candida diet

jinka

Hi wondering if anybody here has that Gut fermintation/candida problem? Basically you cannot eat sugar in any food etc as it ferments into alcohol. You feel like s***. The diet though is a nitemare to stay so.

EileenG

I did it when I had thrush in my milk ducts and even a 2 week course of anti-fungal medication wouldn't clear it out.

It was horrible, I cried with hunger most days, but it did work. Had I known then what I know now about low carb diets, I would have had a much better time. I was trying to do it low fat, and I was eating rice cakes (because they have no sugar, right?) which probably put me back weeks.

If you need to do it, there are a few people here who could post up some very tasty ways to eat while starving the candida.

Dolbert

My boyfriend did this diet for 6 weeks to combat the gut fermentation. It's seriously tough, even more so than a 'normal' low carb diet as you can't have nuts. He lost loads of weight too, despite not needing to (seeing the jaw dropping results first hand was one of the reasons I went low carb!)

jinka

Yeah I blame antibiotics and a stupid doctor. Im training upto 50miles per week ruuning and also drive for a living so find it impossible to eat right. I mean I would eat fruit but that really kills me. I found a product 3lac. Defo helps a lot. Worth a try for anybody with this. Its amazing how many people are living with this but dont know it!

Pjays

I did it and also when no carb when doing it. was an absolute disaster I felt so lethargic and weak. On the up side it did get rid of the problem.

EileenG

Start with cutting out all the white carbs, sugar, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, processed food. Also, things with sweeteners or alcohol. For the first while, stay off all fruit, then you can go back to whole fruits, but stay off juice and dried fruit.

A basic day's food might be something like eggs and spinach for breakfast, fish and lots of green veg or salad for dinner, steak or chicken and even more green veg for dinner. You can cook with fat (olive oil or butter etc) and you can put butter on your food (you need the calories). Rubbing extra virgin olive oil on any skin that is itchy can help. Eating active natural yogurt can help too.

Supplement with plenty of fish oil and accidopholis and probitotics.

jinka

Thanks a mill,i think im looking for a once off cure as my willpower isnt strong enough to stay off carbs etc. Thought it was more sugar anyway?
Also got depressed when I tryed the diet.
If i was sick enough I prob would but the 3lac has done wonders to help. Just get tired much easier.

EileenG

There's about two weeks of severe carb restriction, after that, you can relax and eat non-processed carbs like fruit and porridge. Just cutting out sugar isn't enough, as I found out the hard way with the rice cakes.

Honestly, if you have enough food to eat, it's not bad. It's being hungry, and seeing all the stuff you can't eat that is hard. And if the candida is bad enough, you'll do anything....

El_Dangeroso

The harcombe diet is probably the easiest anti-candida diet I have come across.

It's low carb for the first week, moderate carb after that.

The first phase eliminates all the obvious foods, sugar, yeast, alcohol and dairy as well as ones that are not so obvious such as mushrooms and vinegar but these are re-introduced after the 'die-off'.

Be aware that candida die-off can be rather harrowing, much more than any induction flu's that you get on a normal lc diet. Three days of intense stomach upset is not unheard of, just in case you mistake it for swine flu

It's a hard first week but worth it to get your health back in order imo.

EileenG

Temple_Grandin wrote: »

The first phase eliminates all the obvious foods, sugar, yeast, alcohol and dairy as well as ones that are not so obvious such as mushrooms and vinegar but these are re-introduced after the 'die-off'.

What's the thing about the mushrooms? They are so amazingly low carb, I can't see how she can object to them.

El_Dangeroso

Yeah, that surprised me too, but they do help the growth of candida. Once it dies off they are fine to re-introduce, ditto vinegar.

jdivision

It's the fact they're a fungus eileen afaik

EileenG

True, but they are totally different type of fungus. And I seem to remember that Harcombe recommends dropping mushrooms for general weight loss too.

El_Dangeroso

EileenG wrote: »

True, but they are totally different type of fungus. And I seem to remember that Harcombe recommends dropping mushrooms for general weight loss too.

There's mushrooms in recipes after the first phase, I believe it's just a candida specific thing. Having said that, after a quick bit of research, the mushroom-candida connection might be a myth, as there is conflicting evidence from what I can see.

jinka

The BIG BIG problem of course is it is impossible to eat healthy on the road. Have you ever tryed to get something sugar free. Be fine if you could eat fruit. But thats as bad!

EileenG

For the short period when you have to ultra strict, carry ringpull tins of fish, and eat them on top of a basic salad. The side salad in McDonalds will do in a pinch.

jinka

Well good advice

Had 2 squares of chocolate earlier and a few raisins about an hour later. Then went for my 5mile run and felt weak and dizzy. Worst in ages. Not sure if it was the raisins or chocolate!.