Please note: if you have a medical condition you shouldn’t make any changes to your diet without first consulting your GP or health practitioner.
If you are trying to eliminate Candida from your system, you have to follow a very strict diet for at least (in my experience) 2 weeks; but it really is the longer the better. You probably also have to take a number of supplements to help eliminate the yeast from your body. Please call in to the shop and discuss your supplement needs with one of our staff.
Foods to Eat: All vegetables except mushrooms (though you should go easy on the spuds as they become sugar very quickly and can exacerbate a candida condition), all lean proteins including fish, chicken, lean meats (all organic preferably or at least antibiotic-free), brown bread, brown rice, eggs, lentils, peas and beans, organic natural yoghurt, cottage cheese, apples in limited amounts. Flax seed oils, all nuts and seeds, rye or spelt crackers.
Foods to avoid: All sugars including fruit sugars, anything ending in ‘ose’ (dextrose, sucrose, fructose and many more) maltitol, all fruit juices, and most fruits. All alcohol. All fermented foods. All yeasted breads. Mushrooms. All aged cheeses and blue cheese. All processed foods including crisps, chips, frozen meals etc. All white breads, white pastas, cakes cookies etc. If you need a sugar to cook with try Zylitol, as it seems not to feed candida. But use it sparingly all the same.
Aim of the diet
What you are aiming to do with this diet is starve the yeast. Yeasts thrive on sugars and any foods that turn into sugars like potatoes, white breads, cakes etc just feed your problem. As do fruit juices, alcohol, and processed foods that always contain sugars and unhealthy fats.
Meal Suggestions
Good meals are vegetable and lentil soups, roasted vegetables with fish and rice, grilled chicken with rice and raw salads such as home made coleslaw, carrot salads, and salads with seeds and nuts in them (try to use lemon juice instead of vinegar as a dressing). Try to use a fresh organic olive oil instead of butter if you are having potatoes and on your salads, to add omega 9 to your diet. Try to cook with coconut oil as it has natural anti-microbial actions (as well as being a very healthy oil to cook with). When eating pasta try to eat spelt pasta or brown rice pasta. Eat lots of raw vegetables – the vitamins, enzymes and fibre are essential to combating this condition.
If you work in Bantry you can eat in Organico Café where you will get all the healthy nutritious lunches you need! Take a look at our website for delicious healthy recipes: www.organico.ie
Supplements
Supplements to consider: Alan’s Candida Plan includes Psyllium husks, Grapefruit Seed Extract, and a strong probiotic like Super 8. Other supplements are Candiclear and Dida, which both contain a combination of anti-candida agents and could be substituted in place of Grapefruit Seed Extract in certain situations. With all probiotics we would recommend taking Molkosan to strengthen their action. If stopping eating sugar is causing you difficulties, take a look at Chromium as a supplement to see if it might help. Chia Seeds might also benefit you as they slow down the absorption of sugars from carbohydrates as well as being excellent for the digestive system.
This is of course only meant to give you a general idea – for a personalised diet you could contact a nutritionist. Let us know your experiences, and any changes you find you need to make to this diet. We can highly recommend Christine Meadows who is available in Organico for private consultation on Tuesdays (to book call Christine on 027 51615).