Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall (1994): Specific Carbohydrate Diet food list

Breaking the Vicious Cycle (1994) is a specific carbohydrate diet for intestinal health.

• Avoid starches and complex sugars.
• Slowly introduce laxative foods after symptoms improve.
• Eat unprocessed foods.

Below is a description of the food recommendations in the diet.  Foods to eat  |  Foods to limit  |  Foods to avoid  |  Introducing the diet.  There’s a lot more in the book.

Use this page as a cheat sheet alongside the book. Send this page to friends, family, and anyone else who you want to understand what you’re eating on this diet.

Get a copy of Breaking the Vicious Cycle for information on the effects of diet on intestinal microbes, effects of diet on celiac disease, mental health, and autism, supplementation recommendations, meal plan for first 5 days, and recipes.

The reasoning behind Breaking the Vicious Cycle

This diet allows you to eat unprocessed single sugars (monosaccharides – found in fruit, honey, properly-made yogurt, and certain vegetables). Unlike sucrose, lactose, and starch (disaccharides), glucose requires no digestion and is more likely to be absorbed by the cells of the small intestine to give nourishment to people with disturbed digestive systems. By using a diet which contains predominately “predigested” carbohydrates, the individual with an intestinal problem can be maximally nourished without over-stimulation of the intestinal microbial population. By depriving intestinal microbes of their energy source (carbohydrates), their numbers gradually decrease along with the toxins they produce which can injure intestinal cells and cause a variety of intestinal disorders and also abnormal brain function and behavior.

Breaking the Vicious Cycle diet plan – what to eat and foods to avoid for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet^TM (SCD)

Foods to eat  |  Foods to limit  |  Foods to avoid  |  Introducing the diet

Foods to eat in Breaking the Vicious Cycle (“legal” foods)

• Animal proteins
  • Meats, fresh or frozen, with nothing added during processing – e.g. beef, lamb, pork; all parts of the animal including liver, kidney, rind/skin, tongue, oxtail
  • Poultry/fowl, fresh or frozen, with nothing added during processing – e.g. chicken, duck, goose, pheasant, pigeon, turkey
  • Fish and shellfish, fresh or frozen or canned in oil or water – e.g. anchovies
  • Proteins cured without added sugars of any kind
  • Eggs (when brisk diarrhea has cleared)
• Dairy with almost no lactose
  • Brick cheese, cheddar, colby cheese, dry curd cottage cheese (DCCC) (not “uncreamed” cottage cheese which can have a lot of added lactose), gruyère, Havarti, manchego cheese, provolone cheese, Swiss cheese, cheeses with a bacterial culture involved in their production that have been aged at least 30 days
  • Homemade yogurt fermented for 24 hours, made from powdered, skim, 2%, or whole milk; don’t add milk powder to fluid milk to make yogurt
• Vegetables and salads
  • Fresh or frozen (with no added sugar or starch)
  • Cooked (when bowel movements are formed) or raw (after diarrhea has cleared)
  • Acorn squash, artichoke (French), asparagus, avocados, beets, butternut squash, carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, leeks, lettuce (all kinds), mushrooms, onions, peas, peppers (green, yellow, and red, hot or mild), pumpkin, radish, spinach, squash (summer and winter), string beans / green beans, tomatoes, watercress, zucchini/courgettes
  • Cabbage family foods – do not use if you still have diarrhea and gas – bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale
  • Chard / Swiss chard – use with caution if gas is still a problem
  • Black radish, celeriac / celery root, rutabaga – go slow and be careful as they are very fibrous
  • Sauerkraut, if you’ve been on the program for a long time symptom-free
  • See below for list of vegetables which should not be eaten
• Herbs and spices
  • Herbs, e.g. basil, bay leaf, cilantro, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme
  • Spices – pure spices of any kind (avoid mixtures) – allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, paprika
• Fruits (after diarrhea has cleared – reintroduce slowly per guidelines below)
  • Fresh, raw or cooked, frozen (with no added sugar), or canned in their own juice
  • Apples, avocados, apricots, bananas (ripe with black spots beginning to appear on skin), berries of all kinds including blueberries, cantaloupe melon, cherimoya / custard apple, cherries, grapefruit, grapes, kiwi fruit, kumquats, lemons, limes, mangoes, melons, nectarines, oranges, papayas, passion fruit, peaches, pears, persimmons, pineapples (glazed pineapple is permitted only if the glaze is the result of the drying of natural sugars in the pineapple), plums, rhubarb, tangerines, watermelon
  • Dried fruit – dates (loose California dates only), prunes, raisins (preferably dark, eat with caution),
  • Figs without any chemicals or additives can be eaten, but they can be a laxative – it might be a good idea to wait until you’ve been symptom free for some time
• Nuts
  • Use nuts only as nut flour (finely ground up) until diarrhea has cleared up, then nuts may be used as a snack and should be chewed well. You’re advised to grind your own nuts for the first 3-4 weeks
  • Nuts – sold unsalted and not in mixtures- almonds (preferably without skins at the beginning of the diet), Brazil nuts, cashews (unroasted), chestnuts (boiled), coconut (fresh or unsweetened dried), filberts/hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, walnuts
  • Peanut butter without additives of any kind
  • Roasted peanuts in the shell may be tried cautiously after being on the diet about 6 months when diarrhea is gone
  • Pistachio nuts, undyed and unsalted, preferably freshly roasted. The skins can be difficult to digest when you start the diet
  • Nut butters without added sugar, e.g. almond butter
• Seeds
  • Do not use seeds of any kind until 3 months after the last symptom has disappeared, and then try them cautiously
  • See below for seeds which are never allowed
• Fats
  • Salad and cooking oils – olive oil (highly recommended), corn oil, grapeseed oil, safflower oil. Note that although grains and soy aren’t allowed, in some cases their oils may be used
  • Nut and seed oils – almond oil, avocado oil, flax seed oil, macadamia oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, walnut oil
  • Butter (cultured butter is highly recommended), ghee / clarified butter
• Beverages
  • Canned tomato juice (only salt added)
  • Orange juice or grapefruit juice – freshly squeezed, no added sugar, and grapefruit juice should be diluted with water before drinking. While diarrhea is active, avoid orange juice in the morning
  • Grape juice, white or dark, no added sugar
  • Pineapple juices (canned, frozen, or fresh) without added sugar – dilute with water
  • Unsweetened cranberry juice with no sugar – the authors suggest Knudsen’s Just Cranberry Juice
  • Apple cider packed by a local company you feel is responsible (who won’t add a sweetener – a preservative such as sodium benzoate is permissible)
  • Fruit juices that you squeeze yourself
  • Freshly squeeze juices of any allowed vegetable
  • Weak black tea or very weak coffee (not decaffeinated), perked or dripped, without milk or cream
  • Peppermint and spearmint herbal teas (watch for added ingredients)
  • Milkshakes made with homemade yogurt, fruits, sweetened to taste with honey or saccharin
  • Bottled water without additives
  • Club soda
  • Lactose hydrolyzed milk LHM/ Lactaid milk (when you’re on the road to recovery – in small amounts in tea, coffee, and cooking). No need to use reduced-fat versions
  • Coconut milk and almond milk may be tried after 3 months (or 6 months), if homemade. If eating baked goods with almonds, consumption of almond milk should not exceed 8 ounces / 250 mL daily
• Alcoholic beverages
  • Very dry wine – if something sweeter is desired, add a crushed saccharin tablet or sweeten with honey
• Sweeteners
  • Honey (after diarrhea has cleared) – preferably fairly clear or slightly cloudy; pasteurized honey or honey bought from a beekeeper are fine. When it is suspected that yeast invasion is widespread, with symptoms such as thrush, cut back on honey at the beginning of the dietary regime – eat less than ¼ of the amount in recipes. The amount of honey may be increased as the condition improves
  • Saccharin, cyclamate
• Pantry and condiments
  • Unflavored gelatin
  • Mustard (plain), wasabi in its natural state without any fillers added
  • Dill pickles – avoid those with added sugar
  • Olives, capers, kimchi
  • Vinegar – cider vinegar, white vinegar, wine vinegar; no added sugar
  • Horseradish sauce – homemade or store-bought if you know that there aren’t any added “illegal” ingredients listed as foods to avoid below
  • Ascorbic acid (should be nothing but vitamin C), aspartic acid, citric acid, glycerin, glycerol, lecithin
  • Baking soda (where specified in the book)
  • Salt, including iodized table salt
• Legumes, some varieties (after month 3 / when symptom-free)
  • These may be introduced in small amounts at about the third month of the diet
  • Dried legumes should be soaked for at least 10-12 hours prior to cooking and the soaking liquid discarded
  • Fresh or dried beans – only black beans, white (navy) beans / haricot beans, kidney beans, lima beans
  • Lentils, and split peas
  • See below for list of legumes which are not allowed

Foods to limit with Breaking the Vicious Cycle

• Proteins that may contain small amounts of polysaccharides
  • Smoked bacon – once a week, fried very crispy (you can have more often if it’s completely sugar-free)
• Cheeses with low lactose
  • Asiago cheese, blue cheese, brie, camembert, edam, gorgonzola, gouda, limburger, Monterey (Jack), muenster, parmesan (check grated parmesan for no added milk solids), Port du Salut, Roquefort, romano cheese, stilton
  • Feta cheese can be used after about 6 months of improvement, although only in small amounts
• Beverages
  • Green tea – limit to 2 cups per day
  • Diet soft drinks are permitted occasionally. Those sweetened with aspartame or Nutri-Sweet may sometimes contain lactose and should be avoided if possible. However, if this is the only type available, one per week is permitted. Diet soft drinks sweetened with saccharin – 2-3 weekly permissible
• Alcoholic beverages with almost no polysaccharides
  • Occasionally gin, rye, Scotch, bourbon, vodka, etc. are allowed (unsweet)
• Other
  • Canola oil is allowed but not recommended
  • Date sugar may be tried after being on the diet for a long time when you’ve become symptom free, but it isn’t recommended

Foods to avoid with Breaking the Vicious Cycle (“illegal” foods)

• Proteins with sucrose or lactose or other substances to be avoided
  • Processed meats such as bologna, hot dogs, spiced ham, unless made without polysaccharides
  • Processed poultry such as turkey loaf
  • Processed fish such as breaded fish, canned fish with sauces, canned fish in broth
  • Processed cheeses
  • Most processed meats and other proteins are not permitted since they contain starch, whey powder, lactose, or sucrose. It may be possible to obtain hot dogs and other processed meats without these additives – if so, they may be included in the diet
  • Smoked meats and other proteins (unless you know definitely that sugar has not been added at some stage in the smoking process). Note that ordinary smoked bacon may be eaten once a week if it is fried/sautéed very crisply
  • Canned meats
  • Hydrolyzed protein
  • Protein powder
  • Quorn, tofu
• Vegetables with starch or sucrose, or mucilaginous, or causing other reactions
  • Vegetables with added sugar or starch
  • Canned vegetables
  • Vegetables packed in jars
  • Starchy vegetables and/or those containing fructo-oligosaccharides – Jerusalem artichoke, jicama, kohlrabi, parsnips, plantains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro, turnips, water chestnuts, yams, yucca root
  • Mucilaginous vegetables – burdock root, okra (bhindi)
  • Bitter gourd
  • Nettles
  • Seaweed
• Herbs and spices with starches
  • Spice mixtures such as “apple pie spices” and curry powder
  • Garlic powder and onion powder; these may have a starch base
• Legumes that should not be eaten at all
  • Chickpeas / garbanzo beans
  • Black-eye peas
  • Butter beans, cannellini beans, fava beans / faba beans, mung beans, pinto beans
  • Soybeans and their products, including, miso, soy sauce, soybean milk, soybean oil, tamari, tofu, Tofutti cheese and other products
  • Bean sprouts
  • Bean flours and pea flours, including chickpea flour and garfava flour – do not use store-bought flours made of beans or lentils, as they probably weren’t soaked before grinding and may have too much starch
• Grains, pseudo-grains, and grain substitutes
  • E.g. barley, buckwheat, bulgur, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rice (brown or white), rye, spelt, triticale, wheat
  • Cereals made with these grains (and most cereals as they tend to contain a large amount of starch)
  • Flour made with these grains, e.g. amaranth flour, durum flour, flour, rice flour
  • Bread made with these grains
  • Ezekiel bread and other sprouted grain products
  • Pasta, spaghetti, macaroni, couscous
  • Shirataki noodles / miracle noodles and other foods made with konjac / konjaku / konnyaku / elephant yam
  • Cake, toast, zwieback, crackers, cookies, etc.
  • Amaranth flour, quinoa flour, chestnut flour, or any newly-introduced grain substitutes such as cottonseed
  • Wheat germ
• Fruits with sucrose and other ingredients added
  • Fruits canned or jarred in anything except their own juice
  • Fruits with added sugar
  • Unripe bananas, dates which stick together in a mass, these have had syrup or sugar added)
  • For people who are allergic to sulfites, avoid dried fruit to which sulfates have been added. If there is no sensitivity to sulfites, this type of dried fruit may be used occasionally
  • Dried banana chips which have been coated with corn syrup or refined sugar
  • Processed fruit juices, e.g. apple juice
  • Pomegranate concentrate, tamarind
• Nuts with starch added
  • Nuts sold in salted mixtures (most are roasted with a starch coating)
  • Shelled peanuts (most have added starch)
• Certain seeds, seed butters
  • Flax seed, hemp seed, hemp protein powder, sesame seeds
  • Seed butters for all types of seeds, e.g. tahini
  • Seed flours
• Dairy foods with lactose
  • Milk (fluid) of any kind, uncles it’s been treated with lactase
  • Dried milk solids / milk powder
  • Cream
  • Commercially prepared acidophilus milk which contains unfermented milk along with the acidophilus bacteria; much lactose remains
  • Commercial buttermilk, commercial sour cream, or commercial yogurt (except for use as a starter for your own homemade yogurt). Note that some companies are producing sour cream which contains virtually no lactose – inquire concerning the availability of this permissible product in your area
  • Ice cream (unless you make your own following the recipes in the book)
  • Homemade yogurt which has not been fermented for 24 hours
  • Milk drunk along with lactase enzyme replacement
  • Cheeses high in lactose – processed cheese slices or spreads, pre-packaged shredded cheese, chèvre, regular cottage cheese, cream cheese, gjetost, mozzarella, neufchatel, primost, ricotta
  • Whey
  • Kefir
• Fats
  • Margarine
• Beverages with starch or sucrose (see also dairy products above)
  • V-8 juice (this contains tomato paste, which is not allowed)
  • Tomato juice cocktail or other tomato juice mixtures
  • Orange juice or grapefruit juice made from concentrate
  • Juices with added sugar or corn syrup or other non-allowed sweetener
  • Juices packed in boxes
  • Noni juice
  • Strong tea or strong or medium coffee
  • Instant tea or coffee
  • Decaffeinated products
  • Herbal teas other than peppermint or spearmint (other teas can be laxative)
  • Herbal teas made with mucilaginous or other “harmful” herbs – astralagus tea, bark tea / pau d’arco, nettle tea
  • Coffee substitutes; most have malt added which is not permitted, and chicory root contains large amounts of fructooligosaccharides FOS
  • Postum
  • Soybean milk
  • Soft drinks sweetened with any sweetener other than saccharin, aspartame, or Nutri-Sweet; soft drinks sweetened with fructose and/or glucose
  • Sports drinks
  • Drinks with added fiber, vitamins, or minerals
• Alcoholic beverages with some polysaccharides
  • Beer
  • Sweet wine, port wine
  • Sherry, cordials, liqueurs, brandy, mead, sake
• Sugar and sweeteners
  • Sugar and products made with refined sugar
  • Agave syrup, evaporated cane juice, jaggery/gur, maple syrup, molasses, turbinado sugar
  • Corn syrup
  • Fructose, glucose syrup, powdered or granulated fructose/glucose/dextrose, maltodextrin
  • Sugar alcohols, including inositol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol (note that these should be avoided because they cause diarrhea, however some people may be able to tolerate small amounts in supplements; in chapter 9 the author says they’re okay to use occasionally in low calorie chewing gum or candy, but the website says they should be avoided and that probably has more up-to-date information)
  • Any artificial sweeteners (e.g. isoglucose, Splenda / sucralose, stevia) except saccharin
• Foods containing table sugar (sucrose) such as gelatin desserts, ketchup, cereals, many canned foods, some frozen preparations
  • Foods containing sugars, e.g.
  • Baked goods, baking mixes
  • Desserts, frozen dairy desserts
  • Fruit ices, water ices
  • Processed fruits, juices, and drinks
  • Jams, jellies, sweet spreads
  • Sweet sauces, toppings, syrups
  • Gelatin, puddings, fillings
  • All types of candy, chewing gum
  • Processed nut products
  • Instant tea and coffee
  • Processed cheeses
  • Processed meat products
  • Processed vegetables, juices
  • Condiments, relishes, salt substitutes
  • Gravies, sauces
• FOS
  • Any product that contains FOS (fructooligosaccharides) – this form of starch (inulin) may feed harmful bacteria as well as “friendly” bacteria)
• Condiments and pantry containing starch or polysaccharides
  • Canned tomato paste, canned tomato sauce, canned tomato puree
  • Cornstarch, arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, sago starch, or other starches of any kind
  • Chocolate, carob
  • Bouillon cubes, instant soup bases, MSG, natural flavors
  • Baker’s yeast
  • Algae including agar agar, spirulina
  • Seaweeds including carrageenan
  • Mucilaginous food including aloe vera, cellulose gum, guar gum, xanthan gum, other gums, kudzu/kuzu, pectin
  • Ketchup
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Baking powder, cream of tartar
  • Croscomellose sodium, polysorbate 80
  • Balsamic vinegar (because it usually contains added sugars)
• Other
  • Chewing gum
  • Fenugreek (doesn’t say whether the leaf, tea, seed, or all of these should be avoided)
  • Any foods that you’re allergic to – anaphylactic reaction

Be careful with prepared SCD foods – the book says they’re rarely 100% SCD legal, and you don’t always know exactly what goes into those products

Introducing the diet

• Eat only the foods listed above as okay to eat
  • Follow the diet strictly, which requires intelligence and vigilance – “cheating” or eating outside the guidelines will seriously delay recovery. You’re advised not to follow this diet unless you’re willing to follow it with “fanatical adherence.”
• Avoid laxative foods to start with
  • If you get diarrhea coming back after introducing a food, wait a while until you have healed further and try again
• Fruits
  • These are a laxative food – eliminate until diarrhea is under control and cramping has stopped
  • When you start adding fruits, they should be ripe, peeled, and cooked
  • Adding uncooked fruits – first try ripe, mashed banana with no green color at the end, brown speckled, and soft enough to mash easily – have about ¼ banana on the first day and see how you react
• Eggs
  • Can be reintroduced when diarrhea is no longer “brisk”
• Cooked vegetables
  • You can reintroduce cooked vegetables when your bowel movements are formed rather than loose, and you have them not more than 2-3 times daily
  • Add them cautiously, one at a time, and allow time between each new introduction to observe its effect
  • For most people, squash, tomato, string beans, and carrots are well tolerated when cooked
  • Don’t use cabbage family vegetables until your diarrhea is almost gone
• Raw vegetables
  • E.g. salad greens, carrots, celery sticks, cucumbers, onions
  • These are a laxative food – eliminate until diarrhea is under control
• Honey
  • This is a laxative food – eliminate until diarrhea is under control
• Dried legumes
  • Add these cautiously back after you’ve been on this diet for about 3 months and have made a lot of improvement
• Dairy foods
  • Don’t use lactose-hydrolyzed milk until you’ve made considerable progress
• Diet progression and symptom improvement
  • If you don’t see any improvement after trying the diet for 1 month, it probably won’t work for you
  • If an allowable food caused you issues in the past, eliminate it for about 1 week and try a small amount. If a food still causes problems after you eliminated it for a week, don’t include it in the diet
  • In most cases, symptoms improve within 3 weeks and continue to improve over time. If you have a relapse, for example if you get a respiratory infection or for no reason, continue with the diet while you get over this and improvement should continue. In general, people have steady improvement with occasional minor setbacks for the first year
  • Celiac disease, spastic colon, and diverticulitis usually appear to be cured by the end of a year on this diet. Other conditions, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, tend to take much longer, at least 2 years
  • Stay on the diet for at least 1 year after your symptoms have all disappeared. After that, introduce the forbidden foods, one per week, starting with very small amounts and gradually increasing the amounts over the course of the week. If you appear to be tolerating the foods, they can be added back to your diet permanently. If you get symptoms when reintroducing a forbidden food, stay on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for longer
  • You’re advised to never return to a diet high in refined sugar and refined flours

In the long term, your daily diet should contain a variety of foods – vegetables, fruits, cheeses, nuts, and some animal products (which you can avoid if you are vegetarian).

As soy products are not allowed on this diet, it would be very difficult for vegans / strict vegetarians to get enough nutrients and calories.

Health benefits claimed in Breaking the Vicious Cycle

The diet in this book claims to reduce the risks for: arthritis, autistic-type hypoactivity, autism spectral disorder ASD, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, chronic diarrhea, functional diarrhea, cystic fibrosis, diverticulitis, epilepsy, fatigue, food addiction, gastroenteritis, hyperactivity, irritable bowel syndrome IBS, irritable colon, malnutrition, poor memory, mental confusion, muscle aches, neurosis, night terrors, pellagra, psoriasis, refractory constipation, schizophrenia, skin rashes, spastic colon, tropical sprue, ulcerative colitis

As always, this is not intended to be a replacement for professional medical diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition. Consult your doctor before starting a new diet. This page describes what the authors of the diet recommend – Chewfo is describing the diet only, not endorsing it.

Get a copy of Breaking the Vicious Cycle for information on the effects of diet on intestinal microbes, effects of diet on celiac disease, mental health, and autism, supplementation recommendations, meal plan for first 5 days, and recipes.

The book’s official website is http://breakingtheviciouscycle.info/. The SCD web library, with testimonials and resources, is at http://scdiet.org/. http://pecanbread.com/ offers support for parents of children on the SCD for intestinal problems and/or autism. There’s an active Yahoo groups for SCD followers at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BTVC-SCD/info.

How has this diet helped you? Please add a comment or question below.