SCD Summer
I just finished reading
and summarizing the book Breaking the
Vicious Cycle, by Elaine Gottschall.
It explains the specific carbohydrate diet and the science behind
healing the intestine.
Having read the book
and now have a better understanding of what goes on biologically in the
intestine, I am ready to embrace the diet and give it a committed try to
further improve my health.
Basically, eating
specific foods creates a cycle in the intestine which can only be cured by
depriving the intestine of those foods.
In people with specific
diseases, some carbohydrates are not digested or absorbed and remain in the
intestine where they create damaging gases and acids. This causes all sorts of problems.
The intestinal wall
tries to protect itself by building a thick layer of mucus but this layer turns
into a soil bed where bad bacteria thrives and grows out of control.
In a normal intestine,
the body naturally keeps a balance of good and bad bacteria. In a sick intestine, the balance cannot be
maintained and bad bacteria take over.
The rest of the body suffers from this imbalance.
By starving the
intestine of the bad carbohydrates and introducing good bacteria with homemade
yogurt the intestine can return to a normal balance and the body can heal
itself and get back to doing the job of maintaining balance in the intestine
and the rest of the body.
Eating gluten-free and
lactose-free is not enough to heal the intestine completely. The SCD diet is
similar to the paleo diet with the exception of what sugars are allowed
(saccharine and honey) and what oils are allowed (vegetable oils).
My suggestion is to pay
careful attention to what your body tells you and keep a food journal to note
reactions. I personally would avoid
saccharine because it is a sugar made in a lab and avoid honey because it has
such a high glycemic count and will spike blood sugar. I would also
research oils carefully and stick with coconut and olive oil along with other
oils from nuts which have not been processed in labs.
The hardest part of SCD for me will be removing soda, potatoes and yams from my diet. I will by crying into my food for a while, but that will just be added salt to make it taste better.
I will post the summary here for your reading pleasure if you would like to read the entire summary. I also made a table with the allowed foods so I can post it on my fridge.
Breaking the Vicious Cycle
The book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, by Elaine
Gottschall, explains how to obtain intestinal health and heal the gut using the
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). This
diet is a healthy eating program using a complex carbohydrate plan. It is a wholesome diet grounded in medical
research which uses a natural approach to digestive problems.
The goal of the diet is
to remove sucrose, lactose and starch from the diet to starve the overgrowth of
bacteria and microbes in the intestine. SCD
corrects malabsorption, inscreases the health of the cells of the body, strengthens
the immune system, prevents further damage and allows a return to health
It is a hypothesis that
intestinal problems can be changed by manipulating the types of carbohydrates
ingested, mainly carbohydrates containing sucrose and starch. It is further hypothesized that removing
grains and dairy (lactose) can bring remission in many diseases and heal the
gut to the point that the patient can eventually eat normally.
The carbohydrates found
in foods are broken down into three types:
·
Single sugars
o
Single sugars are monosaccharides. They include glucose, fructose, and
galactose. Glucose and fructose are
found in honey, fruits, and some vegetables.
Galactose is found in lactose-hydrolyzed milk (LHM) and in yogurt. Single sugars do not need to be split further
to be transported from the intestine into the bloodstream.
·
Double sugars
o
Double sugars are disaccharides. There are four main disaccharides. These double sugars do require splitting by
intestinal cell enzymes to be transported from the intestine into the bloodstream.
The double sugars include lactose, sucrose (table sugar), maltose and
isomaltose.
·
Starches
o
Starches are polysaccharides, meaning many
sugars. There are two kinds of starches
called amylose and amylopectin. Most
vegetables contain both types but those that contain more amylose than
amylopectin starch are simpler to digest.
SCD does not strive to
remove intestinal pathogens completely.
Gottschall encourages the holistic goal of reestablishing the healthy
balance of intestinal flora. A healthy
body will maintain a natural balance.
The SCD is directed at
those suffering from Celiac disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis,
irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, cycstic fibrosis,
chronic diarrhea, and refractory constipation.
Evidence shows the diet has provided relief from arthritis, skin rashes,
psoriasis, fatigue and foggy head (spaciness).
It is not always an
individual food causing intestinal problems, but, rather, the byproducts of the
ingestion of certain foods which cause the problems. Just eating gluten-free is not enough. Gottschall's SCD addresses the frequency of
intolerances to other foods in addition to gluten and lactose and points out
the inconsistent benefits from gluten-free and lactose-free diets.
There is a vicious
cycle of destruction with intestinal problems. When carbohydrates (sugars and
starches) are not digested and, thus, not absorbed, they remain in the
intestinal tract. They imbed in the
mucus wall which acts like rich
"soil" in which microbes live and multiply. Adding yeast and bacteria changes the
carbohydrates in ways that injure the intestine. When bacteria grows out of control there is
an increase in bacterial by-products and mucus production. This action causes injury to the surface of
the small intestine and the damaged intestine impairs digestion of
disaccharides. This delay of digestion
in turn causes more malabsorption of disaccharides and starts the cycle over
again. The SCD diet strives to deprive
the intestine of food that causes the bad microbes to thrive.
Everyone has microbial
flora, up to 400 bacterial species live in the human colon, and in a normal,
healthy intestinal tract, the microbes live in a state of balance. In an unhealthy colon, the balance does not
exist and any one type of microbe can overwhelm the body.
The colon usually
triggers an imbalance because it is close to the lowest part of the small
intestine. If the normal equilibrium of
the colon is disturbed, microbes migrate into the small intestine and stomach
where they compete for nutrients and overload the intestinal tract with their
waste products.
Bacterial overgrowth
usually occurs due to overuse of antacids which interfere with the acidity of
the stomach, a natural decrease in stomach acid due to aging, malnutrition and
poor diet which weakens the immune system and antibiotic therapy which changes
the dynamic of microbes.
One of the first signs
of bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine is malabsorption of B12. Patients should get this checked at every
visit. Intestinal disease is historically related to bacteria and yeast. If the intestinal environment can be kept in
a healthy state, harmful microbes will not be a threat. Keeping a healthy state may include
introducing acidified (fermented) milk, similar to yogurt, to keep beneficial
bacteria in the intestinal tract. This
prevents other bacteria from forming harmful toxins.
Intestinal disorders
usually involve microbial populations which have been altered in number, in
kind, or both. The normal contractions
of the intestinal muscles are not able to remove them. Evidence suggests microbes do not cause
disease unless they adhere to the gut wall.
Antibiotics, cortisone and sulfa may not help or may have negative
side-effects. The best way to restore
microbial balance is to manipulate the energy source (food we eat) through
diet. Most intestinal microbes require
carbohydrates for energy.
When carbohydrates
aren’t absorbed into the blood stream, they ferment and turn to gas or acids
which injure the small intestine. Every
time we eat bad sugar or bad carbohydrates we are sticking another knife in the
intestine. Until we stop adding injury
and start removing the knives already in place, the intestine won’t be able to
heal. One of the acids which is formed,
lactic acid, is being studied because there is growing evidence that it causes
abnormal brain function and behavior.
Bacterial growth in the
small intestine appears to destroy the enzymes on the intestinal cell
surface. Without the enzymes, the
intestine cannot digest carbohydrates and cannot absorb normally. The intestine triggers a self-defense
mechanism in which the intestinal tract attempts to lubricate itself with mucus
to protect against eh injury because caused by the gases, toxins and acids from
the incompletely digested and unabsorbed carbohydrates.
SCD removes
carbohydrates which act as food for the bad microbes and provides carbohydrates
which require minimal digestive processes and can be easily absorbed and leave virtually
nothing for bad microbial growth.
As microbes decrease,
the harmful by-products decrease. This
removes further injury and the intestine doesn’t need to protect itself with
mucus and stops producing excess mucus.
This improves overall digestion and absorption. The individual is getting nutrition and energy
and the cells become healthy and make the immune system healthy and it can help
overcome the microbial invasion.
What is malabsorption –
the inability of the cells of the body to obtain nutrients from foods that are eaten. There are many places it occurs. If food travels too rapidly through the
intestinal tract with diarrhea there is insufficient time for large food
molecules to be broken down and absorbed.
If the pancreas isn’t functioning it doesn’t deliver sufficient
digestive enzymes to the small intestine to break down large molecules. The microvilli of the cell membranes in the
intestines act as membrane gatekeepers and transport nutrients. Only carbohydrates which have been properly
processed can cross over through the microvilli. Milk sugar, lactose and sucrose are split
apart at this microvilli site and starches from grains and potatoes go through
final digestion here. If the microvilli
cell membranes are damaged, these processes are difficult if not impossible.
The microvilli
membranes have sugar-splitting enzymes
(disaccharidases) which are vulnerable to damage. Vitamin deficiencies of folic acid and B12
can prevent development of the microvilli.
The thick layer of mucus can prevent contact between the enzymes and the
disaccharides lactose, sucrose, maltose and isomaltose. Toxic substances produced by yeast, bacteria
parasites can cause damage and destroy enzymes.
If enzymes can’t do
their job, sugars remain undigested in the small intestine and instead of
nutrients going into the bloodstream; water is drawn into the intestine toward
the sugars. This causes diarrhea and the
cells of the body are deprived of energy, minerals and vitamins. The sugars remain and ferment and grow
intestinal microbes.
As irritants increase,
the intestinal cells try to defend themselves.
Mucus-producing cells (goblet
cells) increase and produce for secretion of intestinal mucus. A thick mucus barrier forms and enzymes
cannot do their job making contact with sugars and splitting them for digestion
and absorption.
Goblet cells can become
exhausted and stop defending to absorptive lining against irritation. The intestinal surface is then left with no
protection. Other things, like gluten,
can enter the interior of the cell and destroy it.
Gluten is not digested
welld in many diseases. Gluten is a
protein composed of hundreds of building blocks called amino acids which are
linked together to form the protein molecule.
Normally, the gluten molecule is broken down by digestive enzymes in the
small intestine and the simple amino acid of which gluten is composed are
absorbed by the intestinal absorptive cells to provide nutrition for the rest
of the body. In celiac disease, the
gluten remains undigested. It isn’t known
exactly why, but the popular theory is that the gliadin fraction penetrates the
intestinal cell membrane and reaches the underlying layer of white blood cells
and causes an immune response.
Incomplete absorption of starch results in an
increase in intestinal fermentation and the production of intestinal gas. It appears that gluten alone does not cause
intestinal symptoms. It appears that
something other than the protein, gluten, is involved in the underlying cause
of celiac. Research is ongoing and investigators
think an inability to digest disaccharides induces the sensitivity to
gluten. The flattened intestinal
absorptive cells have lost their ability to perform the last step in digestion
which is to split disaccharides. SCD
cures celiac disease symptoms and allows individuals to thrive.
