SCD

A few years ago, when I was pregnant with Austen, my Crohn's flared up violently. My mom found this book about a specific diet and I gave it a try. It worked wonders and I was completely symptom free. Lately my Crohn's has been flaring its ugly head again and I'm done dealing with the constant running to the bathroom, bloating, and pain. I've started the diet again and I already feel better. It's so amazing!

The diet is called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD. It eliminates a LOT of food and what things come down to is that I can really only eat meat, fruits, and vegetables. No candy, chocolate, pastas, starches, or fried foods. I found that the first few weeks are the hardest but after that it's really not that hard to say no to my favourite foods like spaghetti or apple pie. I just need to think about how bad they made me feel and I'm happy to be healthy!

There are such endless possibilities with this diet that after the inital shock of "oh, only meat and veggies?" I have found a lot of recipes that use almond flour. And they're GOOD! I make an almond "bread" and since I can have eggs, I can easily make an egg sandwich. I'm not allowed sugars of any kind (so no syrup!) but honey is the sweetener of choice. Also, I make my own yogurt, as I'm not allowed any other type of milk. Butter is allowed though and so are mostly all fruits and veggies. I make a type of Dutch "boterkoek" with the almond flour and it's delicious! I have a favourite recipe for supper too: porkchops and apples...the apples are prepared with honey, cinnamon, and butter. Sooo good!

With Austen's food sensitivities, he can pretty much eat what I eat (minus the butter and yogurt). Isn't it interesting though that with Austen's pregnancy my Crohn's Disease flared up and with the other 2 kids it didn't? And Austen is the one with food sensitivities (to dairy, wheat, sesame, cranberries, and spelt). Interesting....or shall I say: food for thought...

(For more about this Specific Carbohydrate Diet, click here.)