I have been reading thruogh articles, but unclear on one thing. I know sugars, alcohol, mold, and vinigar should be avoided if you have an over growth of Candida bacteria. Once the bacteria is under control, do you still have to avoid cheeses and vinigar, or is the natural avoidance of sugars on the Atkins diet enough to prevent future flare ups?

I don't know how others do it but I eat cheese again. I tend to cook it rather than eat it raw to kill any yeasts that might be there and if I do eat it raw I make sure that it doesn't have any growths on it. I never really understood why cheese was a no-no anyway because if it hasn't got moldy growth on it, it shouldn't have yeasts associated with it anyway. The process used to make it calls for bacteria (the good kind), not yeast.

Anyway, it doesn't cause me a flair up in symptoms.

I use soy sauce and vinegar occasionally as well with no problems.

I think the key is to continue on a lc diet and never give the candida a chance to overgrow again. You can't really get rid of all of it but promoting gut healthy with good lc food and probiotics should keep it in check. I also think it is important to eliminate other irritants and take in plenty of Omega 3 to avoid inflammation in tissues. Irritated tissues are more susceptible to yeast overgrowth. I also take an enteric coated asprin a day to down regulate inflammation with that in mind.

Wow, Promenea I had never heard of anyone cooking the cheese in hopes of killing the fungus but that is a really interesting thought.

LadyBelle - yes, you can add those things back in moderation. Some believe that once you have an overgrowth of the candida, you have SUPER YEAST (hearing superman music in background) and you will always struggle with it (for me this is true). I didn't believe this the first time I was on top of the yeast problem but then I was dating and drank an occasional strawberry daiquiri and kept wondering why it made me violently DIZZY (not a usual symptom after just one for me). It took 2 years for it to come back with a vengeance but boy did it ever. If I had been watching my diet, I would have probably never had an episode again.
However, since being on Atkins for 3 weeks, I'm MUCH better