I’ve been following versions of this crazy sugar and gluten free diet, aka Candida Diet for quite a while now. The idea is to reverse food allergies and get fighting fit in the process.
Each month, before introducing new foods into my diet, I take stock what has worked well for me and what hasn’t. I share what I learn here in my Candida Diet Updates. This month has seen me taking a 2 whole weeks break from the candida diet – meaning no antifungals while eating “normal” foods (processed, containing sugar, simply off the candida diet chart…). So how did I get on?
What’s changed since last month? Tons of sweet and fruity desserts 
- For the first time ever I allowed myself to eat a lot of the “wrong foods” on a regular basis – without feeling overly guilty or worried about it (and without a backlash of new symptoms – hear hear!).
- The biggest shift was my mental attitude. I now not only believe that I’ll be fully candida free. I can also feel it!
- I stopped taking antifungals during those 2 weeks of indulgence, mind you. So that also was a big change, too.
- Nor did I take any supplements for leaky gut (l-glutamin, colostrum, slippery elm & marshmallow mix – what I took every day before).
- I stopped taking chlorella (as I had run out).
- And I took a much lower dosage of probiotics than what I was taking the previous month; about one third/ one fourth and a different kind of probio (Primal Defence instead of Custom CP1)
- I reduced my (goats milk) kefir consumption right down and even took a break from it for 14 days.
Food Tests/ Re-introduction of previously eliminated foods:
So while I was munching all the foods that I normally don’t eat, I took stock if they were actually doing me any good or not. Here are the results. Some were quite a surprise for me:
- Store bought cakes like the ones in the pic above (didn’t eat the sugar glazed top layer btw – I only scraped out the poppy seeds filling ? Ok, I admit, I did eat the strawberry and the cheesecake slice as well – no side effects (at least not instantly).
- Oats (gluten) – ok when soaked and eaten with rice milk on good day, depressed and tummy uncomfortable when bigger amounts with cow’s milk and treacle.
- Cheese (only tried Kochkaese – German melted cheese) – fine.
- I ate tons of fruit. Berries, apples, pineapple (haven’t tried banana or dried fruit yet). Even sugared – all good (unless eaten late in the evening on full tummy).
- White rice – surprisingly enough I had lots more bloating and thrush after eating big amounts of root veg stew with white rice than from eating cake or fruit – go figure!
- Dumplings and wheat wraps made with white flour – no apparent problem.
- White pasta – had only small portion so far; that caused no probs as such, but I noticed that I was getting hungry quicker and felt more on edge.
- I had desserts for 14 days in a row (which I don’t do at home, EVER!) – fine.
- I ate lots of meat – to top it all – non organic meat, yikes! (my boobs got bigger, no joke ? And my blood pressure rose from all the salt).
What I typically ate this month:
Breaky:
- Spelt Toasties with Tuna, Sweet Potato & Celery Spread or Feta Sesame Yoghurt Spread
- On 2 days ground rice pudding with ½ small sliced apple, rice milk and cinnamon
Lunch:
- Bone Broth
- Big bowls of Lamb or root veg stew with spelt dumplings or white rice (ouch!), or millet and cabbage stir fry or salmon burgers
Dinner:
- Potatoes with feta or tuna spread
What I typically drunk:
- herbal teas, water or coffee (tse, tse, tse… I can virtually hear you shake your head in disbelief!)
What I typically ate when with family and I disregarded the candida diet:
Breaky:
Home, sweet home!
My favourite breaky when I’m in Germany is Spelt bread with creamed quark and black berry jam (I so love this! Quark is a sour dairy cream btw.)
When I’m there I also eat a lot of Spelt bread with salami or prosciutto (bacon cubes), boiled egg and tomato – very German, hey ?
Lunch:
- Soup with white pasta shells and bone marrow dumplings or white asparagus with ham
- Or Chicken, turkey or beef in one form or another with a cucumber or bean salad with yoghurt lemon sugar sauce or onion, oil and vinegar based vinaigrette and boiled potatoes or dumplings (flour & potato)
Desserts:
Chocolade blamanche pudding with cream, vanilla blamanche pudding with rhubarb, strawberries with cream, apple pie with cream, various small bought cakes, probiotic yoghurt crème with blue berries or red currants – basically everything had lots of starch, some artificials, sugar and dairy in it – ah yeah, I mean – Oh no ?
Dinner:
- Tinned fish with boiled egg or spelt sandwiches with beet root and feta or potatoes with fennel and feta (gotta eat sensible at some point, surely).
Snacks:
- Strawberries with rice pudding; goats yoghurt; buckwheat pancakes; ice cream.
- I also had some brazil nuts and blanched almonds to snack on practically every night.
The only thing that didn’t agree with me:
- Eating probiotic yoghurt or fruit late in the evening (unless my tummy was fairly empty). Taking a magnesium and probiotic capsule before bed – caused bloating, disrupted sleep and air in tummy.
What supplements I took:
- 1 x soil based probiotics in the morning
- 1 olive leaf capsule or 1 drop oil of oregano rotated every 5 days to keep yeast growth in check
- magnesium after exercise (except for 14 days break).
Lifestyle/ Activities
- Lots of hectic in preparation of family visit and birthdays, lots of relaxation once there.
- Started running (well, we’re talking snail pace here!) Less Fitness classes. But regular Chi Gong and Yoga exercises (sooo good for the soul, can’t rate it high enough!)
Health Issues:
- Constipation -finally- gone (thanks to water with fresh lemon juice, Sauerkraut juice, movement, magnesium tablets and fruit)
- On the flipside the thrush had seen a return – probably brought on by my excessive dessert and fruit eating, me thinks! But stopped again once I ate “normal” again and started taking high strength probiotics again.
- I am sleeping deeper, and the past couple of weeks didn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to wee. I’m even able to sleep on my belly again, yay! (Can you believe that my bloated painful belly had made that impossible for over 2 years!)
- First month with no skin irritations, itch or eczema anywhere. I’m finally able to have baths and long hot showers again (the joy!). I might even be able to wear Jeans again, wooah!
- Random improvement: Finger tips not wrinkly and hyper sensitive any more.
What I learned:
Being in a dry, non-moldy environment makes all the difference to candida. Every time I visit my parents and I live in a stress free warm place my health picks up no end. And I feel much healthier despite eating a good amount of unhealthy or at least candida promoting foods (like fruit and cream, cheese, dairy pudding with sugar…)
Your body gets a lot more forgiving the healthier you get (which means you can eat more naughty foods, more regularly without big repercussions, yay!)
So, how does this apply to you?
Don’t put all the emphasis on a strict diet. Learning to let go of stress, worries and tension in your mind and body is equally as important, if not more so.
Your body is able to cope with a lot of unhealthy food choices if you get regular movement, fresh air and you feel content and happy.
Stress is the killer for your immune system. It is not necessary to deprive yourself of all nice things to heal. You just have to make more healthy choices than unhealthy in the long run.
Granted, initially when starting the candida diet or after a severe illness, you have to take more care. But once you are on a maintenance level, then you can enjoy some of your favourite foods without guilt. As long as you go back to a clean sugar free diet afterwards.
Be good to yourself. Let your hair down a bit.
My next Candida Diet update is in 4 week’s time.
If you’d like to stay in the loop with recipes or whatever else I might be posting until then, put your name in the “Get Updates” box below.
How did you get on with your diet and life in general this month? Tell me in the comments below.
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