Naomi from Milk for the Morning Cake

We make it a priority to highlight SCD personalities from across the internet. We love hearing success stories and want to spread the knowledge of those brave enough to share their Specific Carbohydrate Diet stories.  

This week, we are really excited to spotlight Naomi, who runs a blog called Milk for the Morning Cake. This is a really cool honor for us because we have both spent hours on her site during our journey healing on the SCD Diet. Naomi is an incredible person; she is a Homeopath and Nutritionist who gets it, from her own experience with Celiac disease and not getting any better on a gluten-free diet… not to mention she is an unreal SCD cook.

If you haven’t been to her site, you are missing out. It is quickly evident that she has helped a lot of people get better and really knows what she is talking about. Spend some time getting excited about trying her recipes, like one of my favorites her Broccoli, Garlic, and Lemon Zest Soup.

She took the time to wade through our SCD Diet success questions and she did not fail to impress. Enjoy her words and really take in the massive value she is sharing with us.

1: Why did you start the diet (symptoms, health problem)?

I am a Celiac sufferer and I was developing a gluten-free baking book using wholesome gluten-free flours made from buckwheat, amaranth, sorghum, teff, millet and chestnut. My focus as a nutritionist has always been on whole foods, prepared from scratch and yet there was no book out there which gave Celiacs guidance on using whole foods – everything seemed to focus purely on re-creating facsimiles of wheat-based products. It was my mission to provide low GI versions of baking classics! Unfortunately, all this baking and testing of grain-based products – wholegrain or not – caused me to develop leaky gut syndrome. My thyroid started to under perform, menstrual cycle got completely off kilter, skin fell off in sheets and my guts were either holding everything in, or letting it all hang out! I was in a huge amount of pain, constantly. When I found out about SCD, I was skeptical at first because it seemed so extreme. But I had tried the O type blood diet with good results some years previously and it dawned gradually that I might not get on too well with grains and starches. Here’s a link to the post I wrote about realizing I had to give up starch: http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/slow-dawning-of-terrible-truth.html

2: How did the SCD Diet change your life?

I wasn’t a good student at first. I’m a baker and I was itching to get on and bake goodies, breads and so on. Early on in my SCD career, I realized that I was going to have to say goodbye to peanuts, cashews, pistachios, honey, dried fruit, pulses and coconut for quite a while, if I was going to get better. I also don’t get on very well with cow’s milk in any form, so it took me a while to work out that I should be making my SCD yogurt from goat milk instead. When I got over these initial teething problems, things did start to improve – although it took about a year before I felt good again. Now, two and a half years later I feel great – although I still can’t eat pulses or much dairy and keep off sweet stuff and fruit as much as I can due to being a metabolic protein type.

3: What was the biggest challenge you faced on the diet and how did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge was knowing what to do when I felt exhausted, didn’t want to cook and craved a big slice of cake or a bar of chocolate! I faced it by learning to have things stashed away in the freezer that I could just throw in the oven and by focusing on what I could eat – half a jar of expensive bio-dynamic hazel butter and a ripe banana? OK if that’s what makes me feel better! I ate a lot of ripe banana and hazel butter during my first winter on SCD. I also developed recipes such as my simple pea and basil soup that could be made in five minutes flat, but tasted fantastic and comforting: http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com/simple-pea-and-basil-soup-dairy-free.html

4: What is the number 1 piece of advice you would give someone thinking about starting the diet?

Prepare yourself by making up batches of soup and stews in advance and freezing them. Know what you are going to be eating and have it in the house – don’t have anything else in the house that could tempt you to cheat because you will regret it. Don’t eat advanced foods before you’re ready – just because someone in a forum said they were ready for coconut after three months, doesn’t mean you are! Go slowly and always be prepared.

Thank you Naomi, this was awesome!

-Jordan