First some background on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The diet became a popular treatment for digestive diseases based on the publications of Elaine Gottschall. Her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle serves as a guide to the diet. The SCD has been around for a long time and is based on a diet to help children with Celiac Disease. The specific carbohydrates that are allowed are the simple sugars, glucose and fructose. Complex carbohydrates like sucrose and starches are forbidden. These complex carbohydrates are dangerous to someone with IBD because they can pass through much of the damaged digestive track unabsorbed. When these carbohydrates reach the diseased part of the digestive track they serve as food for problematic microbes to grow in numbers which worsens the disease. This causes more damage to the digestive tact and further enhances malabsorption of complex carbohydrates, hence the vicious cycle. A diet without complex carbohydrates serve to starve the disease causing microbes. Once they are gone the damaged digestive system can heal and the cycle can be broken.

While the book is a great resource, I found it difficult to start the diet with the book's food recommendations. A Portland expert at Pearl Natural Health pointed me to the PecanBread website. This website became my go to resource for my progression through the initial stages of the diet.

The intro diet was a major challenge. The chicken carrot soup is familiar and is easy to grow accustomed to. Poached eggs are an easy choice too. The food became less appealing when I started eating the plain hamburger patties and the bone broth soup. I was eating so much fat and protein that seeing the bone broth soup made me nauseous. It got so bad on the third night of the diet that I woke up not feeling 100% and accidentally thought of the bone broth soup and soon I was on my knees in front of the toilet. I've heard that the cleansing of the system can lead to some flu-like symptoms, but I am not convinced that was the root cause of my issues.

Before this diet I was eating meat maybe twice a week. This diet felt like it was all meat so I was desperate for some fruits or veggies. Luckily I reexamined the intro diet list and noticed that grape juice and apple cider were legal. I couldn't get to the store quick enough. The sweet taste really hit the spot.

After five days of the diet my symptoms were nearly gone. I don't know if the meat clogged the system, but I was barely visiting the rest room and when I went things were looking healthy. I decided it was time for stage 1 of the diet which meant adding homemade applesauce, bananas, banana pancakes, banana cake and squash. The slow shift away from an all meat diet was greatly appreciated. I had no idea how much I would enjoy butternut squash! I have really been missing out.

The stage 1 foods have all settled well so now I am slowly adding an item at a time to my diet. I started eating scrambled eggs, raw avocado, heated tomato, and bacon prepared without sugar all without issues. Less successful were my attempts adding raw nuts, a personal favorite, and I am still unsure whether cheese is settling okay.

For Christmas day I will be preparing Filet Mignon. I am not completely sure that this is legal at stage 1 or 2 but other meats have went so well that I am not too worried. The improvements to me health have made this a happy season already. Happy holidays to everyone who follows these stories.