College and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Although I’ve been doing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for seven years now, doing it in college is an entirely different experience. No longer can you depend on having a full kitchen, as well as parents who may help you make something if you don’t have time. College is already a huge adjustment, and learning to do SCD while adjusting to college as a whole can prove to be quite a steep learning curve.

The biggest recommendation I have for patients looking to do SCD in college is to begin to see food as sustenance and not as enjoyment. You’ll simply have less variety than you would if you could go to the grocery store and choose whatever you want. You’ll also likely be on some sort of budget, and because SCD food tends to be more expensive than the typical diet of a college student, you may have even fewer options. It’s definitely important to ask your parents for some form of financial assistance if you’re not eating a balanced diet, however. Remember, good food = good health, and without good health, you really can’t do much, so don’t put that in jeopardy just because you’re a little pinched for cash.

So, with that out of the way, a few tips for what doing SCD in college actually looks like:

• Firstly, when I moved in, I made sure I bought the largest mini fridge I was allowed in my room. This can be helpful when it comes to stocking up on fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as making the yogurt. Students applying to university should ask whether the dorms have kitchens, and if a microwave is not available in the kitchen, should consider investing in one themselves.
  In terms of food accommodations, if the patient tells the university that they are on an incredibly strict diet for medical reasons, they may be exempt from needing to obtain a meal plan. This can save students a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on a meal plan that supplies food they can’t eat. Ask about this. Don’t be shy.
• Universities may offer meal plan accommodations, but when I asked for these, they gave me powdered eggs so I wouldn’t trust that. Emphasize how strict the diet is, and they likely won’t make up this excuse. However, some foods in dining halls may be helpful to patients on SCD. Some dining halls have hard-boiled eggs in the salad bar, for example, which students can stock up on as a good source of protein. There is also usually fresh fruit (like bananas or apples), as well as some dining halls have “churn your own peanut butter” which, when eaten with a banana, can make a great snack on the go.
  If the dorm has a kitchen, I have found that frozen veggies that I can steam in the microwave are a great staple. Making big batches of chicken breast, hard boiled eggs, and lentils for the week is also very helpful. If there’s a grocery store close enough, salad ingredients can help for a quick meal, especially when supplemented with nuts.
• My diet generally consists of:
  • Breakfast: SCD Legal Cashew Bread (my parents ship this to me, keeps well with two-day shipping + freezing upon arrival) with creamed honey and an apple. You could also do peanut butter with a banana and a hardboiled egg, if your parents can’t ship you things.
  • Lunch: A salad with trail mix, or chicken breast with steamed veggies seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil
  • Dinner: SCD Yogurt (24 hr, 2%) sweetened with honey, and eaten with a banana, strawberries and blueberries. I’ve also made this into a smoothie before with my smoothie making stick (https://www.amazon.com/BELLA-Immersion-Blender-Attachment-14460/dp/B018ELIYA4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497353053&sr=8-3&keywords=smoothie+stick) , and substituted the strawberries and the blueberries for peanut butter.
  • Snacks: Hardboiled eggs with salt, SCD legal baked goods either shipped with the bread or from SCDBakery, banana with Justin’s Nut Butter packets (https://www.amazon.com/Justins-Nut-Butter-Natural-11-5-Ounce/dp/B002ATEZOG), Larabars, Rx Bars, or self-made trail mix.
• To save money on nuts, order them off of amazon. You’ll likely be consuming lots of them, so its worth it to buy your favorite nuts in bulk and making your own trail mix.
• In terms of making the yogurt in my dorm room, I heat the milk up in the microwave and watch it until I see it reach the temperature where it’s nearly boiling. I then leave it to cool covered in cling film while I study, until it reaches 110F, at which point I add my Yogurtmet starter, blend it with my smoothie maker stick, and put it in the DASH Greek Yogurt Maker (listed above) for 24 hours. When that period has elapsed, I put it in my fridge, cool it completely, and then strain it using the strainer that comes with the yogurt maker. I have to do this fairly often given that the yogurt maker does not make a ton of yogurt, but I can complete other tasks while I do it.