Hello.
After two years and eight months on a strictly gluten free diet with some improvements but still not well I decided to explore the SCD. I was also dairy free for 99% of that time. I restricted nightshades. I avoided all processed goods and since I cook for myself in a gluten free kitchen I knew it was not a matter of cross contamination.
A little background, I have known for many years wheat - bread in particular, was a problem for me and generally avoided it but I did not understand about gluten. There is Celiac in my family, two sisters and two brothers, two of whom were diagnosed through endoscopy. About three years ago my digestive system collapsed and I lost 40 pounds in a few months. I had a number of tests and finally spoke with a gastro about Celiac, strangely I knew my sister had been diagnosed with IBS but didn't know about the Celiac until I was ill. It was at this time that my brothers and sister were ill also.
Last fall I accepted that I couldn't eat grains of any kind, all the gluten free baking made me feel as if I had swallowed crush glass and I was avoiding it also, a bell went off, avoiding wheat - problem, avoiding grains - problem.
What astonished me most when I finally started looking at the SCD was that it was the diet prescribed for Celiacs from the 1920's to the 1950's with great success. It was only after the WWII that a diet simply cutting out gluten was put forward as a diet for Celiacs, this was based on observations that with the flour shortages of the war many had improved. Unfortunately this diet only works for about 80% of Celiacs and the other 20% (I am basing these figures on a couple of studies I have come across and they are not to be taken as the final word.) do not heal. These people are diagnosed with Refractory Sprue, villi that do not heal with the gluten free diet.
The SCD is based on science, Elaine Gottschall encountered this diet through Dr.Haas and found that it worked for her child, she later went to university to study the why of it. Very simply, bad bacteria have been able to multiply in the gut causing problems, limiting the starches that feed this bacteria cause a die off, with a die off the gut can heal.
The diet is challenging but the baking is so much more delicious than any rice/amaranth/etc. flour treats that it more than makes up for it for me. It is basically: meat, fish, eggs, nuts, most vegetables, most fruit, cheeses and SCD yogurt. I have learned that I still can't tolerate cheese, a little goat yogurt is fine though.
Since being on this diet I am seeing real improvements, it offers genuine hope for those of us who don't heal by going gluten free.
Sorry, I think I started this in the wrong place.
