Steve’s SCD Diet Healing Journal: Week 16 – Learning New Cooking Techniques

Co-Founder of SCD Lifestyle Steve Wright has finally broken down and started his path to intestinal healing.  After many years of undiagnosed digestive warfare in his body, these series of weekly posts will take you through his experiences, thoughts, and struggles on the SCD diet.  Check back and follow his progress:

Week 16 Summary:

Fixing my digestion can sure be frustrating sometimes.  Last week was another week that, looking back, all I can do is shake my head.  The first half of the week, my body and symptoms were all over the place.  Then, like the sun finally breaking through a cloud, something changed Wednesday and for the rest of the week I had amazing bathroom performances.  I was pegging the Bristol Stool scale at 4’s for 3 days, it was awesome!

Unfortunately my gas never went away, while it was minimized near the end of the week it is still much higher than “normal” or what I

would like it to be.  I have been with out yogurt for 3 days now so I’m not sure how that plays into the equation and I ran out of digestive enzymes over the weekend.  Looking forward to the week ahead as I will probably be all over the place again because I will finally have some supplements and I’m going back to the goat yogurt.

I did add raisins last week, I was looking for another snack type food.  Raisins can be problem foods for some because dried fruit is essentially a concentrated version of the normal fruit.  You end up getting the same nutrients from the raisin that you would from a grape but without the water which helps digestion. Also, because raisins are smaller and denser than grapes, it’s very easy to over eat them.  From a nutritional standpoint 1/4 cup of raisins is roughly equal to a cup of grapes and I’m sure there aren’t many of us who just eat a small handful of raisins.  Even though I was able to digest them, I can’t keep them in the house literally.  I ate way to many!

Learning A New Cooking Method

Sometimes I struggle to keep pork in my regular meat rotation.  Last week I picked up some pork tenderloins on sale.  Usually I would have seasoned them, wrapped them in tin foil and then baked the tenderloins at 400 for an hour or so.  The result was usually a decent flavored cut of pork that wasn’t bad to eat but it never really made my mouth water either. That all changed last week when I created the juiciest, most succulent, tenderloin I’ve ever eaten, I may now be addicted to pork!

I used a technique I learned called a dry rub.  For spices I used a salt, paprika, ginger, and cayenne pepper (but you can use any combo). The main point is don’t skimp on the quantity when your dry rubbing a meat.  I’m not including any specific spice amounts because I just winged it, but also because this is about learning new ways to cook not necessarily recipes.  The following steps are for using a dry rub spice mixture.

Tools: oven safe pan, meat thermometer, spices

1.  You want the tenderloin to be warmed up a bit before the cooking so get out of the fridge 30 mins ahead of time

2.  Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees and heat up an oven safe pan on the stove top at medium to high heat with a light coating of oil (I used coconut)

3.  When your ready to get started wash and then dry the tenderloin with a paper towel or rag

4.  Pour your spice mixture on the meat, rubbing it into the meat and making sure to cover all sides (I created the mix in a little bowl ahead of time)

5.  Next drop your tenderloin into the pan and sear it on all sides until a nice brown outside coating is reached (about 3 mins a side)

6.  Transfer your tenderloin into the oven and set a timer for about 20 minutes

7.  Check your meat temperature, we are looking to pull it out of the oven around 150 degrees (160 is completely done according to the National Pork Board)

8.  When you achieve the proper temperature remove the tenderloin from the oven and cover it with foil for about 10 minutes (the temp will continue rising cooking it completely)

9.  After letting it sit, slice it up and it’s ready to serve, a nice spicy crunch on the outside with a tender, moist meat on the inside

Let me know what you think!  The Zinc article is still in the works just taking longer than expected.