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Question about SCD for anyone on it.

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Crohn's Disease
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JavaJay
Regular Member
Joined : Mar 2009
Posts : 452
Posted Today 6:01 AM (GMT -8)
I have been flaring real bad lately and I no longer know what to do.  I am just about out of options with meds and have been real depressed from this.  One thing I really haven't done is altered my diet.  I am a big guy (overweight) and really love my food.  I am also a trained chef and work in a purchasing dept where I deal mainly with food and beverage.  It is hard for me to leave food...but I have to at least consider the change.

So my question is now, can I really do SCD.  For anyone on this diet already, what are some good websites to help me out with the diet.  I know SCD is a gluten free diet but is it also a sugar free diet?  I don't know a whole lot about it and I am at the point I will try anything to help me get better. 

I would love any advice from anyone on SCD.  Also, for anyone that has done both...which is better, doing a SCD diet or just gluten free.

Thanks everyone in advance for your assistance.  I really can use some encouragement on this right now.

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NiceCupOfTea
Elite Member
Joined : Jan 2010
Posts : 11145
Posted Today 7:16 AM (GMT -8)
I'm not on the SCD diet, but I know what it entails. It's a lot stricter than gluten-free, just so you know. So if more severe is better, then the SCD is 'better' than gluten-free. Here are some links for you:

The 'official' SCD website
Wikipedia article
WebMD article
Recipes
More recipes

The WebMD article takes a sceptical view of the diet, but the other links are neutral or in favour of the SCD.

Before you jump into the SCD, I'd just like to mention one other possibility: an elemental diet. This is where you take your 'food' in pre-digested form, either in the form of drinks or TPN. By pre-digested, I mean that all the major nutrients have been broken down into their simplest form, eg proteins into amino acids. The nutrients get absorbed in the upper part of your small bowel and bypass the rest of your intestines entirely. This gives your bowels a 'rest' from digesting food. The diet itself normally lasts from 4-8 weeks and has a success rate akin to steroids in getting the disease into remission. When you reintroduce solid foods you do so very slowly, one food at a time every 2-3 days.

At any rate, I'm in a similar boat to you when it comes to being out of luck with the meds, so I've agreed with my consultant to give the elemental diet a try. I figure if the elemental diet doesn't work, then the SCD diet won't either. That said, I'm considering reintroducing SCD-only foods to begin with - but that's a few months away.
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JavaJay
Regular Member
Joined : Mar 2009
Posts : 452
Posted Today 8:12 AM (GMT -8)
For someone that loves food...I think a liquid or IV diet is not the way to go for me. I am leaning towards just a gluten free diet with sugar restrictions. I already try to aviod sugar as much as possible but I can always cut out more of it from my diet. If I can tolerate the gluten free and it starts to help, I might transition into SCD.

My only concern is that I brought this up to my doc once and he was against it. He doesn't belive in elmination diets where you take out whole food groups. I actually agree with him but I don't know what else to do. Also, if I do decide to do this..it will probably be against his wishes.
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NiceCupOfTea
Elite Member
Joined : Jan 2010
Posts : 11145
Posted Today 8:25 AM (GMT -8)
The liquid diet is only a temporary thing. Me, I love food too, but for the time-being, thanks to a stricture which won't go away, I'm stuck on a liquid/very low residue diet anyway. From my point of view, I may as well go the whole hog and try the elemental diet. I do appreciate its utter grimness and am not looking forward to it, but if it spared my colon then it would be worth it. (At the moment I can't have the stricture surgically removed without also removing the whole colon.)

I agree with your doc that it's not a good idea to remove entire food groups wholesale. At any rate, as well as a gluten-free diet, you could also experiment with a dairy-free diet (not at the same time).

It's not easy diagnosing food intolerances, especially when it's not even certain you have them. Good luck with whatever diet you decide to try.
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Roni
Veteran Member
Joined : May 2003
Posts : 2481
Posted Today 8:31 AM (GMT -8)
So sorry to hear you're so unwell still, JJ.

I haven't done SCD, but I've looked at it quite a lot over the years.
Here's a list of legal/illegal food that might help you decide.

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/legal/legal_illegal_a-c.htm

I have made the yogurt though, which along with the gluten-free/lactose-free/certain carbs aspect, is also one of the main dietary suggestions.

If you do a google, you should find even more info.
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Nanners
Elite Member
Joined : Apr 2005
Posts : 14999
Posted Today 8:35 AM (GMT -8)
JavaJay have you ever tried doing a low residue diet? Its less restrictive as the others, but is a diet recommended for those flaring. I have followed this diet for years and modified it here and there depending on how my Crohns was behaving. But I have had alot of luck with it. You can google it and get some diet ideas. Just a thought! Hugs!
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JavaJay
Regular Member
Joined : Mar 2009
Posts : 452
Posted Today 8:37 AM (GMT -8)
Thanks Nanners. I hadn't thought of that and thinking about it now it makes more sense to start there.
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kazbern
Veteran Member
Joined : May 2010
Posts : 8384
Posted Today 8:42 AM (GMT -8)
JavaJay, I have not done the SCD, but I did adopt a gluten free diet last year and it was a life-changer for me. I'm sorry your GI is not on board with this plan, but I think his opinion is just that - his opinion. There's nothing wrong with trying something out. You can report back to him (and us) how it worked out for you.

My GI happened to be very supportive of trying a gluten free diet, but my rheumatologist poo-pooed the whole thing. The rheumy did a bunch of bloodwork on me 5 years ago and declared that I was not sensitive to gluten. How surprised he was when I reported at my last visit that my chronic knee pain had finally gone away, about 6 months into a gluten free diet. Going gluten free was intimidating to me, and I'm sure as a chef it will be a challenge to you too. I'm not a chef (but I do prepare a lot of meals for my family) and I was mostly worried about how much more work it was going to be to include this in my meal planning. It hasn't been that bad, although it hasn't been a breeze either.

One thing about gluten intolerance, at least as I see it now, is that I don't have celiac disease and like lactose intolerance, it is not a clear cut zero-sum game. I CAN tolerate a bit of gluten. I've taken bites here and there without any problem. But I do get a clear signal from my belly (usually a day or two after the fact) when I have overstepped.

It may be worthwhile to give a gluten-free diet a good test (3 weeks?). SCD is more restrictive than that and you can always increase restrictions if you want. A scientific approach to a limited diet seems to make the most sense to me. Don't change too many things all at once.
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pmedic
Veteran Member
Joined : Nov 2009
Posts : 1698
Posted Today 9:48 AM (GMT -8)
Send an email to dfdavedf. He is a master at SCD and had a lot of success with it. He also know all the best websites to help in that journey!

Good luck!
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JavaJay
Regular Member
Joined : Mar 2009
Posts : 452
Posted Today 9:53 AM (GMT -8)
Thank you everyone for your responses. I did some internet searching over the past couple of hours. Although the low residue diet is probably to most logical thing to do I am probably going to ease into a gluten free diet for now. SCD is way to restrictive for me at this moment. Breakfast will be a challenge for me but I think I can do a gluten free diet without to many problems. Now I just have to go shopping for a whole bunch of items :)
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NiceCupOfTea
Elite Member
Joined : Jan 2010
Posts : 11145
Posted Today 11:48 AM (GMT -8)
The only thing about a low residue diet is that it isn't equivalent to an exclusion diet, such as gluten-free, dairy-free, or sugar-free. If by chance food intolerances were responsible for your symptoms, the low residue diet wouldn't discover that since in all probability you would still be eating the same foods as before, just in lower residue form. Low residue diets are mostly used in Crohn's for dealing with strictures or acute flare-ups: the blandness of the low residue diet can help to decrease the number of times a day you go to the toilet.

That said, it's still worth a try!
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sparkleplenty
Veteran Member
Joined : Nov 2010
Posts : 601
Posted Today 7:36 PM (GMT -8)
I've been working with a naturopath and over the summer went through an elimination diet. I found it a great way to reset my eating habits. I limit my gluten now, but have it maybe once a week or so, and have eliminated dairy. One of the great things I've learned is to appreciate a whole bunch of new food. I really like quinoa and kasha, and have found it to be easy on my stomach. I also expanded a lot of the veggies I eat. Might help to think of it as an opportunity to explore new things instead of excluding gluten.

There are a couple of books by Frank Lipman, one called Spent in particular, that guide you week by week through an elimination diet. There's lots of suggestions and some food recipes.

Good luck!
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C6H12O6
Regular Member
Joined : Jun 2011
Posts : 107
Posted Today 7:43 PM (GMT -8)
I have been on both gluten free and SCD, and SCD wins hands down. I have been on a strict SCD diet for a little over a week now and these are the changes I have had:

1) NO CRAMPING - and that was coming from cramping almost all the time
2) NO NAUSEA - same as above, had it almost all the time
3) Normal BMs - no diarrhea, ver very few loose-ish stools, and almost all normal BMs!
4) Healthy weight loss - I am about 15lbs overweight because of poor eating habits and steroids, and so far I have lost roughly 4 pounds
5) WAY more energy! I can actually do stuff now! Like go get groceries without collapsing when I get back!

There have been other minor benefits but those are the main ones. I just visited my GI on Tuesday and he is very happy with the results and supports me being on SCD.

Overall, it was super difficult for the first week, because I love wheat products and grains and fast food. But now, I don't crave any of those foods and am starting to crave my fruit smoothies and roasted vegetables. I began about a month ago having two SCD legal meals, and then an illegal meal, to get me on the right track, and then went the full monty after I did that a few weeks. It is a very strict diet - no grains, no sugars, no starches, but in my mind it has been so well worth it. You should give it a try!
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