Re: Adding New Foods (article)

[Guest guest]

This is great. I am so glad you are writing a book!

PJ

>

>

> Adding New Foods (from SCD Made Easy, a book I'm working on)

>

> One of the most common complaints is that the

> introductory diet is boring. So it is. Its

> purpose is to give your gut the lowest common

> denominator of food, foods which your system can

> digest, even if it is badly injured. Just as

> priming a water pump makes it possible to obtain

> water from a well, or putting primer on a wall

> before painting it makes the paint last longer,

> the introductory diet prepares your system for

> getting well. If you are sensitive to any of the

> foods on the intro diet, especially if you have

> ever had an anaphylactic shock reaction to any of

> them, do not eat them. Instead, substitute plain

> meat, and basic, plain cooked, peeled and seeded vegetables.

> Many people want to know if there is

> a list of foods they should introduce and if they

> should introduce them in a particular order.

> Unfortunately, the answer is no.

> (The Pecanbread " stages " can be helpful, but they

> are not rigid, and not part of the original SCD.)

> No two people are exactly alike, and no two

> people will tolerate the same things.

> However, based on reports from

> various SCD lists, some good foods to add after

> the introductory diet may include:

> * ripe banana

> * ripe avocado

> * cooked, seeded, peeled zucchini

> * well-cooked green beans

> * cooked winter squash (such as acorn, butternut, buttercup, pumpkin)

> * steamed asparagus tips

> * cooked, peeled, seeded tomato

> * sautéed baby spinach

> Everyone tolerates different things,

> but these seem to be foods tolerated by a lot of people early on.

> There are two schools of thought on

> how to proceed once one has finished the introductory diet.

> Both schools agree that how quickly

> you add new foods depends on how quickly you

> respond to the diet. There have actually been

> people who had trophies after a mere two or three

> days on Intro, but those lucky folks are, unfortunately, not the norm.

> The first school of thought holds

> that you sit down and make a list of what you ate

> the week or weeks before you started SCD. Look

> over it, cross off any illegals, and write in

> legal substitutions. For example:

> * Subway™ turkey sandwich on wheat sliced

> home-baked turkey breast. If raw lettuce is

> tolerated, roll up in a lettuce leaf with SCD mayonnaise.

> * Potato chips. SCD cheese crisps or

> commercial pork rinds (check to be sure they have no starch or flavorings.)

> * Icee™. Whirl crushed ice and legal fruit juice in blender. Drink.

> * Milkshake. Make a smoothie with SCD yogurt

> and fruit or yogurt and legal flavorings.

> * Mashed potatoes. Cheesy mock potatoes made

> with bean or lentil paste or steamed mashed

> cauliflower or boiled, pureed celeriac.

> According to this first school of

> thought, you can then go ahead and prepare a

> menu, and resume normal eating patterns.

> While the above works for some

> people, the majority of individuals who come to

> SCD have been sick for many years. Because of

> this, their systems may react badly even to legal foods.

> Even keeping a food diary doesn't

> help isolate which are the problem foods and

> which are the keepers if you introduce too many

> new things at once. So your symptoms either don't

> improve or get worse. And you look at what you

> were eating. Was it the honey mead you had for a

> wine on Tuesday? Could it have been the baked

> celery and onion you seasoned the turkey with,

> and decided to eat as a side dish on Wednesday?

> Or was it the cauliflower cheesy mock potatoes

> with the Creole spiced beef roast on Thursday?

> You simply don't know.

> That's why, for most people,

> introducing new foods one at a time works best.

> To do this, you should introduce a

> small amount of a single food such as half of

> properly ripe banana (freeze the other half for

> later), then wait two days (continuing with all

> the food on the intro diet). Chart all reactions.

> On the second day, try the other half of the

> banana, and chart reactions for two days. If your

> system is better, or at least no worse, then you

> can add fully ripe bananas to your repertoire.

> Then you can select something else –

> steamed green beans, for instance, to add in the

> same manner. Eventually, you will have a full

> repertoire of healthy foods which your system

> digests well, and which will benefit your health.

> My intro diet was beef roast, pork

> roast, steamed zucchini with butter, and soft

> boiled eggs with butter -- and I ate it for about

> six weeks before I was feeling equal to tackling

> SCD cooking. Somewhere around week two, I added

> shredded cheddar to my zucchini.

> The previously mentioned method of

> sitting down and making a list of what you ate

> the week or weeks before you started SCD is

> helpful here, as well. Look over your list, cross

> off any illegals, and write in legal substitutions. For example:

> * BurgerKing Whopper™ for lunch homemade

> beef burger with cheddar cheese, legal pickle slices on the side.

> * Microwaved canned asparagus with butter.

> Steamed fresh asparagus with butter.

> * Grilled chicken[1]. OK if homemade.

> * Grilled fish. OK if homemade.

> * Microwaved canned green beans. Steamed fresh green beans.

> I was actually startled to discover,

> when I did this, how few foods had comprised my

> weekly food patterns. I could still eat all the

> meats I had before: burgers, beef roasts, grilled

> chicken, baked or grilled fish, baked or grilled

> pork, lamb occasionally. I introduced cheddar

> cheese first because I am a cheddar cheese fiend.

> I was already able to eat eggs. Then I started

> looking at vegetables. As it turned out, I was

> able to handle all the ones I had been willing to

> eat pre-SCD: steamed green beans, steamed fresh

> asparagus, steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower,

> steamed spinach, steamed zucchini. The major

> difference was that I was now using fresh, or

> fresh frozen for the green beans and asparagus.

> I discovered very quickly that I did

> not tolerate carrots, peas, or Brussels sprouts

> at all well. (That was OK; I never liked them

> pre-SCD anyway.) I also found I had to very

> strictly ration my consumption of fruit and

> honey. (Wail!) Despite the legality of these

> items, it was simply too much sugar for my system

> to absorb, and continuing to eat it fed the bad

> bugs because it wasn't being absorbed. After I

> had been on the diet for awhile, I found I

> tolerated carrots just fine. I have no ambitions

> to see what my system now thinks of peas and Brussels sprouts.

> One common mistake people make is to

> introduce the nut flour goodies much too soon.

> They want bread, they crave the comfort of having cookies to munch.

> As delicious as the nut flour

> goodies are, experience indicates that you may

> have to wait several weeks, or even months before

> your system is ready for them. Personally, I had

> no trouble introducing them at about six weeks.

> However, members of the listservs report two

> months, six months, sometimes longer before badly

> injured guts are ready to digest these wonderful,

> nutritious foods. Yet some of the people who

> cannot handle nut flours also report that nut

> butters – made strictly from nuts, with no added

> ingredients – can be substituted in recipes and

> are often tolerated well. Apparently the fact

> that in nut butters, the nuts are ground even

> finer than in the nut flours, makes them more

> easily digested than simply finely ground nuts.

> Another common mistake people make

> is eating too much of a newly introduced food.

> Munching down on an entire batch of Cinnamon

> Cookies or Basic Muffins, or a whole recipe of

> Honey Toffee, delicious as they are, is a good

> way to send your system in a whirl.

> For my first foray into nut flour

> cooking, I made the cheese bread from Breaking

> the Vicious Cycle and forcibly limited myself to

> one very thin slice the three times I ate it.

> When I introduced steamed, chopped spinach, it

> was really tough. I am quite capable of eating 10

> ounces of steamed spinach with butter by myself.

> (No, my other name isn't Popeyena the

> Sailorwoman! Besides, canned veggies are

> illegal!) I carefully weighed out 2 ounces (about

> ¼ cup) of steamed spinach and gave the rest to my

> husband. Who stared at me. For the wonderful

> rich, creamy SCD yogurt, I had to measure out ½

> cup of yogurt and one-half teaspoon vanilla extract and two tablespoons honey.

> Mind you, after decades of

> weight-loss diets, I hate weighing and measuring

> food. But by doing it this way, I learned to

> within a hairs' breadth what I could tolerate and

> what I couldn't. And I could note down on my

> calendar to re-try favorite foods in a couple of months.

> After the introductory diet, one of

> the first foods recommended by Dr. Haas was very

> ripe banana. Most people tolerate this very well.

> Then introduce tender, well cooked vegetables.

> Elaine recommended string beans, petite peas

> (frozen are fine), and spinach. Spaghetti squash,

> although delicious with homemade meat sauce on

> it, may have too much fiber for the first few

> weeks after the intro diet. Baked butternut

> squash, and baked acorn squash is also good to

> start with. As indicated, I found steamed

> zucchini delicious and soothing, although I made

> sure to remove any large seeds.

> How quickly you are able to add

> foods depends on your system alone. What is

> tolerated by one person may not be tolerated by

> you, and vice versa. In the early days on the

> listserv, I used to read all the wonderful yogurt

> smoothie recipes people were having for breakfast

> or snacks and whimper… because I simply could not

> tolerate that much fruit and honey, and I hated

> the taste of saccharin. On the other hand, when I

> posted my beef-and-broccoli quiche recipe, there

> were people saying, " Oh, how delicious that

> sounds… but I can't go anywhere near broccoli! "

> Take things one day at a time,

> keeping in mind Dr. Gee's statement: " We

> must never forget that what the patient takes

> beyond his ability to digest does harm. "

> Don't force yourself.

> And one day, you may wake up to the

> realization that you had a full night's sleep,

> that you are no longer spotting every public

> toilet enroute to all your favorite places, and

> that you are eating more foods than you ever

> thought possible – including some which, only

> weeks before, might send you catapulting into the necessary.

>

>

> [1] Newcomers frequently ask if they can't

> continue to eat at fast food restaurants if they

> just get " plain meat " or a " plain salad and

> dressing " and eliminate the obvious offenders

> like the grain-based breads and the potato

> products. For links to various national fast food

> chains, check

>

http://members.shaw.ca/allergies/restaurants.htmlhttp://members.shaw.ca/allerg\

ies/restaurants.html.

> From the Arby's Roast Beef™ page: " Roast Chicken

> Breast: Chicken breast, chicken broth, seasoning

> (salt, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder,

> deheated mustard, autolyzed yeast extract, corn

> syrup solids, soy sauce [fermented soybeans,

> wheat, salt], paprika, dextrin, natural flavors,

> spice, partially hydrogenated soybean oil),

> sodium lactate, soybean oil, seasoning (modified

> food starch, carrageenan, methylcellulose gum,

> salt, flavor), sodium phosphates. " And from the

> 's™ page: " Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Chicken

> Breast with Rib Meat, Water, Seasoning (Salt,

> Dextrose, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Maltodextrin,

> Grill Flavor [from Partially Hydrogenated

> Cottonseed and Soybean Oil], Garlic, Corn Starch

> Modified, Onion, Beef Flavor [beef Stock,

> Maltodextrin, Salt, Flavor, Colored with Caramel,

> Disodium Inosinate and Guanylate (flavor

> enhancers), Lactic Acid], Polysorbate 80

> (stabilizer), Colored with Caramel, Natural

> Flavor), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil.

> Commercial onion powder,

> commercial garlic powder, yeast products, corn

> syrup solids, soy sauce, modified food starch,

> carrageenan, methylcellulose gum, " flavors " ,

> " natural flavors " , commercial chicken broth (you

> wouldn't believe the ingredients in so-called

> broths!), dextrose (technically legal, but what

> is used as dextrose is not pure dextrose but a

> mix of di- and polysaccharides), maltodextrin,

> modified corn starch, and caramel (often derived

> from sugar or flour) are all illegal. And all

> this in what is supposed to be a " plain " grilled or baked piece of chicken!

>

>

> — Marilyn

> New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

> Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

> Darn Good SCD Cook

> No Human Children

> Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

>

[Guest guest]

Ditto- this is wonderful! Even at 15-16 weeks it is helpful to read

Thanks for sharing Marilyn!

-Joanna

>

> This is great. I am so glad you are writing a book!

> PJ

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you for this info, being new to SCD I found this helpful. BTVC is great,

but I was stumbling on what to do next and when. Too often, I'll have a " good "

day but then I get overly confident and begin to introduce too much too fast.

Big mistake, like you said, one food at a time. When I first learned of SCD I

bought a few cookbooks to start working on new meals, only to learn (later) that

many recipes are far too advanced for my body right now. Especially anything

with nut flour!

- B.

UC 4 months

SCD 2 months

>

>

> Adding New Foods (from SCD Made Easy, a book I'm working on)

>

> One of the most common complaints is that the

> introductory diet is boring. So it is. Its

> purpose is to give your gut the lowest common

> denominator of food, foods which your system can

> digest, even if it is badly injured. Just as

> priming a water pump makes it possible to obtain

> water from a well, or putting primer on a wall

> before painting it makes the paint last longer,

> the introductory diet prepares your system for

> getting well. If you are sensitive to any of the

> foods on the intro diet, especially if you have

> ever had an anaphylactic shock reaction to any of

> them, do not eat them. Instead, substitute plain

> meat, and basic, plain cooked, peeled and seeded vegetables.

> Many people want to know if there is

> a list of foods they should introduce and if they

> should introduce them in a particular order.

> Unfortunately, the answer is no. No

> two people are exactly alike, and no two people will tolerate the same things.

> However, based on reports from

> various SCD lists, some good foods to add after

> the introductory diet may include:

> * ripe banana

> * ripe avocado

> * cooked, seeded, peeled zucchini

> * well-cooked green beans

> * cooked winter squash (such as acorn, butternut, buttercup, pumpkin)

> * steamed asparagus tips

> * cooked, peeled, seeded tomato

> * sautéed baby spinach

> Everyone tolerates different things,

> but these seem to be foods tolerated by a lot of people early on.

> There are two schools of thought on

> how to proceed once one has finished the introductory diet.

> Both schools agree that how quickly

> you add new foods depends on how quickly you

> respond to the diet. There have actually been

> people who had trophies after a mere two or three

> days on Intro, but those lucky folks are, unfortunately, not the norm.

> The first school of thought holds

> that you sit down and make a list of what you ate

> the week or weeks before you started SCD. Look

> over it, cross off any illegals, and write in

> legal substitutions. For example:

> * Subway™ turkey sandwich on wheat sliced

> home-baked turkey breast. If raw lettuce is

> tolerated, roll up in a lettuce leaf with SCD mayonnaise.

> * Potato chips. SCD cheese crisps or

> commercial pork rinds (check to be sure they have no starch or flavorings.)

> * Icee™. Whirl crushed ice and legal fruit juice in blender. Drink.

> * Milkshake. Make a smoothie with SCD yogurt

> and fruit or yogurt and legal flavorings.

> * Mashed potatoes. Cheesy mock potatoes made

> with bean or lentil paste or steamed mashed cauliflower.

> According to this first school of

> thought, you can then go ahead and prepare a

> menu, and resume normal eating patterns.

> While the above works for some

> people, the majority of individuals who come to

> SCD have been sick for many years. Because of

> this, their systems may react badly even to legal foods.

> Even keeping a food diary doesn't

> help isolate which are the problem foods and

> which are the keepers if you introduce too many

> new things at once. So your symptoms either don't

> improve or get worse. And you look at what you

> were eating. Was it the honey mead you had for a

> wine on Tuesday? Could it have been the baked

> celery and onion you seasoned the turkey with,

> and decided to eat as a side dish on Wednesday?

> Or was it the cauliflower cheesy mock potatoes

> with the Creole spiced beef roast on Thursday?

> You simply don't know.

> That's why, for most people,

> introducing new foods one at a time works best.

> To do this, you should introduce a

> small amount of a single food such as half of

> properly ripe banana (freeze the other half for

> later), then wait two days (continuing with all

> the food on the intro diet). Chart all reactions.

> On the second day, try the other half of the

> banana, and chart reactions for two days. If your

> system is better, or at least no worse, then you

> can add fully ripe bananas to your repertoire.

> Then you can select something else –

> steamed green beans, for instance, to add in the

> same manner. Eventually, you will have a full

> repertoire of healthy foods which your system

> digests well, and which will benefit your health.

> My intro diet was beef roast, pork

> roast, steamed zucchini with butter, and soft

> boiled eggs with butter -- and I ate it for about

> six weeks before I was feeling equal to tackling

> SCD cooking. Somewhere around week two, I added

> shredded cheddar to my zucchini.

> The previously mentioned method of

> sitting down and making a list of what you ate

> the week or weeks before you started SCD is

> helpful here, as well. Look over your list, cross

> off any illegals, and write in legal substitutions. For example:

> * BurgerKing Whopper™ for lunch homemade

> beef burger with cheddar cheese, legal pickle slices on the side.

> * Microwaved canned asparagus with butter.

> Steamed fresh asparagus with butter.

> * Grilled chicken[1]. OK if homemade.

> * Grilled fish. OK if homemade.

> * Microwaved canned green beans. Steamed fresh green beans.

> I was actually startled to discover,

> when I did this, how few foods had comprised my

> weekly food patterns. I could still eat all the

> meats I had before: burgers, beef roasts, grilled

> chicken, baked or grilled fish, baked or grilled

> pork, lamb occasionally. I introduced cheddar

> cheese first because I am a cheddar cheese fiend.

> I was already able to eat eggs. Then I started

> looking at vegetables. As it turned out, I was

> able to handle all the ones I had been willing to

> eat pre-SCD: steamed green beans, steamed fresh

> asparagus, steamed broccoli, steamed cauliflower,

> steamed spinach, steamed zucchini. The major

> difference was that I was now using fresh, or

> fresh frozen for the green beans and asparagus.

> I discovered very quickly that I did

> not tolerate carrots, peas, or Brussels sprouts

> at all well. (That was OK; I never liked them

> pre-SCD anyway.) I also found I had to very

> strictly ration my consumption of fruit and

> honey. (Wail!) Despite the legality of these

> items, it was simply too much sugar for my system

> to absorb, and continuing to eat it fed the bad

> bugs because it wasn't being absorbed. After I

> had been on the diet for awhile, I found I

> tolerated carrots just fine. I have no ambitions

> to see what my system now thinks of peas and Brussels sprouts.

> One common mistake people make is to

> introduce the nut flour goodies much too soon.

> They want bread, they crave the comfort of having cookies to munch.

> As delicious as the nut flour

> goodies are, experience indicates that you may

> have to wait several weeks, or even months before

> your system is ready for them. Personally, I had

> no trouble introducing them at about six weeks.

> However, members of the listservs report two

> months, six months, sometimes longer before badly

> injured guts are ready to digest these wonderful,

> nutritious foods. Yet some of the people who

> cannot handle nut flours also report that nut

> butters – made strictly from nuts, with no added

> ingredients – can be substituted in recipes and

> are often tolerated well. Apparently the fact

> that in nut butters, the nuts are ground even

> finer than in the nut flours, makes them more

> easily digested than simply finely ground nuts.

> Another common mistake people make

> is eating too much of a newly introduced food.

> Munching down on an entire batch of Cinnamon

> Cookies or Basic Muffins, or a whole recipe of

> Honey Toffee, delicious as they are, is a good

> way to send your system in a whirl.

> For my first foray into nut flour

> cooking, I made the cheese bread from Breaking

> the Vicious Cycle and forcibly limited myself to

> one very thin slice the three times I ate it.

> When I introduced steamed, chopped spinach, it

> was really tough. I am quite capable of eating 10

> ounces of steamed spinach with butter by myself.

> (No, my other name isn't Popeyena the

> Sailorwoman! Besides, canned veggies are

> illegal!) I carefully weighed out 2 ounces (about

> ¼ cup) of steamed spinach and gave the rest to my

> husband. Who stared at me. For the wonderful

> rich, creamy SCD yogurt, I had to measure out ½

> cup of yogurt and one-half teaspoon vanilla extract and two tablespoons honey.

> Mind you, after decades of

> weight-loss diets, I hate weighing and measuring

> food. But by doing it this way, I learned to

> within a hairs' breadth what I could tolerate and

> what I couldn't. And I could note down on my

> calendar to re-try favorite foods in a couple of months.

> After the introductory diet, one of

> the first foods recommended by Dr. Haas was very

> ripe banana. Most people tolerate this very well.

> Then introduce tender, well cooked vegetables.

> Elaine recommended string beans, petite peas

> (frozen are fine), and spinach. Spaghetti squash,

> although delicious with homemade meat sauce on

> it, may have too much fiber for the first few

> weeks after the intro diet. Baked butternut

> squash, and baked acorn squash is also good to

> start with. As indicated, I found steamed

> zucchini delicious and soothing, although I made

> sure to remove any large seeds.

> How quickly you are able to add

> foods depends on your system alone. What is

> tolerated by one person may not be tolerated by

> you, and vice versa. In the early days on the

> listserv, I used to read all the wonderful yogurt

> smoothie recipes people were having for breakfast

> or snacks and whimper… because I simply could not

> tolerate that much fruit and honey, and I hated

> the taste of saccharin. On the other hand, when I

> posted my beef-and-broccoli quiche recipe, there

> were people saying, " Oh, how delicious that

> sounds… but I can't go anywhere near broccoli! "

> Take things one day at a time,

> keeping in mind Dr. Gee's statement: " We

> must never forget that what the patient takes

> beyond his ability to digest does harm. "

> Don't force yourself.

> And one day, you may wake up to the

> realization that you had a full night's sleep,

> that you are no longer spotting every public

> toilet enroute to all your favorite places, and

> that you are eating more foods than you ever

> thought possible – including some which, only

> weeks before, might send you catapulting into the necessary.

>

>

> [1] Newcomers frequently ask if they can't

> continue to eat at fast food restaurants if they

> just get " plain meat " or a " plain salad and

> dressing " and eliminate the obvious offenders

> like the grain-based breads and the potato

> products. For links to various national fast food

> chains, check

>

http://members.shaw.ca/allergies/restaurants.htmlhttp://members.shaw.ca/allerg\

ies/restaurants.html.

> From the Arby's Roast Beef™ page: " Roast Chicken

> Breast: Chicken breast, chicken broth, seasoning

> (salt, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder,

> deheated mustard, autolyzed yeast extract, corn

> syrup solids, soy sauce [fermented soybeans,

> wheat, salt], paprika, dextrin, natural flavors,

> spice, partially hydrogenated soybean oil),

> sodium lactate, soybean oil, seasoning (modified

> food starch, carrageenan, methylcellulose gum,

> salt, flavor), sodium phosphates. " And from the

> 's™ page: " Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Chicken

> Breast with Rib Meat, Water, Seasoning (Salt,

> Dextrose, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Maltodextrin,

> Grill Flavor [from Partially Hydrogenated

> Cottonseed and Soybean Oil], Garlic, Corn Starch

> Modified, Onion, Beef Flavor [beef Stock,

> Maltodextrin, Salt, Flavor, Colored with Caramel,

> Disodium Inosinate and Guanylate (flavor

> enhancers), Lactic Acid], Polysorbate 80

> (stabilizer), Colored with Caramel, Natural

> Flavor), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil.

> Commercial onion powder,

> commercial garlic powder, yeast products, corn

> syrup solids, soy sauce, modified food starch,

> carrageenan, methylcellulose gum, " flavors " ,

> " natural flavors " , commercial chicken broth (you

> wouldn't believe the ingredients in so-called

> broths!), dextrose (technically legal, but what

> is used as dextrose is not pure dextrose but a

> mix of di- and polysaccharides), maltodextrin,

> modified corn starch, and caramel (often derived

> from sugar or flour) are all illegal. And all

> this in what is supposed to be a " plain " grilled or baked piece of chicken!

>

>

> — Marilyn

> New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

> Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

> Darn Good SCD Cook

> No Human Children

> Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund

>