Anybody tried the Specific Carbohydrate Diet? It’s based on the theory that some people have an inability to digest complex carbohydrates found in grains, milk and starches (e.g. potato). The recommendation is to eat only mono-saccharides, found in fruits, vegetables and honey. I am interested because I have recently found out that my inflammatory arthritis might be improved by diet, especially removing gluten. However, I don’t have celiac’s disease but rather an allergic antibody reaction to all grains and whey, so I’m wondering if I am reacting to the carbs rather than the protein. Eliminating dairy and grains did result in some improvement already, but I was still eating potatoes. One of the things that appeals to me is that you can have yogurt on this diet if you ferment it for 24 hours to remove the lactose. I figure it’s worth a try.
Hi Libby!
I hadn’t heard of the “specific carbohydrate diet” before, but the premise sounds flawed and a bit faddy.
Grains, milk and potatoes have entirely different chemistries. You use different enzymes to digest milk than you do grains. And potatoes are among the fastest of carbs, unlike whole grains. I believe potato starch is just short chains of glucose. I believe both grains and potatoes require alpha glucosidase, and if you have it, they’ll break right down into glucose. If you don’t have it, or if it that enzyme blocked you will end up with painful gas, but that’s it.
People who can’t digest milk lack lactase, another enzyme, and they too get horrible gas, but no immune system symptoms.
I am pretty sure that the immune system reacts only to proteins.
If you couldn’t digest complex carbohydrates, you would know it because you wouldn’t see your blood sugar rise after eating them. I have taken Precose, which temporarily blocks alpha glucosidase and that is exactly what happens–no digestion until it wears off, and no blood sugar rise. So you can’t have it both ways–high blood sugars after eating carbs and thinking you haven’t been able to digest them.
That said, many people do very well after eliminating grains from their diets, even without a celiac diagnosis.
I have read here and there the idea that fermented yogurt no longer has lactose and therefore doesn’t raise blood sugar, but I have not found it to be true with any “natural” yogurt I’ve eaten. If you see your blood sugar going up, then there still was sugar left in the yogurt. Your meter will give you the answer there.
Hope you had good holidays with your family! Mine is not coming home until Christmas this year, but we will all be together then for the first time in several years.
The immune system does react to carbs, but in a different way.
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/276/32/30490
http://www.stormingmedia.us/93/9355/A935534.html
Yogurt/kefir convert milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid. The amount of conversion depends on how long you ferment it. Most commercial products stop the fermentation fairly early, because most people don’t like sour yogurt, so there’s still a lot of lactose left. Also, anyone who finds a BG rise from protein will see the BG go up from the protein in the yogurt/kefir.
So I agree with Jenny: Your meter will give you the answer here.
If you love yogurt/kefir and the stuff you buy in the store makes your BG go up too much, consider making your own and letting it ferment a long time. The yeast in kefir will remove even more of the lactose than the bacteria alone in the yogurt. It can also become slightly alcoholic.
Hi Jenny - interesting that you mention Precose. Is that the white kidney-bean “carb blocker” or starch neutralizer? What has your experience been with Precose? Worth a try once in awhile when you can’t resist grains/potatoes?
I forgot to mention. Some yogurts add cornstarch or other carbs as thickeners. Less common in the plain, though.
Yes, I wondered also–if these carbs did not digest, that would be a GOOD thing I would think, for diabetics, as it would mean the blood sugar would not go up from them!
Dear Gretchen.
Yes this starch addition to yogurts is very annoying sometimes I buy 3 to 7% fat yogurts or so called sour cream to avoid this.
I was just going to write a blog about this type of diet! I just started yesterday to completely get rid of grains, dairy, and legumes in my diet. I never heard of it being called the “specific carbohydrate diet” but rather the paleolithic or caveman diet.
I never use to think that grains were any way bad for me but I’ve been rethinking the possibility of type 1 diabetes being related to a food sensitivity. Type 1 has already been linked to early consumption to cow’s milk and type 1 is very closly linked to celiac’s disease, a wheat gluten sensitivity.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/12110
For a month I took out dairy completely and my insulin needs did go down. It went 9 units of lantus to 6 units of lantus. I couldn’t take it without cheese and then my basal insulin went back up to 9 units lantus and the no dairy thing did nothing for the acne I keep experiencing, which was initially why I tried no dairy. The change in insulin could be realted to anything though so you never know.
But now I’m going to try no dairy nor grains and I’m going to see what happens. I love grains so it’s going to be hard!! I’m glad to hear you’ve seen some improvement. Are you still following the diet, and have your sugars and insulin stayed the same? When did you find out that you were allergic to grains and whey?
Dear Libby.
If you want to try a specific carbohydrate eat only sauerkraut with your favorite meats and fats thrown in. This would be a winner from a point of view of loosing weight and good blood sugar control. If low carb does not work that’s were I am going . About arthritis can’t say I am not blessed with that. I heard years ago my friend Bob say his aunt was on some sort of British anti-arthritis diet but never could find anything about it. Has anybody heard of such a thing?
Inability to do complex carbs would be easy to test. Eat some patotoes and chew it in your mouth and put some on a urine test strip for glucose if it registers your saliva has the enzyme to do polysaccharides.
So I’ve been on the no grains/dairy diet for 8 days now and I feel incredibly better!
I’ve had no blood sugar spikes, I don’t feel hungry all the time, I feel full after I eat (I never did before), I have no bloating, uncomfortable gas or burping and I’ve been able to concentrate so much better. I’m definitely going to stick longer to this diet. I’ve basically replaced all my grains with more fruits and vegetables. It’s great!! I used to have a ½ cup serving of fruit in my meals now I have more like 2 cups serving of fruit with every meal. I actually lost some weight too, kind of a lot, about 5 pounds. I was never able to lose weight before, I just kept gaining weight.
I thought I would really miss the cereals, breads, tortillas, legumes, and soy products but I haven’t. I just don’t have the food cravings anymore.
I really feel this disease- type 1 diabetes, is more diet related than doctors tell us. My insulin dosage went down too, I think it’s really due to taking out those certain products in my diet. My carb intake stayed the same.
If anyone is interested, here’s a link to an interesting article by Loren Cordain, called “Cereal grains: humanity’s double-edged sword”. www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf
It may sound kinda hocus pocus but there’s lot of scientific back up in the paper.
Interesting thread because my mother thinks she now has IBS and this is one of the suggested diets. When I read it, it seemed like a typical paleolithic diet. I guess by eating low carb, I am basically following this diet but, I do allow for small amounts of yogurt, cream, natural sour cream, cheese and cultured butter.
~Danielle