Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

[kschauer]

Day 3 - I added in some cooked apples. This was quite an accomplishment for me, I normally cannot stomach cooked fruit.

I'm still back and forth between flushing red and going very pale and fainty. Today I feel very nauseous, have a distended stomach and overall just feel lousy and am having trouble with C. Not a good diet to start when you're working long hours 6 days a week. But I'm going to stick with it as best as I can.

[kschauer]

Anyone know why instant coffee is illegal? That is what we drink here. Thanks.

[Yenni]

Hi Yenni,

as storebought vanilla extract in Germany is either very artificial or very expensive, I made my own one: 300 ml pure vodka and three vanilla beans. I split the beans and put them into the vodka and keep it in a small bottle. After three weeks you have a strong vanilla extract. You can let the beans sit in the vodka for about half a year and even pour in some more vodka when you used the first quarter of the bottle.

I might try that. Thanks!

[ShayFL]

Yenni,

I get mine from www.digestivewellness.com

There almond flour is the best I have found too. Very very good.

[Yenni]

Yenni,

I get mine from www.digestivewellness.com

There almond flour is the best I have found too. Very very good.

Oh, thanks! I had no idea there was a specific place to get stuff following this diet. Great.

[Yenni]

Anyone got any of theOpen Original Shared Link from Digestive Wellness?

I am very tempted to get one but every gluten free cook book I have gotten so far has more recipes that I can't eat than ones that I can. I can't do casein, soy, any grains, stone fruits, apples, carrots or nuts. If anyone has any of these books it would be great to hear if they would be any good for me... maybe a lot to ask, but I thought I'd try asking anyways.

[mftnchn]

Day 3 - I added in some cooked apples. This was quite an accomplishment for me, I normally cannot stomach cooked fruit.

I'm still back and forth between flushing red and going very pale and fainty. Today I feel very nauseous, have a distended stomach and overall just feel lousy and am having trouble with C. Not a good diet to start when you're working long hours 6 days a week. But I'm going to stick with it as best as I can.

Kathryn, (if my memory is correct, LOL)

Hang in there, I think you should turn a corner at about Day 5. With food intolerances, you can go through a period of symptoms as well.

I love the cooked fruit added to my chicken/carrot soup (which I puree).

Meanwhile some detox things might help. Lots of water for sure. Magnesium might help with the C, although this could right itself in two or three more days.

Be sure you are eating enough protein, and if you feel weak try a tablespoon of honey.

Hope you feel much better soon!

[GermanMia]

Anyone got any of theOpen Original Shared Link from Digestive Wellness?

I am very tempted to get one but every gluten free cook book I have gotten so far has more recipes that I can't eat than ones that I can. I can't do casein, soy, any grains, stone fruits, apples, carrots or nuts. If anyone has any of these books it would be great to hear if they would be any good for me... maybe a lot to ask, but I thought I'd try asking anyways.

Hi Yenni,

yes, I have the two Grain-free Gourmet cookbooks, Eat Well Feel Well and Healing Foods. As I have a fructose malabsorption I have to change things sometimes but that's okay. But as lots of SCD recipes are based on nuts and almond flour I'm not quite sure if this books would make sense for you. Of course there's no soy and grains, but nuts and cheese which I'm not sure how to substitute... Did you look at www.scdrecipe.com/ and www.scdiet.org/2recipes/indexa.html

This might give you an idea how the recipes in the books look like.

Hope that helps :-)

Mia

[AliB]

I am reading for the second time Dr Edward Howell's book 'Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity'. It was written back in the 40's and it a bit technical to get the head around, but the information is still current and hopefully has been added to since then.

I picked up this link from a site called Living and Raw Foods that carries the original interview with Dr Howell where he explains what enzymes are and why we need the enzymes from raw food. You might find it interesting to have a mooch through.

I have a couple trays of beans sprouting away on my windowsill right now. I know raw food diets have been very successful in treating Diabetes. Perhaps it is because eating raw food with its abundant supply of enzymes helps to reduce the load on the Pancreas. I can see why Raman and other SCD proponents encourage a good supply of salads and raw food for those who have reached the stage where they can process it.

Open Original Shared Link

[ShayFL]

I was a 100% raw foodist for 6 months. I did it PERFECTLY. I went to the Hippocrates Institute and everything. I had sprouts in every window. I juiced. I made "rejuvalac". I dehydrated (under 130 degrees of course). I will tell you that it was C.R.A.Z.Y. to live like that. I did nothing but think about, buy, sprout, clean, juice, mince, puree, assemble, clean up after food non-stop. And I was S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G. all of the time. I lost way too much weight. Looked like a skeleton and became anemic. And I did it BY THE BOOK!!

So while I agree that including raw foods in the diet is very healthy, living 100% raw isnt very practical at all and for me personally it didnt make me healthy. The opposite.

Keep in mind that our ancestors who ate nothing but raw foods only lived to about 30 for women and 35 for men. Just keep that in mind.

"Paleolithic females died younger than males due to the stresses of pregnancy and childbirth while still carrying the burdens of food-collecting and moving camp."

See that was what was killing me...caring for my child....food-collecting......and taking care of the camp.

[GermanMia]

I was a 100% raw foodist for 6 months. I did it PERFECTLY. I went to the Hippocrates Institute and everything. I had sprouts in every window. I juiced. I made "rejuvalac". I dehydrated (under 130 degrees of course). I will tell you that it was C.R.A.Z.Y. to live like that. I did nothing but think about, buy, sprout, clean, juice, mince, puree, assemble, clean up after food non-stop. And I was S.T.A.R.V.I.N.G. all of the time. I lost way too much weight. Looked like a skeleton and became anemic. And I did it BY THE BOOK!!

So while I agree that including raw foods in the diet is very healthy, living 100% raw isnt very practical at all and for me personally it didnt make me healthy. The opposite.

Keep in mind that our ancestors who ate nothing but raw foods only lived to about 30 for women and 35 for men. Just keep that in mind.

"Paleolithic females died younger than males due to the stresses of pregnancy and childbirth while still carrying the burdens of food-collecting and moving camp."

See that was what was killing me...caring for my child....food-collecting......and taking care of the camp.

Well... as far as I remember there is no meat or fish included in the Hippocrates diet. The big error which most raw food followers make is to think that our ancestors only lived from green things and fruit. In fact no human being would have lived through one single winter in regions where winter means no fruit, no vegetables, no grain and lots of snow on the grass... Our ancestors did what aboriginal folks in the Amazonas region or in Africa still do: Eat raw bugs - and eat meat. Raw meat is the only way to supply the body with essential vitamins and amino acids and fatty acids if you have no fire to cook and no greens and fruits to harvest. Humankind would have straved if they had tried to live on grains in the ages before agriculture - wild grains are rare, hard to harvest and hard to eat. Nice snack, but not more... Oh, and they had no windowsills to grow sprouts in winter...

You're right, Shay, raw things are very important because our digestive system mostly is still the digestive system of our ancestors, but we also have to provide the body reasonably with enough amino acids and fatty acids.

Mia

[ArtGirl]

See that was what was killing me...caring for my child....food-collecting......and taking care of the camp.

[ArtGirl]

YEAST IN MY YOGURT!!! ?????

Yesterday I started coconut yogurt with canned coconut milk and the newly acquired probiotics in capsules (only l. acidophilius... other ingredients: cellulose, l-leucine) - I opened the capsules and only added the stuff inside into the milk.

Today, I took the jars out and there was a sort of fibrous "scum" on the top of the yogurt in each jar. It smells like yeast. And, probably looks like yeast.

I skimmed it off - came up easily with a spoon - and the yogurt now smells like yogurt. But the scum really smells yeasty.

Is this normal????

Does it indicate the yogurt is bad????

[ArtGirl]

...... fumble fingers!!

[AliB]

Oh absolutely I don't believe for one minute that 100% raw is necessarily the best way to go but certainly we undoubtedly need to eat more raw fresh food than a lot of us probably have done throughout our lives - I know that definitely applies to me.

I must say the weight loss thing does appeal though, Shay!

I am sure it is as much about balance as anything - there is no doubt though that salads and raw veg are definitely a great provider of 'live' nutrients and enzymes which is why we need to incorporate them into our diet on a regular basis when we can. As I am sure that a lot of my health issues can be ascribed to a lack of certain digestive enzymes, the more I can get, the better.

I think the enzyme capacity applies to raw food in general, apparently the Inuit ascribe their vitality to the raw fish they leave to rot for months - it is predigested by the bacteria and enzymes. The Swedish consume buckets of Surstromming fermented stinking fish - well, no accounting for taste! It is even banned on certain airlines as a potential hazard! Open Original Shared Link

Mind you, the fermentation process undoubtedly houses a rich source of good bacteria............

Piece of rotten fish anyone?

[feelingbetter]

Hello Everyone! I haven't been on here for a long time. I was just popping back and thrilled to see the raw food topic being discussed. I have been about 80 to 90% raw for the past month. I eat cooked meat, fish or eggs at supper each day. I feel better than I have in my whole life. I have been SCD since May/08. I was seeing results but began to feel very tired and fatigued in Sept. I was diagnosed with dysbiosis. I was eating animal protein with every meal. I also had a chronic cough for 3 months.

I started researching the raw food diet. I decided to give it a try. For the first 3 weeks I had a wicked die off reaction. Now I am excercising again and also started a job in October. I had been on a disability for the past 5 years with chronic fatigue, fibro, migraines and bipolar disorder. I have not been on any meds for a year.

Regarding weight loss- I lost about 10 lbs on SCD and another 4lbs since going raw. I am 5'4" and currently 125. Things seem to have now stabilized this past week. I too will not give up meat as I need the b12 . This is a good weight for me.

I make the green smoothies for breakfast and lunch. I have some almonds and a couple of dates for afternoon snack. I have a salad with some animal protein each night. Occasionally I will have some cooked squash .

The problem with the SCD is it is not a good idea to eat lots of animal protein like meat and dairy and lots of the baked goodies. I had to stop eating the goat yogurt as this was producing a lot of mucus, post nasal drip and cough. I was also still having difficulty with constipation. Now I go at least 2 times each day. If anyone is constipated it is because you are not eating enough raw fruits and vegies. If you make a green smoothie it is already in a predigested state so you will be able to digest it easily.

I plan on making the almond milk yogurt this week as I have a few days off work. I really do think that the key to good health is by eating as many raw fruit and veggies as possible.

Best of health to you all!

[ShayFL]

I have trouble with pasteurized milk. The raw goat milk yogurt seems to suit me just fine so far. Yeah, I believed Ann Wigmore when she said we didnt need meat. I learned otherwise. I really need some each day. But I have never liked eating tons of it. I could never do Atkins to save my life.

If I go too long without fresh raw fruits and veggies, I start to feel "toxic" for lack of a better word.

Right now I am doing the SCD goat yogurt for breakfast (only mine is raw), super ripe banana or pumpkin smoothie with homemade almond or hazelnut milk. Snacks are almonds/fruit or hazelnuts/salad. Making lotst of soups cuz they are easily digestible and I have left overs. Chicken and fish mostly for meat. Im going easy on the eggs. I go 4 or 5 days without eggs now. Lots of greens cooked and raw. Some baked squashes (which I will sometimes eat with salad for a snack or a meal).

Things are going pretty good right now.

[AliB]

Hi Brenda - good to 'see' you.

What do you put in your green smoothies?

I too need animal protein every day otherwise I get a splitting headache. I did the Alkalizing diet a couple years back but although it helped several things sort out, I got a very raw stomach and had to abandon it. I don't think for a minute it was the veg - I am more suspicious of the 'green' drink and alkalizing drops - I think they just took me too far into the alkalized state.

I am sure it is a good thing - I just wish I hadn't gone the 'whole' hog' with it and had just stuck to the good veg and salads. The green drink contained wheatgrass so undoubtedly that didn't help either. It was annoying because I had really got into it and would have been happy to keep going but now, and especially with Winter on the doorstep I really am not very inclined to eat cold food at all!

[blackbeltmom]

Diet Rockstar? I have just order the SCD book from B&N. I have been gluten free (as much as possible) since April, 2008. Still dealing with the pain and horror of the wonderful Celiac belly. So I am going to give this a try. However, I am addicted to Diet Rockstar and am afraid I can no longer have it. Does anyone know about this?

[ShayFL]

I have learned the best things in life require sacrifice. One sure sign you need to give something up is if you are "addicted" to it. Who knows, it may be the very thing that is preventing your healing fully.....

[AliB]

I just had a message from Scott to say that the SCD recipe thread has to stay in the recipes section - trouble is I can just see it ending up disappearing into the ether................

[mftnchn]

Hello Everyone! I haven't been on here for a long time. I was just popping back and thrilled to see the raw food topic being discussed.

The problem with the SCD is it is not a good idea to eat lots of animal protein like meat and dairy and lots of the baked goodies. I had to stop eating the goat yogurt as this was producing a lot of mucus, post nasal drip and cough. I was also still having difficulty with constipation. Now I go at least 2 times each day. If anyone is constipated it is because you are not eating enough raw fruits and vegies. If you make a green smoothie it is already in a predigested state so you will be able to digest it easily.

Hi Brenda,

Thanks for posting, it is great you are doing so well. I think lots of raw is good once there is some good healing. I don't think raw fruits/veggies and fiber are the whole answer to constipation, until your intestine is working more normally again. When my intestine "shuts down" the fiber and raw causes a lot of bloating and discomfort.

Once I get there I would like to add in a veggie smoothie. I was doing one first thing in the morning before I started SCD and I think it was good for me.

Whatever diet we follow needs to be balanced. SCD has a nice variety of foods available, and there isn't need to focus only on animal proteins, dairy and baked goods. I eat a lot of vegetables and at least 1-2 servings of fruit every day. There are small amounts of meat in my vegetables. So far this is all cooked, but hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to add in raw.

Blackbeltmom, I have no idea what is in your diet drink, but the SCD does allow one diet drink per week. The problem (besides all the chemicals) is that the aspertame or whatever is used to sweeten are all very hard to digest. Saccharin is allowed but no longer widely used in diet drinks.

Sherry

[mftnchn]

Ali,

Oh well. At least we should be able to find it if we are looking for it, and if we are adding regularly it will be visible on the daily posts list.

Sherry

[fig girl]

All enzymes die at 130 degrees. So I dont heat my raw goat milk past 110.

The catch is that you better "know" your goat milk source. Should come from healthy, grass-fed, organic and clean goats. We have a great dairy close by that has the best goat milk. So clean and pure. They exceed Federal guidelines for sanitation. It is all they do. In FL it has to say "for pet consumption only", but nobody is feeding it to their pets. This dairy has been selling "raw" goat milk for over 20 years in Tampa and I have never heard one case of anyone getting sick from it. So I feel really good about it.

Thanks for the info. Shay. The farm i got mine from is a small, family owned dairy goat farm and they've fed their goats alfalfa hay but due to the cost they now grow their own oat hay and feed them that. I guess that'll be ok for me to consume - i probably need to call them back and ask a few more questions before using. Their milk is pet-grade and she said she didn't know of anyone who feeds it to their pets but use it for human consumption. I'm been a little leary of using it but i'll give them a call - i should make sure they don't use antibiotics, etc. and ask if the milk is organic. I had talked to her a little about my sensitivity to cow's milk but didn't go into detail so i'll just explain since i'm so intolerant to so many things i needed to ask a few more questions. I sure don't want to make myself even sicker. On my research about raw goat milk before calling them initially, it did kind of make me uneasy to try the raw.

I mainly wanted to try their eggs to see if i'll tolerate them (to hopefully be able to bake with them over the holidays. I'm going to try a small banana pancake in the morning with a little egg (not a whole egg) and see how i do. I was going to try it today but chickened out! I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll be ok but not getting my hopes up. It's only been about 3 weeks since i tried the store bought organic eggs and they didn't agree with me.

[feelingbetter]

Ali- My green smoothies vary from week to week. It depends what is on sale. Usually this is what I throw into my blender.

1 large ripe banana

1 large glass of water

1 green apple

2 large handfuls of baby spinach or other greens like romaine or spring mix lettuce

1 pear or a large handful of grapes.

I really blend it well. I feel so nourished and energized after I drink this. It doesn't matter what kind of fruit you use as long as it tastes good. Pineapple was on sale last week so I had lots of that. The only advice is don't mix banana with acidic fruits like oranges. I got an upset stomach as did many others on the raw food websites. My husband is also blending his breakfast and is really feeling a ton of energy. I think he uses 6 or 7 fruit in his. I have this for lunch as well. If I am still hungry in between I will eat a couple of oranges.

I also have noticed a completely clear mind which I have never had in my life. I am no longer taking all of the supplements that I used to take. Candida is GONE!! If you want to see lots of healing from going raw, go to Arnolds Way on Youtube. I think he has almost 100 testimonials. All I know is that I have been exhausted all my life until now. I have also been gluten and dairy free since March/08. I know I am healing like crazy. Oh and one last thing.... I am feeling joyful and excited about my life. I have struggled with depression my entire life. I have been enjoying my job as an addictions counsellor. Most of my clients have drug and alcohol issues but I realize how addictive food is.

I have had to completely change yet again how to nourish my body. Giving up cooked food was hard at first but once I started feeling great I was hooked.

Anyway, this is just my experience and Shay I had to laugh about Hippocrates because I was thinking of going there myself!! Maybe I can just pick your brain and save myself the expense.

Cheers