Candida Diet Update Feb 2013

Change in Diet because all the “cheat days” had been catching up with me

Going from a laid back stage 3 diet back to a Strict Candida Diet to boost my immune system (which has been running low since my detox last month). 

This is what I typically ate the previous months 

Breaky: 2 slices of yeast free wheat bread, packed with seeds with stir fried cabbage, seeds and feta

Lunch: a salad, scrambled eggs or 2 big bowls of bean stew or creamy soup and bacon with 2 slices of wholegrain wheat bread

Snacks: rice cakes or pancakes as snack (wheat and egg again!)

Dinner: and meat or fish with a plate full of veg for supper, often after 7pm.

What I typically ate this month: (potatoes instead of bread and now broth before lunch)

This is a different type of candida diet – one I hadn’t tried before. Fingers crossed it will once and for all get candida under control ?

Main difference is that you are not allowed: salad, beans, bread, grains, cereal, onions, cauliflower…

What you are allowed is a set amount of: soup before every meal at lunch, root vegetables, potatoes, feta, tofu (and fish, eggs and meat 2 x per week at lunch).

Breakfast:

Stir-fried cabbage with 1 slice of gluten free bread or 2 boiled potatoes with different spreads (tuna & veg, feta & veg or tofu & veg)

Lunch:

1 bowl of Root Veg Soup, 2 Potatoes with Veg and Feta (twice a week omelet/ meat or fish with veg)

Dinner

2 Potatoes with different spreads (no veg!)

What I snacked on:

• 3-4 mega cheat days with hot curries and butter cream carrot cake – big backlash!
• From then on snacked only on potatoes with different spreads and steamed/ fried veg or soups (ok, I’m a weirdo, but I’m not gonna live of potatoes forever, right! ?

Drinks:

• water, dandelion tea, Pau d’arco tea, nettle/ mullein tea

Lifestyle/ Activities:

• working flat out, not enough sleep, 3x exercise classes per week (wed, thur, fri)

Health Issues:

• Cold sores, recurring thrush (both going away now)
• The first ten days on the gluten free/ grain free new candida diet were torment: I suffered proper die off symptoms like I used to get in the old days of starting the diet – like insane sadness, fatigue after eating and massive belly bloating. I presume that had something to do with my recent 3 days in a row butter cream carrot cake orgy (I’m not even pretending it had stevia in it ? Also probably brought on by the 4 times as strong probiotics. After ten days it balanced out though, and I felt better than I had for a long time.

What Supplements I took:

• Rotating olive leaf capsules (1 x twice daily), oil of oregano drops (once daily 2 drops), wormwood & cloves drops (a dropper 3 times a day)
• A higher strength probiotic (20 billion organisms instead of 5 what I was taking before, Optibac)
• L-glutamin, Colostrum, Slippery Elm/Marshmallow Mix to heal leaky gut.
• Extra magnesium, calcium and vit d, cod liver oil and protein powder (whey) after exercise. Did you know that you can spray magnesium oil on your feet? Yep, that’s what I’m doing Foot bath, then little massage and off to bed – bye bye muscle ache.

To recap what I learned:

• Gluten free bread actually tastes nice, is easy to bake and makes for noticeably less belly ache.
• Wheat on the other hand, as well as (un-soaked) seeds definitely irritate the gut, even if you think you are not gluten intolerant. The bloatedness I was sometimes experiencing after eating is starting to go away (and with it the thrush) – Result!
• The combo of taking the leaky gut medication and not eating foods that contain gluten or cause acidity seems to do the trick.
• Interestingly enough the bloating appeared back on those few occasions this month when I ate after 6pm, when I had nut butter, when I ate out (even in a veggy restaurant) and when I ate spicy, oily foods. Even fried egg & onions and bell peppers made it worse (and I used to eat a lot of that stuff, no wonder my gut was always a bit inflamed). I think they might be just a little too acidic for a sensi gut.
• Salad is actually hard to digest, who would have thought. Eating watery soup with lunch, instead of salad, agreed better with me.
• If you exercise a lot or you are constantly stressed you need to support your adrenals and up your mineral intake (otherwise you feel achy, heavy, lethargic and heal veeery slooowly!)
• I’m amazed that I was able to eat potatoes, root veg and feta all the time without an increase in symptoms. But perhaps the simple carbs were utilized by my body before they had a chance to feed the yeast in my large intestines.

So it’s just as much about when and how much you eat as it is about what you eat.

Top Tip: When you eat simple carbs (fruit, veg, pasta, bread) make it a small amount and give it time to be fully digested before you eat things that are filling and harder to digest (creamy sauces, meat).

So How Does this Apply to You? Maybe this is what’s holding back your recovery…

If you have been battling candida for years, then ask yourself again, what might be holding you back? Because… there has got to be something.

Don’t put up with it – Change something!

I can’t tell you how frustrated I have been the past few months coming out of my detox and thinking I’d be fully healed – and there I was – coming down with this nasty virus, my whole digestion gone haywire, no energy left, job worries and with puffed sore lips on my boyfriend’s birthday… and still not fully healed, boy how long does that want to take?!…. the list goes on… and all the while keeping a straight face here on my blog ? only joking…

Read up about the GAPS diet and leaky gut syndrome. Perhaps you can apply some of the strategies to your situation.

Make sure that you are getting the right amount of nutrients that your body can actually utilize, especially if you are under a lot of stress.

Avoid anything that could inflame your gut (wheat, gluten, greasy spicy food, late meals, stress!)

Even if you only manage a few days without, it might make a big difference to how you feel. Never ever give up hope!

Have you tried cutting out gluten or grains? What was the effect on you? Leave a comment below the sign up box (you are signed up to get my next diet update, aren’t you ?

P.S. If you liked this update, you might also enjoy the March update here.

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