The Specific Carbohydrate Diet Cures GERD?

Conventional wisdom tells us many things that turn out wrong; we are living breathing proof of that in the SCD community. Why do you think so many of our family, friends and doctors like to take issue with what we eat? If you buck conventional wisdom, you might actually be headed in the right direction, like using the SCD diet to change the root causes of your symptoms, not taking pills to mask them.

The same holds true with chronic heartburn or gastric esophageal reflux disease (GERD). Conventional Wisdom says “Ah, I have too much stomach acid because it burns sooo bad!” Once again, listening to conventional wisdom, including most doctors and ALL pharmaceutical companies, you’d be wrong again.

Chris Kresser put together a great series of articles into a free eBook that explains how and why GERD happens. I think it should be required reading for anyone on the SCD diet, because it explains in very simple terms how and why many people on the typical Standard American Diet (SAD) have acid reflux and how doctors treat the symptoms with medicine handed to them from the evil pharmaceutical empire. It also helps that the author backs everything up with legit sources and studies.

Here are some of the highlights:

1: “GERD is caused by increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP)”

So, that begs the question “What causes intra-abdominal pressure?”

According to the author:

2: “Instead, I believe the primary causes of IAP (and thus heartburn and GERD) are bacterial overgrowth and mal-digestion of carbohydrates – both of which are caused at least in part by low stomach acid. In a nutshell, the process looks like this:

Now, I encourage you to read the entire eBook so you can be informed about your body and the real reasons for GERD. Chris breaks it down as this: you need to simultaneously treat both the bacterial overgrowth and the maldigested carbohydrates (from grains and starches) as well as the root cause of low stomach acid. If you don’t address each issue you allow the cycle to continue.

So, How Is Addressing Bacterial Overgrowth and Maldigested Carbs Accomplished?

It’s easy. Just start the SCD diet, which reboots the gut flora (kills bad bacteria) and removes any hard to digest carbohydrates (grains and starches) and then supplement with Betaine HCL until the levels of stomach acid secretion are strengthened. You treat the root cause, break the cycle and remove the symptoms all in one fell swoop.

What are your thoughts on his articles/eBook?

-Steve