another probiotic rebuttal
Here is an email I got from someone who does/did both scd and gaps
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Oh, my yes! Bifidus can cause tremendous trouble! I understand GAPS's reasoning, that a normal gut has many kinds of good bacteria in there, but the problem is, WE have got bad ones that have overgrown. And bifidus, for one, is one that tends to overgrow pretty easily. I stick to SCD on this one. I think it's safer. One can "graduate" later to more strains. And that's the point of yogurt, and/or ferments, THEY have a lot of strains in them. And I'll NEVER understand why GAPS said the maltodextrin in BioKult wasn't enough to cause most people trouble! But malto is a bad guy! Feeds the bad guys!
SCD definitely wants us to have some sort of probees. If you can do yogurt, that can be enough. I really don't have yogurt reliably yet so I do the acidophilus. I get mine on-line, from GIProhealth.com... the SCDophilus. It's just the acidophilus. I started with, and am still on, the lower dosage, 3 billion. But like I said, I have added Bubbies sauerkraut and dill pickles so that gets a bunch more from the ferments. I haven't the energy to make this stuff though I hope soon to try some nut milk yogurt.
This Enzymedica probiotic has a lot of bad guys IMHO. This would be strictly illegal according to SCD. Some are good but some are bad. Before I started the diet I took one of the "well rounded" ones from Klaire Labs. I don't think it helped me at all! I think it just fed the bad bacteria at least as much as the good.
Remember, GAPS is an off-shoot of SCD. It can be a lot stricter and harder and it seems to be necessary to be so for the autistic kids, etc. Some adults say they do better on GAPS, did SCD for awhile but now GAPS and made more progress. Frankly, I think it's easier to go SCD at least at first and see what happens. Lots of people get well with SCD.
You might ask on BTVC also about the cabbage rejuvilac. I don't know much about it though I thought that, too, was pretty advanced. SCD doesn't forbid things like bifidus forever, or kefir, but they say these are very advanced and can cause a lot of trouble if you haven't gone a couple years at least and seen significant healing.
No, I absolutely do not think Elaine would approve of bifidus if she were here now. She went and got several degrees in bio-chemistry etc so she could really really understand all this stuff.
I'm kind of an odd case, diet-wise, because I've been sick for so many decades. But I don't mind telling you what I eat.
Breakfast: fruit. Not because I'm being silly but because my particular digestive system won't accept anyathing else before 11AM without causing : headache, pain all over, general malaise, and ruining the day. It used to cause diarrhea, too, not so much now so that's some improvement.
11AM - very grateful to be able to eat a bit more by then! I usually have something like half an apple, a piece of lettuce with nut butter on it, and a few olives. Something along this idea.
Noon -- first lunch (I'm still catching up). Chicken (my only meat that works) lettucewich, in other words, sliced chicken on romaine. Maybe some chicken fat with it or maybe some avocado. Probably some fruit. Or I may have a salad with chicken.
Mid-afternoon -- ditto first lunch, or can sometimes be soup or broth. I try to get broth in often but I'm not real good about it daily at this point, I will admit.
Dinner -- about 7 or so... more chicken and salad variations, and/or the soup. Fruit.
I have fruit, raw veggies, nuts and nut butters for snacks.
Really, I kind of graze my way through the day.
I cannot do dairy, eggs, red meat, any fish or seafood, nightshade veggies, legumes, or (sigh) veggies other than salad yet. I wish I could, I love to have big plates of steamed veggies! I adored eggs and cheese when I have tried them but it didn't work out well; not worth the grief.
Once in awhile I make pancakes wiht a mashed banana base and almond flour. I really can't bake much without the eggs.
If you get too constipated you should consider first, vitamin C and/or magnesium to bowel tolerance. You can fine tune it. If you haven't gone for a couple of days you will need to do an enema. I think you should keep some probees for that!
Now, having said all that, there are lots of people on GAPS who insist we must take a complicated probee combination and obviously they do fine with that. Eventually I will try more strains. But I wouldn't have wanted to at first. Also, you do need to remember that the probees themselves can cause die-off, so always start VERY LOW AND SLOW and increase slowly. We do need die-off but we always want to try to have it manageable. That was we can keep down the misery to just now and then.
Why do you thnk you need to do the candida version? Either diet will, over time, address this. Again, I think it's easier on you to let the diet do it's work and see how it goes. You can always crack down later if you feel candida is too much of a problem.
Be SURE to eat plenty of fat! We really need to to keep from starving without the grains. That took me quite awhile to build up to as I wasn't used to it. Animal fats are more satisfying than my salad dressing olive oil though I eat both.
If you are really miserable and you think it's the probees, yes, it's perfectly OK to drop them. Usually a few days will do it and you can go back at a lower dose, or another probee."
What is your opinion of this email?