Specific Carbohydrate Diet

[chase17]

I'm 17 years old. Should I go on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)? I am not sure if this diet is for me since I don't have any digestive problems. My mom wants me to try this diet to make me function better in school, but I'm not so convinced it will work. I feel it could even harm me.

Does anybody have any good suggestions?

[CaptainObvious]

Why are you asking? The SCD is used mainly to treat a range of GI tract diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis... do you have any of those?

If you are a healthy 17 year old I see no particular reason to change your diet in such a way.

[chase17]

If I am healthy and am not diagnosed with any digestive tract problems such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis disease, will this diet affect me in any way if I go on it? I was recently diagnosed with aspergers syndrome(a mild form of autism), but I have absolutely NO digestive tract problems that cause diarrhea or throwing up. Only once in a while I have diarrhea, which is probably caused from eating too much pizza or drinking too much vitamin water, etc...

Even if this diet is mostly for people with digestive problems and gastroenteritis, could this make a healthier me, since this is claimed to be a far more healthy diet compared to the average American diet?

[CaptainObvious]

Could it make a healthier you? Depends on what you're eating now... if you're subsisting on McDonald's then yes it's probably healthier, for example. ;)

But in general, I would avoid subscribing to a diet like this and just try to eat healthier by balancing off your various food groups as opposed to radical carbohydrate elimination like this diet proposes. My advice would be different if you had a condition for which the diet is supposed to help, but for becoming generally healthier you just need to eat generally healthier. :P

[byee]

Yeah, as OSG says, unless the doctor has either diagnosed some form of digestive issue, OR there's some dietary imbalance, the real issue isn't so much what you eat (as the 'cure'), but rather determining what's causing the school 'performance' issue your mom is trying to address.

Aside from the simple fact that a well balanced diet is a good thing, it's best to more accurately diagnose the source of the problem (school 'perfoirmance' issues) before you arbitrarily apply a treatment (SCD).