Can anyone give me some advice on diet for candida?
Earlier this year I had a candida antibodies test and it came back positive. Following this I put myself on a very restrictive diet: no sugar, dairy, caffeine, potatoes, barely any grains - I allowed myself some porridge, brown rice and rice cakes, and no fruit for the first month. I also took ecobalance and coconut oil daily.
I did this for 10 weeks and at no point did I feel any of the amazing health benefits that others report, though I did lose weight. Nor did my sugar cravings ever go away. To be honest I ended up really miserable and gave up.
I've been back to my bad habits giving in to my cravings for sugar and carbs but I think I really need to get rid of this as I've no idea whether it's causing symptoms that I'm attributing to my hashimotos.
My problem is I'm almost vegetarian - I will eat some chicken and fish a couple of times a week - so cutting out grains and potatoes is really difficult.
I would really appreciate if someone knows of a diet/plan that is sustainable (and preferably downloadable for free!!)?
Nicola x
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nicolajane
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I know that Erica White is an expert on this. I understand that you must cut out all sugar and all yeast which means you cannot have anything fermented or containing yeast or sugar that includes stock cubes, vinegar, beer, bread, unless you cut out everything it will not work very well and probaly takes more than 10 weeks. Look her up.
There are some that say that a candida diet doesnt work( it is a money making con) , all I know is that it didnt work for me either. In Feb I took a course of lufenuron. I had extensive candida with soars down my back (which the Gp said was acne but I know was fungal). After the course I was completely free of overgrowth and I still am. I have no diet restrictions except try to eat sensibly. I am at the moment taking a prolonged course of doxycyclin(malaria prophylaxis) and I have not had any problems yet.
my physio has put me on Lambert's candaway x2 per day and Lambert's Acidophilus extra 10 for up to 8 weeks - will then review. He said no need to change diet at this stage other than 'sensible ' .It sounds as though you are being super sensible to me.
I take L-Glutamine powder to reduce leaky gut and sugar cravings, de-odourised garlic tablets and caprylic acid tablets. My sugar cravings have dropped dramatically and I no longer feel that I have a major Candida problem.
Before I started this regime I took fluconazole? (for thrush - available over the counter) two weeks on the trot, although I didn't actually have thrush.
I'm now sticking to a sensible diet as much as possible - but nothing radical, and I haven't cut anything out completely.
Thanks, yes Dr P suggests taking fluconazole once a week for 3 weeks. I was going to do this but then I read it could harm the liver. Maybe 2 weeks to start off as you did would be ok.
I've been on weekly fluconazole since Feb. I think my liver is doing okay, but my cholesterol is going up, and I'm pretty sure that's caused by the drug.
gosh that's a long time, i take it you are having candida problems? or for something else? Just out of interest re your comment below - is there another way to test other than saliva?
Well, I have an oral infection although my GP prescribes the meds for problems "down there" (which are trivial compared to what's going on in my mouth and digestive system). I was really run down from malabsorption and inflammation following a gluten challenge, and in my view that's what triggered the problem (although I can't prove anything!). I think my nutritional status is much better now, and it feels like I'm finally getting on top of things... touch wood. I answered the other question below. Hope it helps.
Was it a saliva antibodies test? I think that particular test is often interpreted incorrectly. If you score high on that test, it only proves that candida is present in the mouth. It can't tell you whether there is candida in the digestive system. Candida in the digestive system exists, but is vastly overdiagnosed by the alternative medicine community.
Your options for testing are swabs, stool culture or serum antibodies. If you've got oral or vaginal symptoms, then you can get swabs done on the NHS. There are several private companies offering stool culture, but that is not 100% reliable because it can have false negatives. Then there's the serum antibodies, which is also hard to interpret, although I reckon that high antibodies in this test is probably meaningful. None of the tests is perfect.
I did research it a while ago, but knew I'd never get round to doing it so I deleted the links. The clue was "veterinary" as far as I can remember - it's a flea treatment. Cure you cat's fleas here:
I worked for Erica White for 9 years, at that time she was considered one of the best nutritionists for candida in the country. A lot of people were helped on her VERY strict regime, and others struggled and did not get well. It is the same for most of these things, we are all different, what works for one doesn't work for somebody else. Erica was quote rigid with her approach , the diet was the same for eveybody, and fruit was a definite no no. Erica put people on a lot of supplements, they were costly alongside the consultation fee.
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