You've Been On The Diet For One Year: Now What?

Every once in a while I look through customer reviews of Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet at Amazon. Not long ago I cam across an interesting comment on one of the reviews of the book.

The commenter was saying her daughter (I think around nine years old) had Crohn”s and that the diet was working for her. The interesting part of the comment was the mom said that they would do the diet for one year and then her daughter would be better and she could go back to eating “normal.”

This took me back to when I first started the diet. I too thought I would do the diet for one year and then start introducing old foods. That did not turn out to be the case, and I now know there are some foods I will never go back to. Why one year?

Well, the book says to strictly adhere to the diet for at least one year before trying new foods. The book also does not have a definitive answer as to how long to continue the diet. While I used to be bothered by that, I think it is for the best. Honestly, there are people who may never be able to leave the diet. I feel more secure in thinking I will not have problems if I stick to the diet at least 95% of the time. However, when starting the diet it seemed so extreme doing it for “just one year” gave me some comfort.

After the year was over, and I was feeling completely fine, I didn’t want to go back to old foods. Why take the risk? I had spent the last year learning about eating healthy, and learning to cook new things. I didn’t want to abandon it. Later I did, and I will write a post about that soon.

I wonder if anyone followed the diet for just a year and then when back to eating whatever they wanted with no problems. Actually, I wonder anyone has been able to go back to eating anything they wanted without any recurrence.

So I guess the answer to the “Now what?” question is to keep on with the diet. Honestly, if someone asked me what they should do, that’s what I would say. Introducing new foods is tricky. It’s easy to go overboard (I did). Of course it’s all a personal decision. My point is following the diet for one year may not be all that is needed.

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Sherry Lipp

Founder at Happy Gut For Life

Sherry is a Certificed Holistic Gut Practioner, author, and recipe creator. Sherry started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in 2000 and has been creating delicious, grain and gluten-free recipes ever since. She is the author of the Don't Skip Dessert SCD cookbooks.