As I've mentioned before, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis a few years ago. The lucky ones take a few pills and pop into remission for long periods of time. I, however, have tried most of the treatments currently available and have yet to achieve remission. Unfortunately, I've been sicker than ever since my 2nd baby arrived this past summer.
Having spoken with my doctor and declared the most recently tried treatment (Remicade) a failure last week, I decided to sieze the gap before we try the next one (Entyvio) to give the
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) a chance. This diet was developed a long time ago, but is popular today in several forms (
GAPS) and has a lot in common with the Paleo Diet (and Paleo AIP). The basic idea of the diet is to eliminate all bad starches and sugars from your diet, slowly changing the population of bacteria in your gut and allowing the lining of your intestine to heal by stopping exposure to irritants and by maximizing nutrition. Everything needs to be homemade or from a carefully verified source, and it's a very overwhelming commitment - a lot of work! And what about restaurants, or going on vacation?? (Note: I've been sick enough that vacation isn't an option, so that's not really a reason not to try it)
I've been interested in trying this medication-free approach to healing since I was first diagnosed 3 years ago, but was worried about the implications of the "Intro" phase on my pregnant and/or nursing body - how would I possibly get the required calories? And would
toxins released during the "die-off" of bad bacteria cross the placenta? So I waited. I finally stopped providing nutrition to another human being this past September, but since I was trying out new drug therapies (Humira and then Remicade) I didn't want to add another factor to the mix so I postponed trying the diet. If I had done the diet AND the drugs, how would I know which one had worked? The drugs, when they work, are very long term and many people can't restart them once stopping (they develop an allergy), so I would have been stuck in an awkward situation with continuous nagging in the back of my mind saying, "Maybe you don't need this medicine..." I figured it was better to keep the factors separate so that I could have a better idea of what contributed to any improvement in my condition. But now I've run out of excuses, and patience! Time to give the diet a chance, even if only for a week or two.
The Intro phase is basically homemade broth, lean plain meat, and pureed carrots for about 5 days. After that, you can add in fats and cooked vegetables one at a time, then cooked fruits one at a time, before moving on to incorporating raw foods, homemade yogurt, natural cheeses, and nuts and seeds. Some people eat yogurt and eggs from the very beginning, but if a sensitivity is suspected then it's best to wait. The goal of the Intro diet is to kick start the "die-off" of bad bacteria and yeast, which unfortunately causes many people to feel sick for a day or two as the organisms fight for their lives, but once they're gone your gut can begin the slow process of healing. After a year or two (the general recommendation is at least 2 years) one can start reintroducing other foods, such as chocolate, potatoes, and bread, to see how they are tolerated. If all goes well, one can then eat "normally" again, though it is recommended that one not fall back into the typical "western" diet, since many think that leads to developing a "leaky gut" in the first place.
I finally took the plunge and started the Intro diet this past Saturday, December 27th. I cried a lot the first day, I was so food frustrated! Everyone around me was (and still is) eating leftover christmas cookies and ham, and I was eating a plain hamburger patty and a mug of chicken broth for breakfast, and again for lunch (I wasn't in my own house that day, so I was limited to the food I had brought with me in preparation). Dinner was a little bit better (at least some variety) with some plain white fish and pureed carrots, with homemade grape juice jello for dessert. Woo. Hoo. Bleh.
I've had stove, oven, and crockpot running non-stop (luckily mostly hands off simmering-type things) since I returned home on Saturday, trying to add some variety to my choices. I've made jello, chicken, turkey breast, lamb, fish, carrots, and
turkey sausage, plus a few different broths/stocks. It's a lot of meat... but at least it's variety. And LOTS OF SALT AND PEPPER, otherwise I would lose my mind from the blandness! I cheated (or did I? The instructions are a little vague) and added some thyme to the turkey sausage, but just a little. Finally a breakfast-ish food!
These have been my meals so far, in case anyone out there searching the internet is looking for starter ideas:
Day 1
Breakfast: Ground beef patty, mug of chicken stock, tears
Lunch: More of the same
Dinner: Flounder, pureed boiled carrots (ended up mixing together like a soup with lots of salt and pepper, tasted surprisingly good), grape juice jello (not so great), cup of 1/2 grape juice 1/2 water
Day 2
Breakfast: Diluted grape juice, ground beef patty with grape jello as a sauce (strange, but I saw a suggestion for that at
scdlifestyle.com)
Lunch: Leftover Flounder with pureed boiled carrots (my 2 year old stole this from me and loved it! How unexpected! She wanted me to eat her rice and beans...)
Dinner: Soup made out of chicken stock, pureed carrots, and crockpot roasted chicken breast
Day 3 (today)
Breakfast: Diluted grape juice, small bowl of pureed carrots, mug of chicken stock, turkey sausage
Lunch: Soup of lamb broth, shredded boiled lamb, pureed carrots
I'm hungry, but I'm so used to starving myself in preparation for trips out of the house that I'm kind of used to it. I could eat much more than I have been, but ugh, i just don't want any of the available choices. So far I don't feel like I'm experiencing any "die-off" symptoms, and my insides have definitely improved... though that's possibly from eating hardly anything. I don't want anyone to be caught saying "TMI! TMI!" but I have been dealing with urgent bathroom trips an average of 10 times per day recently (as high as 25 earlier this fall!) and at all hours of the day and night, so yesterday's 4 which were all between 5 and 10 am was fantastic by comparison. Today has been similar to yesterday so far. If this continues I might be able to leave the house without anxiety in the near future!
My plan:
If I continue to feel ok, I may reintroduce my multivitamin tomorrow morning, and then calcium the next day. After that I think the next thing I'll add is eggs - I've been avoiding eggs for a very long time now because of a suspected intolerance, but allergy testing had no reaction. It'd be really nice to be able to have sausage and eggs for breakfast... and to determine whether I have an egg intolerance or not. I'm supposed to start Entyvio sometime in the next couple of weeks, but that may depend on what kind of changes I'm experiencing in my symptoms due to the new diet. I should also note that I've been on Prednisone and/or Prednisolone for over a year now, and am working determinedly to get off of it, tapering very slowly at 2.5 mg per week. I did not taper this week while beginning the new diet, because I didn't want to go through withdrawal and die-off at the same time! And again, I'm making an effort to isolate factors.
I'd kill for a cookie right about now.
