SCD Lifestyle Interview: Personalize your SCD
Diet is the foundation of healing from inflammatory conditions.
For inflammatory bowel (Crohn’s and Colitis), celiac, IBS, GERD, and other digestive issues, dietary changes are foundational in the healing process; no treatment will work long-term without dietary changes. However, with proper dietary adjustments, you can recover (heal) from these conditions by creating an internal environment that is conducive to healing. For some, diet alone alleviates their symptoms, for others diet is just the beginning of their healing journey; either way, you cannot heal from IBD without changing your diet. I can’t stress that enough.
I’ve introduced the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) in other posts. Get a primer on the diet here. If you haven’t begun to use diet to address your bowel dis-ease, then now is the time to start. If you are struggling with diet, the SCD is the most credible dietary change for IBD that I know (GAPS being a close second). It takes time and discipline, but the rewards (of a healthy, medication free life) are immeasurable.
The Podcast
Today I introduce a podcast with Jordan Reasoner and Steve Wright, from SCD Lifestyle. Both Steve and Jordan have used the SCD to heal from their digestive ailments, and have since written a book, a guide, which walks people through the first 90 days of the SCD, in a safe, systematic fashion. Using their methods of personalizing the SCD, Jordan and Steve have coached people to significant health improvements.
You can read about and buy their book by clicking the e-book graphic on the top right sidebar.
On another note, in the podcast, I offer some free symptom tracking materials. You can find the daily food/symptom journal here, and you can find the excel version here. Nothing fancy, just the essentials.
Highlights from the podcast are below.
(If the player doesn’t work, or doesn’t appear in your feed, you can access the MP3 file here.)
1:27 Introductions: Jordan’s Story; Steve’s Story
7:30 What is SCD Lifestyle? How/Why SCD Lifestyle got started.
10:00 What is “Lifestyle” about your approach? Why call it a “Lifestyle”?
15:10 Overview of the SCD Lifestyle book, and who it helps.
17:05 Why focus on the first 90 days?
20:05 Steve and Jordan discuss the idea of the food safe zone.
23:02 Who does SCD Lifestyle help?
25:40 Jordan shares an example of SCD success.
26:31 Vision for the future…
28:15 Reclaim your health!
30:57 Parting wisdom from Steve and Jordan.
- Steve talks about the importance of tracking your diet and symptoms.
- Jordan discusses how to prepare mentally for the SCD, and the Four Horsemen of (SCD) Failure—the four foods to test when you’re struggling on the SCD.
Onward to Health.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Tagged with: IBD blogs • Podcasts • SCD • treatments
Filed under: Podcasts
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Thanks for this post, Matt. You continue to “hit the nail on the head”…. As I struggle to keep myself disciplined with my diet – and go through moments of doubt that dietary changes are really the answer – your timely words have inspired to get me back on track. I’m going to start SCD (again!) and accept that this is the real way to eat – and the rest of the fast food/junk food/processed food population have it all wrong
(Besides that, when I follow SCD, I get more compliments on my complexion and energy than I’ve ever received in my life! Removing refined sugar does wonders for that zen-like glow!!)
Yea! Back to the SCD! You have my support.
Thanks Carol.
Best,
Matt
Matt -
What do you eat before a long/endurance race? I used to eat a bagel with peanut butter or jelly before a 10 mile run. Now I am not sure what to eat. Any SCD suggestions?
Kera
I do have suggestions, with the caveat that it matters more what you eat during your training, and in the 1-3 days before a long event than it does what you eat immediately before (though the pre-race meal is important).
With SCD, we have to shift our paradigm from grain-carbs to something else. Before a long event, I like any or all of these (depending on how hungry I am). All for these suggestions come with the disclaimer–”As long as your body can tolerate it…”
3-4 hours before the event or long training day…
1. Banana, and avocado smoothie (2 bananas, 1/2 avocado, 1tsp coconut oil: blend with OJ and water to smoothie texture). Add blueberries or another berry to mix it up. For me, since I eat A LOT, I scale this up to 4 bananas, 1 full avocado, 1 Tbsp coconut oil, etc. This smoothie is also good during exercise too. This is easy for me to digest, and I find that I can go out hard just an hour or so after eating this.
2. SCD banana pancakes. Mash 1 SCD banana until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs and some cinnamon. Cook in a skillet with some butter or coconut oil. You can scale this recipe too, using the 1 banana:2 egg ratio. This is complimented well with some SCD homemade turkey sausage and some yogurt.
3. Sometimes I’ll eat leftover dinner from the night before.
The main points I try and stick to are:
1. Don’t overeat problem foods like nuts, dates, honey and dairy, things with lots of soluble fiber (like apples). There are plenty of other “safe” SCD foods that can hold you through a long day.
2. Abandon the high carb paradigm for athletics. The old adage that fat burns in a carbohydrate fire has bee taken way out of proportion. As an athlete, you need about 200 g/day carbs to cover liver glycogen needs plus about 100-150g carbs per hour of exercise. Any more gets shunted through the liver and stored as adipose tissue (fat).
Does that help?
Matt
Just wanted to throw my experience in here.
I completed my first sprint triathlon last fall in a 12hr fasted state. I didn’t carb load just continued to eat low-carb SCD in the weeks leading up to it (was battling candida with Nystatin at the time). It took me 1:29hrs to finish so I was out there for awhile
I really believe that getting 100-150grams of carbs a day is acceptable for endurance sports and training in a fasted state is totally fine.
Check this series out:
http://thatpaleoguy.blogspot.com/2010/09/high-fat-diets-for-cyclists-part-three.html
I agree with Steve.
Marc Twight, famed alpinist super-hero outlines in the training section of his book, Extreme Alpinism, his method of ‘depletion days’ where he goes out for a long, long workout day 8+ hours with nothing but water.
He’s not unique in his training methods, nor is he a genetic anomaly.
Consider the body’s energy storage capacities: ~2200 kcal carbohydrate (sugar) energy; ~150,000 kcal fat energy.
It makes sense that the body would store its preferred fuel in larger quantities.
One of the reasons I think people crash so easily (bonk) is that their bodies have been overfed sugars for so long that the body, through various mechanisms (insulin insensitivity, metabolic shifts in fat cell function, and a couple of others), becomes less efficient at burning fat as its preferred fuel.
Fortunately for us, this is reversible (low carb diet, train with fewer carbs in mouth); but from what I understand right now, it gets harder and harder to reverse the longer you are on a high sugar diet (the road to diabetes?).
Thanks Steve! You’ve struck a chord with me.
Matt
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