SCD Diet Breakfast Recipes: Delicious and Gut-Friendly Ways to Start Your Day

For individuals managing conditions like Crohn's disease or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) can be a helpful tool in managing symptoms and promoting gut health. This diet focuses on consuming foods that are easily digested, reducing the fuel available for harmful bacteria in the digestive tract. Breakfast, often hailed as the most important meal of the day, doesn't have to be a challenge on the SCD. Here's a collection of delicious and gut-friendly SCD-compliant breakfast recipes to kickstart your mornings.

Single-Serve SCD/Paleo French Toast Bake

Weekend mornings offer a perfect opportunity for a little self-care, and this single-serve French toast bake fits the bill. This recipe is ideal for those who dislike leftovers, minimizing food waste, especially for individuals living alone. This healthy, paleo French toast skillet will DEFINITELY be on my rotation! Traditional French toast ingredients like flour, cream, and sugar are off-limits on the SCD, this recipe uses almond flour, honey, and eggs to create a delicious alternative.

Ingredients:

• Almond Flour “Bread”: (Make separately, see instructions below)
• Egg Mixture:
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 Tbsp coconut milk
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt
• Almond Butter Crumb Topping:
  • 2 Tbsp almond flour
  • 1 tsp almond butter
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Cut the almond flour "sandwich bun" into 1/2″ cubes.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the egg white, coconut milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and sea salt.
4. Combine all of the crumb topping ingredients together in a separate small bowl. Stir well until a crumbly mixture forms.
5. Briefly toss the bread cubes in the egg mixture (avoid soaking the bread to prevent it from getting soggy in the bowl).
6. Evenly sprinkle the crumb topping over the skillet.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the egg mixture appears to be "set".

Microwave Almond Flour "Bread"

For a quick and easy start, this microwave "bread" can be ready in just a minute, providing the base for your French toast bake. I know it gets a bad rap, but I’m all for an easy & fast microwave recipe. Hear me out: SCD-legal, Paleo “bread” ready in a minute?!

3-Ingredient SCD Legal Banana Pancakes

For a quick and easy weekday breakfast that will put a smile on your kids' faces, these 3-ingredient pancakes are a lifesaver. Because we follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to manage my daughter’s Crohn’s Disease, we do not eat traditional pancake ingredients like milk, wheat flour or sugar. These pancakes are not a guilty breakfast pleasure, but a protein and nutrient powerhouse you can feel good about! The entire batch contains less than 400 calories.

Ingredients:

• Banana
• Peanut Butter (or any nut butter)
• Egg

Instructions:

1. Pop these common kitchen staples in a high-speed blender and viola!
2. Cook for just 90 seconds per side at medium-high heat.
3. Top them with honey, cinnamon and extra bananas. But the options are endless! Try drizzling extra peanut butter on top, or a dollop of SCD Legal 24 Hour Fermented Yogurt and berries.

Important Notes:

1. Once cooked, they will be thin. There is no baking soda/powder in this recipe, so don’t worry if your cakes don’t rise and look fluffy.
2. These 3 Ingredient SCD Legal Banana Pancakes do not take long to cook at all. And unlike other grain free pancakes, these are so easy to flip!
3. If peanut butter is not your thing, just substitute for any other nut butter. These simple pancakes are surprisingly delicious!

Banana, Blueberry, and Kale Smoothie

Smoothies are a fantastic way to pack a nutritional punch into a quick and easy breakfast. The key to making good smoothies is to have a blender that can process frozen fruit. Many fruits, including bananas, contain lots of vitamins and minerals and are easy to digest. Ripe bananas (which contain both soluble and insoluble fiber) that have been peeled and frozen will make a smoothie rich and creamy, while kale, spinach, and other vegetables add important nutrients. Fresh and frozen blueberries, for example, contain soluble and insoluble fiber. The best choice for Crohn’s disease are soluble fibers, which absorb extra fluid in your gut. Eating foods with this type of fiber will help to form more solid stools, slow gut motility, and decrease inflammation, notes UMass Chan Medical School.

Read also: Delicious Plant Paradox Breakfasts

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• A handful of blueberries
• A handful of kale
• 100 mL coconut milk
• 100 mL water

Yogurt Parfait With Mixed Berries

Yogurt is a source of probiotics, or good bacteria, which can be especially helpful for someone with Crohn’s, as probiotics aid digestion and help heal the gut. The bacteria also “eat” some of the lactose, which makes this naturally easier to digest for those with lactose intolerance or sensitivity. Yogurt is also a great source of protein and provides calcium and potassium.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups organic yogurt*
• ¼ cup strawberry fruit spread*
• ½ cup frozen blueberries, unthawed
• 1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
• ¼ cup slivered almonds**
• ¼ tsp lemon juice

*Both the yogurt and the fruit spread in this recipe are homemade and sweetened with honey, to adhere to the specific carbohydrate diet. If you use store-bought ingredients, try to select an additive-free fruit spread that has no added sugar and plain yogurt with active, live cultures.

**Substitute with a well-tolerated breakfast cereal if nuts irritate your stomach.

Overnight Oats

Oatmeal is a great breakfast option because oats are high in soluble fiber, which absorbs water and moves slowly through the digestive tract - unlike insoluble fiber, which is difficult to digest and can irritate the bowel. Here’s a breakfast recipe that requires no cooking.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup old-fashioned oats
• ½ cup milk
• ¼ cup yogurt (optional)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp honey or maple syrup (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a mason jar, cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Read also: Whole Foods Breakfast Options

Eggs, Salmon, and Avocado

This quick and easy breakfast recipe is a great source of protein and healthy fats. Both eggs and salmon are high in protein, and the salmon and avocado are high in healthy fats.

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 eggs
• 2 oz salmon, canned in water, drained
• 1/3 avocado, cubed

Scramble eggs and then top with salmon and avocado.

Baked Apple

Cooked fruit is easier to digest than raw fruit for people with Crohn’s. Here’s a baked apple recipe from Kennedy.

Ingredients:

• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 2 tbsp old-fashioned oats
• 1 tsp brown sugar*
• 1 apple, cored

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together the cinnamon, oil, oats, and sugar. Stuff into the apple and bake about 45 minutes, until cooked through.

Ground Turkey Breakfast Patties

4 Lbs. 3 tsp. 2 Tbsp. I roll the 4 lbs. of ground turkey into a long tube on foil on a pan. Then, I add the water, salt, and spice. The important thing is to knead everything into the meat and then make it into a perfect log. Next, wrap the foil around the log and poke holes throughout. Bake it at 300° F for about 2 hours and check the temperature. Cut up into patties and freeze them for a great breakfast treat.

Read also: Delicious Breakfast for Kidney Health

Understanding the SCD Diet

The SCD is a diet based on the chemical structure of carbohydrates. The allowed carbohydrates on the diet are monosaccharides and have a single molecule structure that is easily absorbed by the intestines. Complex carbohydrates that are disaccharides (double molecules) and polysaccharides (chain molecules) that are more difficult to absorb are not allowed because complex carbohydrates not assimilated are left behind and become food for bad bacteria in the digestive tract. These bad bacteria overgrow, causing damage and inflammation in the intestines.

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