Candida albicans is a form of yeast that naturally occurs in your body. It feeds of sugars, yeast, mold, and fungi that are in your diet. The more that you eat the foods that Candida albicans needs the quicker the yeast will spread. Because of Candida's need for sugar, it can cause you to crave unhealthy foods that contain large amounts of refined carbohydrates and sugars. Something in your body could be causing you to be a junk food junkie! One of the best things to do is to starve the Candida albicans out of you.
There are many foods that need to be either limited or completely avoided when you are on a diet to reduce a Candida infection. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods with sugars or yeast. Reducing these will reduce the number of carbohydrates in your daily intake. Sometimes a carb restriction of less than 60g per day is required. It is not easy to eliminate the sources of sugar in your diet. All of us can recognize sugar in its most common forms(ra w, white, and brown), but there are some sneakier types out there. Honey, turbinado, demerrara, amesake, and fruit. You definitely need to remove fresh, frozen, and dried fruit, along with fruit juices, from your diet. Fruit contains natural, simple sugars that yeast can feed on a quickly grow. Read the label on any food you purchase. If you see any on of these words put it back on the shelf. Avoid: Sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, glycogen, glucose, mannitol, sorbital, glactose, and both mono and polysaccharides.
The other group of foods that you have to skip entirely are those that contain yeast. Baker's yeast, brewer's yeast, Engevita, and Torula are the most common forms of yeast you will come across at your local grocery store. You can understand why you need to avoid breads, rolls, crackers, bagels, pastries, and muffins. You will have to avoid alcohol, also. Foods that are thought to have a mold contamination or use fermentation have to be eliminated as well. Foods like peanuts, peanut butter, pistachios, coffee, black tea, cider, root beer, and all forms of cheese should be avoided like the plague. All forms of vinegar except organic apple cider vinegar should be avoided, too. This is not a complete list of the foods to be avoided, the ones to be reduced are not even included. If you want a complete guide, you can find a lot of great information on the internet, at your local library, or your chosen health care provider.
Now that your know what to eliminate or reduce in your diet, you are ready to learn what you can eat. After reading the "do not" list, you thought your options were limited to water only. Not true. Beef, poultry, lamb, eggs, and veal are viable meats for you Moderate portions are recommended. All manners of fish: clams, lobster, and shrimp. The fresher the better, but frozen is acceptable. Many nuts and seed such as Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, filburts, and pumpkin seeds. Fresh vegetable s should be stressed, Asparagus and spinach, especially, but do not overlook eating a variety like beets, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes. Think fresh though. Processing lowers the nutritional value and can add Candida friendly preservatives. This list could cover several pages if it included everything you can eat.
Some of the things you have to avoid can be re-introduced after the first two weeks of the diet. Introduce them slowly, and only one at a time. If you eat some thing again and have a painful recurrence, then you will have a good idea what caused it an can quickly eliminate that food again. You can drink small amounts of fruit juice if you prepare it yourself. That means to squeeze your own juice. Have this infrequently.
Living on a Candida diet does not have to be boring or keep you from going out to eat with your friends or lover. You just have to show restraint and some common sense. It's much better than the painful altern ative of a severe yeast infection.