The special carbohydrate diet, also called the specific carbohydrate diet, is designed to help people with gastrointestinal disorders, autism and yeast infections, according to the health-care and nutrition website RD411.com. Biochemist Elaine Gottschall developed the diet and wrote about it in "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet," published in 1994. Gottschall claimed that the low-carbohydrate diet cured her daughter of colitis, a serious and chronic intestinal condition.
The Diet
The theory underlying the special, or specific, carbohydrate diet is that restricting carbohydrates, which feed bacteria and microorganisms living in the gastrointestinal tract, can help keep them under control. With bacterial overgrowth prevented, the intestines can heal, restoring your health and immune system. To keep your carbohydrate intake low on the special carbohydrate diet, you need to avoid sugar, lactose and starches found in grains, some legumes and some vegetables.
Vegetables To Avoid
The vegetables to avoid on the special carbohydrate diet are mostly starchy. Corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, parsnips, turnips and plantains have too much carbohydrates per serving and are not allowed. You must avoid okra, Jerusalem artichokes and bean sprouts. You must also avoid canned vegetables, such as canned tomato puree, canned tomato sauce, canned tomato paste and canned pumpkin.
Allowed Vegetables
Nonstarchy vegetables are all allowed on this diet. You can use fresh pumpkin, but not canned, rutabaga or winter and summer squashes. Kale, leek, onions, artichokes, asparagus, beets, bok choy, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, cucumber and celery are also allowed. You can also choose between fresh tomatoes and tomato juice. Canned tomato juice is allowed, but other canned tomato products are not.
Meal Ideas
Combine any of the permitted nonstarchy vegetables with a source of protein and fat at each of your meals. If you are used to having mashed potatoes with your meal, replace it with mashed cauliflower for a suitable alternative on this diet. You can also prepare french fries with vegetables on the allowed list, such as butternut squash or rutabaga. Spaghetti squash is a vegetable alternative to grains like pasta.
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