Candida Diet Guidelines

[shelley]

The main objectives and guidelines of the anti-candida diet are these:

1. Starve the candida by avoiding simple sugars, most fruit, most starches, uncultured dairy (milk bad, kefir good, really aged cheeses okay after first month) and any products with sugar. After 1-3 months you can add honey, maple syrup, vanilla rice dream and molasses back into your diet in small amounts so long as they are in liquid form and not combined with fiber. For instance, a bit of honey in your tea. Before then, use Stevia and try to keep to Stevia. If you eat sugars with fiber they will make it into the intestines for yeast to feed upon. You can have a bit of sweetener with fiber IF you also use tons of pungent herbs (see Pungent Therapy).
2. Avoid allergens that further weaken the immune system and cause leaky gut. Anything you used to eat a lot of is probably an allergan now. Avoid your favorites for the first month.
3. Support the liver and all cleansing/detoxing protocols.
4. Prepare foods in such a way that they are easy to digest with a relatively quick transit time. The slower the transit time, the more chance candida has of living off of it.
5. Choosing and preparing foods that support the power of digestion, digestive fire, or Agni.
6. Choosing foods that are beneficial to the friendly microbes that keep candida in check (acidophilus, etc.) and harmful to candida. This includes cultured and fermented foods and spicy condiments and vinegars, which most candida diets mistakenly say to avoid.
7. Only eat organic foods as much as possible. Meat sources should be hormone-free, preferably free-range, pasture grazed, or wild game.
8. Eat highly-nourishing foods rich in vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, cell-builders like lecithin/choline, anti-oxidants.

Candida albicans is a yeast. It feeds on simple sugars and milk sugars and protein if it only partially digests in the stomach, and excretes alcohol. It lives side-by-side with acidophilus and competes for territory on mucous membranes or any skin tissue that gets infected due to too much moisture, such as athlete’s foot. The mucous membranes it always inhabits includes the intestines, especially the colon and small intestine; the vagina; the myelin sheathe protecting the nerves; urinary tract. If it ends up in the blood, it won’t stay there long, it’s happiest inhabiting tissue.

Candida is always in our body, but usually in balance with acidophilus. When broad-spectrum antibiotics or bad diets kill of acidophilus and weakened digestion causes fermentation in the small intestine, candida gets out of balance and causes a myriad of symptoms.

To really get results fast, for the first month to three months, your diet should be very, very strict. After a month you may start adding certain foods into your diet, slowly, one new food a day, preferably only adding new foods about 3 days out of the week, so you can see if they increase symptoms or not.

Water fasting or the Master Cleanser are not recommended for candida people because usually they go for years before accurately diagnosing systemic candidiases, and so have many deficiencies that need to be addressed. People in a very weakened state should not fast.

Foods to Avoid:
Refined sugar and all versions of sugar: turbinado, raw sugar, rapadura. No honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, barley syrup.
Anything pre-made. If you didn’t cook and prepare it, don’t eat it. That means no microwave dinners, power bars, meal replacement shakes, salad dressing, condiments that have sugar, most breads, crackers, cookies, even if sugar-free.

Phony foods: egg beaters, margarine, non-dairy creamers, etc.
No wheat, corn or corn syrup, oats, wheat flour, white flour, tomato sauce, white potatoes. No pasta unless it’s non-wheat, non-durum. Limit rice to the Kichadi recipe or Spiced Rice or hot cereals.

No regular milk or phony cheese except for European style or organic butter (it's cultured), Ghee, small amounts of kefir and yogurt so long as they are plain, organic, unsweetened, no fruit flavors. Some people need to avoid kefir for the first month just to be really safe (unless it's really sour there's milk sugar in it) then include it regularly as a probiotic.
Rice milk, almond milk or sesame milk should be okay in small amounts.
No corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil.
No peanuts, peanut butter or dried fruit. No roasted nuts of any kind.
No fruit except for green apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, and only one small serving a day (1 green apple, one pear, ½ cup berries). These citrus fruits are allowed: lemon, lime, grapefruit. Unsweetened, organic, 100% cranberry juice is allowed too. Dilute it or it tastes awful.
Anything that you used to live on frequently forgo for 1-3 months. Give your body a break, you may be allergic to it, especially if you have leaky gut. For instance, if you ate a lot of chicken in an effort to be more healthy and avoid red meat, stop eating it, it's no longer as healthy. Red meat would actually be better.
No coffee, black tea. Too draining, hard on the kidneys and endocrine system.
No refined table salt. Use Celtic Sea Salt or another brand of unrefined sea salt or Kosher Salt.
No chocolate unless it’s cocoa powder, nothing else added. Use stevia and an oil or butter for hot chocolate, or kefir and cocoa for a cold chocolate pudding.
Nothing deep-fried.
Avoid sausages, deli meats except for roasted turkey breast. Even the highest quality deli meats tend to have nitrates, nitrites and MSG added.
Nothing constipating.

Allowable substitutes for sugar: Stevia anytime, Sweet and Low or Xylitol or Sorbitol once in a blue moon, unsulphured molasses, herbal teas with licorice.

Caveat: do not eat after 8:00 pm.

Foods you can eat:
Grains: Quinoa, Amaranth, Teff. Barley and millet occasionally. Wild rice. Basmati rice if prepared with legumes and pungent spices/curry. Bob’s Red Mill and Lundberg’s Brown Rice have hot cereals that are wheat/corn free, very good staples to add to your diet after the first 4 weeks.

Legumes: Lentils, Garbanzo beans/chick peas, mung bean, aduki bean, green peas, kidney beans, black beans, great northern beans. Avoid canned beans that have sugar or tomato added.

Sprouts: only if you sprout them yourself and eat them at the height of goodness, throwing them out afterwards. They attract molds.

Grasses: only in super-green supplements. Avoid buying wheatgrass juice at juice bars, it’s usually contaminated with molds.

Vinegar and vinegary foods: preferably raw and organic, preferably homemade or marinated in Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar with 'the mother': kim chee, umeboshi plum, pickled ginger, saeurkraut. A high-quality aged balsamic vinegar is okay too for home-made salad dressings.

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut: best if you make them yourself or if they’ve been made locally without passing through customs and being irradiated. As soon as a food is irradiated or pasteurized it is susceptible to yeasts and molds because the friendly microbes have been killed; however, the vinegar alone should keep that in check. But if the food turns black, it's got the wrong microbes or has been exposed to too much oxygen - toss it.

Ezekiel bread or tortillas from brown rice flour or another non-wheat, non-gluten grain flour. Use Jicima (a root veggie) sliced into cracker shapes in place of wheat flour crackers.

Almond or hazelnut butter. Raw almonds, brazil nuts, cashew, hazelnuts, preferably after soaking in water overnight.

Hummus & Miso Soup

Pasta - get brown rice or quinoa pasta from the health food store.

Any spice, Tamari (naturally fermented soy sauce), Celtic Sea Salt, kosher salt.

Oils: extra-virgin, cold-pressed, organic Coconut, Olive, Flax, Udo’s Choice, Evening Primrose, Borage, Fish, Cod Liver, Safflower, Ghee (clarified butter), sesame, toasted sesame, sunflower, almond

Meats: any organic, pasture-grazed sources. Organ meats; chicken; Cornish game hen; pheasant; turkey; beef; buffalo; ostrich; moose; elk; venison.

Seafood: fish, shellfish, caviar, shrimp, oysters, sardines, tuna, salmon.

Acceptable dairy substitutes: Vanilla Rice Dream or Almond Milk. Avoid Soy Milk or any soy-based products outside of the occasional tofu or tamari.

Vegetables: limit starchy vegetables the first month, otherwise, all vegetables are okay. Super-sweet veggies like beets should only be eaten in small amounts during the first month. May need to limit nightshade veggies for awhile.

Condiments: make your own mayonnaise with a good olive oil. Ketchup has tons of sugar. Some Asian sauces are fantastic, particulary the spicy ones, curry, fish sauce (nam plah). Any mustard or horseradish, they’re both very cleansing and activating to the digestive system and do not support molds.

Drinks: water, herbal tea, Cleansing Drink made with Molasses or Stevia, Protein Shake, Rice Milk, Almond Milk, Digestive Lassi/Kefir, broths. Drink as much ginger and peppermint tea as feels good, they are digestive aids. Nettle tea aids the lymphs. Dandelion aids liver, kidneys and lymph. Avoid raspberry tea, it's estrogenic.

Make broths and drink that, use it to flavor your dishes/veggies, or for soups. May also use those handy-dandy cartons of organic broth.
Feel free to use those bags of lettuce and spinach now available that use the nitrogen process for freshness.

Food Preparation
The majority of the foods should be cooked with pungent, heating, carminative, anti-pyretic and anti-fungal herbs and spices. Raw eggs, oysters are fine, as are salads if accompanied by a pungent salad dressing. Raw juices are fine but should be warmed up too with ginger, garlic, cayenne.

After the first month: add in more alternative grains, Kichadi, basmati rice, may have one tablespoon of either honey or Grade B Maple Syrup occasionally. May occasionally add in a bit of aged, hard cheese - parmesan, romano, or raw goat cheese.

[kaizen02]

Are cooked eggs ok.

[shelley]

yes, just don't hardboil them. Scrambled soft is fine, poached is fine.

[sunlover]

So then no Kichadi the first month? Or should I replace balsmati rice with quinoa?

Thanks Shelley

[shelley]

It depends on where you are with things. Kichadi is the one thing that I think is okay all the time because of how it's prepared, but just plain white rice, no, even if it's basmati. And some people are SOOO dependent on carbs and sugars that it's best to have a "dry out" period of not even eating Kichadi.

Quinoa is fantastic.

[alien]

I have recently had a hard time eating hard boiled eggs; I get nausea and feel like my body cannot process the food. You said that light scrambled is a good option. Why are hard boiled eggs not a good idea? I hope to get an explanation why I couldn't eat them and hope to be able to eat scrambled YAY!

[sunlover]

What foods are good for a dry out period, because I'm very addicted to sugar and carbs?

[shelley]

[shelley]

[sunlover]

Hi Shelley,
I do have low iron levels, but wasn't sure if red meat was ok while on a parasite cleanse. If it's ok, then how often should I have it? And is this a good diet for me to start with?


breakfast-cleansing drink
snack-protein shake
lunch-kichadi
snack-pumpkin seeds
dinner-broth or some veggie soup or salad


Thanks

[shelley]

That looks great!

Yep, you can have red meat occasionally if you do it right. It has to be a good quality, preferably from pasture-grazed, hormone free sources. If in doubt, go for buffalo, most buffalo providers have small free-range ranches.

When we cleanse for long-term, we can't do a total nothing-but-cleansing diet because we'll get too weak and depleted. We have to have rebuilding meals peppered in every now and again. Red meat is especially appropriate for Vata people and Vata derangements. Kapha and Pitta people, or anyone overweight, can stick with the protein shakes, broths and occasional turkey, but as soon as you get too thin and tired or tongue gets pale, beef up a bit!

So judge by your weight and energy levels and hunger. If you have extreme hunger, have lost too much weight too fast, it's time for a 4 ounce hamburger patty. Just be sure to eat it alone or with a bitter green salad at most.

To prevent parasite infection from your fish and meat sources, keep the meats frozen for 14 days before preparing.

[marnie]

Shelley,

Do you know how I can find meat in my area that is safe for me to eat? No antibiotics or other chemicals in their feed? Are there certain brands out there available at the grocery store that you know are safe? Through work I found a place that sells eggs from free range/self fed/no antibiotics chickens, but from what I understand, they don't sell the chickens or any other meat locally. This is something I've been trying to find for a while now, as my family is all unhealthy in eating. I've been a big believer that added hormones in meat is making our children (especially girls!) grow bigger and "mature" faster than in times past. I told my husband that I want a farm, so we can "grow" our own food and know where the feed is coming from and what is put into it - it's not possible right now, but maybe in the future. I would really appreciate any help you can give me in this quest!

Thanks!
Marnie

[h0ppy]

Is it safe to eat Bob's Red Mill Buckwheat cereal occasionally? Also, by soaking nuts you are turning the starch into simple sugars which candida feeds on. So would it be wise to avoid nuts all together?

[shelley]

I used nutbutters a lot on my candida diet and I was fine. I rarely did sprouts because I'm a vata and they are too light for me. The main problem with nuts is hard they are to digest. They are not the kind of sugars that yeasties really like and so in small quantities even if sprouted should be fine.

Buckwheat is a derivative of wheat and therefor a Gluten grain. Not all of us have problems with gluten grains. Use kinesiology to determine if you do, or wait until you've been on a non-gluten diet for awhile and try some, see how you feel. If symptoms like brain fog, fatigue or heart rate increase, you'll know you're not ready for it.

[balancedbeauty]

Buckwheat does not contain any gluten, nor is it related to wheat. Buckwheat is not a true cereal as it is not a member of the grass family, it is actually related to sorrels and docks.
I don't know if that makes it more appropriate for a candida diet or not.