Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

[Moonmobile]

Is anybody else on the forum trying the Specific Carbohydrate Diet?  If so I would love to link up! I'm not hugely strict about it - eg I will eat rice and potatos and organic cocoa powder - but stick to pretty much the rest of it.

See here for info if you are curious http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/specific_carb.htm

Clare

[tarosuma]

Hi Clare
I hope you are having some success with the specific carb diet - it looks really interesting.  I hope you find someone else to link up with too, it always make it so much easier having somebody to bounce ideas off.
I am not following that diet as such but the way I eat seems to be very similar.  I eat in a primal/paleo style so for me it is no grains at all, no sugars or sweeteners of any kind (except stevia which is my 'cheat' sometimes), no potatoes or starchies, no dairy (I do relax on this sometimes to include homemade kefir from unpasteurised milk and I also use ghee now)    Just real, whole food basically. The kind of food you would eat if you have to forage for it or hunt it yourself.  Meat, vegies, fruit, eggs, nuts - that's pretty much it.
I feel great eating this way - my moods are much improved, as is my sleep and my body shape. I do find it a bit depressing sometimes when I look at all the fantastic recipes on this forum though!  I still have a bit of fun with the healthy ones making them for my family who eat only whole foods but not strictly paleo/primal.

[cottchick]

Like you tarosuma I do the primal thing too (a la Mark Sisson) although lately I have been doing the Dukan diet. It actually fits in very well with the primal thing although there is only minute tiny quantities of fat and I have been eating low fat yoghurt which isn't at all primal!

I like the look of this car specific diet you're doing, Moonmobile. It looks a bit similar to mine in that there are no grains or sugar. I satisfy my craving for chocolate fudge etc here on the forum by making it for the rest of the family (sometimes I can't help myself and of course licking the TM bowl doesn't count, does it?!).
 
I find for me I will make things like meatloaf, casseroles, the red curry paste etc. You might be able to have fun with some green smoothies and the yoghurt lassies (can't remember if you can have yoghurt or not).

I also make loads of bread and just don't eat it, I just love making it! Oh and I just bought a leg of ham (just for home) and am right now scouring the forum for nice glazes. sorry not to be more help but good luck with it!

cottchick

[tarosuma]

Like you tarosuma I do the primal thing too (a la Mark Sisson)

Yep, me too!  I was kinda Weston Price but with low grains before this so it hasn't been that drastic a change for me.  My willpower has been a bit lacking lately though with making yummy things for the family for xmas.  Very healthy still but not primal.  And licking the bowl is just the beginning for me I'm afraid!  Oh well, there is always a new year fresh start!

Would love to swap primal recipes with you if you have any goodies!  Or specific carb recipes which must be pretty close......

[quirkycooking]

I have a friend on the SCD diet (who doesn't have a tmx - yet!) - she came over the other day, and I made my flourless pecan cake for her - she uses honey instead of sugar, so I changed it from 60g rapadura to 50g honey, and changed the arrowroot powder to potato starch (wasn't sure if she could have arrowroot), and the baking powder to 1/3 tsp soda + 2/3 tsp cream of tartar.  It was nice and moist.  What a challenging diet you guys have!  I won't complain about mine anymore!!  (Dairy free, no wheat - low gluten, no refined sugars.)

[tarosuma]

  What a challenging diet you guys have!  I won't complain about mine anymore!!  (Dairy free, no wheat - low gluten, no refined sugars.)

I don't complain about mine too much either because it isn't a catastrophe if I deviate a little every now and then - I don't have any allergies as such, my body just works better if I fuel it with that kind of food.  But being the stubborn person that I am, I do usually tend to go all out on things, including the way I eat.  Well, except at this time of year when I struggle.  Mind you, an indulgence for me is to have some very occasional goodies make with unrefined sugars or similar, my days of junk food are long gone now.
So that said, I am about to print off that cake recipe of yours!  Looks divine! 

[quirkycooking]

This one would work the same way too, with honey (or stevia) instead of rapadura - it's yummy!!
Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies

[tarosuma]

Oh Jo, you are amazing!  I LOVE your blog and all your recipes, this is definitely another one to try! My 4 year old will love it.  I am sure I would too so better wait until I can justify a treat!
I find stevia really good for sweetening anything chocolate as the choc already has that slight bitter taste which blends in with the stevia taste.  I don't find it so great with other recipes.  Will give this one a go with stevia and report back after! 

[quirkycooking]

Thanks Tarosuma!    I think with the dates in it the stevia won't taste so bitter - I find if I use another sweetener with the stevia you don't notice the bitter taste like you do when it's on its' own.  Hope you like it! 

[Moonmobile]

Thank you for all these great posts. Sorry for my delayed reply - my email notifications wasn't working!

One good thing about the diet is that there are some really good cookbooks (eg Sandra Ramacher's Healing Foods) - this makes it a lot easier to comply! I couldn't handle cutting out sugars entirely (my energy starts to dip too much) - so having honey and fruit in the scd suits me really well - and I'm not allergic to them. Dairy at least in limited amounts seems to be fine for me as well. But there is no question the scd diet (with a few minor modifications) seems to work better for me than anything else.

The one thing that I haven't been able to do is make the yoghurt. I find this a totally daunting prospect. SCD yoghurt needs to be fermented for 24 hours and I don't think any of the commercial ones are fermented this long. Fermenting it for 24 hours apparently gets rid of the lactose but keeps all the good cultures in there which assist with gut healing. Any hints (or links to other discussions) on how I could do this kind of yoghurt would be greatly appreciated!

Jo thank you very much for the tip about how much honey to substitute for the rapadura in your recipes. I love your recipes but have often wondered how much honey to substitute for the rapadura and of course I can't use spelt. I made your hazelnut brownies using honey for a party and everybody absolutely loved them. I don't really like stevia or agave syrup, but xylitol is not too bad for some applications on occasion. Honey is the best for me however.

It is indeed a challenging diet. The worst is trying to be able to find something when I eat out - not always possible. I am suffering today from some food I ate yesterday. I would absolutely not be able to do this diet without the thermomix. It would simply be too time consuming and difficult. The thermomix is an absolute lifesaver!

[quirkycooking]

That's great the honey worked in the hazelnut brownies!  I've been making the pecan cake with honey and dates - it's a bit heavier, but really moist and yummy - the kids asked for seconds, so it mustn't be too bad   Last night I made it as a pineapple upside-down cake - that was really yummy!  What do you use for baking powder, since they usually have rice flour in them?  I just used 1 tsp cream of tartar + 1/2 tsp baking soda, but it didn't rise as much as usual.  Not sure if that was because of the honey though - any ideas??

[Moonmobile]

Hi Jo, the honey does produce a particular flavour and result - but I am getting used to it and continue to experiment! Unfortunately nothing beats sugar and wheat in baking. 

I have to admit I am not very strict on the baking powder front but the recipes in the scd books just seem to use straight bicarb soda and it seems to work fine. See for example some of the recipes here http://www.scdiet.org/2recipes/cooki01.html

[quirkycooking]

Okay, thanks!  I'll ask my SCD friend what she does too - it's mainly for her sake I make them! 

[Moonmobile]

Jo, the chocolate brownies recipe that I posted on the special diets forum is one from a scd book. But I have used cacao in it instead of lemon juice. To make it really strict you could omit the cocoa powder and use 1 tsp of lemon juice. The recipe just uses baking soda as well.

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=4654.0

[cecilia]

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/topic/136194-cavemen-paleo-diet-and-the-band/

Could help some people.