Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

[GermanMia]

hello! I hope you do not mind me "joining in". Thank you so much for this information; I have read and learned SO much! My whole life (I am 23) I have suffered from major C, bloating, strange food reactions, everything and NO ONE has ever understood or they think I am making it up or it is all in my head. I have bad C, and contrary to what most people believe, fiber makes it much worse. If I eat an apple, I get extremely bloated, retain fluid, and will go not have a BM for a few days, even if I drink a few liters of water. Additionally, if I eat offending foods, I get this "binge" like behavior where i feel like I "must" have the food or else! is that weird? The less veg and fruit and starch in my system, the better off I am. Unfortunately, my diet right now is pretty limited: buffalo, elk, venison, salmon, ostrich, a little tuna, oils, zucchini, avocado, some goat products, a little bit of low fructose fruit. I can't eat nuts, soy, gluten, beans, the usual suspects. I have had many random other problems (hormonal imbalance, chronic low grade depression, hair thinning, dry skin, sleep issues..) my gi system hates me. Anyways, I look forward to reading and learning more.. this is a very informative thread!

Hi and welcome :-)

Just recently I found out that besides gluten intolerance and fructose malabsorption I developed a histamine intolerance. The funny thing is that one symptom of histamine intolerance can be craving for "forbidden" foods, and I found that as soon as I stay away from these things the carving gets better. Did you ever get tested for celiac / gluten intolerance, allergies, fructose or histamine?

[pele]

Hi and welcome :-)

Just recently I found out that besides gluten intolerance and fructose malabsorption I developed a histamine intolerance. The funny thing is that one symptom of histamine intolerance can be craving for "forbidden" foods, and I found that as soon as I stay away from these things the carving gets better. Did you ever get tested for celiac / gluten intolerance, allergies, fructose or histamine?

I have heard it said more than once that if your system is run-down due to years of glutening, then your adrenals may be in bad shape, causing increased allergies. Does this make sense regarding your histamine intolerance?

[pele]

Congratulations Ali!

Your thread has passed 100 pages and 1500 posts!

[pele]

One person on another forum said that whenever she has a symptom flare she does a couple of days of broth and meat only. Every time she does this she finds she reaches a new level of healing as well as moving through the flare quicker.

Sherry, I remember you mentioned this, and a few weeks ago when I got glutened, I cut way back on everything but meat for a couple of days. I think it helped. I feel better than ever. Maybe also feel good because I eliminated Welch's Grape Juice. Peppermint tea for me.

[dtgirl]

Hi and welcome :-)

Just recently I found out that besides gluten intolerance and fructose malabsorption I developed a histamine intolerance. The funny thing is that one symptom of histamine intolerance can be craving for "forbidden" foods, and I found that as soon as I stay away from these things the carving gets better. Did you ever get tested for celiac / gluten intolerance, allergies, fructose or histamine?

Thanks! After years of misery, it is confirmed that I have celiac genes and gluten intolerence if that makes sense.. my ND found this out. I get histamine from many types of fish. As for nuts, I get a racing pulse and horrid cravings as well as marks on my body. However, I will say fructose and beans cause me more misery than anything, horrid gas, fluid retention, and constipation for days. My body is a mystery. I also have hormonal imbalances, but it is hard to tell if that is from malabsorption or something else. I started scd today, but I think I am going to do meat/broth only for a few days.

[dtgirl]

I have heard it said more than once that if your system is run-down due to years of glutening, then your adrenals may be in bad shape, causing increased allergies. Does this make sense regarding your histamine intolerance?

My naturopath basically said the same thing to me.. I have many symptoms of hypothyroid as well and it does run in my family, as does chrons and digestive disorders in general.

[AliB]

Congratulations Ali!

Your thread has passed 100 pages and 1500 posts!

Do I get a prize?

[GermanMia]

I have heard it said more than once that if your system is run-down due to years of glutening, then your adrenals may be in bad shape, causing increased allergies. Does this make sense regarding your histamine intolerance?

Yes, that makes big sense. I'm going to see an GE who also is endoctinologist in two weeks

[wschmucks]

hello! I hope you do not mind me "joining in". Thank you so much for this information; I have read and learned SO much! My whole life (I am 23) I have suffered from major C, bloating, strange food reactions, everything and NO ONE has ever understood or they think I am making it up or it is all in my head. I have bad C, and contrary to what most people believe, fiber makes it much worse. If I eat an apple, I get extremely bloated, retain fluid, and will go not have a BM for a few days, even if I drink a few liters of water. Additionally, if I eat offending foods, I get this "binge" like behavior where i feel like I "must" have the food or else! is that weird? The less veg and fruit and starch in my system, the better off I am. Unfortunately, my diet right now is pretty limited: buffalo, elk, venison, salmon, ostrich, a little tuna, oils, zucchini, avocado, some goat products, a little bit of low fructose fruit. I can't eat nuts, soy, gluten, beans, the usual suspects. I have had many random other problems (hormonal imbalance, chronic low grade depression, hair thinning, dry skin, sleep issues..) my gi system hates me. Anyways, I look forward to reading and learning more.. this is a very informative thread!

Hi! We sound very similar, I am 24, suffer from severe C too--no matter what I do. I have Celiac and am gluten-free for almost 5 months now, SCD 1 month (not sure if its helping though). I think i also have thyroid problems (get blood tests back in 2 days), praying I do and that that's the source of the C. Did you figure out all of your intollerences through trial and error? Since I am always constipated I cant tell what does what to me, its so frustrating. Hopefully the SCD will help you out. Nice to meet you.

[AliB]

Mia, was it you who had to take the course of antibiotics recently? Did you feel better after, and have you had any problems with Candida or anything else since?

Ali

[GermanMia]

Mia, was it you who had to take the course of antibiotics recently? Did you feel better after, and have you had any problems with Candida or anything else since?

Ali

Hi Ali,

yes, I had to take antibiotics recently because of bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine plus recurrent kidney infection. Well, evidently the antibiotics killed the bacteria - good and bad ones - and I had no further problems with kidney infection, and the bloating in the small intestine has gone, too. No candida because I didn't eat carbs and sugars, not even fruit, and I'm still restoring the gut flora. So far the gastrointestinal problems are under control as long as I stay away from everything that contains fructose or saccharose or histamine.

Sadly I don't feel better, because all the rest is like before: Weakness, hypoglycemia, muscle weakness and pain, heavy fatigue, very low blood pressure. But that's the reason why I'm going to see an endocrinologist on 2nd april. There must be something that caused all those intolerances.

But as I say, staying away from sugars and restoring the flora as quickly as possible, and the antibiotics at least don't cause candida.

Do you consider taking antibiotics because of helicobacter? I still didn't find the source where I got that idea about alternative helicobacter treatment from, but tomorrow I'll see my naturopath friend who maybe can tell me something.

Mia

[AliB]

I did find some links suggesting using bismuth but it also suggested that it worked better with an antibiotic.

The garlic has at least got my stomach back to where it was before the Solgar Enzymes incident, but my sleep is still quite restless and I am exhausted. I could sleep for a week. Maybe my body is telling me it is time I went to bed earlier!

I think tonight I might just listen to it!

[fig girl]

I'm avoiding all sweets these days, so I haven't tried it, but have you checked out the Nut Torte in Elaine Gottschall's book 'Breaking ...' ? It looks really wonderful, and you can make the fillings you'd like depending on what you're able to eat.

My soup-digestion problem is getting better if I eat some ginger and grape fruit, or a green pepper, just before having the soup. But I've realized that in any case, I should just eat a little of it at a time, then I'm fine (it's not due to the carrots, since I'm making it without carrots as I have an intolerance to them). Luckily I can otherwise eat almost all raw vegetables, and even non-sugary fruits such as kiwi and grape fruits. Despite their sweetness I do well with pine apples too, think it must be because they contain so many essential digestive enzymes. Anyone having similar experiences with pine apples?

Ali, as to the garlic, have you tried to swallow one or more spoon fulls of olive or flax seed oil right after taking it? To me it immediately does away with the burning in the throat, and I even feel it somehow enhances the effect of the garlic. And in order not to taste the garlic too much, I just take them spoon by spoon of finely chopped cloves, place them on my tongue and quickly wash them down with water. And then the oil ... I tried enzymes with HCL at some point, but they were also much too strong for my stomach. Now I make do with natural food enzymes - but I guess I'm lucky since I have no problems digesting raw greens.

Hope you find out about the HP - and find some workable enzymes.

Jan

Hi Jan,

I don't eat any honey either and chicken broth bothers me (mainly cooked a long time w/bone-in chicken) which Rinne had pointed out that it could be glutamates from the long-cooked protein. So I've boiled/poached chicken breasts for about 50 - 60 min. and have been eating those and have had a little of the broth and i think it has helped not eating the long cooked chicken and broth. Last week for about 3-4 days i ate a little raw celery, carrot and a few bites of romaine lettuce before dinner and chewed them up really well. That seemed to help with C (i had a bm everyday while doing that. My stomach started bothering me after about day 4 though so i cut it out over the weekend and went for 2 days without a bm. But i've had some good bm's the past few days. I want to try the garlic and oil sometime in the near future - i think the enzymes from raw really help me. Romaine lettuce is fine for me and i eat a salad every night with dinner and chew a few pieces of it before my meal. I think i'll try raw carrot w/out the celery again soon.

I haven't tried raw ginger yet - i think i'll try that before the garlic. I found some organic ginger so i'll try it soon. I bought some kiwi the other day so i'm going to try a few slices of it tomorrow. Fingers crossed it'll do ok. It'd be nice to have more fruit other than banana and avocado. I don't think I've ever heard of pine apples - i'll have to start looking around to see if i can find some.

[fig girl]

Hi and welcome :-)

Just recently I found out that besides gluten intolerance and fructose malabsorption I developed a histamine intolerance. The funny thing is that one symptom of histamine intolerance can be craving for "forbidden" foods, and I found that as soon as I stay away from these things the carving gets better. Did you ever get tested for celiac / gluten intolerance, allergies, fructose or histamine?

Hi Mia and welcome dtgirl!

Mia can you tolerate ripe bananas and/or avocados? Sorry, you've probably mentioned it before. I often wonder if i have fructose malabsorption and even histamine intolerance. The only foods i'm able to tolerate right now is all meat (no additives and organic seems to do best), fish, romaine lettuce, cooked carrots, asparagus, broccoli, green beans,goat yogurt, ripe bananas, avocados, olive oil and a little lemon and lime juice. I think spinach is ok cooked or raw but i'm still trying to figure out if it does bother me sometimes. A friend of mine recommended a Naturopath which i probably should make an appt. I've also found a Nutritionist about an hour away who specializes in celiac/gluten intolerance. They're not covered under insurance so it would be expensive. My GP is really good so i probably will make an appt. with her first. Thanks for any info!

[GermanMia]

Hi Mia and welcome dtgirl!

Mia can you tolerate ripe bananas and/or avocados? Sorry, you've probably mentioned it before. I often wonder if i have fructose malabsorption and even histamine intolerance. The only foods i'm able to tolerate right now is all meat (no additives and organic seems to do best), fish, romaine lettuce, cooked carrots, asparagus, broccoli, green beans,goat yogurt, ripe bananas, avocados, olive oil and a little lemon and lime juice. I think spinach is ok cooked or raw but i'm still trying to figure out if it does bother me sometimes. A friend of mine recommended a Naturopath which i probably should make an appt. I've also found a Nutritionist about an hour away who specializes in celiac/gluten intolerance. They're not covered under insurance so it would be expensive. My GP is really good so i probably will make an appt. with her first. Thanks for any info!

Hi fig girl,

first I thought I could tolerate ripe bananas and avocados because they don't cause bloating. But then I became aware that it's not only the gastro intestinal symptoms but quite a range of other symptoms, too, which might be caused by histamine. Now I found out that I can tolerate tiny amounts of avocados at once, about 1/8 avocado per day. But no bananas. If you can tolerate carrots, asparagus and green beans, you probably have no issue with fructose. But on the other hand, fructose malabsorption also doesn't necessarily show typical gastro intestinal symptoms. If I take too much fructose (which would be more than 2 gram per day!) I am only slightly bloated but get muscle cramps and muscle pain in the legs, hypoglycemia, more fatigue than usual, dizziness and headaches.

Bananas, avocado, all citrus fruits and spinach are critical with histamine, so if you don't feel any symptoms such as gastro intestinal problems, itching, flushes (red hot face), low blood pressure, hypoglycemia, fatigue and weakness, maybe histamie is not a big problem for you.

I don't know how it is in the US, but here gastroenterologists are covered under insurance and you can have fructose malabsorption breathe test and histamine blood test there.

[mslee]

oops!

[mslee]

Can I jump in again and ask some more questions???

please

So I have held off on doing SCD/GAPS because my dietitian insists I need grains for the health of my brain...she says there are nutrients I would be denied if I cut out all grains. Even being grain light she suggests a B complex & folic acid + the high amounts of B12 I have been taking. But the B complex makes me feels sick.

Do you guys take supplements to make up for what you are missing out in grains???

So I thought I would give her way a shot & see how it went...well I have had a constant headache, constant yeast problem & crave grains ...so have reduced the amounts of veggies I was eating and replaced them with rice or buckwheat.

Another reason I have held off is that my house has a mold problem, we are moving in May...I thought trying to rid myself of yeast/mold through diet may be a waste of time & effort if my home is infested with mold.

The other question is after a year of SCD do you bring grains back into your diet? & just try to gauge if they are creating a yeast problem then cut back from there????

as of now the only grains I eat are basmati rice (lower glycemc index than other rice, my blood sugar spikes) & this pocono buckwheat cereal...I really do like (guess buckwheat is out on the scd diet???). She wants me to try quinoa, I have it but have not tried it yet.

thank you for any input you may have!

[pele]

Can I jump in again and ask some more questions???

please

So I have held off on doing SCD/GAPS because my dietitian insists I need grains for the health of my brain...she says there are nutrients I would be denied if I cut out all grains. Even being grain light she suggests a B complex & folic acid + the high amounts of B12 I have been taking. But the B complex makes me feels sick.

Do you guys take supplements to make up for what you are missing out in grains???

The other question is after a year of SCD do you bring grains back into your diet? & just try to gauge if they are creating a yeast problem then cut back from there????

thank you for any input you may have!

I am two weeks away from a full year on the diet and I have no intention of adding grains. You might ask the dietitian what human beings ate for the 2 millions years before agriculture. Were thay all brain-starved for grains? What nutrients are in grains that we don't get from the SCD diet? Sorry, but what she says sounds to me like ignorant twaddle.

If the B vit supplement bothers you, don't take it. Your tolerance may improve as your gut heals. Others here are on sublinguil vitamins or get IV vitamin transfusions.

[pele]

Now that I have had my little rant for the evening I am going to tell a story.

About one year and one week ago, somebody spilled a cup of convenience store mocha on the rubber floor mat in my vehicle. I wasn't able to clean it up right away and within hours it had set to a tough, gum-like consistency. I washed and scrubbed, but it never really came out.

Today I noticed it again, still there in the grooves of the floor mat, and I remembered thinking one year and one week ago, that the cup of mocha was not fit for human consumption. If it turned into hard gum on the floor mat, what the heck did it do inside a human digestive tract? (And why are purveyors of convenience store "food" trying to kill us?)

Three weeks later I was on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

[pele]

I have a question.

I would like to explore making my own dry curd cottage cheese from raw cow's milk. There are simple recipes on the internet for "farmer's cheese" that are similar to panir. Basically heat milk to a boil, add lemon juice, strain out the curds.

Does anyone know if this is SCD legal? How do commercial dairies make DCC?

[Ms Jan]

Hi Jan,

I don't eat any honey either and chicken broth bothers me (mainly cooked a long time w/bone-in chicken) which Rinne had pointed out that it could be glutamates from the long-cooked protein. So I've boiled/poached chicken breasts for about 50 - 60 min. and have been eating those and have had a little of the broth and i think it has helped not eating the long cooked chicken and broth.

Hi Fig Girl,

Thanks

- I'll try out the 50-60 minutes chicken breasts and see if they work better for me.

Jan

[julirama723]

Hey all! It's been a while since I've posted, or at least it seems like a while.

My wedding was last weekend, so now I'm officially a Missus. It was absolutely amazing! I allowed myself a bit more freedom with foods (still all gluten-free) and I had a gluten-free brownie, some gluten-free cider, a bit of fruit, etc. over the space of a few days. I was very cautious, and kept waiting for the gas, bloating, diarrhea that was SURE to occur...yet it never happened. In fact, I felt better than ever, and actually lost weight (my wedding dress ended up being slightly too big, I should have had the next smaller size!)

We returned home on Tuesday night, and since yesterday, my bowels have NOT been agreeing with me. It's been very confusing. Why did I feel so good when I was eating foods I can't normally have? Normally I'll get D about 12 hours after eating whatever it was that was problematic, so I don't think it was "leftover" food from my trip causing these issues. Could it be something where I live that makes me sick or aggravates my system?

What are your thoughts on this?

[AliB]

I have a question.

I would like to explore making my own dry curd cottage cheese from raw cow's milk. There are simple recipes on the internet for "farmer's cheese" that are similar to panir. Basically heat milk to a boil, add lemon juice, strain out the curds.

Does anyone know if this is SCD legal? How do commercial dairies make DCC?

Pele, I think the DCCC is legal because it is made via a fermentation method rather than curdled using lemon juice or rennet. Cottage cheese is curdled but the rather confusingly named 'curd' cheese is fermented with active lactic bacteria-loaded buttermilk. I don't think it is that much different to dripped yogurt although the combination of bacteria may be slightly different which could alter the flavor.

I found the following 'homemade' recipe if it of any use.

Open Original Shared Link

Not surprised the coffee glued your mat - that stuff is packed with rubbish - whiteners, which is basically fat, extra casein and loads of sugar. Yuk.

[AliB]

Hi Ms Lee. Can I suggest your Dietician needs a lesson in the nutritional qualities of food. If the only place we could get B vitamins from was grains then a huge chunk of the World's population would be very B deficient.

By far the best supplements for nutrients is food. Pills do not work anything like as effectively as the real McCoy. There are many synergistic factors in food that enhance the way vitamins and minerals work in our bodies that are not present in pills. Raw food is also an important supplement as it provides enzymes that help the body use the nutrients. Without enzymes much of the supplementation would just provide you with expensive urine - hence the bright yellow pee you get when you take B complex! The natural B vitamins in the food doesn't do that.

B12 can only be provided through animal foods - eggs, fish and meat. Vegetarians eat lots of grains but very often are deficient in B12.

Other vitamins in the B group can be found in many leafy green vegetables including broccoli and spinach, fish, meat, offal, avocado, nuts, bananas, eggs, yogurt, pulses, berries, among many - all of which are SCD legal.

B vitamins apart from B12 are found in grains - but only whole grains not processed (unless it has been added and then it is rubbish), but they are only a small portion of the foods that supply it. The Inuit never eat grains at all, yet they are a strong, healthy people. The animal foods and fish supply all the B vitamins they need.

The biggest factor in the management of B vitamins - or indeed any nutrients is the removal of sugar. It robs the body of so much nutrition and contributes to gut damage and the removal of that alone would do so much to help the body rebalance.

[AliB]

Hi Juli - Mrs Julirama! Glad your wedding went ok. Bit of a mystery over the food thing though. Not sure I can come up with a suggestion on that one except that maybe due tot he SCD your gut flora had started to change and it took a few days for the baddies to proliferate enough from the 'illegal' feeding to cause a problem again?

I always seem to have a burst of energy for a day or two when I alter my diet and I have never been able to figure out why. It's like something is getting through that can't normally. It doesn't last long though and within a short space I am back to the normal fatigue level!

If I ever find out why, I'll let you all know!

Sometimes an 'off-track' episode is enough to make us realise the real benefit of the SCD though!