So approximately April of 2018 I committed to doing an SCD diet for myself and daughter because she needs it to heal from IBD and I am still breastfeeding. SCD stands for Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle gives a scientific explanation as to why this diet is supposed to work to reverse autoimmune disease.
There were problems from the beginning. I have a type of sensitivity to eggs and Jessica has an IgE allergy to eggs according to her lab tests. So even though the diet allows for eggs we didn’t eat them. The diet also allows for nuts and fermented dairy. We also don’t eat dairy at all since we both still have reactions to them. Mine are not as bad anymore but it makes Jessica congested. Too many nuts has proven to be a problem too. Honey is also allowed on the diet and that has proven to be a huge problem for both of us in the past too. When I say a problem, it made us both extremely sick.

I read the list on of foods to avoid and foods to include from SIBOinfo.com https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/scd_food-list.pdf. I had been eating a few of the foods not allowed on the diet for a while. The foods I was eating that I was unaware of not being allowed (I don’t know how that happened since I read the book).

I was eating and not all of these were on a regular basis but tapioca flour, aloe Vera, astragalus, Pau D’ Arco (in the form of tea),liquid chlorophyll, melatonin, stevia, xylitol, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato paste (canned), tomato sauce ((canned), canned veggies like spinach and string beans as well as balsamic vinegar. This diet gets dicey. According to research this diet has helped reverse IBD and is highly recommended for that condition. I soaked the beans for more than 12 hours before cooking and eating and I thought I was doing pretty well. Elaine Gottschall author of Breaking the Vicious Cycle who reversed her daughter’s ulcerative colitis.

Elaine says that being strict about this diet is so important. She says, “The strictness of this diet cannot be overemphasized nor should the difficulty of adhering to it be minimized. Faithful observance requires intelligence and vigilance on the part of those taking care of the individual or on the part of the person who cooks for himself or herself. It is surprising how many times a child will manage, despite the best supervision, to get hold of forbidden food. It is equally surprising how many parents will decide, despite all warnings, that “just a taste” of ice cream, cookie, or candy will do no harm. Such infringements will seriously delay recovery and it is unwise to undertake this regimen unless you are willing to follow it with fanatical adherence.” Pg. 67

The problem for me with that statement is the fact that we couldn’t eat eggs, nuts, honey, or dairy. The list was so overwhelming I felt confused and almost paralyzed at times. I have seen the effects of doing just a little of tapioca flour which Jess and I got real sick from. I saw that flour on the SDClifestyle website and as far as I know tapioca can be a alternative to grain flour on the AIP diet. We ate too much of that flour in the form of cupcakes I wanted Jess to be able to eat at birthday parties.

Elaine goes into detail about the issues of digesting sugar or carbs and how that is problematic for people with celiac, crohns, or colitis and chronic diarrhea. The thing we have been concerned about and fighting is yeast and Elaine says about yeast, “There has been a long history indicating that bacteria and yeast are involved in intestinal disease.” Pg. 13

“…all dietary components, undigested and unabsorbed carbohydrates (starch and sugar) have the greatest influence on the growth of intestinal microbes.” Pg. 47
I wanted to include here what Elaine says about SCD and how it approaches gastro challenges in autism and says, “…has been successfully doing for inflammatory bowel disease—a disorder of bacterial fermentation and the ensuing problems which occur because of bacterial fermentation. These problems resulting from bacterial fermentation are:

1. Production of excess amounts of short chain volatile fatty acids (organic acids);
2. Lowering of the pH of the blood as these acids are absorbed;
3. Overgrowth of bacteria proliferation;
4. Mutation of some bacteria such as E. coli because of the change in the pH in their colonic environment;
5. Excess toxin production caused by the overgrowth of some pathological bacteria.

It is frustrating and discouraging to me that we were not able to stick to this diet. I am not opposed to trying again but now since there was blood found in Jessica’s stool on her last lab test, we are going to take a different route this time because in essence we are following a more autoimmune paleo diet right now with the no eggs, nuts, dairy, or honey. I will be doing more research and reporting what we find and how it all works out!