Dang – I was wrong about the sausages!

It turns out the Pure Beef and Pure Pork sausages also have breadcrumbs for filler, not to mention commercial flavouring mix.

The good news is that the Barbecue Grillers, are okay, so long as you can tolerate caraway seeds, which may be a bit advanced for newbies.

Feel free to comment if you happen to know about the SCD legality of caraway seeds.

Food

Today, on a more or less empty stomach, I ate 3 small squares of my favourite chocolate (you can tell its not me doing SCD can’t you?), and within minutes I had a headache. Time we all woke up I think.

SCD Yogurt – how to screw it up

This morning I had my first ever batch of “crook” yogurt. I only spotted it because the drops of condensation from the cling wrap I peeled back, sat proud on the surface. That’s what made me take a closer look, and I realized there was odd coloration (a few creamy yellow spots) and the surface was kind of dry – almost furry looking. So after 14 months of making the stuff, I suppose I know now, what the wrong “bugs” look like.

As for the cause, well, I didn’t look after this batch very well temperature-wise. So the out-of-range (both up and down) fluctuations are what I’m putting it down to.

What a shame … I was hungry and really looking forward to that smoothie. That’s the only thing with SCD. You have to wait such a long time before you can eat the stuff again, when you’ve got to throw out a batch. Better get up the road now, for some more milk.

SCD Tomato Products

I came across a product called Passata in the supermarket a few months ago, and it was described as sieved, crushed tomatoes. Bit late talking about it now because I can’t find it any more. Foodtown seemed to stock it only for a couple of months, and then I couldn’t find it again. The brand was Delmaine, with a dark green label and in a handy 670gm seal top glass bottle

I have never been able to find the “canned legal tomato juice” here, which our North American counterparts mention in recipes and in the support groups. And yes, I have been guilty of using Leggo’s Tomato Paste in the little plastic pottles. Very rarely mind. Maybe once in two months I will add some to a dish. And that was only after I contacted the manufacturers and they insisted that there was nothing other than tomatoes and salt in this product, so I can’t see how that can be illegal anyway. I do know that Elaine said it was illegal, but I have sometimes wondered if our manufacturers in this part of the world, can be better trusted than those in the Northern Hemisphere. I saw no reason not to believe them. What do you think?

Polls?

I thought I had added a poll to this blog tonight, but it isn’t showing up so I must have missed the mark somehow.

In any case, a survey is what I had in mind, rather than straight polling, so I wondered if anyone would be interested in answering the following questions?

1. What is your favourite SCD meal/recipe/food?
2. What food/meal/recipe do you miss the most from your pre-SCD days?

Multiple choice polling doesn’t lend itself to this type of question anyway, so I’m just going to hope that when you visit, you’ll be kind enough to post your answers in comments.

I will ask hubby (he’s gone to bed now), and post his answers at some stage. If I were SCD, I would miss crackers most. I think for him, its bread.

SCD – Winding Down

The magic “one year mark” is bearing down on us at an astonishing rate. Hubby began this diet on 1 Nov 2007, and it has changed the way we view food forever I think.

But what I have noticed of late is that we are not nearly as organized as I thought we’d be by now. There is almost nothing in the freezer. Partly due to having to eat or toss after a couple of power outages, but nevertheless, nothing in the way of stored meals etc.

Anyway, the more worrying thing, is that we appear to be a bit slack on some of the things we have been doing. e.g. I have bought some curry powder to appease hubby, and he has been making mince curry with it. I am sometimes guilty of using less than ripe bananas in the smoothies, if I run out of the proper ones. Stuff like that. Not often, but clearly a downward path as far as the diet goes.

I have at least told him now, that he is supposed to measure the “one year thing” from the last onset of symptoms. That didn’t seem to phase him too much, but he is still thinking he’s off it I think, in a month or two, whereas I can see a further nine months at least. Wish I had the guts/courage to have a go myself.

SCD 9 months Progress Report

Well, its a long time, since we began this journey. And in theory, the end is now in sight. But the reality is going to be quite different, I’m sure.

For starters, I think Elaine said 1 year after the last symptoms had disappeared (haven’t told hubby about that bit yet), and secondly, I believe that going “back” to “normal” eating patterns would be a grave mistake, regardless. He has been pretty religious in his adherence to the diet (thank goodness!) but this last month he has had a taste of jam on crumpets when he has made some for our son, and also some banana chips. I think he thought the latter was legal, but I also think he was just frustrated and decided to try to see if they were really yummy or not. There was a time when I would have panicked about that.    And although Elaine said to stick to the diet religously, he has basically done so. I don’t think I could have asked more of him, and he is still quite discipliined about it.

I have begun reading a book called “Going Against the Grain” by Melissa Diane Smith, and I feel quite strongly, that we should all do ourselves a big favour and avoid the grains long term if at all possible. Having said that, I’ve never had the courage to “do the diet” myself but am becoming more and more “inclined” to have a go. For instance, when I had almost a whole week without bread/grains, my sinuses cleared up after 2 long months of never being far from a tissue box.

Hubby and son both had a “tummy bug” this last week and hubby’s tummy has not come right properly since, so I am suspecting that the upset last week has quite likely triggered a 9-month flare, which may not have happened at all, without that trigger.

I find myself much more relaxed about these things now, where once I would have reacted with some degree of panic. Now I just feel that it will all be fine, given sufficient time.

I’m going to post a recipe which I made last week, but will wait until I have made it successfully a second time. It started off with me looking for a banana loaf recipe, and when I found something, I didn’t have the right ingredients so substituted where necessary. I ended up with the best muffins I have made so far, so am keen to “verify it”, with another test bake, before I publish.

My original efforts to get blood work etc at the 6 months stage have all gone to hell in a handcart. Couldn’t get my uncooperative spouse to the lab, and have since lost the form altogether. If I ever find it again, it will probably be invalid or something, and we’ll have to go to the Doc and start the whole process again. Grrr. Men!

And other than all that, I believe I am still probably the most disorganized and undisciplined person, ever to attempt to cook SCD. And even given that major handicap, I am getting by. The yogurt has become kind of a habit (having my first minor problems with it mind you), and gets made with little drama, pretty much every 4 or 5 days. I dont bake very much, since hubby seldom shows enough interest to eat it and I end up adding it to my already generous waistline.  We have however, seemingly made a definite transition back to eating meat. Probably having meat now about 5 nights a week, and both myself and hubby I suspect, are kind of grateful for the additional variety it represents.

Food has always been an issue in our house. My cooking was rarely to his liking, and it got to the point where thinking of something to feed him was a nightly trial that I simply hated. But gradually, thanks to SCD and a much more cooperative tummy no doubt, he is less obnoxious to cook for, and I am less strung out and nervous about what to cook.  An all-round pleasing side-effect of SCD.  Phew, thanks Elaine!

Pesto Recipe

http://www.healinggourmet.com/recipes/630/Walnut_Pesto.aspx

This looks to be a useful and scd-legal pesto recipe made with Walnuts.

Havent tried it yet, but if anyone does, feel free to post a comment and tell me what you think.

Food Pyramid Fraud?

This post is dedicated to Jill and Erin of the SCD Info support group (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/scdinfo/).

For people who are athletic (endurance sports etc),  there is a limit to what advice I could offer, having had no experience of your lifestyle.  But where I would really like to go with this is that SCD will change your ideas about what is healthy, and what is not.

We are indoctrinated over the last 30 years or so with the “low fat” message, and over that same period I wouldn’t mind betting our carbohydrate intake will have increased quite radically.  Also over that period a worldwide Diabetes epidemic seems to have appeared out of nowhere?  It is my belief that the high carb/grains supports in a very big way, commercially manufactured food. Can anyone imagine what would happen, if we all suddenly stopped eating bread/crackers and rice and pasta as we do on the SCD?  These three and “packaged food” generally would take one heck of a hit and global conglomerates (think Heinz, Nestle etc), would suddenly find their share prices plummeting.  I apologise if I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I’m just trying to stand back a bit and look at the “big picture” here.

Anyway back to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). My husband has been on SCD (our own semi-vegetarian version) for nearly 5 months now, and has not suffered even once from his Celiac Symptoms since the very first day on the diet!  Our son  and myself are not doing the diet, but we are certainly eating very differently to what we were. Much lower  bread/grain consumption. Much lower packaged food consumption. Much higher whole/fresh food consumption.  Our son is 6 1/2 and I had been looking at him for the last 12 months or so, wishing there was more color in his cheeks. He seemed healthy enough, but not as glowingly so as I would have liked to see. Now that he and I are “semi-SCD” we eat loads more fresh fruit and he is gaining a very gratifying little pink blush to his face. Hubby’s skin is smoother, younger looking. It seems to have regained it’s elasticity and his complexion is a more even colour. Our friends are commenting that our skin looks healthier and we look younger. Hubby is 62 and I am 49.

Most people would have thought of us as “eating healthy” prior to SCD when we were on basically a vegetarian diet, with a couple of meals of fish each week and very high bread consumption. But we all feel and look healthier now, and our diet bears little relation to the “Food Pyramid” which is supposedly the basis for health and wellbeing. Hence going by our personal experience so far, we suspect that the politically correct dietary advice generally peddled today, is far from useful in terms of optimum human health. You might find the information here (http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/pcnutrition.html) a bit of an eye-opener. It is not well-referenced, but it wouldn’t take too many “Google searches”, to establish its accuracy I imagine.

So I would suggest to anyone who is health conscious or athletically active like Erin and Jill, to get your blood levels for sugars, cholesterol, iron (or whatever else you fancy), taken at the start of the diet, then get them done again, say 3 or 6 months into it, and again at the end of a year. This way, you will find out pretty much beyond doubt, whether SCD has been a “healthy” option for you in fat/cholesterol terms.

The concerns about saturated fats/cholesterol appear to be overstated when you consider that only a relatively small percentage of your cholesterol comes from your food. I think the majority of it is manufactured in the body by the liver.  So be brave ladies. Ditch your attachment to the accepted “wisdom”, and monitor for yourself, what is or isn’t healthy, for you.

Out with the old …

Wow, I love this new theme! Haven’t even checked it out, but I love it already. For reasons which may never be known to me, the old one refused to display correctly in the sidebar, and there were always words/links etc, partially obscured by the Titles.

This looks so clear and cool and unmistakeably simple.  YaaaaaYYYY!