Questions & Answers

Is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet SCD Good for Candida or Other Gut Problems?

The SCD diet. Specific carbohydrate diet. Very, very interesting. Let’s have a little bit of a look at the history and you can read about this online about a guy called Dr. Haas who lived in Holland. Place where I come from.

And I think it was way back before World War II when they had no real specific therapy for celiac. So, this guy come along and he basically put the children on bananas, an all banana diet. Because they found that giving bananas to celiacs or people who had celiacs back then because they didn’t really know what celiacs was, that it really improved their health. And then later on when World War II came, of course, there was no bread around. So, it was rationed like crazy.

In fact, my mum was 14 during the occupation in Holland and it was terrible the stories she told me about having to share one slice of bread with four siblings and both parents. One or two slices of bread if they were lucky to get it. It was shocking times. But of course, there was a massive shortage of bread, so the celiacs dramatically improved. And then they started to understand what celiacs was, that it wasn’t a starch problem. It was a protein problem from the wheat. The wheat proteins caused the problem. And that led really, to the understanding of Celiac’s disease.

But an American lady called Elaine Gottschall, one of her, I think her daughter was a patient of Haas so then she republished Haas’s work, but wrote a book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. She published it in 1996. And she allegedly cured her daughter of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s. I think it was colitis by being on a specific carbohydrate diet for a couple of years.

But then Gottschall went on to make all sorts of claims and cures with all sorts of diseases and stuff with this specific diet. And I’ve got, of course, her book which I’ve had a look at many years ago. And I find most of these kinds of books, these carbohydrate modification books, to be quite interesting.

I really believe there is no such thing as one size fits all with any kind of diet. And I’ve always maintained that through this channel right from when I started in 2013 and I’ll maintain it until 2213, I’ll maintain it. Everybody has to modify the diet to suit their own specific needs. You can’t get a ready-made diet and give it to the masses. It will not work. It never has. It never will work. Some people will benefit very much from Elaine Gottschall’s book, but they’ll be a minority.

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The people who benefit the most from carbohydrate diets are the ones who understand that they have to modify the carbs to suit their own microbiome. And it definitely works. I’ve had candida patients, I’ve told you guys this. I’ve had candida patients eating things that no one else could eat. It would make them sick. And similarly, I’ve seen candida patients eat things that should be agreeing with them but that made them sick that we had to get him off.

And in the end, I got so confused that I started to really work on the premise that a person has to modify their carb load, both in terms of quantity and quality, to suit their gut at that given time. As the gut improves, they can generally expand the types of starches and carbs that they use. So, the more sick the gut is, the more you need to limit, particularly the carbohydrates in the beginning.

And of course the most supreme carb, up on the apex, what do you think that is? It’s called white sugar. That’s the one you avoid altogether. All right. Because we finally know now, that white sugar has no value whatsoever apart from making money for the sugar companies. It has no value. If we dumped all the sugar in the ocean, we’d probably kill all the fish. So yeah, that’s the pinnacle carb.

But then you work all your way down. Now, potatoes and pumpkin’s are way down here somewhere. But you may not agree with them. You may agree fabulously with them. I found, for example, squash and pumpkin to suit many people and other people just feel diabolical when they have it. So, it’s a trial and error thing.

So, the question is, is the specific carbohydrate diet any good for candida or other gut problem?

Yes, it is. Only if it’s modified to suit you. Try and think of it this way. If you’re a lady or a guy going to a clothes shop and you want to get a whole new outfit. Now, I’m sorry, but you’re not just going to get a manual and say, well you’re this height, you’re this weight or you’re Peter. So Peter, at five foot 11, should only wear this. Should wear a red shirt, black pants, green shoes, purple socks. That’s how this guy’s supposed to look. Now, you’re going to look at that and say, “The hell with that, man. I’m not going to wear all that crap. This is what I went to wear. This is what I feel good wearing. It suits me.”

It’s the same with the carbohydrate. You have to modify. A little bit different clothes and food, but the point I’m making here is you’ve got to personalize that to suit these bacteria. And as the gut improves, you’ll be surprised. It’s like, as your confidence improves, you’ll probably wear really crazy shirts. Who knows? You might even wear a hot pink shirt or something really way out there. Just like you may end up eating some ice cream, heavens forbid. Or doing some weird things that healthy people aren’t supposed to do. But healthy people can do. They can get away with it. And it’s the same with you.

So, I’ll just reiterate, the sicker the gut, the more caution there needs to be particularly with the carbs. The healthier the gut, the less caution, and the more common sense there needs to be, about especially, preventing problems for future. So, you need to modify it to suit yourself.

Now, I know what the comments are going to be. “You always say the same crap. You re not giving us specific instructions on how to do things.” Well, I ain’t going to do that. I’m not telling you what time to get up in the morning. I’m not telling you what time to have a shower. I’m not telling you how many pieces of toilet paper to use in the bathroom.

You need to modify these things to suit yourself. But when it comes to the gut, it’s cause and effect. So, as soon as you eat the food, try and have a mental check what the tummy feels like hours or a day later. Was it okay? Is the bowel motion okay? Not too much bloating or gas. Sleeping a bit better. Look at all these things and use them as checkpoints to modify your approach to the carb intake in terms of both how much you’re eating and the type of carb you’re eating.

Go back and look at some of my videos on carbohydrates and foods. I think you’ll learn a lot more out of that. Once you find the secret to your gut, like I have, you’ll never, ever have got a problem again. You’ll have perfect bowel motions. You’ll have no bloating or gas and your life will get better and better and better. Thanks for tuning in.