5 Stages to Recovery
The 5 stages represent the slow introduction of ‘Legal’ SCD foods into your daily eating plan. The first stage is the intro part of the diet. This is the most important aspect of the diet for several reasons. Firstly, the digestive system has been compromised for so long that due to inflammation and sometimes ulceration it cannot absorb any kinds of nutrients from the foods you put into it. To begin with we need to allow the inflammation to recede and the ulceration to start healing. Therefore the foods on the intro part of the diet are gentle and easy to digest.
It depends on how committed you are to keeping to the stages of the diet as to how successful you will be to fully recover from your disease.
To determine when to introduce the next stage of foods, you simply monitor your digestive well being. If you find that you are improving on one stage of the diet start to introduce some new foods.
Generally speaking the intro part of the diet needs to be adhered to for at least 4 days and sometimes up to two weeks. If dairy is no problem introduce the yogurt slowly as bacterial die off will occur the first few days. This can cause bloating, diarrhea and stomach aches. This should cease after a couple of days.
When to introduce Dairy
If you are not casein* intolerant then cheeses, butter and yogurt can be introduced after the first few days on the Intro Stage.
Probiotics
The whole point of the SCDiet is to re-establish a bacterial balance in the gut. Science has established that overgrowth of bad bacteria is present in bowel disease sufferers. By starving the bad bacteria of its food and re-introducing good bacteria the gut is able to heal and all-over health can be restored.
So introducing Probiotics through the 24 hour fermented yogurt (the recipe is in the Healing Foods Cookbook and available from the BTVC (website) or fermented foods is absolutely essential.
If you do not tolerate diary, fermented foods can offer the same result. See the Pecanbread website for further information.
*Casein is a fat molecule in diary, which some people cannot digest. It differs from Lactose, as this is a complex carbohydrate and the SCDiet is lactose free. Any cheese that has been aged for 30 days or longer is lactose free, as is butter and the homemade yogurt and French cream from the book.