Even though I did not experience improvement of my health issues from the allergy elimination technique, the alternative medicine practitioner did introduce me to an interesting and helpful diet, also known as The Candida Diet. Here is my experience with the candida diet.
What are Candida?
Candida, the most common are known as Candida Albicans, are a yeast like fungus that naturally live inside the mouth, intestinal tract and vagina as well as on the skin and in the environment. Normally, in people with healthy immune systems, the candida population is kept in check by the immune system and the healthy bacteria in their bodies.
Image from Wikipedia
What is Candidiasis a.k.a Yeast Infection?
Candidiasis is an overgrowth of the candida fungus in the body. In women, the most common form of candidiasis is a vaginal yeast infection. Candidiasis can also affect the mouth, which is called “oral thrush”, and the skin. In more severe and rare cases, the yeast infection spreads into the bloodstream and affects other parts of the body.
Causes of Candida Overgrowth
Some of the main reasons why candida is allowed to overgrow inside the body are: antibiotic use, steroid use, using a catheter, hormonal imbalances (using birth control pills, menstruation, menopause, pregnancy), diabetes, or having a weakened immune system due to cancer or AIDS.
Some alternative medicine physicians believe that candidiasis can also be caused by lifestyle and diet along with the previously mentioned causes.
Symptoms of Candidiasis
This is where the line between the modern medicine world and the alternative medicine world becomes distinct. For yeast infections of the mouth, skin, and vagina, modern medicine has guidelines for what the symptoms should be and that the presence of these symptoms infers a yeast infection.
However, some alternative medicine doctors and nutritionists believe that an overgrowth of yeast anywhere in the body also concurrently affects other organs and may be the underlying cause of many other health ailments. Some of the most common symptoms of candidiasis include: gas, bloating, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration, constipation or diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, bladder/urinary problems, muscle and joint weakness or pain, ringing in the ears, dizziness, chronic hives, headaches, acne and the list goes on and on.
How to treat Candidiasis Using Alternative Medicine: The Candida Diet
Eliminating an overgrowth of yeast in the body usually begins with a body detox. You start with the candida diet and strictly follow it for 2-4 weeks. Sounds easy right? Well, let me list some of the foods you are versus aren’t allowed to eat and then you can decide if it still sounds easy. (This is not an complete list)
| Allowed Foods | Disallowed Foods |
| Organic vegetables | Anything with Yeast in the ingredient list (in many processed foods) |
| Hormone free, preservative free, pasture fed, minimally processed meats | Bread and any breaded meats or vegetables |
| Eggs | Fruits, fruit juices and dried fruits |
| Raw nuts (no peanuts) | All sugars & anything with sugar (cane, honey, agave, chocolate, cakes etc). |
| Seafood, except those possibly high in mercury such as, tuna, swordfish, shark & shellfish | Dairy products (including cheeses since some cheese is made with fungus) |
| Olive, coconut and flax oils | Coffee, tea, soda, alcohol |
| Reverse osmosis, distilled or spring water | Potatoes or legumes |
| Some diets say absolutely no grains (including rice, corn, quinoa etc) others say no glutenous grains (ex: wheat or white flour) | |
| Vinegar or products with vinegar (no salad dressings) | |
| Partially hydrogenated oils like corn and peanut |
The goal is to avoid any type of food which the yeast feeds of off, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour, as well as foods that are processed or preserved and even foods that can be contaminated with chemicals or other fungi. Every candida diet out there contains a few differences in what you are allowed to eat but the idea is to begin to eat healthy, organic, and fresh foods. When you think about it, we really should be eating those types of foods anyway, not all of the sugary, packaged, and processed foods that surround us today.
During this diet it is recommended that people also begin taking some type of probiotic, which helps destroy the yeast.
I took the Align Probiotic and Garden of Life Primal Defense Probiotic and had good results. If you’re interested you can usually find the Align (at a decent price) in Target stores or here on Amazon:
The Garden of Life Primal Defense can be found at Whole Foods Stores or also on Amazon:
About 2 to 4 weeks later, you are allowed to slowly add some of the disallowed foods back into your diet such as organic whole yogurt or sweet potatoes depending on how those foods make you feel. Obviously if you don’t feel well after eating a certain food you should avoid it.
During the candida detox, the alternative medicine practitioner or dietitian might also advise you to stop taking anything that can increase the candida such as birth control pills or antibiotics if at all possible.
Does the Candida Diet Work?
In my experience, the answer to that question is two fold. One, it may not completely cure illnesses such as Interstitial Cystitis (IC) or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) but it does make you feel better overall since you’re eating healthy, fresh, organic, preservative free foods. You may also loose some weight and extra body fat if you have weight and extra body fat to loose. So the diet can in fact reduce some of the earlier mentioned symptoms. Two, I personally believe that this diet does more then just reduce a possible overgrowth of candida yeast. Since your overall carbohydrate intake is dramatically reduced, this diet can also help minimize inflammation in your body.
Reducing inflammation in your body can benefit the healing of many different health issues including Interstitial Cystitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Summary
Candidiasis, or yeast overgrowth, can produce serious health issues, even more than what modern medicine believes it can produce.
The candida diet should be easy to follow for those of use who are suffering from IC and are already following the IC diet since our food choices are already so limited. I wouldn’t say the candida diet helped my IC anymore than the IC diet did but I will say I gained some interesting knowledge about my IBS versus carbohydrates. I will present more detail on this topic in my next post.
During and after my candida diet experience, I realized this diet wasn’t a miracle cure for any of my ailments but since my overall feeling of well being increased, it wasn’t a total waste of time and energy. Presently, even though I completed the candida diet detox, I still try to avoid foods containing yeast, sugar, white flour, and most fruits, since this seems to reduce the symptoms of my IC and IBS.
As always, consult with your medical doctor before starting or stopping any type of diet, dietary supplement or medicine.
Please feel free to comment and tell me about your own experience with the Candida Diet.
For more information see the following websites:
University of Maryland Medical Center
I’m happy to see that more people are motivated by detoxifying options. I found this report that explains a better way of body detoxifying but most importantly how to not quit at http://www.healthydetoxcleanser.com/