Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

[ArtGirl]

Hi Art girl,... you should not cut out all sugars because the body needs a certain amount of glucose.

LOL - not to fear! I'm a sugar addict. BUT - having read the book, my goal is to eliminate all but fructose sugars before starting the SCD. Because of some planned trips the end of this month and into November, I'm targeting my "SCD launch" for Nov. 15, at which time I'll be able to devote my full attention to it. In the meantime, I am trying out many of the SCD recipes. I already eat a lot of veggies and they give me no problems. The problem for my system is the carbs.

Just the little I've done to reduce refined sugars has helped with the cravings. I do very well all day but after supper it's as though I hadn't eaten anything - I start to crave carbs. Last night I blended some almond flour, cashew butter, honey and vanilla. It was very satisfying and stopped the cravings. The grape juice gelatin is really nice for me, too, and provides some protein with it.

I'm nearly finished reading through this thread. Thanks to all who have related their frustrations, setbacks and successes.

Question about STEVIA?

I've not seen it mentioned either in the SCD threads on this forum or at any of the websites I've visited. It's a natural sweetener. Is it okay on the SCDiet? I do like it to sweeten lemon juice and salad dressings that have vinegar in them.

[ShayFL]

Stevia IS mentioned. Go to the legal/illegal list. It is there. She says no because it's effects are unknown. She basically says no to anything she hasnt researched (better safe than sorry attitude). I use it just fine.

[ArtGirl]

Stevia IS mentioned. Go to the legal/illegal list. It is there. She says no because it's effects are unknown. She basically says no to anything she hasnt researched (better safe than sorry attitude). I use it just fine.

Thanks, Shay. I was thinking that maybe it wasn't available when the book was written. I understand the "if you don't know, don't" philosophy.

I'm not nearly as sick as most who have posted on this thread. I can eat cooked and raw veggies with no problems. In fact, one of the more soothing foods I eat is pureed raw vegetables - sort of a very thick V8 juice. I know my problems lies in the carbs - especially refined sugar and the gluten-free breads - I make a mean gluten-free/EF/DF/SF biscuit. I plan to enjoy these until starting the diet, then say a tearful good-bye.

I've had my gallbladder removed and don't process nuts all that well. That makes eating a large amount almond meal a bit of a problem. Also, all the recipes for SCD "breads" also contain egg which, at least now, is a problem. I am very hopeful that I'll be able to have egg again in the future after a few months on SCD.

[mftnchn]

Art girl,

You might look into whether duck eggs are available in your area. You may not have any sensitivity to them (lack of exposure in the past), and they might be fine in baking. They taste a bit different in an egg dish though.

[mftnchn]

Thanks everyone for posting about strictness--AND your improvements! Seems like we are all getting better which is good news!

[ShayFL]

Or quail eggs. They sell them in Asian grocery here. Of course you would need like 4 of them to equal 1 chicken egg. Duck eggs are bigger, so you might have to subtract a tlb of liquid from the recipe for baking. But an excellent idea!! Other types of eggs.

[fig girl]

Fig girl,

I also still make lots of chicken/carrot soup because I started liking it and it goes so well :-)

There is a wonderful blog with great SCD recipes; one of them has become my favourite recently:Open Original Shared Link

Good for you that you kept track of the diet - keep on!!

Mia

Thanks for the encouragement Mia and thanks for the blog recommendation....i read the pumpkin pie porridge and my mouth watered! lol! Pumpkin is one of my favorite foods and i can't wait to eat it again. I love the chicken/carrot soup also and eat a bowl just about every day along with a lean meat and well cooked veggies. Tonight i stirred in some baby spinach and it was yummy! I'm glad you're doing well on your antibiotics. My husband and I were just talking about sauerkraut this weekend. I didn't know until reading about it not too long ago what it actually was! I don't think i've ever tasted it and didn't like the smell many years ago but i didn't eat cabbage back then either and i love cabbage now. I think i'll have to try it once i can eat it....especially since it's so good for us!

[fig girl]

Thanks Shay and Sherry for posting about the duck eggs and quail eggs. You guys had mentioned the duck eggs before and i haven't looked into it in my area yet. I'm trying to muster up some courage to try eggs again soon...i'm feeling so much better i don't want to mess things up. If they still bother me i'll look for some duck or quail eggs. I may try a nut butter pancake one morning later this week with an egg. I just made some pecan butter with my juicer and oh my gosh....it was wonderful and a lot creamier than the almond butter i made. I had about a teaspoon of it so hopefully i'll tolerate it well. If so, i'll make some nut butter brownies with it!

[fig girl]

Thanks, Shay. I was thinking that maybe it wasn't available when the book was written. I understand the "if you don't know, don't" philosophy.

I've had my gallbladder removed and don't process nuts all that well. That makes eating a large amount almond meal a bit of a problem. Also, all the recipes for SCD "breads" also contain egg which, at least now, is a problem. I am very hopeful that I'll be able to have egg again in the future after a few months on SCD.

ArtGirl - I hope you'll be able to tolerate the almond meal/flour ok. I made some of the eggless almond flour bread on pecanbread.com and it's wonderful. You use 2 peeled pears pureed instead of eggs....it was very tasty and hit the spot!

[mftnchn]

BTW, I also saw an email by Elaine on a website that said that roasting cashews yourself is just fine; I think the book says you have to use them only raw. I love them after they have been dry roasted in the oven.

I found some raw almonds in Thailand in an organic store, hopefully they will be fine. I am pretty sure that what threw me off was the cinnamon, and we tried adding water to it today to try to figure out if it was flour or starch in there. We think it was flour. So I am guessing a glutening was the culprit, and I seem to still be recovering.

So I guess I will hold on my more simple regimen for another week and see how things are.

I also found this website from someone's post somewhere: Open Original Shared Link

[GermanMia]

Art Girl,

I don't know what is to be found where you live but I just found out that here in Germany you can buy nut flours with most of the oil removed. It's the pulp which is produced in oil mills which produce nut oils / almond oil. Instead of discarding the pulp, some of them dry it and make a very powdery nut flour out of it. I just bought some and it has a great texture. High in protein and fibre but lower in fat than just ground almonds. As I don't produce enough panceas enzymes, I cannot digest fat very well and have to be careful, too. So this is a good alternative. And there is some de-oiled coconut flour which is said to be very good. Look at www.tropicaltraditions.com

And I tried to make the bread with just yoghurt and cooked apples which turned out great.

I don't make things very sweet, but my hubby likes some more sweetness and he is thinking about using stevia. I had some liquid stevia, which we both found absolutely horrible because it tasted like oversweet hay. What kind of stevia would you suggest? Powder? Syrup? There are lots of different forms, but I don't want to buy another misery...

Fig Girl,

if you ever try sauerkraut, look out for real, lactic acidic fermented one. Storebought ones not always are the real thing because industrially made and canned sauerkraut mostly is fast-fermented which very often makes vinegar acids instead of lactic acids. The taste is different: Real lactic acidic fermented one is not very sour. It's more fruity and only mildly sour. Canned sauerkrat very often is sour like vinegar, nearly impossible to eat raw.

Here in Germany you can also buy lactic acidic fermented vegetable juices in organic food shops. Maybe you find them at your place, too?

Finally I got over this nasty pyelonephritis and can stop the antibiotics! Plus I found out that the enzymes my doctor prescribed me didn't work! That's why I always felt like starving, the food went straight through because there were no enzymes to digest! I changed them and today I'm feeling saturated for the first time in weeks! Yay!

[ShayFL]

Im going to try these next month when the weather is cooler (for safe shipping):

www.bellyveggies.com

[ArtGirl]

Im going to try these next month when the weather is cooler (for safe shipping):

www.bellyveggies.com

Very interesting. Please report how you liked them after trying them.

From Belly Veggies: ...it is not recommended that a person consumes cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens and such veggies raw due to potentially causing under active thyroid issues...

I'd never heard or read about this - the "causing under active thyroid issues" from these veggies. I eat them all the time. I also have low thyroid. What do those of you who do research so well think of this?

[ShayFL]

Valda - this is my field.

Yes, certain vegetables and grains are what are called goitrogens. These chemicals block T3 from attaching to the receptor sites, thus creating a hypothyroid condition. Eating small amounts of them would not be significant. But eating them EVERY day can cause enough blocked hormone to create CLINICAL hypothyroid.

The vegetables with significant goitrogenic activity are:

Cruciferous vegetables including:

* Broccoli

* Brussel sprouts

* Cabbage

* Cauliflower

* Kale

* Kohlrabi

* Mustard

* Rutabaga

* Turnips

Millet

Sorghum

Peaches

Peanuts

Radishes

Soybean and soy products, including tofu

Spinach

Strawberries

****BUT cooking destroys a fair amount of the goitrogenic chemicals. So as long as you eat these foods cooked (or fermented), you should be fine. If you are hypothyroid, you should dramatically cut back on these (if you eat them RAW) or avoid them all together (RAW).

[ArtGirl]

...here in Germany you can buy nut flours with most of the oil removed. ... And there is some de-oiled coconut flour which is said to be very good.

Thanks for suggesting this. Only last night I was thinking about coconut flour as a sub for the almond flour, or at least in combination. I was going to ask about it today. The last package of coconut flour I bought is Peter Paul brand - 100% organic. It states that it is dried, defatted, and ground - that it is high in fiber, protein, and low in fat - and that it contains a "good amount of essential amino acids". It even lists them in a chart and cites the source of the report.

I seem to do okay with cashews - I make cashew cheese. That contains yeast flakes, so I'm assuming it's not on the SCD because of the yeast. However, one doesn't actually have to put that in - still sets up well but doesn't taste quite so "cheesy". I like the idea of roasting them - so far I've only had them raw or in cashew butter.

Mia, the pumpkin porriage sounds just perfect for breakfasts now that colder weather is coming.

Thanks for the suggestions about alternative eggs. We have an Asian grocery nearby - I need to go there and check out their eggs.

[ArtGirl]

Shay - thank you so much for your reply about the cruciferous. I'm going to stop making coleslaw, and cook these veggies. I do eat a lot of broccoli, and fresh, crisp-fried brussel sprouts are one of my favorite. Guess I need to cook them more and use other types of veggies more often. What a bummer!

[mftnchn]

Valda, I use to make cashew cheese all the time and we made it with raw cashews, then I tried it with roasted ones and it has such more flavor! I can't put the yeast in either, I didn't test well for it.

Shay, that's an interesting site. My MD told me we could culture these ourselves with our yogurt starter. I haven't tried it with veggies though. I have hypothyroid but I don't think I eat enough of these raw to be making a difference. Thanks for posting the info. I sure appreciate all of your expertise! I find we have often posted on the same threads, !

Mia do you notice a difference in your digestive problems when you are on or off your antibiotic? I'm curious because I am on a cyclic treatment for lyme right now, two weeks of azithromycin followed by two weeks of an herbal. I have quite a few symptoms that follow the cycles but the digestive seems to be more stable all the time.

[GermanMia]

Art Girl,

I really ould dive into that pumpkin porridge, it's absolutely delicious! I spooned some of the coconut flour in instead of almond flour, and it was fantastic.

What is cashew cheese? How do you make that?

Sherry,

I'm not quite sure about the digestive problems and the antibiotics because unfortunately the intake of the antibiotics was at the same time as the intake of wrong pancreas enzymes, so I'm not quite sure about which caused which problem. But I think under SCD I did better with the antibiotic anyway than ever before. Plus - that may sound weird, but I wondered if the antibiotic didn't kill some of the bad bacteria in the gut, too. Because I had this same renal infection in spring this year, and after taking the antibiotic then, I felt absolutely great with nearly no digestive problems. Only after I had eaten lots of gluten free carbs (millet, rice, corn, buckwheat etc.) over two months the problems started again and became even worse. So I wondered if I killed part of the bad bacteria along with the good bacteria, and as I didn't think of restoring the good bacteria but fed the bad ones, it kind of exploded. Speculation only, but not quite unlikely.

As I take at least one cup of SCD yoghurt per day, I think the gut can cope better with the antibiotics.

Lyme is a very nasty thing - I do hope you come over that! Did you already have neural problems?

Mia

[ArtGirl]

What is cashew cheese? How do you make that?

From this thread by AndreaB

Open Original Shared Link

The cashews are put in a blender with hot liquids and honey and blended until smooth.

The sliceable cheese calls for gelatin. She omits it if she's making a sauce. I don't because I like the added protein.

I make up the sliceable cheese, let it set up in the refrigerator, and cut it into small blocks, wrap separately and freeze. Then I can take out just what I need.

My very favorate way of using it is as a creamy sauce for meats. I cook the meat with onion and sometimes celery (especially for chicken) and just before serving I melt the "cheese" in the pan, mix up with the drippings and heat only till hot - it doesn't boil well - just dries it out. It makes a nice base for casseroles, meat and/or vegetables.

I take some with me to Chili's restaurant and when they bring me my plain, unseasoned hamburger patty and put a couple slices on that while it is hot.

There's lots of uses for it. I've tried it on pizza, but it's not quite the same as real cheese. But some like it.

[GermanMia]

Thanks, Art Girl! Sounds good, I'll try that. The idea with the burger is great. The girl from our local burger shop is already used to me bringing my almond buns and taking only the burger without sauce Perhaps she'll like this cashew cheese herself.

Mia

[mftnchn]

My family and friends that have tried the cashew cheese have liked it. I've made pizza with it. Roasted cashews taste more like cheese to me.

Mia, with lyme disease you can have the improvement on antibiotics. CarlaB had major digestive issues and was gluten free until one course of antibiotics that was for bartonella (lyme co-infection). It totally cleared up her digestive issues. Do you have a way to get tested there?

Thanks for your encouragement. My main symptoms are pain, brain fog, and fatigue. The pain is like fibromyalgia and like arthritis. It is much much better now for the most part. I just can't do without antibiotics unfortunately.

I'm going to try to make egg wraps one of these days. It sounds like a good way to do "sandwiches".

[GermanMia]

I have to buy some cashews and cashew butter in the Netherlands first. Here in Germany they're very expensive.

Sherry, yes, we have ways to get tested here. When I had muscle pain and cramps all last winter I was tested for lyme, too, but luckily there was nothing. A friend of mine has it, though, and she also had brain fog and fatigue. I think she was diagnosed in time so she only had to take antibiotics for a short period and then continued with homeopathic and herbal remedies. The last testing said that the lyme disease had disappeared.

I'm sorry you have to continue taking antibiotics. But perhaps the damage won't be too large when you manage to take as much probiotic food as your gut tolerates.

Do you have ways to check your intestinal flora? So you could figure out exactly what you should substitute.

Mia

[mftnchn]

Do you have ways to check your intestinal flora? So you could figure out exactly what you should substitute.

Mia

Not here in China, maybe next spring in the USA. I am hoping that digestive healing will make a difference. It seems to be going pretty slowly. Its hard to be hopeful after 8 years on antibiotics.

[ArtGirl]

I found a "bread" recipe that uses only coconut flour and no nut flour.

Open Original Shared Link

I made it this afternoon using only one of the two eggs, and the gelatin egg replacer for the second egg.

The recipe says it doesn't rise much, and mine did just a little, so I'm thinking that the egg is more for moisture than levening.

The bread was very dry. I have found that baked goods with coconut flour are somewhat dry, and this is even moreso. I'm not sure I like it all that much.

The author gives instructions for putting them in the oven to dry out and make crackers. That might be good (I love crackers and really miss them).

[AliB]

I picked these 2 interesting pages up. Well worth a read. This is a very informative site.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link