Hi Tom
Ok, I have to be honest and say that there are unfortunately lots of conflicting things I've found regarding the "correct" candida diet. Some doctors say some things are allowed and others say not. Some internet sites recommend, for example, coconut whilst others say not. The reason is not whether coconut, for example, is a good or bad candida thing but how you are taking it.
The idea behind the candida diet is partly to reduce your total consumption of bad bacteria and moulds from canned, dried and marinated foods, while boosting your "good" stomach bacteria and reducing the bad bacteria which are not necessary to your body and which can be harmful because they can feed the yeast.
One of the reasons that there is disagreement on some things (e.g. pumpkin seeds) is that some doctors think "Ah . . . pumpkin seeds are dried, may have a high mould content from the packaging etc".
My book allows them but only if cooked first. In fact, my candida book allows a lot of foods on the treatment phase of the diet, but only if cooked first (e.g. seaweed is also supposed to be good for candida sufferers because it has a good iodine and mineral composition for those of us who have had some of the malnutrition symptoms from bad digestion/candida, BUT it also has a high bacteria count, so my book allows it but only in soups, stews, boiled water with lemon etc).
I'm not saying mine is the only candida book out there (I mean the one I'm reading---"The Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook" by Dr Rona) and so, again, this is one person's opinion. It does seem to be pretty thorough on explaining this type of thing though, and accounts for some of the differences between doctors and opinions as regards the diet.
As for the natural yogurt, this book allows it provided that the patient does not have a milk or dairy intolerance. Unfortunately, one of the bad effects of candida is that it tends to cause "leaky gut syndrome" and resulting food intolerances. I'm food intolerant to many things at the moment as a result, but fortunately not dairy. Having said that, dairy foods feed the yeast and so only certain ones are allowed on the diet book I have, including butter and natural yogurt, and occasionally feta cheese although feta cheese must be cooked to reduce the bacteria content in these recipes).
Mostly the author advises to check with your individual doctor about your individual needs, intolerances etc and a correct candida diet plan for you, individually, will need to be drawn up ultimately. My own doctor has said that there is no one "correct" candida diet, and that whilst most practitioners agree on what would be bad food for candida (e.g. high starch and high sugar content foods), they only agree up to a point and then it depends on the individual, degree of candidiasis present and other issues.
I would say, and this is just my advice based on what I have read and what my doctor has indicated, that pumpkin seeds roasted would probably be ok since the roasting might kill off any bacteria. The other problem is moulds on veggies. Moulds don't get killed off very quickly on foods through heating, because they are not like bacteria, so to reduce those on your vegetables, the authors suggest a Veggie Wash before eating, using Tea tree oil, grapefruit seed extract or a commercial veggie wash (NB: All of these need diluting in water first!!!) to be used before eating veggies.
As for dairy products, try using unsugared rice milk or soya milk (I'm intolerant to soya milk at the moment, but if you are not you could try it). Regarding the natural yogurt, you can try it and see how you go---my book recommends adding a touch (1/4 tsp) of acidophilous powder to the yogurt before eating to reduce bad bacteria and augment the good ones. It does allow natural yogurt, though, since natural yogurt contains the good candida-eating bacteria. Also, it tastes nice as a salad dressing mixed with some apple cyder vinegar or in a cold soup blended with cucumber, both of which are allowed in my candida diet book.
Again, it is best to see your doctor and, often, if he has treated candida specifically before, he will work with a nutritionist who can also give you advice on how that particular practitioner views some of these foods. Mine, for example, allows all vegetables--- including sweet potatoes, yams, and beetroot. I have seen other candida diets which don't allow some of those, but I have had no problem with any of them and so for me they all work pretty well and keep my blood sugar stable and steady through the day without causing any bloating or other problems.
Remember, too, that while you can't really eat potato chips and baked potatoes on a candida diet during treatment phase, the idea of a candida diet is not quite the same as the idea behind, say, an Atkins diet and so you must make sure you keep your carbs up (my doctor also encourages whole grains like millet, quinoa and brown wholegrain rice) and you can eat whenever you are hungry. It isn't how much you eat but WHAT you eat which is the issue on this diet. You should not be starving, you should also not eliminate carbs but just change them to wholegrains.
Hope it goes well today. Sorry about the time zone difference---I'm writing from the UK so I suspect you may be a few hours different to me if you are in the US or Canada, so maybe my replies are the next morning when you posted at night.
Last edited by Annajen : Tue, Dec-08-09 at 05:22.
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