Specific Carbohydrate Diet Friends Spotlight: Kat from Kat’s Food Blog

We make it a priority to highlight SCD personalities from across the internet.  We love hearing success stories and want to spread the knowledge of those brave enough to share their specific carbohydrate diet stories.  

Our spotlight this week is one we have secretly been crossing our fingers for since we started this effort.  We have the distinct

pleasure of having Kat Garson from “Kat’s Food Blog”!  I know that both of us have spent a good chunk of our SCD lives reading everything she puts up, so this really is a cool deal for us.  Kat took the time to share some of her incredible insights and blew our minds.

If you haven’t been to Kat’s site you have seriously been missing out.  Make sure you get the background and read up on her story first.  She has some really cool SCD recipe experiments that have given me the confidence to try some interesting things in the kitchen.  Mostly because we are a little weird, we are especially fond of her series on organ meats/liver and her recent post called, “Oh Lard-y“.

But what is even more interesting about Kat is her willingness to share her struggles trying to achieve that last 20% of health that is a never ending battle.  Her recent dairy-free endeavor to get acne free hit close to home for me over the last few months.  I could go on and on – and I want to make sure and throw in her SCD traveling post is really valuable if you are considering traveling.  Oh yeah and her post on where she gets her chicken eggs was just plain cool.

Kat has spent a lot of time healing on the diet and sharing it with all of us on her blog.  Her experiments with food, traveling, and refining her health are motivating and inspirational.  Make sure you follow her journey and use her knowledge to help you stay on track.  I know that it was crucial along the way while I was healing to spend some time reading up on whatever issue was tripping me up that week.

She has some great insights in her interview.  I wanted to highlight a few of my favs:

I mistakenly added nuts to my diet as most on SCD do, to try and gain weight. I wish instead I had just eaten more of the soup, boiled meats, eggs, fruit and vegetables. When you’re underweight, just throw any conception of portion out the window. Eat 3 bowls of soup if it takes that much to fill you up. Don’t overdo the nuts.

(My thoughts: Kat is smart – listen to Kat)

Start right away. Don’t worry about doing it right. Don’t worry about eating the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because you don’t know how to cook anything else. Don’t worry about messing up the yogurt or broth. Even if you follow the SCD perfectly, it still requires time for you to heal and to figure out what foods affect you. You might as well start the diet right away. As you start feeling better you will also start figuring out how to perfect the diet for yourself. Keep yourself open to tweaking your diet and supplements every couple of months until you get it right.

(My thoughts: I couldn’t have said it better, see above thoughts!)

Here is her interview – thanks Kat, you rock!

1: Why did you start the diet (symptoms, health problem)?

I didn’t have a diagnosis before the diet but was having symptoms for a long time. My doctors considered it Irritable Bowel Syndrome and did not bother with tests to investigate the diagnosis any further. When I was at my sickest, most days involved at least 20 trips to the bathroom, intense stomach pain, bloating, and weakness. The symptoms persisted for years even though I had eliminated what I thought were the main trigger foods like fat, chocolate, red meat, and dairy from my diet. I started seeing a Naturopath who suggested I might have a problem with wheat. Over the course of a couple months, I eliminated wheat and then all gluten from my diet. I noticed an improvement in my symptoms but I they never completely went away. About six months after going gluten-free I started noticing symptoms getting worse when I ate grains. Some Google searches and a phone call to my Naturopath led me to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I read the Breaking the Vicious Cycle Book and got on the Yahoo Groups BTVC-SCD group. I started the diet almost immediately and never looked back. January 23, 2008 was my last day of feeling the intense stomach pain that had plagued me for years.

2: How did the SCD Diet change your life?

Before SCD I was always in pain. I think pain has the most disastrous affect on someone’s quality of life. More so than the trips to the bathroom, the inconvenience of scheduling your life around your illness, or the constant fear of being sick in public, the pain was really the hardest symptom to live with.

Within a year on the SCD I had no pain so long as I didn’t eat wheat. Even though I’m still in the process of recovering, I’m no longer surviving my life day-to-day afraid to make plans. I’m actually enjoying traveling and participating in sports and community activities.

3: What was the biggest challenge you faced on the diet and how did you overcome it?

Not getting enough calories. When I first started I wasn’t eating the yogurt yet and was still stuck in the Food Pyramid was of thinking about portion sizes. So I was eating a breakfast, lunch and dinner with small amounts of protein and it wasn’t enough. I mistakenly added nuts to my diet as most on SCD do, to try and gain weight. I wish instead I had just eaten more of the soup, boiled meats, eggs, fruit and vegetables. When you’re underweight, just throw any conception of portion out the window. Eat 3 bowls of soup if it takes that much to fill you up. Don’t overdo the nuts.

4: What is the number 1 piece of advice you would give someone thinking about starting the diet?

Start right away. Don’t worry about doing it right. Don’t worry about eating the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because you don’t know how to cook anything else. Don’t worry about messing up the yogurt or broth. Even if you follow the SCD perfectly, it still requires time for you to heal and to figure out what foods affect you. You might as well start the diet right away. As you start feeling better you will also start figuring out how to perfect the diet for yourself. Keep yourself open to tweaking your diet and supplements every couple of months until you get it right. Working with a naturopath, holistic nutrition consultant, or SCD counselor can make the transition easier.

What did you think about Kat’s interview?  Share your thoughts below.