The investigators noted that this approach demanded a great deal of cooperation on the part of the patient. However, they added that most of their patients were so pleased with their improvement that they were willing to comply. Ms. Gottschall formulated the diet based on personal experience with her daughter, who at age 8 was stricken with debilitating ulcerative colitis. The basic theory underlying the SCD is that disease-producing bacteria and fungus spread their toxic humors in the intestines when a natural balance has been disrupted. Gottschall's Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a balanced, varied program consisting of meat, fish, eggs and poultry with most vegetables, nuts, and some fruits and sugars allowed.
Beans are usually able to be reintroduced within three months.
Patients with IBD often note significant improvement in their symptoms within three weeks of starting the Gottschall diet. By twelve weeks, the majority are recovering definitively. She now maintains her remission with a modified version of the SCD that allows her occasional rice-based grain products. Another patient with ulcerative proctitis affecting the rectum had daily bloody diarrhea despite medications for years until initiating the Gottschall diet. After 18 months, he is completely symptom-free without the aid of medications.