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Specific Carbohydrate Diet: Common Problems

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) has a number of problems associated with the diet. Even though most people feel great on the diet, they have problems staying with the program long term. I hope this posting will help newcomers to the diet overcome these common pitfalls.

The SCD restricts all processed foods and food additives. This in itself can make a big change in a person’s health. The number of chemical additives put in processed foods has increased at an alarming rate in the last 50 years. There is a great amount of controversy about the safety of these additives. Nevertheless, these additives are everywhere. Avoiding additives means avoiding all processed food and any food produced in a standard restaurant. To the sensitive person even a minute amount of the problem substance can cause great damage.

The SCD is not necessarily a low carbohydrate diet but compared to the Standard American Diet (SAD) it will be lower in fiber and carbohydrates. Grains, legumes and beans are by far the greatest source of indigestible fiber and carbohydrates in a healthy person’s diet. By removing these foods and changing nothing else, your diet will become lower in fiber and carbohydrate.

1. The Crash Landing is constipation. A vast majority of the volume of a healthy bowel movement is bacteria, not indigestible fiber. Constipation that is caused by the reduction of dietary fiber is a symptom of gut dysbiosis. Gut dysbiosis is a lack of healthy intestinal bacteria. There are a number of ways to increase gut flora. Start by introducing lacto-fermented foods and drinks into your daily diet. This is a very inexpensive way to get probiotics and will solve the problem for most people. If whole, fermented foods does not work within a month or two consider trying therapeutic probiotics.

You might be wondering why I am not recommending eating supplemental fiber. Fiber is good for us, right? I would suggest reading Fiber Menace by Konstantin Monastyrsky and coming to your own decision on the safety of fiber. It is a funny book that will make you forever look at the contents of your toilet in a new way.

2. Carb Addiction is a common symptom that will appear from nowhere. When a person starts the SCD there will be a sudden reduction of the person’s normal carbohydrate load. This reduction of carbohydrates will induce an unbelievably strong force which will drive a craving to eat the very foods that are likely to be causing the problem. The person’s “gut flora” will be calling for their feeding of carbohydrate using the “gut brain”. The gut brain is very primitive part of our nervous system. It is completely nonverbal, causes action without higher thinking, and is the powerful force behind craving and addiction.

The gut brain cannot be controlled. The only way is to live through the “die-off” of the bacterial strains causing the addictive behavior. The die-off can take a week or a month. It is horrible to live through but there is a world on the other side without craving and addiction.

Carb addiction is a symptom of gut dysbiosis and gut flora imbalance. Carb addiction is the beginning of the long road to diabetes. If a person has a problem with yeast infections, hypoglycemia or diabetes, it would be wise to go low-carbohydrate with the SCD. Please see Life Without Bread for a low-carbohydrate protocol that works with over 90% of people.

3. Eating Out is very challenging. High end restaurants that make all the food in-house might be safe. I still have to be very careful and I never know if the waiter has transmitted the information to the kitchen. I have heard of people who do a lot of traveling making up a business card with their dietary restrictions. Generally, I do not eat out. When I am traveling I bring my own food in a cooler and have a bin full of dried food. I eat my dried stores and shop at local grocery stores for fresh foods.

The SCD will cause social and family problems. The people who love me are just happy to see me well again. They help make the diet easier by their acceptance. Not everyone will be as supportive. It is my responsibility to take care of myself and do what is necessary. What I put in my mouth is completely under my control. No amount of pressure from the outside can change that fact. Just watch out for the “gut brain”!

Swine Flu: What to Do

The Weston A. Price Foundation has sent a Swine Flu Information Alert to members. Below is a summary of the information in the Alert.

Most of us have heard about the outbreak of swine flu in La Gloria, Mexico. Many residents of this small village blame the infection and/or toxins coming from local confinement hog operations.

Conventional medicine would recommend the isolation of ill people, hand washing, face masks, and taking anti-viral drugs. These drugs have numerous serious side effects in some people. There is little mention of building natural immunity.

It’s so easy to to be scared and do nothing. Fortunately, we don’t have to be helpless. We can build our natural immunity by feeding ourselves and families nourishing, traditional foods.

Some simple steps to build natural immunity are:
1. Eat a healthy diet based on nourishing, traditional foods. Eliminate or severely reduce processed foods and refined carbohydrates.
2. Vitamins A and D in cod liver oil offers strong protection against infections and environmental toxins.
3. Vitamin C from whole food sources will protect against infection and be better absorbed by the body.
4. Healthy gut flora provides about 85% of our immunity to infectious disease and environmental toxins. Consume lacto-fermented foods and drinks every day. Avoid foods that disrupt healthy gut flora such as processed foods and refined carbohydrates.
5. Bone broth is full of minerals and gelatin. It helps nourish and regenerate the gut, which will improve immunity.
6. Add virgin coconut oil to your daily diet. Our body takes lauric acid found in coconut oil and converts it into monolaurin. Swine flu is a lipid coated virus which will become inactivated by sufficient amounts of monolaurin.

Dr. Mary Enig, an international lipid specialist, has calculated that two to three tablespoons of coconut oil a day will fight infection. Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig is a good source of recipes to add more coconut oil to your diet. You can get this book through inter-library loan from the Kamloops Public Library.

Update June 25, 2009: On the Weston A Price leader bulletin board was a link to this CBS 60 Minutes documentary about swine flu. This documentary is from the 1976 swine flu “epidemic”. It was aired once in the US and never shown again. Please watch this 14 minute program and two commercial aired at the time: 60 Minutes 1976 Swine Flu.

Update November 3, 2009: This is a audio presentation from www.mercola.com about swine flu immunization. If you are pregnant or considering getting the vaccination, please listen to this presentation called Swine Flu: One of the Most Massive Medical Cover-ups.

Recommended Reading List

Over the last few years, GO BOX Storage have donated a number of books about nourishing traditional foods and healing diets to the Kamloops Public Library. The Weston A. Price Foundation considers most of these books recommended reading.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price
Pottenger’s Cats by Dr. Francis M. Pottenger
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall
Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
Put Your Heart In Your Mouth by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
Life Without Bread by Dr. Christian Allan and Dr. Wolfgang Lutz
The Fourfold Path to Healing by Dr. Tom Cowan
Know Your Fats by Dr. Mary G. Enig
The Cholesterol Myth by Dr. Utte Ravnskov
The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid
The Whole Soy Story by Dr. Kaayla Daniel
Performance Without Pain by Kathryn Pirtle
The Garden of Fertility by Katie Singer
Honoring Our Cycles by Katie Singer
The Yoga of Eating by Charles Eisenstein
Seeds of Deception by Jeffery M. Smith
Genetic Roulette by Jeffery M. Smith
The GMO Trilogy (DVD) by Jeffery M. Smith
The World According to Monsanto (DVD) by Jeffery M. Smith

Update May 12, 2009: If you would like more suggested reading please go to the WAPF Thumbs Up Book (and Other Media) Reviews.