My story by Rachel Turet


By March of 1995, I'd had Ulcerative Colitis for a dozen years and was completely resigned to living my life from bathroom to bathroom where I would helplessly watch my life sustaining blood swirl the bowl as it flushed down the toilet.

I'd heard of, but was reluctant to even read "Breaking the Vicious Cycle", having been convinced by doctors that diet had no effect on UC, the demon that controlled my existence. I finally read Elaine Gottschall's book to pacify a well-meaning friend and after reading it, frankly, my reluctance deepened. The diet outlined in the book was so radically opposed to all I knew, that I was convinced that to try it would only hasten my death.

As fate would have it, my cousin knew someone who had tried this diet and convinced me to call her. I spoke to someone who sounded even sicker than I was and she spoke of a "cure" and of a "miracle" and of complete "remission". Who could resist?

I began the SCD diet on April 1st 1995 and my first helping of home-made yogurt soothed and comforted my burning, diseased gut and completely changed the course of my life.

I could write a book about the experience, but suffice it to say that I would go to any lengths to tell anyone who will listen about the "Specific Carbohydrate Diet". My small contribution has been to open a listserver format online that currently has about 350 members where diet information and support is available and exchanged.

It is my hope that one day doctors hand out copies of this book to newly diagnosed IBD patients in the same way they would hand a prescription of insulin to a diabetic.

Rachel Turet
Long Island, April 2000