Mrs. Ed from Mrs. Ed’s Research and Recipes

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. 

This week we are pleased to spotlight Tracee (Mrs. Ed) who runs a blog called Mrs Ed’s Research and Recipes.  Her blog details her amazing journey in motherhood and SCD which she sums up saying, “We are a household dealing with autism, food allergies, Celiacs disease, Crohn’s disease, chronic constipation, severely picky eating and snoring…”  Her story inspires me anytime I feel like giving up…

Spend some time on her site and you are in for a treat… literally.  I really like it because not only does she make some

incredibly amazing SCD legal meals, like my personal favorite mango chicken or pork, but she also finds some really interesting research to share with everyone that makes us all smarter.  Her short but sweet post sending people over to the Healthy Skeptic’s series on digestion and GERD alone is worth the read because that is one of the most informative articles on I have ever read.

We had the opportunity to ask her our SCD Diet success questions and she brought some incredibly valuable knowledge into the mix.  Read this once a month and stay motivated… enjoy.  If you do anything at all, click on her link to Dr. Ayers website about Cooling Inflammation, you will learn a wealth of knowledge from the information he shares.

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

I had a very touchy tummy as a child, which I seemed to outgrow, and have been plagued by severe canker sores my whole life. When I was 15 I began getting nickel sized ulcers in my throat accompanied by severe fatigue. I was continuously tested for mono, which would always come back negative. In my late twenties the bouts of fatigue/ulcers would last 5-9 weeks at a time. The doctors would say “it’s just you”.

My brother, who is now 40, has autism. He is about 5’3″ and wears size 12 slim in children’s cloth, but no one ever thought to check his GI tract.  I remember it was very difficult for my mother to take him places and get him ready for school. We must have been a sight in public….a 4’11” woman dragging a screaming kid and me walking about 10 feet behind. In the mid 1970’s she came across a book called “Why Your Child is Hyperactive” by Dr. Ben Feingold. It was about a diet that removes artificial preservatives from the diet.  Check it out here.

My brothers response was amazing, while he was still autistic, the temper tantrum disappeared.  We could actually go places as a family without outbursts. We credit this diet to my brother becoming a lot higher functioning. (The Feingold Diet is still ignored by the medical community)

My son, Gordon, developed GI problems at one week of age: failure to thrive, projectile vomiting and would cry in 12 to 16 hour bouts. The doctors were going to write it off as colic, but then I noticed a poster about GERD behind one of the doors in the waiting rooms. Treating for GERD seemed to make everything better for awhile. At 18 mos he spent a month on antibiotics and quit speaking after that. He would go weeks at a time on a liquid diet, refusing to eat. His tantrums could last hours at a time. A year later we ran across info on Omega-3’s and tried the Feingold diet. The leaps he made were extraordinary; however, he was still autistic. His tantrums were gone, he could babble and interact with adults. We were thrilled and had no idea there was even more we could do for him.  When I ran across info on the GFCF diet for autism, it seemed a bit far fetched. However, most of the kids that it worked for had gi problems identical to Gordon’s, so it was worth a try. We got zero response, even though we would find out later that we both had severe gluten issues. Luckily, I had run across a few blips of info here and there on the SCD. The fact that it focused on more digestible foods peeked my interest.

2: How did the SCD Diet change your life?

Three weeks into the diet, the most amazing thing happened. Gordon began to say about 5 new words a day, his motor skills just came back, and he noticed other children. All of this just happened overnight! He had the biggest smile on his face for a couple of months. Within a year he went from non-verbal to average language usage, although his pronunciation still needed work. He has now started kindergarten on time. In most areas he is indistinguishable from his peers. He has a few issues left, like not always looking at people when they talk to him, and has a mild PDD diagnosis. Anyone who knew him before the diet will tell you he’s not the same child. Those who didn’t simply do not believe those who say that!

During this time, I found I had gluten and bakers yeast issues. Eliminating these kept my ulcers away and slowly reduced my sinus allergies by about 80 percent. I could finally give up the daily allergy medicine! It turned out I have Celiac’s and Crohn’s (the throat ulcers were Crohn’s).  I have one of those jobs where I don’t see the light of day much, and am and stressed out, so I didn’t have time to learn SCD for my son and GF for myself.  I just ate his SCD food for awhile and had noticed a lot more energy. When I finally had time to cook GF for me, I became fatigued again and craving sugar (kicking the sugar habit was tough for me so any cravings set off an alarm). If I want to keep my energy level up, I have to eat SCD. I will eat some gf foods when we go out to eat, especially on vacation, but I stick to the SCD most of the time. At first I thought of it as a temporary diet, until we healed, but the more I read about nutrition, the more I’m convinced it may be the best way for some of us to eat. I really enjoy the blog Cooling Inflammation by Dr. Ayers, a cellular biologist. He discusses how many of the chronic health problems we have today are due to dietary inflammation. His anti-inflammatory diet recommendations are very similar to the SCD: Cooling Inflammation

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

The biggest challenges were finding recipes and not feeling deprived. I love cookbooks and fortunately there were some gorgeous ones. I ordered every one, so I could look at pictures of all the things I could have. I also love to experiment with food, but it took awhile to finally have success with my own recipes. I remember throwing away a lot of experiments. Once I had a few favorite recipes to turn to, life began to feel “normal” again, which made it easier to stick to the diet.  That was a big reason for starting a blog, maybe having more SCD recipes out there would help others stick to the diet.

The other challenge is the medical community. There is always a look of horror when they find our child is on a special diet. The media has done a convincing job telling Americans that special diet are “dangerous”, despite piles of medical research to prove otherwise. No on even thinks to look for this research, even doctors, because our Food Pyramid Brainwashing has been so effective. The Food Pyramid is a highly inflammatory diet which is dangerous to many of us, but a real perk to pharmaceutical and industrial food profits. That is the other reason for my blog, to point to some of the research that we need to pay attention to. I’m hoping in the future to have more time to for this.

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

Just do it. Give it an honest try for one month. Think of it as a fascinating science experiment and just go for it. It may be the best investment you’ve ever done. And if the SCD doesn’t work for you, keep searching for the “you” diet, what your body runs the best on. It doesn’t hurt to ask God to help you with direction.

Thank you Mrs. Ed, you rock!