It is clear they don’t teach the SCD diet in medical school.  I guess it makes sense. There have been no large scale clinical trials proving the effectiveness of SCD on IBD. 

It’s frustrating for many on the diet that this is the case, especially because it seems like so many people have a great response.

My mother sent me the letter below written by a pediatrician with Crohn’s.  Here’s an excerpt and the link is below. 

“….excited and completely surprised over how well the SCD worked, I told my doctor about it. Unfortunately, the idea of a diet was met with a lot of resistance. He told me that I was making a mistake, and that it wasn’t the diet that had helped me improve, but that it was just spontaneous remission. Knowing that Crohn’s is a relapsing and remitting disease, he said my symptoms would return if I did not take the medications they were recommending. Because I was in the medical field, I was devastated that my colleagues did not believe or even want to consider dietary therapy.”

http://www.lucyskitchenshop.com/cb_prasad_SCD_forward.html

There are some good sites that have legal/illegal lists like this one:  

http://www.scdrecipe.com/legal-illegal-list/listing/

Even though some foods are “legal”, not all foods agree with all people.  The food may satisfy the requirements and goals of the diet, yet still cause pain or discomfort.  It’s unfortunate since this causes an already restrictive diet to become more restrictive.  Hopefully, over time, I can ease these foods back in.

I’ve tried the following foods over the last few weeks and decided to wait a couple months before trying again:

- Raisins

- Peanut Butter

- Spinach

I guess it is all about experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

So I started the diet for a few reasons…

1.  I discovered all the success stories.  My medications clearly weren’t cutting it as much as they should (or as much as they used to).

2.  My diet for the last 25 years of my life has been about as “anti-SCD” as you get.  When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s when I was 9, my doctor actually told me that I should go on the “McDonald’s Diet”.  This meant hamburgers and fries = good.  Fruits and vegetables = bad.  Getting married to a health-nut changed this (slightly), but I still led a very grain and sugar-heavy life.

3.  Even if it doesn’t end up working for me, it just seemed like a healthier way to live. 

Turkey = meals for a week!

Plus asparagus and pepper/onion stir fry

Have about one of these a day…

Plain yogurt Frozen berries 100% cran/ras juice Honey

I have one of those hand blenders thanks to my sister Emily. I highly recommend one!

The first of many “mealpics”

Grilled Chicken (salt, pepper, paprika)

Peas and Pearl Onions

Diced Tomatoes and Green Beans

I’m about two weeks into the SDC diet and I’ve have been doing a lot of reading of others’ blogs.  The blogs have been quite helpful for me and I’m appreciative that they share their success on SCD.  My hope is that you’ll find my experiences with SCD helpful as well.

Here are some other blogs and sites I follow:

http://www.scdrecipe.com/

http://www.scdkat.com

http://eatingscd.com

http://scdgirl.blogspot.com/

As you can see from this blog’s description, I’ve had IBD since I was 9.  Seventeen years later, my disease is still active.  After a recent colonoscopy, my doctor told me that I was going to need surgery within the next few years to remove a stricture spanning the length of my descending colon.  The stricture was at least partly active inflammation (as opposed to scar tissue). 

Since there were no other medications to try, my research turned to alternative medicine.

I found the specific carbohydrate diet, read the success stories, and bought the book (http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Vicious-Cycle-Intestinal-Through/dp/0969276818)

I figured it was worth a try…