Category Archives: Gut & Psychology Syndrome

Specific Carbohydrate Diet: Common Problems

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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 do 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”!

Specific Carbohydrate Diet: A Personal Story

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I became very sick after the birth of my first child. My childhood asthma and allergies came back with a vengeance. I did over two years of weekly allergy shots with little improvement. I developed chronic sinus infections. I did course after course of antibiotics only to become sick again with new infections. I was taking very high doses of corticosteriods daily without much improvement in my condition. All these new medications I added to my anti-convulsion medication for epilepsy. I started having problems with yeast infections. The doctors said this sometimes happens taking corticosteriods. So, I had to decide which was more important, breathing or itching. More drugs were needed.

Dr Darlene Hammell, my family doctor, told me that if I lost some weight my asthma would likely get better. I joined Weight Watchers and lost over 40 pounds. I did so well on the program, I became a leader, and worked for Weight Watchers for a year. Everyone thought I looked great. My doctor even gave me a big hug after losing all that weight. But I was still on all the medications, coughing all night long, tired all day long, and starting to wonder if I would be alive to see my children become adults.

My family made the painful decision to leave Victoria, BC for a dryer climate. We sold our house and started looking for another place to live. During this time of desperation, I paid to see a doctor who specialized in peak performance, Dr Kevin Worry. He talked to me for about three hours, ordered a ton of blood tests, and offered me a book to read. The book was Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. I read the book that night. Something written in the book resonated with me on a very deep level. I started the diet, and within three days was feeling better. It was like a fog lifting from my mind. I didn’t even know my thinking was foggy before changing my diet.

In the first 18 months on the diet I had stopped all allergy and asthma medication. I do not have asthma or allergies any more. I stopped the yeast infections by using probiotics and doing a low-carbohydrate version of the SCD. I blended the WAPF nutrient dense foods with the SCD for a great result. I found going high fat was the final piece of the puzzle, something I would have never done in my Weight Watchers days. (I found my personal carbohydrate tolerance is about 40-60gm per day.) My dragging fatigue became a thing of the past.

About a year ago, even though I was really scared, I stopped my anti-convulsion medication for epilepsy. After nearly twenty years on anti-convulsion medication, I am now free of this drug. I was told I would likely have to take the drug for the rest of my life. I have now been drug and seizure free for a year.

The sinus infections were the hardest problem to solve. I found that taking high doses of serrapeptase if I got sick finally stopped the cycle of antibiotics and recurring infections. I had one cold this winter and I did not get an infection.

I started on the SCD about three years ago. I am now completely drug free. I have energy to work a normal job and care for my family. The diet saved my life or at least my quality of life.

Update October 2, 2009: I have been thinking about why I lost 40 pounds on the Weight Watchers program, when so many other motivated people could not. I was different from most women on the program because I was breastfeeding at the time. I am starting to learn a lot about human metabolism from watching livestock. It is a well known fact that “a cow will milk herself skinny” in about three months feeding a calf. This may have been the reason why I had such good results on the Weight Watchers program.

Updated June 20, 2013: Just an update on serrapeptase. The company I got it from has moved from tablets to capsules. Unfortunately, they use rice flour for a flow agent in the capsules. I react to the tiny amounts of rice flour in the supplement so now the supplement does not work for me. I have found another solution, ionic silver. I used the nasal spray if I felt a bit stuffy over this last winter. I didn?t get sick or develop a sinus infection this winter. This is the product I used but any ionic silver product will likely work.

Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

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SCD

This book saved my health and the health of my daughter.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a special dietary program for very sick people. This diet was originally, developed and clinically tested by Drs Sidney and Merrill Haas. They wrote a book in the 1950s called Management of Celiac Disease, where they treated and cured hundreds of cases of celiac disease and cystic fibrosis of the pancreas.

At this time, celiac disease included a number of other disorders the medical profession now considers different diseases such as: ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis and chronic diarrhea. For some reason, SCD disappeared as a first line of treatment for intestinal disease around the time that celiac disease became connected with the protein gluten. Celiac disease is now considered a genetic disorder and the standard treatment is the Gluten Free Diet. This diet works well with about half of all celiac patients.

The SCD would have likely passed into medical history, if it wasn’t for a mom with a very sick child. Elaine Gottchall’s daughter was dying from ulcerative colitis and was plagued by seizures. She found out about the diet, cured her daughter, and went back to school and became a biochemist. She wrote a number of books including: Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet. She became a crusader on behalf of dietary approaches to illnesses.

Elaine Gottchall developed a website called: www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info. The website was formed to help people with digestive disorders find answers not known in conventional medical circles. The modern SCD restricts all disaccharide sugars and complex starches. All processed foods are eliminated. Grains, legumes, and most beans are eliminated. No starchy vegetables are allowed. Dairy is carefully restricted or in some serious cases eliminated. Nuts and seeds can be eaten with care. The diet consists of unprocessed fats, proteins and monosaccharide sugars. Monosaccharide sugars include non-starchy vegetables, whole fruit, and honey.

Over time something began to happen. People using the SCD found their other chronic health conditions became less serious or completely disappeared. Diseases caused by inflammation or autoimmune reactions seem to be helped in some way by the diet. This includes: asthma, allergies, chronic sinus infections, type two diabetes, arthritis, MS, heart disease, seizure disorders, epilepsy, depression, schizophrenia, autism and the spectrum disorders. The list continues to grow.

GAPS

GAPS is the new SCD. GAPS adds probiotics and nourishing traditional food preparation.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS): A New Evolution of the SCD

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome is a new evolution of the SCD. It was developed by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, a neurologist and nutritionist working in the UK. She has a son diagnosed with autism. As a neurologist she knew the conventional medical profession had little to offer her son. She took a degree in nutrition. She was introduced to the SCD at a lecture by Elaine Gottchall.

Over the last 15 years she has used the SCD clinically with her patients. She has changed the SCD in two major ways. She uses high dose probiotic treatment and WAPF traditional food preparation methods with her patients. She has had very good results in her clinical practice with patients with autism, schizophrenia and the spectrum disorders. Her son is now a teenager and no one would know he was once diagnosed with autism.

Dr Campbell-McBride has written two lay publications: Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Put Your Heart in Your Mouth. Both are available in the Kamloops Public Library. She has two websites that outlines the program called: www.gaps.me and www.behealthy.org.uk. A helpful North American website is called: www.gapsdiet.com. GAPS Guide is a website to help newcomers to the diet.

More Posts the SCD and GAPS
Specific Carbohydrate Diet: A Personal Story
Specific Carbohydrate Diet: Common Problems
Industrial Food Sickness
What is a Healthy Gut?
Questions about SCD, GAPS and PD

More Posts on Related Diet Topics
Supplements or Superfoods
Supplements or Superfoods: A Personal Story
Funny Troubles
Diabetes: A Modern Epidemic

Update December 16, 2009: This essay is by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride about Gut and Psychology Syndrome.

Updated March 1, 2010: This is from dogtorj.com about Gut Absorption Recovery Diet (GARD). John B. Symes is a vet and uses his experiences with animals to enlighten us on human health. The diet sounds a lot like the SCD/GAPS. It would be good for people with seizure disorders to read his material.

Updated April 16, 2010: Here is a video presentation by Mercola with Dr Andrew Wakefield. You may know of his work with developmental disorders, bowel disease and early exposure to vaccines. It is a long presentation but worth it for anyone interested in Autism and the Spectrum Disorders.

Updated April 16, 2011: Here is Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride lecturing on GAPS at the Weston A Price Foundation 2007 Conference. Her lecture is in two parts and can be downloaded here. Sally Fallon gives a brief overview of the research of Dr Weston A Price before introducing Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride. Please put some time aside to listen to this very interesting lecture:
WAPF2007 GAPS part1 6203.mp3
WAPF2007 GAPS part2 6219.mp3

Updated April 22, 2011: Sarah Smith is the WAPF Chapter Co-leader for Las Cruces, NM. She is also on the GAPS program with her family. If you are interested in GAPS recipes, gardening, and traditional meal preparation, please see Nourished and Nurtured.