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    Carol Frilegh
    Carol Frilegh

    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet - Still Yummy After All These Years!

    Reviewed and edited by a celiac disease expert.
    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet - Still Yummy After All These Years! - SCD Makes Me Happy!
    Caption: SCD Makes Me Happy!

    Celiac.com 04/15/2010 - Ten years ago, I embarked on a life that came with a warning about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet from my naturopathic  practitioner, "it is a great diet, but a hard one." Those were fighting words to someone who has made a lifetime of  "cosmetic" dieting  with tendencies to yo yo back and forth into the obesity zone. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet diet was chosen to relieve pain.

    Starting a new weight-loss diet had always been  inviting and exciting. The magic of the initial water weight-loss, the restrictive ruthless regimentation, calorie counting, portion control and forced water consumption were as exciting as hair shirts and beds of nails for religious fanatics. Dieting was my religion, food was like the duplicitous friend who is an enemy at the same time.

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    The years marched on and my "stuff and starve" lifestyle beat a destructive highway to digestive hell in the form of celiac disease, an illness that could have been caused by any number of things, age, a compromised immune system, a recent illness or maybe even the evil eye. That was ten years ago.

    It has turned out that the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is no transient companion to my fork, knife and spoon. It blossomed into a creative and motivating experience, a learning opportunity, a template for sharing, writing and creating recipes and a sometimes tiresome topic at social gatherings (although as we age, health chat is pretty popular).  I have made more friends through the Specific Carbohydrate Diet than at the dog park and have been given the opportunity to help strangers. Food at the good restaurants pales in comparison to the ever innovative pure, tasty, quality meals and dishes I create from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet palette of foods. Excluded are refined sugars, starches and gluten and they are not much missed. After eight years on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I tried occasional servings of rice  and potatoes and some dark chocolate just to see if I had healed. Sometimes I tolerated these well, sometimes not and mainly lost interest. As for grain, it can remain on that plain in Spain. I want no part of it.

    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet has not cured me, and I doubt that it will, but it is an effective dietary management program.

    Yes I still get the bloat, the night time rashes, and the irritated bowel and sometimes I still have a very touchy immune system.  It depends on the load at a given time. One thing that is really helpful then is a few days back on the initial introductory portion of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It calms the "Gut Devils" and clears the "Digestive Decks."

    If people deal the "pity card" as I describe being on a gastric diet, I ignore it as my diet deals aces and also the "Get Out of Pain Jail" card and of course, to this old dieter, the permanent thrill of the drill.



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    Guest Deborah

    Posted

    I am interested in the specific carbohydrate diet, but after reading this article, I hesitate. She's basically saying she has been on it for 10 years and is not healed, still has bloat, still has night rashes, still cannot eat chocolate, Immune system still weak, etc, etc ...so, I don't see what she has said that is a plus side to the specific carbohydrate diet.

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    Guest Carol Frilegh

    Posted

    I am interested in the specific carbohydrate diet, but after reading this article, I hesitate. She's basically saying she has been on it for 10 years and is not healed, still has bloat, still has night rashes, still cannot eat chocolate, Immune system still weak, etc, etc ...so, I don't see what she has said that is a plus side to the specific carbohydrate diet.

    Deborah, the bad reactions come when I eat restricted foods, otherwise not. As Scott has pointed out, there is no cure for celiac disease in his opinion. The specific carbohydrate diet is a superior management tool for me. I also have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Latex Allergy all of which can really provoke the immune system. Without the specific carbohydrate diet, I would be in constant pain. Some of the cited temporary adverse effects followed several rounds of anti biotic.

     

    If you check out customer reviews of Breaking the Vicious Cycle on the Internet, you will get a better overview of its success but not necessarily as a celiac "cure."

     

    Carol

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    Guest katieb

    My husband and I are just starting out, again, on the SCD. Why do I say again? Well--because it's the diet I used to help heal our daughter of her severe problems due to celiac back in 2006. It worked wonders, but I got too caught up in trying all the packaged gluten-free goodies and so 5 years later---I am running back to this diet! The Standard gluten-free diet does NOT work for my husband and I. At ALL! We have been especially sick after the annual smoke inundation from the forest fires. Rereading the Breaking the Vicious Cycle book, I realize just how much sense the original Celiac diet made and why all those starchy carbs are not good for a damaged gut. We are adding in Kefir to hopefully boost the healing on the SCD. I was recently told about the GAPS diet, which is based on SCD, and was happy to find out that SCD has decades of living healing proof behind it!

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  • About Me

    Carol Frilegh

    I am 79 an undiagnosed Celiac, since March 2000. I had chronic sinus infections and fluctuating weight, lost 86 pounds, got pneumonia, and needed antibiotic and Prednisone. I also got MCS and Latex Allergy. Unable to eat without pain, I started The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). Things began to improve at once. I am not cured but SCD has been effective in managing the Celiac and helped improve my damaged immune system. It is a bit stricter than the gluten-free casein-free diet.


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