I just finished reading the

Management of Celiac Disease by Dr. Sidney V. Haas, the creator of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and his son, Dr. Merrill P. Haas. I found this book really interesting and packed with information. I took pages of notes but hope to summarize a bit more concisely here and then list some things I found most interesting to people following SCD now.

The authors cover a lot of the research on celiac disease up until the publishing of this book in 1951. At the time, gluten was not known to have any role in celiac disease (or maybe even gluten was not discovered yet) so a lot of the research done at the time was in the form of case studies using different dietary methods. It’s no surprise to me that Haas’ diet ended up having the most favourable outcome, since it is inherently gluten-free and provides adequate nutrition for someone recovering from celiac disease. I found this book quite easy to read without having any medical knowledge, so for anyone with celiac who is interested in reading about it, I highly recommend this book. (I bought mine from Digestive Wellness).

Celiac Disease Causes & Symptoms

They spent a good deal of time describing symptoms and diagnosis guidelines, mainly because there was no definitive test available. Of course there still is no definitive test so I found all this information really interesting. Although they describe a lot of common symptoms, they acknowledge that not all of the symptoms have to be present for it to be considered celiac disease. And, sometimes the symptoms are quite mild. Most of the research at the time was done with extreme cases of celiac disease that started in young children. But, the authors stated that this disease could start at any time, in any severity, and was most likely under-diagnosed especially in people who didn’t have the main symptom of diarrhea. They talk about many cases they saw where constipation was the predominant symptom. Psychological symptoms were also very well described.

In a quest to figure out the main cause of celiac disease, the researchers up until the 1950s had followed a few different routes.

• Fatty stools were very common in celiac cases (both in diarrhea and constipation), and fat absorption seemed to be impaired. Noting that fat was well digested (emulsified and broken into fatty acids) it was the absorption that was the problem. Yet removing fat from the diet did nothing to halt the progression of the disease. Many doctors continued to prescribed low-fat diets and continued research in this area, even though there was never any evidence that it played a role in the disease.




• Some cases seemed to show a lack of pancreatic (digestive) enzymes, stomach acid and/or bile. So lots of research was done on administering these as supplements. Some patients saw a bit of improvement in symptoms using various digestive aids, but none seemed to recover.




• A few researchers noted carbohydrate intolerance, either from studying blood sugars or from noting digestive symptoms with varying low-carbohydrate diets. Most low-carbohydrate diets failed because as soon as symptoms abated, a normal diet was resumed and symptoms returned. Or, some kept one of milk, toast, corn or rice in the diet while eliminating most other forms of carbs. Almost all researchers noted that adding sugar would instantly cause more severe digestive symptoms, regardless of the diet. But, some research was done with pure glucose (monosaccharide) showing positive effects.




• One researcher noted a relationship with the bacteria B. bifidum (considered illegal on SCD). When symptoms were severe, this bacteria count was high. When the patient recovered, the bacteria count was much lower. If the patient relapsed, the bacteria count was always found to be high again. This was all without administering any probiotics.

For the large part though, the fat theory reigned supreme at the detriment of the children who were prescribed the low-fat diets. Even though fat was shown not to cause symptoms, and that it was necessary to include fat to avoid osteoporosis and other nutritional problems, doctors kept focusing on removing fat from the celiac diet.

Celiac disease in children at that time had a high mortality rate. So the different treatments attempted had very clear effect on the outcomes. Some diets helped children avoid death, but they still had stunted growth and ongoing symptoms. Some like Haas managed to recover children fully without stunted growth or osteoporosis. There were also a lot of autopsies conducted which showed varying effects of the disease. Many had no noticeable changes to the digestive system, no ulceration, and no effect on the liver. Still some had noticeable changes in the pancreas, and some were found to have ulceration in the colon. Since blood in the stool was not reported as a symptom in these cases, it’s not clear if that was a case of a colitis condition or not. Villous atrophy and changes in the small intestine were somewhat common. Respiratory illness was also quite common, and often preceded initial symptoms or relapses.

Very little at the time was agreed on, except that symptoms and severity varied greatly, anyone of any age could have it, and that protein seemed well tolerated in all cases (in the form of meat). Fat and mineral absorption seemed to be the main problem with growth and bone development. Many suggested using vitamin A and D supplements along with diet. Even though not all agreed on the carbohydrate intolerance, most would omit carbohydrates in the early stages of their diets.

Diet

Of the researchers who noted the difficulty in tolerating carbohydrates, most agreed that cow’s milk was the worst food, and cereals and sugar were also poorly tolerated (fermentable carbohydrates). Cow’s milk that had been treated to become ‘protein milk’ (much like today’s SCD yogurt) was fine. Vegetables and fruit were not always tolerated. So the difficulty was in trying to find a carbohydrate that would help all patients. The banana turned out to be that universal carb. Many different diets had made use of the banana, but only those diets that removed other offending carbohydrate sources had any success. Some naturally gluten-free diets proposed at the time still did not bring about a relief of symptoms, much like the gluten-free diet prescribed today leaves patients with lingering symptoms. Most of these diets still included things like milk, sugar, potatoes and corn or rice.

Dr. Haas’ diet as described in this book is quite similar to how SCD is presented today but with a few noticeable differences. For one, bananas are emphasized much more in Haas’ original diet. In fact, his diet was often referred to as ‘the banana diet’ during that time. He noted that banana powder was found to change the gut bacteria back to normal levels. The intro diet could very well be summed up as protein plus bananas. He spent time finding evidence of other doctors who had used bananas in treating celiac disease with success. He told how in his own practice he had patients eating 4-6 bananas a day. Keep in mind these were mostly very young children, so that made up a big portion of their diet. Also he made a point of showing that while fat absorption was poor, carbohydrates were required to metabolize fats. Also, upon administering certain carbs (such as the banana), fats were once again better tolerated. Anxiety, confusion and depression were often more noticeable when carbohydrates were not being well tolerated. He noted that animal fats were best tolerated. Meat, protein milk and bananas were the first step, with gelatin (sweetened with fruit juice & honey) used as a dessert. Eggs, fruit and vegetables were introduced slowly one by one after symptoms disappeared.

For the ‘protein milk’ he prescribes, there are a few different ways of making it. The basic idea is to get rid of or break down the milk sugars. Whey is always dripped out and discarded. Butter, sour cream and buttermilk were shown to be well tolerated. I can’t help but wonder if the focus on a milk that is tolerated was important to these researchers at the time, because most of their patients were toddlers who were either just weaned off breast milk or formula, and probably using milk as a big portion of their diet. I didn’t see any mention that this was a required part of the diet, just that it was a tolerable protein.

Haas did say this diet cured celiac disease. Without knowing if these cured cases were actually caused by problems with gluten it’s hard to say if SCD would actually be a cure. That said, he clearly had severe cases that responded fully to the diet and these children (and some young adults even) were able to return to a normal diet. One case stood out to me, of a girl who was off and on the SCD throughout her childhood (never strictly) who always had symptoms. Finally the symptoms got worse in her late teen/early 20s and she returned to him. After following the diet strictly for over a year, her symptoms were gone and after a while she was able to return to a normal diet with no relapses.

My Notes

Probiotics might not be necessary: The ‘protein milk’ did not seem to play a role in re-establishing gut flora. Also, they noticed improvement in bacteria levels based on the diet alone. It seems providing a good environment for gut flora is more important than consuming probiotics. This I’ve noticed in my own experience too. They also noted that bananas added to the diet changed the gut flora in a beneficial way.

Yogurt should always be dripped: The protein milk recipes always drip the whey out, and that’s the main method of removing the sugars. On SCD now, it’s advised to try dripping yogurt because many have found it to be better tolerated. I have a feeling dripping the yogurt is even more important than fermenting it for a full 24 hours. Based on my own experience, dripping helps tremendously, and fermentation time didn’t matter as much. Tartness was always the most reliable indicator to me that the yogurt was good. The best method would be to ferment 24 hours and then drip the whey out. Whey should probably be discarded by anyone following the intro and early stages of the diet. I also wonder now if sour cream or other milk products would have been tolerated.

Carbs (in the form of bananas and probably honey) should be used in abundance from the beginning, in balance with fats: I always tried to ‘get more carbs’ by eating squashes, carrots, applesauce and other fruits and vegetables considered well tolerated on SCD. I did poorly on all of them. Bananas were always ok, as long as I ate them with enough fat and protein. I wish now I could go back to the early days and eat a bunch of bananas to see how I reacted. For some reason I always limited myself to one or two a day.

Fat absorption probably plays the biggest role in constipation and diarrhea: Haas reported that fat in the stool was of either free fatty acids (causing diarrhea) or bound with minerals into soaps (causing constipation). I have seen a lot of advice for people on SCD with constipation to eat more fats, and I’m not sure that’s really the best thing to do. If carbs actually help with fat tolerance, then maybe for constipation it would be best to eat more carbs, not more fats. With less fats being bound in the digestive tract as soaps, maybe constipation would be lessened. I think many already know bananas help with diarrhea. As for digestive aids to help fat digestion, they shouldn’t be necessary. It was found that fats were broken down properly, just not absorbed very well. Fat absorption is not something that would improve with taking bile supplements or digestive enzymes.

Nuts were not used in Haas’ diet: I expected this and not just because nut flours were not available at the time. Haas made no mention of nuts in this book. I know a lot of people today think nuts are required to get enough calories or to be able to enjoy treats ‘now and then’ (which turns into every day pretty quickly!). The main concern with celiac diets was to have some form of tolerable carbohydrate and that was found to be the banana. With plenty of protein and fats available from meat, and carbs from banana, there is no need to add nuts.

Haas made a point of noting that although early on in the diet children would want treats, it was often the parents who felt they should be allowed some in order to feel included in social situations or be able to eat normal food. If children were not given these treats and kept strictly on the diet, once they had fully recovered they didn’t care as much for breads and cakes as other children did. This is definitely my experience now. Early in SCD I did eat a lot of the almond flour goods and my desire for treats never went away. Now, I would prefer fruit for dessert.

Periodic flares: Another interesting piece of information was about the ’3 months flare’ that many following SCD now describe. In Haas’ work he found that respiratory illnesses always brought about a flare in symptoms, and these generally happened within the first 3 months of starting the diet. I actually think later flares at 6 or 9 months might be due to introduction of too many nuts that almost everyone ends up doing on this diet. (That’s what I did..)

I think a lot can be learned from Haas and other researchers of his time, especially for doctors treating celiac patients. Currently, if a patient’s symptoms persist, blame is placed upon them for consuming minute amounts of gluten, cross-contamination, or non-compliance. There’s no initial diet to follow until symptoms improve. It’s just a one-size-fits-all gluten-free diet with maybe some advice to take vitamins for obvious deficiencies. What would be better is taking patients through a starting diet specifically for healing before allowing a full gluten-free diet, and not to consider a patient fully recovered until all digestive symptoms are gone, good general health is returned and no relapses in symptoms occur.

I’m a bit late to this but wanted to make sure everyone has heard about the Reversing Food Allergies online course held by Cheeseslave. If you’re trying a diet like GAPS or SCD to heal your gut, this will be a great learning opportunity. The course provides lots of information about food allergies, healing and detoxing, how to prepare many different foods to heal the gut and recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts.

This is being offered at a great time which happens to coincide with a few people doing the GAPS intro together. Baden from the GAPS Guide wrote about it in detail here: http://gapsguide.com/2011/03/16/intro-april-11th/. This is a perfect opportunity to do the intro diet with the support and motivation of others, while learning all the tools you’ll need to carry forward and fully heal with a diet like this.

Here is a sample video from the class, demonstrating how to make beef stock

Click here to see the class outline and watch a sneak peak video of the online course.

Chef Lino

I went for dinner tonight at a really nice restaurant in Ottawa. As the only completely gluten-free restaurant in town, Caprese was number one on my list of places to try. I have to say, it was really nice not to even have to ask about cross-contamination! Everything they serve they make in house, including sauces, dressings, and desserts so there’s no fear of hidden gluten. In my experience, making everything from scratch is more important than organic or local foods, since you can control the ingredients. The menu was nice and varied, with many options that were naturally gluten-free and some with substitutes.

The owner, Luigi, also owns the wood-burning pizza restaurant across the street, Forno Antico. Over the past few years people have been coming in asking him for gluten-free pizza. However, they don’t make anything gluten-free there because it’s impossible to avoid cross-contamination. When Rasputin’s Cafe closed after a fire, Luigi opened Caprese in its place. A few of his friends’ wives had Celiac disease and asked if he would be offering any gluten-free dishes. He decided if there was going to be some gluten-free items, it might as well be 100% gluten-free. People still asking for pizza will have to wait, there is none available at Caprese since the kitchen is too small for making it.

I read glowing reviews about the bread they make and they were well-deserved. I haven’t actually tried gluten-free bread before, but after making muffins with almond and coconut flour I knew it would be tricky to get a good texture. This bread was delicious, perfectly moist and crumbly and I enjoyed my first piece of bread in over 3 years.

We chose the Melenzana rolls as an appetizer, eggplant with ricotta cheese in a tomato sauce. It was nicely spiced and very flavourful.

My mom ordered the Linguini Pescatore, a corn and rice blend pasta served with seafood.

I ordered Principessa, veal and asparagus in a cream mozzarella sauce, with roasted potatoes and vegetables. It was delicious. Again, just a perfect amount of spice and flavour.

I wasn’t going to get dessert, but when they said they had a flour-less, dairy-free chocolate cake I decided I had to try it. Surprisingly it was served without any globs of icing, and was nicely rich without being overly sweet.

For anyone in Ottawa I highly recommend going to this restaurant even if you don’t eat gluten-free. The dishes tasted wonderful, true home-cooking style. And if you are eating gluten-free or have food allergies that you need to be careful with, then you certainly have to eat here at least once. I really hope we get more restaurants like this in Ottawa. Tonight was such a normal dining experience, the first time I’ve had that in years!

The Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Celiac Association held a general meeting the other night with a panel of chefs from local restaurants. Judi Varga-Toth from Credible Edibles (family run cafe, catering and meal service), Kent Allaire from the Westin Hotel (catering, hotel events), and Justin Giroux from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier (hotel restaurants) all talked about how they offered gluten-free meals to their customers.

I would feel completely comfortable eating at these restaurants. I have eaten at the Chateau Laurier and managed to have two full SCD meals and one gluten/grain free meal. My family goes to the Sunday buffet once a year and each time the chefs were more than happy to prepare me a dish or two separately and show me which of the buffet options I could safely choose from. The three chefs on the panel were very aware of dietary restrictions and food allergies, so I have no doubt they could handle someone with as many restrictions as I have.

One recurring topic that left me a bit disappointed was the obsession with the gluten-free baking. Every question from the audience was about bread, cookies, cakes, muffins, pasta etc. In fact it seemed like the only thing people were interested in was knowing they could get gluten-free bread when they went to a restaurant. I wonder when (if?) the mainstream Celiac diet will focus on wholesome healing foods and not replacements for what made us sick in the first place.

That said, there was a lot of great information shared by the chefs that I will highlight here:

• The chefs all keep a separate area for preparing dishes to serve to customers with special diets. They also changed some of their recipes to be naturally gluten-free for everyone, including salads, soups and sauces. Potato could be used to thicken soups, while sauces are usually made by reducing stock.




• They learned a lot from their customers including how to handle cross-contamination. Judi at Credible Edibles keeps an open kitchen and said her first gluten-free customers would tell them if they were doing anything wrong. Justin from the Chateau Laurier has a daughter with Celiac disease so he really understood the importance of being very strict in the kitchen.




• Chefs can easily accomodate for allergies, intolerances and dietary preferences. If you are dining at a restaurant ask to speak to the chef, they would most likely be happy to speak directly to you. This might not work at a chain restaurant, or if it was a particularly busy time.




• All agreed that it was a good idea to call ahead, but not necessary at all. They could all accommodate specific dietary needs when you walk through the door.




• The chefs all reported increasing requests for special dietary needs. It used to just be vegetarian or not, but now they are seeing customers with food allergies and/or Celiac on a weekly basis.
• They all noted the difficulty in preventing cross-contamination. Separate food prep areas are kept in each kitchen for this reason. Also they stated the difficulty in baking with gf flours in a larger restaurant/catering service meant most of the baked goods were bought from gluten-free suppliers. Making gluten-free breads and pastries on site and free from cross-contamination would be almost impossible.




• Judi from Credible Edibles does make gluten-free items in store, and buys some specialty baked goods.




• All the chefs made a point of stating that going to a restaurant is not just about eating the food, it’s an experience. They don’t want you to worry about the food you’re eating, feeling paranoid that something has gluten in it. They also don’t want you to go home and feel sick later. So, if you do go to a restaurant where you can talk to the chef, you should be in good hands.




• Catering to special diets used to be considered a bit of a nuisance. Now however it seems more like a challenge. They don’t want you to have to compromise and order something you’re not keen on. Instead, they are happy to create a dish for you that you will enjoy safely.




• One chef mentioned avoiding gluten-free foods from the US since they have less strict rules about tolerable gluten levels. So they try to get everything from Canada.




• Finally, it sounds like they make gravy and stock like we do on SCD. Stock is made by simmering bones, meat and vegetables for 12 hours. Then it’s strained and simmered down until it thickens. No need to add any flour to make gravy.

I hope to go eat at each of these places in the next few months. Listening to these chefs talk about their work made me feel excited to eat in a restaurant again.

There is a Canadian Celiac Association National Conference being held in Ottawa this May I’m considering attending. I hope the entire conference does not focus on baked goods. I doubt the speakers will, but the food and vendors might be. Either way I think it would be interesting to hear about current research and recommendations.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update! Things got pretty stressful for me before Christmas but the holidays themselves were very relaxing. Coming down to such a relaxed state just made me even more aware of what that stress was doing to my health and happiness. Now I’m pretty focused on not letting myself feel that again. I’m slowly learning how to prioritize, take care of my health and ask for more help. Time will tell, but so far since Christmas I have been dealing much better. Oh and I got an awesome Le Creuset french oven from my family for Christmas that I really need to make something with and do a post on!

Nuts

Over the holidays I ate quite a lot of almonds and walnuts. This was after months of not eating nuts at all anymore, other than one or two days around Thanksgiving. For Christmas I had nuts in the stuffing I made for the turkey dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. I ate them over about 5 days and felt gross. My stomach just does not like nuts at all. I find it interesting that these actually give me more digestive problems than other non-legal SCD foods like rice, soy sauce, and dairy. If you’re on SCD/GAPS and eating nuts everyday, I’d suggest a week or two off them to see how you do. I know most people think it’s not satisfying if you can’t have baked goods, but as a former cookie/cake/bread-aholic I can assure you’ll survive!

Dairy

I have been buying raw milk since late spring, both cow and sheep milk. I absolutely love it and it makes the best SCD yogurt ever. The texture is completely different from any milk I used from the store. I seem to be tolerating raw cream (not SCD-legal) so I have been enjoying that for some time now. My favorite dessert is just some cream with berries and honey. Raw kefir is another addition that has been great. It’s much easier to make than yogurt and I find it really delicious (after a first few tastes where I thought it was gross!). I have found from my dairy-free period and then dairy re-intro challenge that I don’t tolerate cheese well at all. So I’ve been cheese-free since August and although I miss it, I do feel a lot better off it.

Vitamin D

With each post about my acne issues I was getting comments and suggestions to check my vitamin D levels. I guess I never posted here about vitamin D because I was never deficient so it wasn’t a concern of mine during the time I’ve had this blog. I was tested before I started on SCD and had normal status. Then when I learned about the proper test to ask for I got that test done and my levels were high in the optimal range so I never bothered again. The optimal range was reached without me even taking a high dose D3 supplement. I took multivitamins on and off for many years (which probably contained about 400IU), plus I’m very pale and sunbathe most days for about 6 months of the year. Sometimes I was taking a fish oil that contained extra vitamin D and now I take cod liver oil that naturally contains some vitamin D. In any case, my levels were already in the optimum range when I was at my sickest, had just gotten over mono, had the worst acne and digestive issues. I can’t be certain vitamin D deficiency didn’t play a role in my getting sick, but it apparently isn’t something that is affecting me now.

Juicing

The juicing is going great! I always thought the recommendation on SCD to water down the juices meant that we shouldn’t have too much. On GAPS more importance is placed on juicing a larger quantity. Well, in my experience early on in SCD I did just fine with fresh juices made at home, not diluted. And now I’m doing great with them in large amounts. What’s nice about juicing is that it can be a good way to take raw egg yolks (mixed in the juice), even raw grated liver, and in my case, extra raw cream. After a couple months of doing this, I’m noticing my skin is a lot clearer. Also my nails which have always had deep ridges (lengthwise) are much smoother. I definitely think this is helping with nutritional deficiencies, both the juicing and getting more raw animal foods in my diet.

That’s all for now, still working on getting healthier, sleeping a lot and getting happier. Hope to post more soon.

As everyone embarks on their “get fit and eat healthy” New Years Resolutions, I’m reminded of my favorite quote about the worst non-food that people eat everyday: sugar.

William Dufty in his book Sugar Blues writes:

“After all, heroin is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the poppy and they refine it into opium and then they refine it to morphine and finally to heroin. Sugar is nothing but a chemical. They take the juice of the cane or the beet and they refine it to molasses and then they refine it to brown sugar and finally to strange white crystals.”

He also states:

“the difference between sugar addiction and narcotic addiction is largely one of degree.”

Giving up sugar should not be a New Years Resolution. You shouldn’t be eating it at all!

Once you get over the addiction of sugar, honey and fruit are plenty sweet and satisfying.

As part of a new protocol I’m following, I’m doing a whole lot of serious juicing. Soon after starting SCD I did some juicing (see here for info about juicing on SCD) because I couldn’t tolerate many vegetables or fruit. It was nice to have a refreshing raw vegetable taste after all the soups and stews. I was only drinking about 4-6 ounces at a time and not every day. The GAPS diet recommends juicing a few cups every day right from the intro stages. I never really adopted this practice since by the time I found GAPS I was already feeling quite a lot better and could tolerate some vegetables. Now, in order to get as many nutrients as possible I’m trying to drink a lot of juice.
Read more…

Reid Kimball, fellow SCDer, is making a documentary about alternative health methods for healing Crohn’s disease. This is the first documentary I know of that will talk about SCD, other diets, supplements etc for managing and recovering from digestive diseases.

Please support the making of this documentary by donating to this project! So far he has raised over $7,000 dollars but is still a few thousand away from the goal. There’s only 4 days left to donate so please do it today.

Click here to donate at Kickstarter.com

For more information about the project see the main website at http://crohnsend.com/. Also be sure to follow his blog on there too!

As part of the Happy & Healthy Holidays cooking course, Jenny has included a free Thanksgiving lesson.

Click here to sign up for the free class!

The lesson includes:

• A video on how to split, seed and roast a pumpkin
• A menu for a full Thanksgiving supper
• 8 grain-free recipes (dairy and sugar-free with substitutions)

The apple-nut crisp dessert is completely SCD/GAPS legal and is so simple to make. And if you haven’t roasted a pumpkin to get pumpkin puree for making desserts with, then the video will definitely motivate you to try it. On SCD, pumpkin puree in a can is not to be used, so making your own is a must. I have been enjoying pumpkin pudding and pie filling the past couple months that pumpkins have been in season.

If you’re interested in signing up for the full cooking course, or for other individual classes, I have a coupon code NK20 that will get you 20% off the cost of the course. Just make sure to enter NK20 on the checkout page.

Click here to sign up for the full course!

There is a wonderful new online cooking class available dedicated to holiday foods, and almost all of the recipes are suited to SCD, GAPS and Primal diets. I’m really enjoying taking online cooking courses. The fact that this course offers SCD/GAPS/Primal cooking lessons is great! I have done cooking classes in my hometown before, but none are suited to my diet. I know my first Thanksgiving I only ate about 3 dishes because I couldn’t have the rest of the stuff I prepared. Having a bit more guidance on how to prepare a whole holiday feast would have been helpful.

The course material is available for lifetime, so for holiday dinners to come you’ll always have some refresher videos to watch and your favorite recipes stored or printed out. There’s also access to an online forum with all the course participants. This is invaluable as everyone can exchange ideas, help each other out with learning and get questions answered from the course teacher, Jenny from Nourished Kitchen. I had the chance to meet her at the Wise Traditions Conference and she is so amazing!

Check out this video introduction for the course:

I will be signing up for the course too and I’m excited to get some new ideas. My family celebrates Christmas with a nice turkey dinner and we usually have a New Years feast with extended family featuring a roast ham. This on top of Thanksgiving makes for 3 feasts, so I can always use more recipes and techniques to help expand my culinary skills. If you’re on SCD or GAPS and worried about any of the recipes, I’ll be doing them too so we can compare notes in the forums.

Click here to sign up now!

The last day to sign up is November 30, 2010. Classes start December 1st, so make sure to sign up in time.

There are 9 full classes and an extra bonus class. For a full look at the details for each class, click here.

This course is a bargain at $89, less than $10 per class.

Also note, you can sign up for individual classes so if there’s any classes particular that look most interesting to you, you can sign up for them on their own.

Some things you’ll learn how to do in the course:

• Brine and slow-roast a turkey
• Make a fantastic pie crust – without refined flour
• Roast and puree a pumpkin
• Make your own mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard
• Make healthy gifts for friends and family
• Ditch white flour and white sugar in your cookies & sweets
• Make gluten-/grain-/dairy-free versions of your best holiday treats
• Convert your favorite recipes to healthier versions
• Entertain friends and family with over 30 menus and 175 included recipes

You’ll have access to multimedia online lessons, video tutorials, over 30 holiday menus, over 175 holiday recipes, downloadable print materials, and sample shopping lists.

Hope to see some SCD, GAPS and Primal eaters take these courses with me!