayed away from raw fruits and veggies too. I am really thin and can really use the calories so I wish I could tolerate cheese better.

At what point did you introduce yogurt?

hi lild

Meat protein and chicken broth and eggs have always been good for my colon, no matter how bad things got.
There were many intro foods I couldn't tolerate: juice, farmers cheese, yogurt, there are probably others too.
Well cooked carrots have also always been good to me but I didn't eat anything raw for many months.
I truly think there are some of us who are really intolerant of a lot until our inflammation gets down to a manageable level. Lots of supplements were bad for me too.

What are your main issues? D or C?
Mine was D for many many years until FINALLY the SCDiet got me settled. Now I'm working on the perfect balance and C is my main focus. As my sig. says I was able to eat yogurt at 5.5 months into the diet, oh happiness.
I can eat blueberries and a raw apple daily along with salad with raw carrots, etc.
I've quit almond flour after I found it was causing C although I still eat nuts daily, seems almonds are harder for me to digest. I soak my nuts and bake them and pecans are VERY tasty.
I've added 2 moist dried prunes daily, they really help.

Although the SCDiet seems very restrictive when I first started this time I had to restrict it even more because I could tell certain foods were causing problems.
Keeping eating as much protein as you can to maintain strength, chicken broth is power!
Oils (coconut, olive, fish) are also good but if you are battling D then hold off for now, maybe butter instead, on veggies and whatever to keep weight on.
Sorry you can't eat cheese (for now) perhaps later. The sharper (lactose free) the better for me, swiss and cheddar in smallish amounts.

Just because SCD says it's legal doesn't mean YOUR colon will agree, so keep a watch and see.
I still don't drink juice, tried diluted 100% cranberry juice, nope.
Leafy greens (collards or spinach) stir-fried in coconut oil with chicken or other meat always makes my colon happy.

Other things: I never stopped meds even though I couldn't see any effect. I exercise at medium level, tennis and gym once a week (diff days). Drink lots of water. Used mesalamine enema until not needed (no urgency, no bleeding).

Do EVERYTHING that doesn't make you worse.
Best of luck. It ain't easy.

I'm about in the same situation as imagardener2 is.
Started SCD in jan 2010 - at that time i used to have a lot of homemade fruit juices, honey (mostly with dry cottard cheese) and coconut flour.
Things were fine for the first 3-4 months then i've started having lot of pain and D.

My GI told me to go back to the high starch diet she reccomended me in the first place (poatoes, pasta, bread, banannas and so on).

it took me 3 weeks to see that under this kind of diet i am worse than on SCD: a lot of gas, bloating, pain, my AS was also giving me verry little rest.

So since Late july i am back on SCD (more like a No starch diet - NSD).
I cut off fruits, except blueberries & white grapes wich seem not to cause trouble. No more fruit juices.
Also i gave up coconut flour. I use almond flour 1-2 times a week to make some pancakes. It's rich in Magnesium and vit E.


I mostly eat this stuff (raw or cooked):
meat - red&white
tomatoes.
pimientos.
green peppers.
carrots.
bell peppers.
courgette.
dry cottard cheese.
ceddar cheese
swiss cheese.
eggs.
butter.

No spices, only salt, dill and parsley leaves to add some taste.

As suplements i take:
5 raw quail eggs in the morning on an empty stomach
5 mg vit D daily
3 spoons of cod olive (mostly in the morning when i eat more fat).

I am trying now some lactoferrin supplement, on low doses to see if i can handle it.

I cannot abide smoking and drinking coffee. yet... :(

Now for the bad part:
Since there is a lot of advice from some studies to try to regenerate healty bacterias in our guts i've started using probiotics with FOS (Jarro Dophilus with FOS).

A verry bad decission - i've used them for 1 week and i was at the point to enter a major flare.

I combined this with apples and raw red onions - wich are known to be reach in pectins& inulin.

I've cut this 2 weeks ago and it seems i am getting out of this flare.


On the other hand, i've started anti-depresive treatment with Cipralex (started at 10 mg/day now at 15 mg/day with the goal for 20 mg /day in medium time).
It was a verry verry good choice i've made. Stress has a lot to do with my disease. My state of mind raised at about 50 % as i was before all this started.


Anyway, if i am getting a lot of stress - i've had to dismiss two of my employes this week since they were stealing a lot... - my UC comes back in full strenght.

So, Diet HELPS. It's not a cure as far as i can see it, at least not on the short run.
But my UC and my AS are better while on NSD/SCD. And it's the only thing that matters to me.

Antidepressive treatment helps. Stress is somtimes worse than cheating on the diet.

Hope my experience helps you.

Gosh, I dont know what they would call it in the US. Im american living in uk and I remember that they sometimes have some completely different cuts of meat over there then over there. Give me a day or two and let me get back to you on this one.