Giving in for Better Health

When your son begins a quick decline in health due to a flare you become desperate. You search the internet and become as informed as you can with his disease. You see, my son has ulcerative colitis. He was diagnosed three years ago and we began a journey to try and beat this disease with diet. For 2 1/2 years we cooked gluten and dairy free. We learned to make and drink kombucha, dabbled in baking sourdough bread, and delved deeper into the organic world. In the end, it wasn't enough.

This past summer, after my son lost 50 pounds, we took a stricter look at his diet. There was one particular diet that many people seemed to have success with: The SCD Diet. And one website, the SCD Lifestyle, was a great help in implementing this diet. I read the book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gloria Gottschall, a wonderful, eye-opening book, but was not sure how to implement the ideas presented. This book is a must read, and then visit the website for how to begin the diet.

In this diet you eat all meats. The meats should be organic, hormone and antibiotic free, and if possible free range and grass fed. You begin with cooking and pureeing carrots and slowly progress to other cooked vegetables. Cooked and pureed apples are started first, and after these are tolerated pears and other cooked fruits are added. Along with these simple items, homemade stocks are drunk several times a day. If eggs are not a problem, they can be eaten the first week as well. With these few foods the healing diet is begun and every 4 days a new food is added. I liked this simple approach, because you are creating a "safe food" list. From the beginning a journal is kept. You write down everything you eat, how you feel and the supplements you take. If you start to have adverse symptoms you can always go back to these "safe foods".

What is taken off the list of foods is all grains. You cannot eat rice, oats, quinoa, couscous, wheat, buckwheat... Yes, all grains! This is the hardest part of the diet. What I have discovered is that you can create a wide variety of baked goods with almond flour and coconut flour and a little honey (the only sweetener allowed). No sugar except honey.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are also not allowed, along with all legumes. No beans except navy beans, though we have not tried these yet. Of course no milk. If tolerated, a special kind of yogurt is made, but we have not added this to the diet either.

The change has been dramatic. My son has gained all his weight back and then some. In fact, in 6 weeks he had fully gained what he had lost. We have slowly added items to his eating list. Some he tolerates, others he does not. All vegetables are still cooked, most fruits as well. He cannot tolerate salads and if he eats too much honey his intestines become a little inflamed, so the baked goods are kept to a minimum.

So what is eaten? For breakfast: eggs, a muffin or waffles, and fruit. For lunch: leftovers from the night before and dinner: a meat and vegetable. We try and rotate our meats: chicken, beef, pork, fish, and turkey. I try and cook extra for dinner and freeze leftovers in glass serving dishes so lunches are chosen from this extra store. We keep banana, pumpkin, apple, or blueberry muffins along with various variety of waffles in the freezer for breakfasts and snacks. I make homemade nut milks and nut butters to eat and drink for snacks as well. In moderation there are also some cakes, cookies and honey nut bars to bake and freeze as well. Yes, it is a lot of baking, a lot of planning and a lot of work. But we have a routine. What I would like to share are some recipes and tips that might help others to eat and cook this way. Thus far it has kept my son off the dangerous drugs often associated with these diseases and healthy and strong.

We eat nothing from a box or can. We cook fresh meats and vegetables and fruits. It really is a better way of eating for everyone. I cannot go back to our old ways. My stomach can no longer take it.