Paul T. reviewed on 7/6/2011 + 4 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

This books is considered by many to be the treatise on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It was written by the late Elaine Gottscall. In the 1950's, Elaine's daughter suffered from horrific G.I. issues. She consulted many doctors who recommended everything from pills to surgery. In the end, it was the dietary changes she implemented which helped her daughter to recover. From this experience, Elaine Gottschall went on to study nutrition and diet.

The Specific Carbohydrate diet (SCD) is a diet in which complex carbohydrates are eliminated. This includes all disaccharides and polysaccharides such as potatoes, rice, wheat, table sugar, etc. The book gives excellent detail about these carbohydrate chains and the difficulty of breaking them down by the G.I. track. This difficult process is exacerbated when the microbes in the gastrointestinal track are lacking or overrun with bad microbes (ie, yeast).

The short of it - if you are considering this diet, you will be restricted to vegetables, nuts, fruits, meats, and aged diary products (cheeses). The user must follow it for several weeks. The changes to the body will be subtle.

The book also contains recipes, though this should not be considered a cookbook.

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