Enjoying Gluten-Free Life

When Gluten-Free Isn’t Enough

Yesterday, vegetarian/sometimes vegan Heather from Gluten-Free Cat revealed that she’s now eating meat and feeling much better. I’ve needed to share about the changes in my diet for a while and feel like now is the right time to do that.

Early this year, I started having new digestive problems and felt like it was something I was eating. I’d already cut out gluten, dairy and soy. Since I’d had success with my first EnterLab test – they said I shouldn’t eat the three above – I ponied up the money and had another test for 11 more foods: corn, rice, oats, beef, chicken, pork, tuna, almonds, cashews, walnuts, and white potato.

All of the grains tested positive but nothing else. I eliminated all grains but continued eating what are often called pseudo-grains – buckwheat, quinoa, tapoica, etc. – and felt much better.

Now grain-free I started getting every grain-free or Paleo cookbook I heard of from the library. I happened upon Jenny Lass’ and Jodi Bager’s “Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet.” Jenny’s healing story in the intro startled me because she’d used the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to heal from celiac disease when the gluten-free diet hadn’t worked.  When I interviewed her for the blog, I learned more and became more intrigued by the SCD vs a regular gluten-free diet.

I felt better on my “grain-free” diet but the eczema that had faded somewhat returned. I also didn’t have the energy I wanted. Then I had a severe yeast infection with bleeding that told me I needed to do more and heal.

Excess yeast needed to be starved out. After checking out and eliminating the candida diet, I looked into the SCD and felt it would help. One month ago, I started it and the eczema cleared up almost immediately. The food seemed peaceful to my body, for lack of a better word.  

Recently, you’ve seen recipes on here – Apple Pie Pancakes with Cinnamon-Apple Sauce, Carrot Walnut Muffins, No-Sugar Almond Flour Sugar Cookies (without the chocolate), Simple Summer Fruit Crisp, and Spaghetti and Meatballs - that I’ve created to not only fit this diet but to be delicious for everyone. That’s my goal. Everyone gets to eat food that’s good for them and tastes great!

Apple Pie Pancakes with Cinnamon-Apple Sauce

My husband still eats a standard gluten-free diet so that may be reflected on here sometimes but you’ll generally see recipes that fit the SCD. He does also need to control his carbs for his blood sugar and the SCD recipes are good for that so he’s been enjoying these recipes too.

I’m now enjoying my grain-free life. And hoping to share it with you.

*This wasn’t the first time I’d heard of the SCD. My first husband (now deceased) had ulcerative colitis and tried the diet in the late 90s, but stopped it after some months. I went on it with him and felt good initially but not over time. There was a lot of dairy so I think that was most likely the problem.