The key to the Candida diet is to help your body heal and it all begins in the kitchen. The following foods are not allowed in the 4 Stages of the Candida diet because they either contain sugar, contain fermented produce or they create an acidic environment that promotes inflammation.
| Category | Foods to Avoid | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Sugars |
Sweets Honey Chocolate Syrups Sugar & artificial sweeteners | All sugars feed Candida growth so you have to eliminate this initially. Stevia is ok occasionally. |
| Fruits |
Fresh and dried fruit Fruit juices | Fruits are high in sugar which feeds Candida so you have to eliminate these too. |
| Most Grains |
Cakes Biscuits Pizza Breads Cereals | see food list below for exceptions |
| Alcohol | all kinds | Full of carbohydrates and decreases the effectiveness of insulin, leading to higher blood sugar levels. |
I know it sounds like madness but our whole culture is built around “sandwich breaks” and snacks which is harming your body. Don’t worry, they can slowly be introduced back in after you go through the 4 Stages of recovery. By then however you’ll realise how far better off you feel and may not want to indulge again.
The good news is that there is a bigger list of all the foods you can eat during the Candida Diet: Food to eat
Hello!
Please help me with stage1
Breakfast, lunch and dinner
Thank you
Hey Thuli, you’re not meant to eat in stage 1 ? So your breakfast, lunch and dinner will be more of the liquid variety. Think broths, light soups, fresh vegetable juices. If however you have to work or will be physically active (or you simply are not ready for a cleanse) then have smoothies, salads and steamed or stir-fried vegetables with a little brown rice. Alternatively start straight away with stage 2, following the recipes on my “candida diet recipes” page. Basically, the more load you take of your digestive system and the more you rest, the more benefit you’ll get from stage 1. Just see what feels right for you at this moment in time. There is no rush. Do it to the best to your abilities, and you will heal.
Take care.
I have a gluten sensitivity and yeast sensitivity Lord to find things to eat is hard. Im able to get some items in wholefoods stores. In my experience if i even have anything with vinegar i get blurry vision mental confusion as well with the gluten. Having sensitivity with any food items it is so dangerous to your health.To anybody here doing this diet i feel for you since i have all this going on in my life i understand. I have been in ER so many times with chest pains because my body reacted so badly to those foods that i was not awared i had a sensitivity to.My husband noticed i would have slurred speech and become confuse when i ate certain foods so we began to write down what i could and not have to eat. I did come out positive in test when i was little but my family did not know how to deal with my allergy and kept giving me those foods.Resulted in now having low stomach acid and having to supplement with b 12 for the rest of my life and yearly upper endoscopy. Wish you guys the best and Health
Hello Lisa, how lovely to hear from you – thank you for sharing your story with us. I know how you must be feeling. I used to tap in the dark about certain food intolerances for years and even now I sometimes react to some foods in the way you describe. I guess once you have had this for a long time in your life you’ll be prone to reactions. That said, I do still believe that I will eventually be able to completely reverse all my food intolerances, fingers crossed. Perhaps you’ll be able to do the same thing once your immune system is stronger and you’ll have followed an exclusion diet to give your body the space to heal. All my best, blessings x
I’m trying to help a friend do a candida diet for her Autistic 6 year old sons. They are picky eaters, where can I start. They are also suppose to be gluten, dairy, yeast and sugar free. Please help!
Hi Ginger, that’s awfully nice of you to help your friend. It’s not easy to adopt the Candida Diet so your support will help her a lot.
If your friend and her son have been eating a lot of fast food and sweets then it would be good if they could do a mini fast to cleanse their digestive system before they start the new way of eating. Here’s a bit more info: http://52.43.254.228/candida-cleanse/
If they have already been eating very wholesome it’s not essential but beneficial. That said, it’s probably difficult to get a child to get on board with that so just eating light and healthy woould be good (think wholegrains rather than white pasta and white bread or sweetened cereal. Brown rice and steamed or lightly fried vegetables are easy to digest and nourishing, as well as fish and white organic meat.
Rice milk and unsweetened almond milk are delicius milk alternatives. For the transition it’s easier to eat a little fruit like green apples and blue berries, but no sugar. Just take a look at the recipes on my blog. They are divided into the different stages of the diet. That will give you an idea what they can eat and how they can slowly add some things back into their diet. Here’s a link to the recipes: http://52.43.254.228/best-candida-diet-recipes/
All of them are yeast free and most of them are gluten, dairy and sugar free. It’s fantastic that they want to do this. It looks difficult, but once the habits are changed it’s easy to maintain the diet and there tons of delicious things to eat. Plus the main thing is obviously that they will look and feel better.
Hello
I am on phase 2 and sticking with it but feel rough! Trying to stay flushed with herbal teas. Can I ask is there any alcohol that is a low offender? I usually drink white wine – I could add water or vodca and slimline – my husband works hard and likes to have a drink on a Friday but I don’t want to put my hard work at risk. I would rather go without!!
Loved Thai curry, coconut rice, green goddess and cleansing veg soup!
Thanks
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca,
so glad you decided to give the diet a go and super happy that you liked the That curry… ?
It’s tricky with the alcohol. I have written a blog post about it: http://52.43.254.228/best-alcohol-for-candida-diet/
If you can avoid drinking it, do it! If you can’t then vodka lemon or white wine are options, but even they feed Candida.
Be strong – have the wine in a few weeks when you’re through with the diet. Just have a sip of your partner’s for now ?
Hello
The diet is going really well I am so glad I found your book and website. I finally think I will be free after years. I messaged you last week about low carb alcohol…… I was perfectly happy in the pub with sparkling water and lemon! I just wanted to ask what is it that is bad about organic brown rice cakes? You mention to eat them occasionally – I used to have 4 every morning for breakfast and now wonder if I have done myself harm candida wise. My rash is going and my stomach although still bloated every time I eat feels much better and my mood is a lot brighter!
Rebecca
? You’re sweet, thanks so much! Hope you’ll feel better soon!
Thanks for getting back – I won’t be touching alcohol for a good fewchores I was thinking more in the future – I found that page this morning – your website is amazing!!!
Oh wow I’m so pleased you’re starting to feel better. It’s awfully nice of you to give me feedback – much appreciated! I hope the last symptoms will be gone soon. Very cool that you resisted the alcohol. Keep doing what you’re doing ?
Re brown rice cakes – don’t worry too much about them. I ate tons of them, also corn cakes, and I still got better.
That said I did have moments where I felt it caused small set backs. I think apart from all the carbs it’s also highly processed (Have you seen how it’s made? I think it’s made like pop corn the kernels get heated so much that they burst). My theory is that it just uses up a lot of nutrients in the body to be able to digest it, almost like very burnt food and therefore depending on if you’re running low on vitamins and minerals anyway, it can have a negative knock on effect on your Candida symptoms… I definitely noticed that I never experienced any set backs from eating wholegrain rice, only ever from rice cakes… so the past few months I have been sticking to soaked and cooked whole grains, and it is making a difference.
Hang in there, you’re making fantastic progress ?
Just found your web site and I love it. Already following you on FB, Instagram, Pintres lol.
I have at least 15 of the symptoms you mention in your guide. Back in June I was on a candida diet and had improvement for a month, then slowly introduced more food. Going back to regular diet has been horrible. The symptoms are worse and even some of the foods I could eat before are making me sick.
Before I was eating veggies,eggs, some nuts, avocado, no lentils & beans (any kind), no rice, peas, potatoes, nothing made with yeast, sugar of flour. As you see it was very strict and I dont want to eat like that all the time. IIt`s especially hard for me because I dont eat meat and fish and I have dairy intolerance. I drank kefir and probiotic yogurt but now I feel sick after I drink them. saw that you offer more choices for food, some that I`ve read can feed the diet so I`m confused. I`m ordering the Solution book but it will be a while until it gets here so I was wondering if you have any advice.
Hey Daniela, lovely yo hear from you and many thanks for your kind comments and for ordering my book.
Well done for following the diet for a month, that’s great. It’s normal to see improvements first and then develop more food sensitivities because your body has to deal with the die off and your whole microbiome is changing.
I would definitely recommend working with a nutritionist to figure out how to meet your requirements if you don’t eat meat or fish. My diet approach relies on those foods.
I’m afraid there’s no magic bullet. Digestion, health & immunity are complex systems that work in harmony. If one thing is out, the rest might fall down too. So I can only give you advice if I know the whole picture of what else is going on in your life e.g. what your symptoms are, what you are eating exactly on a day to day basis, how your stress and sleep levels are… and quite a few other considerations. That’s why I offer audio/ video and email consultations to give personalised support. That starts from £20/$30. Feel free to book a session with me to explore how we can widen the range of foods your body can tolerate… https://sandraboehner.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php Best wishes
I am also on a strict carb diet with no sugar, no potatoes, no carrots, no rice but am able to eat protein foods such a chicken, beef, fish, no bread and yeast , so tomorrow its christmas day and can you imagine my immunity towards all the cakes and mincepies, but definitely I am not being turned on by their smells..! since I know sugar is poison for me and as soon as I taste something I will instantly get my skin rash under my eyes and my skin gets all wrinkled and inflamed for a week! Now I am in the 3rd month on the candida diet and I have also asked the help of a homeopath as the antifungals I was taking and the diet were not enough for me. I think all this started with taking an overindulgence of Kefir that I got an overgrowth of yeast, that I think some people get different reactions to certain foods, as we are all different. I had been taking Homemade Kefir daily for 4 months and was sometimes feeling bloated , then I started getting a reaction like exzema/psoriasis under my eyes which was due to candida. so now I hope that I am at the last stage of my diet and hope to be able to start eating some apples soon , Happy Christmas ….:)
So happy that your taste buds have changed for the better, yay! Moderation with kefir is a good idea. I had to ease off a bit too initially. You might already be able to tolerate small amounts of apple like a couple of thin slices of green apple or a handful of berries. They contain little sugar and are rich in vitamins and minerals so the benefits outweigh the potential side effects as long as you enjoy them occasionally and in moderation ?
Merry belated Christmas and a Happy (+ Healthy!) New Year!!!