A Year Without Bread... sort of.

Today is the first anniversary of my adventure with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet... a grain, sugar and starch-free solution to those suffering from intestinal woes among other things. The year began with a determination to lend moral support to my daughter Amy, who has Crohn's disease, by being her Diet Buddy, and ended with the feeling: "This is undoubtedly the right path for my daughter, but I'm not sure if it's the right path for me."

Amy certainly is thriving. She has followed the SCD rigorously for 12 months and has accomplished her goal of getting herself totally off medication. She has put on some needed weight. She loves the food and doesn't crave anything from the old days except occasionally potatoes.... which she has managed to resist. She's overjoyed to be a new mommy once again... has a healthy new baby daughter, and continues to experience renewed health and wellbeing. 

For anyone determined to follow the SCD, there is a great deal of time, energy and change involved... light years of change... requiring ordinary things like ketchup to be made from scratch and a whole new style of baking using strange and costly ingredients like almond flour and honey. Homemade yogurt is one of the keystones of the diet, and must be cultured for 24 hours to assure that all the lactose has been "killed". I have probably spent more time in my kitchen cooking and baking this year than I have in past last 10 years.

But after a few months the SCD becomes your new normal. And my daughter and I got caught up in a mission: experimenting with the SCD legal ingredients and reinventing family favorites and traditional holiday foods. Last month, Turtle Soup... the beginnings of an online cookbook was launched, the product of an overactive creative bent and a desire to share with the SCD community our culinary discoveries.

During the year, while my daughter continued to feel better and better, I noticed improvement in several nagging health issues. My osteoarthritis pain improved, my rosacea improved, and a small anal tear that had annoyed me off and on for years cleared up. Not to mention that chronic case of intestinal gas the size of the state of Michigan... was reduced to more like Rhode Island. Seemed like the SCD was the perfect diet for me!

But it has not been all smooth sailing. Twice, I overdid it with the almond baked goods... almost addictive in their deliciousness, and ended up with a nasty case of gastritis. The first time was last spring and on the advice of my doctor I eliminated almond flour and ventured into the world of gluten-free grains like rice, buckwheat, and sorghum. After a few weeks I was able to return to the SCD, carefully and gradually reintroducing the almond items. 

This past December my tummy troubles returned. I also got the flu and sinusitis. I won't bore you with all the details... they have been thoroughly covered in previous posts... suffice to say, I am once again off almond-flour-anything, and am eating small amounts of grain, in moderation, because I can't imagine living only on meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruit. Yet.

I'm a little sad. I really wanted to be able to be on autopilot and not think about what to eat and what not to eat ever again. But here I am in the place of uncertainty. Trying to ask my body what it needs and then listen... Trying to figure out what's right for me.

In spite of my current state of not knowing, I'm extremely glad to have done this year on the SCD... 

Glad to have learned to cook and bake the SCD way, not only for Amy's sake, but also for the sake of the larger SCD community...

And especially glad for all the wonderful people I've heard from who through the SCD have found a great deal of peace of gut.

"Keep it simple." 

Comments

[Amy McKenna]

Mom, you are great. I am so happy that you were willing to give up bread with me for an entire year! :)

[NJ]

I too cannot tolerate the almond flour. Also the fried cheese is bad. After 6 months on the diet I stopped bleeding.Only eating meat,eggs and applesauce.
I branched out to veggies and more fruit. But had to keep going back to just meat. Finally was feeling better and started the bread again.
Too many veggies and bread did me in. I'm back to meat and eggs again.

[Jenjen]

I couldn't handle the almond flour either, but found that small amounts of other nut flours seemed to be ok -- as long as I didn't overdo it.

[Rory]

Have you tried coconut flour as a partial or whole replacement for the nut flours? Very healthy and also more bulk, less richness.

[Beth]

Haven't tried coconut flour. Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for sharing.