Two years ago, my best friend Erica (who everyone calls Smo) was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. I’m going to assume that some of you might not know what this is, so I’ll give you WebMD’s version.
“Crohn's disease can cause abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, anemia and fatigue. Some people may be symptom-free most of their lives while others can have severe chronic symptoms that never go away.”
Unfortunately, Smo was faced with the more severe version of Crohn’s, and her experience was terrible. She missed school, had multiple doctors’ appointments every week and the physical toll it was taking on her body was unbearable. She was experiencing hair loss, leg cramps, heavy bloating and extreme stomach pain, among many other symptoms. She was taking six pills a day, and the doctors wanted her to start getting infusions every eight weeks. It was hard to watch my best friend suffer so horribly, knowing there was nothing I could do to help her. But because there is no known cure for Crohn’s, it is a disease that people, like Smo, are supposed to learn to live with.
But then she found something.
After months of searching for answers, possible ways of relief and dealing with the pain she had to endure, Smo came across something that gave her hope. Her boyfriend’s mom had suggested something called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). The guidelines are fairly simple (at least, on paper):
- No added sugars
- No complex carbohydrates
- No starches
- No gluten
- No grains
- No lactose
Now, after reading through the guidelines, pick any five things out of your cupboard and I can almost guarantee they don’t follow the rules of SCD. Think of your favorite foods — yep, can’t eat those either. But the pain Smo was experiencing was enough to make her try anything that could potentially provide relief. So in March of 2014, Smo began the SCD, and she never looked back.
Just two days into the SCD, she felt relief.
Now, two years and one month later, Smo is still following the same diet and has not wavered from it once. As her symptoms decreased over time, she was able to add some things back into her diet as a test. She began drinking diet sodas a few times a month, trying sugar-free candies and even found an ice cream that did not cause a reaction. Of course, it’s a daily hassle to eat this way but she makes it work. She has found recipes to make almost anything you can think of while still following the SCD. When we go out to eat, she has to see the menu beforehand to ensure she will be able to eat something at the restaurant. And, one of my personal favorites, when we go on coffee dates, Smo brings Tupperware filled with her SCD approved creamer.
In high school, Smo would come in every week with some new food concoction that she and her mom had made over the weekend. She would always be so excited about it and insist that I try it because “it tastes just like the real thing!” And, a lot of the time, what she force-fed me was actually pretty good. She never complained about this new lifestyle. She still went out to dinners with us, watched as we devoured exorbitant amounts of chips and candy at sleepovers, and went to family parties where she could not eat a single thing. But she never complained to us. She would just ask us if she could smell our foods- another one of my favorite things she does.
Smo is so incredibly strong- any one of her friends or family members will be happy to let you know that. She is the first person to help anyone with their problems, no matter how unimportant it might be. She will listen to anything and everything, and she gives the best advice of anyone I know. I’ve never met anyone so optimistic and who always looks for the best in people and situations. I always used to tell her she was too nice, but that’s who she is, and it's incredibly admirable. To endure what she has had to go through, and still wake up every morning making the best of her situation, is something that most people could never do.
So that brings us to the point of this article (other than gushing over my very deserving BFF) — I will be doing the SCD for three weeks.
Now you are all probably asking yourselves, why would I ever do this to myself if I am not suffering? I actually have several reasons — both selfish and not so selfish.
I’ll get the selfish ones out of the way first:
- I want to lose weight before summer — Yes, the freshman 15 is real people. Only mystical creatures can go to college and go home for winter break looking the same, or better, than when they left. There are too many options in the dining hall, random Chipotle runs and weekends drinking for you to escape gaining weight. But, there’s always that last stretch of school before you go home where you can try to lose the weight and pretend you never put it on in the first place.
- I want to write about it — obviously, I love to write. I want to write about something that means a lot to me, other than traveling, and this idea just came to me in the middle of the night. I thought it would be interesting to experiment with this diet and document the experience from someone who does not suffer from Crohn's.
And now the not so selfish reasons:
- To support my best friend — Not to say that she has gone through this alone, by any means, but no one who has been there for her has ever actually been through what Smo has. Now, obviously these few weeks I am experimenting with SCD is nothing compared to her two years, but it's something. When I told her my idea, she was so excited. She started giving me ideas for foods and websites to use as a reference.
- To raise awareness — Not just awareness of what Smo has been going through, but for the fact that there are other options. Not everyone suffering from Crohn's follows the SCD, or even knows what it is. It is incredibly difficult to live this way, but Smo has said countless times that it is completely worth it.
So, here’s to the start of a very interesting few weeks...
