The Specific Carbohydrate Diet eliminates the foods that are known to potentially feed gastrointestinal problems. These foods can act as a breeding ground for bacteria in your small intestine. These bacteria can damage the wall of the intestine interfering with your ability to properly absorb and digest food. This can occur in people with Celiac's Disease, Crohn's, Colitis, Chronic Diarrhoea, etc. So basically your system gets thrown off and it creates a cycle. You don't absorb the nutrients from your food but you do absorb the particles that feed the bacteria. So the more of the wrong foods you eat, the more you have potential to actually be malnourished.

How to fix this?

Starve the buggers! Deprive the bacteria of the foods they thrive on and they will gradually die off. Once they do, you have hope of regulating your system. It is recommended that you do this diet for a year before attempting to introduce other foods. But the hope is that you see improvement over time as you progress throughout the year. 

What are the wrong foods?

Essentially carbs and all the delicious things in life. But it's not simply a no-carb diet, nor is it the Paleo diet. Different rules apply. Go to the Resources page of my blog to find a list of 'legal' and 'illegal' foods. You have to eat fresh foods as much as possible; no canned foods. The fewer steps between you and the actual farming of that food, the better. The book will also give you an in-depth, but accessible explanation of how the body absorbs monosaccharides vs. disaccharides and polysaccharides, and how we are aiming for the former. 

*I'm not a doctor nor an expert on the subject! This is my layman's explanation after reading up on it. My Resources page will also take you to the official Breaking the Cycle website and show you where to find the book.