The Curry Hurries

Today's update comes to you courtesy of my love for all things curry.

Last week, I wrote a post about fructose malabsorption (FM), and the possibility that, because of FM, my love of SCD-legal sweet treats may be complicating or slowing my recovery. This is the first update on my FM experiment since I started minding my fructose, last Thursday (9/16/10). You should know that, at this point in my healing journey with the SCD, my bowels have settled to a range of 1-3 BM/day, depending on what I eat. They are normally 5 or 6 on the Bristol Stool Scale. 

I'll outline recent events briefly below.

Morning, Day One: 

Do my usual morning stagger to the kitchen; lustfully look at the big bowl of green Granny Smith apples (I'll take three, thanks) on our kitchen table and wonder, What the hell am I going to put in my yogurt this morning? I listen to the Siren-song of the honey in our cabinet (Tie me to the mast!), and grab the yogurt from the fridge. Ah! Bananas! I add bananas to the yogurt, scramble eggs with cheddar. Surprisingly, the yogurt wasn't bad w/o honey, vanilla, and apple (my norm. I don't like plain yogurt--too tart). Grab my low-fructose lunch, and head out the door for work.

Summary gut-wellness for the day? Not too much difference. Maybe--maybe less gurgly throughout the day.

Morning, Day Two: 

Stagger to kitchen for my low-fructose breakfast. Less desire for honey, but the apples are still there. Won't someone eat those things? Grab my low-fructose lunch, and out the door for work. On my way to work, I had the constant feeling something was missing. Get to work. Ah, my (always, always at 6 am) morning BM! Where did it go? 10am. Ah, there you are. There was less gas, less gurgle with my morning BM; same story with my evening BM; no change in form, still semi-solid.

Summary Gut-wellness for day two? Noticeably less gurgle. Lots less gas. No change in form.

Summary Gut-wellness for days 3 & 4: Bowels very quiet. Very little gas, no gurgle. Only one BM, morning, both days. Hmm? Is victory looming?

That brings us to Monday—specifically Monday night. My wife, my primary caregiver, cooked a wonderful SCD-legal version of this Curried Carrot Soup from the Food Network. It was fantastic! The soup was so good, I ate my bowl, and both my children's helpings too. I wanted to go back for more, but if I did, there would be none left for lunch. Fiddle sticks. What else can I have to eat? How about some apples? D’oh!...

She substituted SCD yogurt instead of sour cream, SCD chicken stock we had in the freezer, and an SCD-legal curry powder that I had made some months ago… At least I thought she used the SCD curry mix. Why wouldn't she? We've been doing the diet for 15 months... D'oh! (again) Even old hands make mistakes. I normally tolerate home-made, SCD-friendly curry just fine, so long as it isn't too strong (and this was just right).

That night, I felt a great fire begin to grow in my belly. I could feel the entire length of my intestine begin to ball its fists and compose me a howler. So, like a good chronically ill person, I curled up in bed, ignored it, and went to sleep. The next morning, the curry paid me back for that avoidance. I call it the Curry Hurries. I went four times on Tuesday, and am still recovering today.

There are two morals to this story:

1. Be very, very careful not to let illegal foods slip into your SCD lifestyle. I'm living proof of the setbacks they can give you, even after over a year on the diet.
2. We'll have to wait until things settle down to resume reporting on the FM experiment. In the meantime, maybe I can have a few apples.

Onward to Health

Honey, You're No Longer My Honey

   Today is a follow-up to my last post-slash-rant about my frustrations with the SCD. My symptoms have seemed to plateau recently. Although I still consider myself 90-ish percent healed, I’m impatient, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel makes me want to run there faster than my body will go.

   The conversation I outlined in my last post really happened, and is really still happening. For about 36 hours I ate only these SCD-legal, SCD-prepared foods:

• Chicken
• Eggs
• Cooked carrots
• Yogurt
• Beef
• Small amount of Swiss cheese (because I can’t stand plain beef)

   Before I start, I should point out that I stopped tracking, in detail, my daily food intake, and I stopped filling in my symptom charts about six months into the diet. After about six weeks of recording food and seeing no real changes for the worse in my symptoms, I got lazy. I know! I know! Practice what you preach; track your stuff and maybe figuring this out would be easier…see my posts on tracking diet and tracking symptoms. My dad used to say to me, “Do what I say, not what I do.” I’m a work in progress.

   The above food list is not exactly the beginning diet (pretty close), but it was all I could muster, and I did it for as long as I could stand it. See, I’ve had suspicions that certain SCD-legal foods have deleterious effects for me, but as of yet I haven’t been able to pinpoint what it could be.

   Let me give you an example. I love apples. If I were still eight years old, someone would tell me that if I ate any more apples I might turn into one. I have eaten cooked, peeled apples fairly regularly since about the 2^nd or 3^rd month of the diet. But what I really crave is the cool, crisp crunch of a REAL apple—none of this soft, mushy, tell-myself-it’s-just-as-yummy crap. So, I added them into my diet about four months ago with success (yea!). I limited myself to one per day. I noticed that on days I ate crisp, raw, juicy, gorgeous apples (peeled of course) my gut seemed happier…And then one day my gut wasn’t happy. To my knowledge nothing else had changed. I ate two apples—still not happy. I ate three apples. S**t.

   Such has been life now for about three months. I have had the same experience with other foods too, and I eat SCD-friendly fruit pretty freely. All the while I keep hearing my wife’s voice, “Maybe it’s not something you can figure out; maybe it’s not something you can control.” Control. Why did I ever allow her to know me so well?

   If I could have a nickname that described me, it would be control. However, since no one has yet given me that nickname, and since I’m not willing to hand my colon to fate just yet, onward I press, to figure out why my stools have loosened (more) over the past two months, why my gut seems to be as disgruntled as department of motor vehicles worker.

   I have to say, I didn’t know where to start until I read about fructose malabsorption from the guys at SCD Lifestyle. See their post here. The idea is that there is only so much fructose that a person can absorb in one go, and the rest is fermented by colonic bacteria or excreted. This fermentation might just cause some extra gas and soften the stool in a gut-normal person; however, in those of us with injured colons it spells trouble. Those sort of fun, fermentable foods are just what the SCD tries to avoid—it’s anathema to the SCD as a treatment for IBD.

   Ding! Now there’s an idea! So I did a little research and some consumption reflection.

   The one food that has been ubiquitous in my SCD adventure, my one constant companion, my counselor when others are eating chocolate—the one food that has greeted me in the morning, and tucked me in at night has been (wait for it…) HONEY.

   It turns out that the symptoms of fructose malabsorption (FM) are similar to what I’ve been feeling. It also turns out that there are dietary guidelines for people with FM, and that reducing fructose intake has demonstrated positive effects in people with IBD. Hmmm?

   Do you know which, of all the SCD-friendly foods, has the highest fructose content? You got it—HONEY.  Honey has a fructose content of 40.9g fructose/100g honey, while one serving of apple has only 5.9 g fructose/100g apple. I eat a lot of honey. See my post on handling cravings for a good example.

   It could be that as I got better and better, and as I ate more and more (in quantity and variety) fruit, that I crossed the threshold of absorbable fructose, how much my body could process, and now the leftover is feeding the bad bacteria in my colon. Maybe that's what has kept me from reaching the end of the tunnel. S**t again.

   So I’m going to try it. I’m going to cut out the honey for a week (to start), cut my fruit consumption to two pieces a day, and make sure that I eat only the FM recommended fruits and veggies. I’ll keep you posted.

   Below is my list of SCD-friendly, FM friendly foods to which I’ll stick, according to the FM guidelines. This list is not exhaustive, but is nuianced towards the fruits and veggies I like and eat regularly.

Unfavorable:

Artichokes

Asparagus

Onions

Apple (sad)

Pear

Green or honeydew melon

Watermelon

Raisins

HONEY (so sad)

Red Ripe Tomato

Favorable:

Apricots

Peaches (peeled)

Blueberries

Strawberries (caution b/c seeds)

Lemon

Lime

Oranges of all types

Ripe banana

Pineapple

Onward to Health.

Treatment: Vitamin E Enema for Colitis

Here is the procedure for Vitamin E treatment enemas that I alluded to in this post. I've cleaned it up a bit, but when I refer to the 'author', I'm referring to the original author, not me.

Thanks to New Treatments.org for this post.

Vitamin E* Enemas for Colitis

• Buy a small size enema bulb about 4 inches long. A bulb end ear syringe is fine.
• Day 1 -start by empting 2 capsules of vitamin E into 2 tablespoons of filtered water  800 IU total. Do this by sticking a pin into a capsule and squeeze out the contents. Suck up the mixture (it's oil, and does not dissolve in the water). The author used a small tapered wine glass. Retain the mixture.
• On the second day empty 4 capsules and repeat the same procedure.
• On the third day, empty 6 capsules and repeat the same procedure.
• On the 4th day empty 8 capsules repeat. Authors note:  Up to this point I received no visible results.
• On the 5th day, empty 10 capsules that's 4000 IU of vitamin E.
• Continue to increase the dose by 2 capsules (800 IU) per day until you see positive results. This is your effective therapeutic dose.
• Continue the enema at the effective therapeutic dose for 30-90 days. You'll have to experiment here. If you begin reducing your dose at 30 days, and your symptoms return, then raise the dose again for another 30 days and experiment again. Keep this up until you can come off the enemas without your symptoms returning

Lie on your side with your knees drawn up to your belly, and insert the lubricated enema bulb gently. Take the enema after a bowel movement. Morning and evening are good times to do this. Continue to lie on your side 10-15 minutes to give the enema a chance to circulate through out the colon.

The writer of this procedure had this to say, once he got to the fifth day: The following morning was the first time I saw stool form since I could remember. No blood. Controlled bowel movements. [snip]

I had to repeat this every day for a long time or on the 2nd day the gut would revert to its old habits. No side effects. If at first you lose some material, don't worry you will get enough of the vitamin E to work...I finally increased the dose by 2 capsules a day until I reached 20 capsules. 

*Use the natural form of Vitamin E  (d-alpha tocopherol acetate) and not the synthetic dl-alpha tocopheryl. Studies have associated nasty health effects with the synthetic form of Vitamin E.

Onward to Health.

Short-shorts: Imodium (Loperamide) and IBD

Cartoon: www.erstories.net

Imodium (also here) is a popular and (for most) safe drug for relieving symptoms of diarrhea. For people (like me), with IBD, it is not safe. Loperamide slows peristalsis, the natural muscular contractions of the intestine. Peristalsis, this rhythmic movement of the intestine, is what keeps food and waste moving through your gut. Slow down gut motility in people with inflammation, and you can get gas (and fluid, but gas is the biggest problem of the two) build up.

So what? I retain a little gas; at least I’m not running to the bathroom as much. What’s the big deal?

The big deal about the gas (and fluid) build up is that it essentially gets trapped and creates pressure on the already damaged intestinal wall. This increases your risk for toxic megacolon (or here), and resulting sepsis. Toxic megacolon can develop quickly (less than a day), and if it’s not treated immediately (surgery), it will kill you—so don’t mess with it.

When I researched this topic, I found a surprising majority of sites advocating the (responsible?) use of loperamide with IBD. Don't do it. Some people take Imodium under the direction of their doctor. Knowing what I know about the risks, if my doctor told me to take Imodium, I’d have serious questions for him/her.

So, what do I do about all this D, smart guy?

There are natural treatments for diarrhea. See my post on natural diarrheal remedies. Remember, the idea is to get rid of the entire disease, to heal the root problem, not mask the symptoms. Until you take care of the problem, some diarrhea will be a fact of life for those of us with IBD.

Onward to Health.

Natural Anti-diarrheals for IBD

Most natural diarrhea remedies you find on the web do not apply to folks with IBD. They assume your diarrhea is caused by something that 'will pass' with time. i.e., they assume if you can manage the symptoms, kill the infectious agent, and/or stay hydrated for a few days, then you'll be fine--Not so with IBD.

In IBD, your diarrhea is most likely due to one or a combination of the following:

Damaged Intestinal Wall- Damage to the intestinal epithelium impairs, for example, the ability of your large intestine to transport water and salts, causing fluid to accumulate in the colon. Damage caused by inflammation results in poor absorption and digestion of food, which increases transit time in the gut, adding to your diarrhea.

Food Intolerance- Although there are few actual food allergies, there are lots of food intolerances, especially in people with IBD. The only way to know if you have an intolerance to a specific food is to track your diet, and track your symptoms, to see which foods exacerbate your symptoms. (See my posts on diet tracking, and symptom tracking) Of course the first and best diet-related step you can do is to start the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).

Prescription Drug Use- Some of the drugs that allopathic doctors prescribe have diarrhea as a 'side effect'. Asacol is an example of one such drug. Curious that we take a medicine that gives us diarrhea to get rid of inflammation that causes diarrhea...

Natural Diarrhea Remedies
Most natural remedies just won't work for those of us with IBD. For example, a crushed clove of garlic may work for mild food poisoning in people with a normal gut, but for people with IBD, raw garlic can often cause massive D and exacerbate other symptoms. I've compiled the list below of IBD-friendly natural treatments for diarrhea. Keep in mind that the goal is to heal the root cause, not mask the symptoms, so while these treatments will decrease the severity of your diarrhea, they should be used in conjunction with a comprehensive natural IBD healing program such as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, natural healing protocols from Listen to Your Gut, or treatments that your naturopathic physician has given you.

Below are a few natural treatments you can try that will help alleviate diarrhea. There are oodles of these out there, but I've only listed the remedies that I have either tried myself, or I've seen from multiple, trusted sources. I've labeled the remedies that are SCD friendly.

L-Glutamine- (SCD Friendly) L-Glutamine, on an empty stomach has a soothing and rebuilding effect on the inner lining of the intestine. Take anywhere from 1-5 grams of free-form L-Glutamine powder (no additives, no mixes, nothing but L-Glutamine) in divided doses throughout the day. This works best if you take the amino acid on an empty stomach. Start slowly (dosages are usu. 1/4 tsp) with one dose/day, and build from there until your diarrhea is under control.

Probiotics- (SCD Friendly) Probiotic therapy has been shown in placebo controlled, double-blind studies to be effective in alleviating the clinical manifestations of Colitis, and thus will decrease your diarrhea. The key with probiotics (and with any natural treatment for IBD, really) is to start slowly. While tracking your symptoms and diet, begin with 1/4 tsp/day, and slowly build to a therapeutic dose of 8-12 Billion CFU (Colony Forming Units). I"ve taken doses as high as 40 billion CFU. Keep increasing the dose until you notice your symptoms are improving.
You should use a probiotic that guarantees potency, is sealed in glass, and comes cold (to ensure that you are ingesting live bacteria). Avoid any product that doesn't list the serving size and CFU per serving on the label. See this post on probiotics, and this one on the probiotic retention enema. Jini Patel Thompson has some of the most detailed work on probiotics for IBD that I've seen. I highly recommend reading her book, Listen to Your Gut, for more information on probiotic (and other) treatments for IBD.

Bentonite Clay- (Not SCD Friendly) Bentonite clay is gray-ish colored and does not taste. It provides a 'filler' for the gut. By absorbing excess water and fluids, it is a good detoxification agent for the gut. The active ingredient is montmorillonite. Do not take Bentonite clay in conjunction with probiotics, as it also removes bacteria from the gut (i.e., the probiotics you just swallowed). Again, start small and note the effects. I'd start with 1/2 tsp/day and work up from there SLOWLY until you reach the desired effect.

Onward to Health.

Probiotic Retention Enema

Caution: When I first tried probiotics, 9 months ago, a small amount (10% of a therapeutic dose) caused me extreme D, fever, abdominal pain, chills, and uncontrollable shaking. TAKE IT SLOWLY. I suggest not trying probiotics until at least three months after you've started the SCD. I slowly increased my dosage over a 6 month period, 1/4 tsp every two weeks, sometimes less. It's very likely that probiotic therapy will work for you, but you have to introduce them slowly.

I've had the book Listen to your Gut, for 11 months now, and am slowly trying Jini Patel Thompson's suggestions (the one's that are SCD or mostly friendly) along with the SCD. Her book is reviewed on my reading list.

For the last two weeks I have been trying her Wild Oregano Protocol. Wild Oregano is a natural antibiotic and anti-fungal. Her protocol is a mix of natural antibiotic and probiotic therapies to rid your system of over infestations of yeast, and to shift the bacterial ecology of your gut.

Yesterday, I tried her probiotic retention enema, after a particularly bad gut day (I must have eaten something that really irritated my system). I took the enema at 1:30p after a BM (so my system was cleared out), but didn't bother with the warm water enemas she suggests (given the amount of liquid D I had, my system was pretty clean already) as they most likely just cleanse the lower colon. I had no trouble retaining the mixture for the full 2 hours, but experienced one bout of liquid D that evening (some Herxhimer reaction, no doubt), and my mood darkened significantly. I became tired and irritable.

This morning I woke up and didn't have the urge to go. That was enjoyable. My mood today has been light and fun. This afternoon, 24 hours after the enema, I had my first completely normal, formed, slow and pleasurable poo in 19 months*. --Thanks Jini. Read another probiotic retention enema success story from the Crohn's Boy blog here.

The probiotics I take from Natren are not SCD friendly, per se. My theory is that the probiotic bacteria will use the non-SCD friendly medium you ingest as food. They should consume it all, so that it won't interfere with the SCD. The Healing Crow (great SCD learning on that site) confirmed this for me with an email from Elaine Gottschall, herself--read it here. That said, the benefits of proven, probiotic therapy in conjunction with the SCD likely outweigh the small amount of non-SCD legal substance in the growing medium.

*The SCD has made a dramatic improvement in my health. It has taken me down from 8-24 trips to the bathroom to 1-2 trips per day. I've regained my energy and stamina, but my system is still, after almost a year on the SCD, not totally normal. My stools are loose, and my colon is still sensitive, indicating that I still have some inflammation. Some people, like me, will need to combine therapies with the SCD to reach full healing.

Onward to Health.

Short Shorts: Anti-Mycrobial Therapy

I know I'm supposed to be talking about the SCD, but I can't help myself. There are oodles of treatments under trial and in use out there. It's good to know what they are. Here's one to think about.

• There is controversy over Antimycobacterial therapies and their efficacy in patients with IBD (get an idea of the differing opinions here and here...and here). These therapies (if they can be proven to work) hold the most promise for those with Crohn's. I think if someone can isolate an antibiotic therapy for Crohn's, then doctors may begin see Crohn's (and maybe Colitis too) as an infectious condition rather than a life-long disease. It may also help to restrain overuse of antibiotics, which may be a causative factor in Crohn's and Colitis.

Check it out.

Probiotics Part 1

"What about Probiotics? Can I take them on the SCD?"

I have two initial thoughts for this post, and I welcome input. This issue is far from resolved...
1. The SCD does include probiotic suplementation, per se, in the yogurt. It's slow, and gentle. But here's the rub, you can't get a therapeutic dose of probiotics by eating yogurt (unless you want to measure your daily consumption in litres of yogurt, yuck!).

2. Therapeutic doses of probiotics (8-10+ Billion CFU) have been shown in credible studies to provide clinical relief of symptoms, and to help induce 'remission'. If the underlying premise of the SCD is to shift, or change the digestive flora to a more healthy balance, then wouldn't probiotic supplementation make sense with the SCD. The short answer is, yes...But. But there are no SCD friendly probiotics on the market, which means, if you are going to take them, you are necessarily going to have to ingest 'illegal' (for the SCD) substances, such as whey, garbanzo bean extract, milk, cellulose, etc. By far the most SCD-friendly way to take probiotics is to take a single species, Lactobacillus, in a dairy form. When you consume the bugs, they will in turn consume any lactose in the milk medium. I use Natren probiotics. So, what to do, what to do...


It's a cost benefit, deciding to take supplemental probiotics or not. If you take 10 Billion CFU/Day, you might ingest 5 grams of milk powder, or whey, for example. So the question becomes, Will those 5 grams of illegal substance hurt me more than the Probiotic will help me? Probiotics come in a medium. That is, the lab sends the little bacteria in a medium (such as potato powder) that the bacteria can use as food. Likeliness is that those bacteria, when activated in the gut will consume the majority of the powder medium on their way to health and freedom, but it's unclear to me how much of the ingested medium is consumed by the probiotic bacteria, or how much would be left to the 'bad' bacteria in the gut. That's the issue. The best way to take probiotics and stay SCD is to take SCD-legal species in a dairy medium.

Bottom Line: I take probiotics. In my mind, 5g of milk powder is nothing compared to the benefits of the bacteria. Only time will tell I guess.

More on Probiotics to come.

Onward to Health.

The Diet part 1, ABC's of the SCD

I've outlined, blog-length, the theory behind the SCD, and some steps to getting started. Now I'd like to pause here, and take a look at some of the details of the diet.

If you haven't already, get a copy of the book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle. It describes the diet in much more detail than I could in a blog. That said, I decided to outline the diet here, because I wasn't completely satisfied with the organization of the information in the book. So let's get started...my way.
Remember the principles:
1. Intake nothing that will feed the 'harmful' bacteria; sugars that will remain partially undigested when they get to the colon.
2. Focus on what you CAN eat, not what you can't. It'll help your attitude.
3. Here are broad categories of what you can eat:

--Lean meat
Watch for additives. Stay away from things 'enhanced' with things like broth, natural flavors, etc. Even organic meats can have this. In the ingredients, you want the label to say, just 'chicken' or 'cod' or whatever meat you're buying.

--Aged Cheese
Block cheeses aged more than 6 months have negligible lactose content.

SCD friendly Yogurt
What's this? It's homemade, fermented for 24+ hours to get rid of the lactose. The link below has instructions, but to be honest, they weren't detailed enough for me, so I will post my own soon. Look for them.

--Most vegetables
Refer to the list I linked below. I had to cook all of my vegetables for 4 months before I could start eating raw, for example, lettuce. Steaming vegetables may lose some of the phytochemicals, but most of the vitamins remain intact, and it breaks down the fiber matrix, making it easier for your injured digestive system to handle.

--Most fruits
Same with the fruits. I had to cook them for about 3 months (vegetables were harder for me) before I could eat raw. Stay away from fruits with seeds (berries are a good example) until all your symptoms have been gone for at least 3 months. Stay away from fruits with lots of insoluble fiber, it's hard on your injured system. So, peel your apples, your pears, even your grapes; those skins represent the insoluble fiber I'm referring to. A note on canned fruit: It's nearly impossible to find canned fruit that's in it's own juice (which is what you want), where that juice is not from concentrate. Concentrated juice is a no-no because when companies reconstitute they often add sugar. Just be careful with canned fruit and the quantity of fruit in general. There's a lot of sugar in fruit...

--Undoctored nuts
I love Trader's Joe's 'raw' nuts, undoctored. You can do nut butter too, but NO ADDITIVES. Ingredients: nut, salt. Anything else in it? Don't buy it. Remember, fudging a little, can set you back.

--Honey as your ONLY sweetener
Your ONLY sweetener. ONLY...ONLY honey.

--Real butter
No spreads, no additives, no, no.

--Olive Oil and a couple of other select oils)
Refer to the list below for 'legal' oils.

Here is a more detailed list of 'legal' and 'illegal' foods

My suggestion? Print the list and put it on your fridge. Consult it each time you cook or go to put something in your mouth. But remember, just because something is legal, doesn't mean you can handle it. My mistake was eating LARGE quantities of whatever legal food was on the list. BIG mistake. It kept me sicker longer. I became bewildered at my system, and frustrated. Don't follow my footsteps here. Track your symptoms, track what you eat daily (we'll get to that tomorrow). It's the only way. Elaine, in her book, outlines the first few weeks on the diet. I will try and do the same as it relates to my experience.

Onward to health.

The ABC's of the SCD, II

The short-short version of the theory, or basic etiology of UC and/or Chron's: (this does not take the place of reading Elaine's book, 'Breaking the Vicious Cycle', which contains much more detail. I recommend also delving into the medical literature. You'll be surprised what you find!

In those genetically predisposed, a major disruption to the bacterial flora balance in the gut happens (how many disruptions or how severe the disruption needed to produce permanent inflamation, ie chron's or colitis, is unknown). This could be from antibiotics, illness, etc. This distruption or series of disruptions causes a negative shift in the composition of the bacterial flora in the gut. This shift away from an ecosystem dominated by a suite of bacteria whose life cycles and respiration byproducts are well tolerated to an ecosystem dominated by bacteria (or bacteria and increased yeast) whose life cycles and respiration byproducts are not well tolerated is the most plausable theory I've come across. This 'new' composition of bacteria in the gut, their lifecycles and respiration byproducts are what trigger the epithelial immune system, and cause the inflamation. The SCD is essentially a natural version of the elemental diet, and proports many of the same effects (though it's not a substitute for the elemental diet, for obvious reasons). It allows no food which would feed the harmful bacteria and facilitates a positive shift in the floral composition of the gut; thus, reducing or in many cases eliminating the inflammation. If this theory is correct (it has proven so in my gut, at least), then we could consider UC and Chron's, not a disease, but a condition which, like mild diabetes, can be treated with diet and lifestyle changes. What a shift in thinking that would be!

The ABCs of the SCD

One of my biggest complaints about the SCD, is that it wasn't laid out for me logically. It wasn't intuitive. So all of the posts under this title, I will attempt to lay out the diet in a fashion that is, I feel, logical and intuitive.

So stay tuned later this week for the first of what I hope to be a series of detailed posts about living on, and following the SCD.