Advancing Foods

[Guest guest]

Heyla, folks...

Just thought I'd pass on a few comments on foods like pork rinds and raw

vegetables.

I've been SCD for over five years now. I eat raw salads regularly, because

nine times out of ten, if we go out to eat, a salad is the only vegetable I

can be reasonably certain isn't going to have junk on it.

(I love Don's Seafood here in New Orleans, but their kitchen staff are

idiots: we went out with my parents this week, and after carefully

reiterating how to fix my meal, and watching the waiter write it down, I

had to send everything back because a newt-brained nidiot in said kitchen

had dumped their seasoned salt all over everything -- which seasoned salt

ingredient list starts off with sugar, maltodextrin, corn starch and only

THEN do we get to " salt " .... " But it's just our signature seasoning, " they

protested. And I said, " Did I not say no seasoning? Get me a bottle of it. "

And I pointed out all the illegals.)

In any case, we ended up eating out five days this week (yes, it can be

done if you know your restaurants and are reasonably healed) and last

night, they brought the salad, and I looked at it, and said, " You're eating

two salads tonight, love, " to my husband. I absolutely could NOT face raw

vegetables again. So I ate my grilled shrimp, drank my tea, and came home

and made some cooked spinach and brie sauce for me.

I can eat raw veggies -- but even at this juncture, I need to alternate it

-- I really NEED those easy-to-digest cooked vegetables interlaced with the

harder-to-digest raw ones. My system still needs its " weekends " and

" vacations " instead of being made to work seven days a week, fifty-two

weeks a year.

I really love things that go CRUNCH in the mouth like pork rinds. Pre-SCD,

I'm afraid I was a nacho Doritoes and Cheetohs fan. Pork rinds have the

advantage of being a food which goes CRUNCH which I don't have to spend

hours making.

HOWEVER -- as with the salads, I simply cannot tolerate them on a daily

basis. For my daily CRUNCH, if needed, I use Cheese Crisps. The pork rinds

are reserved for things like going to a party -- I take a couple bags and

my own homemade dip, and then I don't need to worry about non-SCDers

scarfing up my precious almond flour crackers and leaving none for me.

The thing to always keep in mind is that just because a food is legal

doesn't mean you can eat it at once on SCD. As your gut heals, you will

tolerate more and more. My first two months on SCD, I tolerated exactly

four foods: soft-boiled eggs, steamed zucchini, roast beef, and roast pork.

I ate every two hours, rotating through the foods. I didn't even go near

nut butters or nut flours for something like four months, not because I

didn't want to, but because I was too sick to expend the effort to make

stuff. At the time, I thought it was terrible. Now I realize I did myself a

good turn by not rushing ahead to more advanced foods.

I first tried pork rinds at around six months, I think. I determined I

could eat them once a month. Now I can have them once a week.

One of the things to remember is that most of us can really get into a rut

with our food, so that variety can be tricky to work in, but remember that

we're geared for BALANCE OVER TIME.

Not every meal, every day has to be balanced, although the Big Box

Manufacturers would have us believe we aren't smart enough to feed our

families without their help, and that every meal must be balanced according

to their standards.

I know that as a (non-SCD) child, I ate cereal and milk (and a vitamin

pill) for breakfast every weekday. We only got bacon and eggs on the

weekend. For lunch, I always carried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Our dinners were really simple: a meat, a vegetable, sometimes bread or

pasta. We ate a lot of hamburger and roast chicken in those days because

they were cheap -- Mom could roast a large chicken and we'd get two meals

off it, then she'd make chicken stew from the bones.

Not a lot of variety -- but we survived. (My gut got ruined by Modern

Medicine.)

So as long as there's a reasonable balance of protein and vegetables in the

diet, things will probably work out, and the variety will expand as the gut

heals. Sure, you have to be alert for trigger foods, the ones you or your

kid just can't eat enough of, and you need to be aware of self-limiting

behaviors.

But otherwise, SCD is a very healthy diet. And it's amazing how UN-normal

the Standard American Diet seems after you've been SCD for a few years.

My niece's doctor wanted to do the celiac test on her. She was strict SCD

for 2 years, then was able to add a few non-SCD foods back in, but she was

still 80-90% SCD. To do the celiac test, she had to go off SCD for three

weeks. At first, she said she figured, " Neat... I'll have all my old

favorites! " So, Krispy Kreme, Papa s, Waffle House, you name it! Within

three days, she had the runs and felt like she had a mega case of flu. The

brain fog was appalling. (This is a woman with a double major in

mathematics and education.) She couldn't wait for the three weeks to be up.

(Yes, as it turned out, she tested positive on two of the four items --

she's supposed to write me more about this when she has an appointment with

the gastroenterologist.)

OK, so I've wandered topic a bit -- sorry about that. Gotta run and do my

water therapy before the pool closes for New Years.

-- Marilyn (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA)

Undiagnosed IBS 25 Years, SCD Five Years

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund