Re: Re: Food Sensitivities

[Guest guest]

Elaine

I am happy to share what foods I tolerated from the 3rd to 4th week of SCD; they are essentially the same today, five years later, as they were then, but these days I don't need to worry about rotating vegetables every day and don't have to be as vigilant about candida "trigger" foods.

Just remember that not only was I dealing with functional upper GI disorders that demands I eat low-fat, low-fiber and bland, but also a systemic candida overgrowth, so I started SCD having to cope with a lot of food sensitivities but also had to figure out what my upper GI would tolerate. Therefore my list of foods may not be exactly what your own body will tolerate -- or you may be able to tolerate a whole lot more legals. So you'll have to test and experiment too.

Before I list my foods, have you looked over the guidelines for phasing in foods found on the www.pecanbread.com website? It is a suggestion only, but it may give you some ideas of what to add when. http://www.pecanbread.com/new/scdfoods1.html#beyond

The list is partway down the page, so scroll down a bit.

Food rotation was the most helpful strategy I used when dealing with food sensitivities. In other words, constant variety of foods. Food rotation means eating a serving of a food then waiting 3 to 4 days before eating the same food. It is based on the time it takes, on average, for food to transit the digestive tract. Through trial and error I learned which foods I could eat within 2 to 3 days, and which ones could only be eaten every 4 to 7 days, and a few that had to be a month apart (which I eventually stopped trying to eat).

As to what I ate. Meats were tolerated well, as long as I followed my upper GI guidelines for low-fat. I ate and continue to eat plenty of wild-caught salmon and other wild-caught fish that are white-meat. White-meat poultry, particularly chicken is good, and I can eat it several times a day if necessary. Eggs are a staple of my diet. I can handle a few cuts of lean beef as long as it isn't ground, and bison. Even can handle the occasional piece of lean bacon and ham, but other cuts of pork and lamb/mutton are off-limits. Haven't tried any game animals.

My food sensitivities tend to center on vegetables -- not just causing a digestive reaction but immune system (hives, sometimes respiratory distress). I had to rotate vegetables as much as possible during my first year on SCD, but stay within the limits of dealing with candida too. Turned out that my digestion can't handle the high-carb veggies anyway, so I ended up eating exactly what my digestion and gut ecology required!

Here's the list of vegetables I ate and still eat today -- all cooked to very soft. I can eat these vegetables once or twice a day every day: Italian /Roma green beans (no french cut for me!), crookneck or other yellow summer squashes, zucchini. I can eat these vegetables once a day every other day: bush or pole green beans of other varieties than Roma/Italian (but no french cut), spinach, broccoli, other mild greens. I can eat these vegetables once every 4 days but they were off-limits when dealing with candida: carrots (organic, whole only), beets, wilted or mushy lettuces. These vegetables are once a week (or longer): tomatoes, garlic, onion. The winter squashes (butternut, acorn, pumpkin) were once every 4 to 6 weeks, but now I've stopped trying to eat them; can't even tolerate them in muffins.

Fruits are difficult for me, both for my digestion and maintaining my blood sugar levels, and were particularly difficult when I was dealing with candida. These days I still have to limit myself to two servings of fruit per day, one of which has to be juice, and have to be careful to eat it with other carbs and fats. When I was dealing with candida I had a fruit serving only once every other day. I can only tolerate applesauce (using the least-sweet varieties of apple) and the very occasional peachsauce. I make apple and orange juice, and dilute it significantly. Several days a week I also add a small amount of juice made from berries (cranberry or raspberry are my favorites) to the weak orange juice; sometimes I juice berries myself, or sometimes I get the Knudsen Just Juice commercial juices, depends on the season. In the past year I've been able to tolerate a few dried fruits in my muffins (apricot, date, cranberry, cherry), but I can't eat muffins with dried fruit every day, have to skip at least two days between servings.

I also have to rotate the nut flour muffins I make. I generally have 3 to 4 varieties of muffins made up and have one "flavor" each day. I can only handle one nut flour muffin or piece of bread per day so it works well since my digestion requires variety. I also use a mix of nut flours, as 100% almond flour stops my digestion cold.

I don't tolerate dairy, so take an acidophilus supplement. I did try yogurt for a year, but developed a sensitivity to it and had to stop. Yogurt made a great topical "ointment" for my skin and mouth when I was dealing with candida.

Oh, and I do tolerate a spoonful of peanut butter every few days. I made my own for several years; these days I occasionally get a jar of Smuckers natural crunchy but it tastes sweet, so I think something is added which I was sensitive to for several years. Can't handle nut butters at all.

That's it -- that's enough, right? The best thing I can suggest is to eat as much variety as possible and to eat small meals throughout the day to maintain energy (I eat something every 2 to 3 hours). What you eat depends on your own particular digestion and how your body is tolerating things. You may be limited at the beginning stages of SCD, but should be able to add a "new" food once in a while as your digestion improves.

Kim M.

SCD 5 years

Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction 5+ years

neurological deterioration 3 years

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Hi KimCould you list some of the foods you are tolerating? I, too, am very hungry and more food ideas would help me. I'm brand new to SCD.thanksElaine