THE CANDIDA DIET – AARRGGHH !!!!!
The more books you read on anti-candida diets, the more that you come to realize no-one can fully agree on what you should and shouldn’t eat. There are definitely grey areas, but the crux of the matter is that you are trying to make life as difficult as possible for the fungal organism that are causing your health problems. Rather than be on a restrictive diet for years, our philosophy for getting rid of candida overgrowth is to hit it as hard as possible in a short space of time. It is important to remember that you will not rectify a fungal dysbiosis by diet alone, as there will always be substrate in the gut for it to feed on, but it is an integral part of the treatment strategy.
There are diets that are quite moderate in terms of the foods that they allow, and unsurprisingly, they give a moderate result. Some well known Practitioners have had their clients on anti-candida diets for as long as five years with no end in sight! The stricter you are with your diet, the better and quicker the result you will get. It starts with a 4 week plan which should then be followed up with a maintenance plan.
The first week has, if possible, no carbohydrates in it and weeks 2 to 4 have small amounts of complex carbohydrates in them. (You will need to design your own menu plan.) If you are a vegetarian then your challenge is slightly harder, just do the best you can and remember it’s only for 4 weeks. Please note that the purpose of this diet is to get rid of the candida overgrowth, so it is a diet for a particular purpose. We don’t recommend it as a longterm healthy diet. As long as you keep off the foods that encourage the candida to grow and foods to which you are intolerant, you will do well. Above all, remember to check every food label. Please note that these lists of foods are not exhaustive and are given as guidelines for the sorts of foods you need to avoid. Foods which are considered a grey area are written in italics.
Sugar:
The first thing we need to do is to remove sugar from the diet – in whatever form. This is one of the most important foods to remove as sugar is a ready food source for the candida.
So avoid any food or ingredient ending in –ose because it is a sugar, e.g. fructose; maltose; glucose; sucrose; dextrose; lactose (as in products that come from a cow) etc… Make sure you check those food labels for the list of ingredients!
Also products like honey; dried fruit; fruit; tinned fruit; syrup; fruit juice; malt; desserts; cakes; canned drinks; tinned tomatoes; sweets; biscuits etc…
Stimulants:
Stimulants have a similar effect on the candida as sugar because they cause the adrenal glands to release glycogen into the bloodstream, which is quickly broken down into glucose, so these also need to be avoided.
Tea; green tea; coffee; sugar; alcohol; chocolate; tobacco; fizzy drinks; anything with caffeine in i.e. stimulant drinks.
Fungi & Yeast:
Stay off fungi and yeast products for the four week programme. After this, on the maintenance programme, they can be reintroduced in moderation. However, if you are intolerant to them you should stay off them for the maintenance programme too.
Bread; breadcrumbs; most stocks; Vegemite; Bovril; soya sauce; mushrooms; certain vitamin tablets; anything fermented (including alcohol); vinegar and associated products; Quorn; Monosodium Glutamate (If you have a Chinese meal you can ask for it to be cooked without this); peanuts and peanut butter. Malted products; anything that is smoked; nuts (nuts grow mould on them very quickly so if you have them at all make sure they are freshly cracked.)
Grains & Carbohydrates:
Avoid all grains that you are intolerant to along with processed carbohydrates. Learn to rotate your grains and carbohydrates and try not to make them the main part of the meal.
Avoid jacket potatoes as they have a high glycemic index (this depicts how quickly a food is converted to sugar in the body).
Bread; pizza; pasta; white rice; wheat; jacket potatoes; refined carbohydrates; grains you are intolerant to; corn.
Coming soon – the 2 month diet Plan!