Thursday, April 1, 2010

Paleo Diet v Specific Carbohydrate Diet

How astonishing! I finally got around to finding out more about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which so many people believe have helped their children with autism symptoms. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it sounds almost exactly like the Paleolithic Diet! I am still trying to understand the differences among different carbohydrates, but according to the official website of Breaking the Vicious Cycle, which popularized the SCD:

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet™ is biologically correct because it is species appropriate. The allowed foods are mainly those that early man ate before agriculture began. The diet we evolved to eat over millions of years was predominantly one of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts, low-sugar fruits. Our modern diet including starches, grains, pasta, legumes, and breads has only been consumed for a mere 10,000 years....


How very fascinating.

Our foray into the Paleo Diet got interrrupted by a very fun birthday party, with not-very-paleo birthday cake, so I am putting off final analysis of the results.

3 comments:

  1. The biggest differences that I see are the SCD has this special low-lactose yogurt and some beans. Here's a short explanation of paleo:

    http://paleodiet.com/definition.htm

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  2. Thanks, Don. I don't really understand why some beans are okay and some are not. I must confess, after reading over some other materials, I am not convinced by the rationale they have offered for the SCD ... not that the rationale matters of course! I think it's clear that this sort of diet really works for some people, but I do wonder WHY. The overlapping things about these different diets are pretty fascinating.

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  3. Really no legumes are good for the human body and are best to be removed completely.

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