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Simple Candida Diet Tips - What Candida Diet Guidelines I Follow to Stay Candida Free -
My Story
My simple Candida diet plan is easy for me to follow, improves the quality of the food that both I and my family eats and
keeps me focused on remembering
the
Candida diet guidelines.
This is the way I eat now - now that the
Candida is cleared.
It is different than how I had to eat when on my simple candida diet plan. With my
anti-Candida diet I adhered to strict and limited eating - I was highly motivated to get feeling better.
Please note: Because I have food,
dairy allergies and food intolerances, as well as this history of Candida,
I am a little more cautious with my eating than you may need to be.
When you have these 3 factors - food allergies, food intolerances or Candida - in your life, food and eating take on a whole new meaning.
If you have only had Candida, these tips will certainly help you, but you
will be able to be a little more flexible in applying them to your eating.
Simple Candida Diet - Let's focus on what I eat (and don't eat) to keep Candida away...
The big three food groups I avoid are:
wheat - I can eat this only very occasionally - 2-3 times/month
dairy products - I don't eat any dairy - no milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream etc.
(except I can tolerate butter - likely because of the high fat content)
sugar - I eat things with sugar in it about 1-3 times/week ie jam, syrup, ketchup etc
Without these food groups what else is there? You may ask...
There is lots!
Yes, wheat, sugar and dairy are in almost everything.
Think about your typical restaurant and what is on the menu. Or, what kind of takeout you like to eat.
See what I mean?
Even, at the grocery store, the majority of packaged foods, inner aisles of the store, have food with wheat, dairy and sugar in it.
But, there are also so many other choices.
My Simple Candida Diet Tips - Here is What I Do
- Shop the outside aisles of the grocery store - the produce, frozen vegetable, meat, egg, bulk-foods and non-dairy sections
contain many choices that will work for you.
- Meal plan - because we are a busy family of 5, when I actually plan the meals for the week, life seems to go much more smoothly.
And most importantly, I am much less tempted to eat foods that will haunt me. If I plan, then the food I should eat
is readily available in the house so I
won't grab that handful of peanuts or chocolate chips! This also applies to freezing single servings of leftover dinner to have for lunch
or even breakfast - a great backup plan for simple candida diet success
- Cover 1/2 my plate with vegetables. - This usually means cooking extra vegetables, but it tends to stop me from
overeating the simple carbs. Also, when we have so many vegetables for every meal, everyone in the family ends up eating more.
- Eat protein with every meal and snack - whether it is meat based or a vegetarian protein source,
I got into this habit when I was following
the zone diet. It works well for stablizing my blood sugar levels - high blood sugar can feed yeast. Incorporate this into your simple candida diet.
- Include good fat with every meal and snack By good fat I mean fats like olive oil, almonds, or avacodo. I notice that when I don't
include a healthy fat with my food, I am hungry faster and usually crave sweets after I eat.
- Eat what the rest of the family eats Or as close to it as possible. For example, if we are having spaghetti,
I either make kamut spaghetti noodles for everyone (you can't tell the difference to wheat noodles) or I make a small pot of rice noodles and
a small pot of wheat noodles and let my family choose what they want. If we are having peroghies as our starch, I will either substitute a
rice or a spelt biscuit or double up on my vegies. For your simple candida diet - watch to see if gluten is something that you are sensitive to.
If you are then kamut and spelt won't work as well in your simple candida diet.
- Put the sauce on the side I enjoy having a little of the sauces, salad dressings or condiments that my family enjoys even though they
often have sugar or wheat in them. It seems to work
well with most dishes to put the sauce on the side. This keeps it pretty kid friendly too, since not everyone is a 'sauce' person.
- Find and Buy a few pre-packaged foods I am always pleasently surprised when I find packaged foods that I can eat on a simple candida diet plan.
That is, ones that are
dairy free, wheat free or no to low sugar. I am busy just like you, so sometimes it is so convenient to be able to grab something quickly. And, when I discovered
some chips (rice chips) that were as good as the junk food potatoe chips I used to eat...it was nirvana!! (dangerous for weight gain -
but oh so yummy!)
This tip connects
directly to the next one...
- READ LABELS I really have to yell this one out. For a successful simple candida diet, if you read labels, you will
find the pre-packaged foods that you can eat. They
don't always advertise it well on the labels. Reading labels will also help you avoid eating hidden sugars or dairy.
- Keep it natural If you eat foods that are as close to nature as possible, you will be on the right track for your simple candida diet.
- Experiment I was thrilled that even though wheat makes me feel bloated and gives me a stomach ache, I am able to tolerate spelt flour.
I substitute spelt in many of my favorite recipes from my old life (life before Candida). Also, it is amazing how much you can reduce sugar in recipes
with out a huge difference. I usually try to gradually decrease sugar amounts until my family gets suspicious and cries fowl! (It is healthier for
all of us :-) Any recipe that calls for milk can use unflavored soy, nut or rice milks. Experiment yourself - you will be surprised.
- Drink Sulphite-free wine I thought that wine wasn't working for me, but then I happily discovered sulphite free -
many chilean wines have no sulphites in them. Beware the sugar content though
The silver lining for me from learning about the Candida and food connection,
was that my food challenges have forced me to be resourceful and focused on eating properly and well.
Eating in a Candida friendly way, has helped me and my family improve our eating habits.
My kids are well versed on kale, collard greens, spelt flour, sugar-free cookies, kamut pasta, rice fettucine, almond milk, rice milk,
tofu, veggie dogs, rice protein powder, fish oils, probiotics etc.
Not many kids get exposed to all these alternatives.
They still have 'real' cookies, cheese, ice cream etc in their 'normal' diet. But, they also are beginning to understand that even though they are
totally healthy now, it is good to have these sweets or junk food in moderation so that they keep good digestion health happening.
I have tried to get my family to eat what I am eating so that they realize that eating a variety of foods is good for anybody - whether
you have Candida or food allergies or not.
Here are a few typical simple candida diet friendly eating days for me and how I avoid wheat, sugar, dairy and Candida trigger foods:
- Breakfast - Scrambled egg whites (one yolk thrown in) (done in EVOO, extra virgin olive oil), steel cut oatmeal with almond milk
- Snack - 2 Rice cakes with butter, sugar-free jam, leftover meat from the night before - usually a bit of chicken
- Lunch - sauteed kale and tofu in garlic and EVOO, oat flour biscuit
- Snack - carrot sticks, sugar-free cookie, walnuts, leftover chicken
- Dinner - Kamut spaghetti, pasta sauce with ground beef, salad with EVOO
- Breakfast - Protein Shake - made with Plain Rice milk, rice protein powder, baby rice cereal, EVOO, 1/4 of a banana - all
done in the magic bullet - so handy!
- Snack - raw vegies, hummous
- Lunch - Amy's Lentil/Vegetable soup with tuna/canola mayonaise/wasabi, few rice crisp chips
- Snack - spelt bread, butter, leftover tuna
- Dinner - Curried chicken with onions and garlic, rice, cauliflower, spinach
Keeping my food allergies and food intolerances in check always helps me have few to no Candida symptoms.
And, the great thing is, everyday it gets easier to find affordable simple Candida diet friendly food at my local stores that is
wheat free, dairy free or sugar free.
Living with food allergies and Candida really doesn't cause me that much grief anymore. It is just a continual learning process.
It is totally exciting when I find a restaurant, bakery or product that works for me and my family likes it too. You should have seen my
excitement when a spelt bakery cafe opened in town!
Tell us about your simple Candida diet recipes and experiences.
Read what other's say about their nutrition.
Simple Candida Diet Tips - What Candida Diet Guidelines I Follow to Stay Candida Free - My Story
by Lisa Geary B. Ed., M.A.
©www.yeast-infection-answers.com
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Stomach Acid Production
A healthy person has a stomach with gastric juices which have a high acid content that kills off fungi and other
potentially harmful organisms in food. These acidic gastric juices help to keep Candida Albicans yeast in check.
But, a person with an undiagnosed or unsuspecting food allergy may not have enough hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) in their
stomachs. Food allergies can inhibit hydrochloric acid production. Then, the Candida can get past the stomach acid barrier and overpopulate the
gut. Wheat, milk and other dairy products are the most common.
What do you do?
Eliminate the foods you are allergic to and supplement your diet with nutritional supplements that acidify your gut such as glutamic
acid, betaine hydrochloride, pepsin, apple cider vinegar (use cautiously with Candida infections) and stomach and/or Swedish bitters.
Is It Willpower??
It isn't wonderful willpower, super strength, or food obsession that makes me omit these foods -
I just don't like feeling bloated, nauseous, crampy, gassy (ug!), 6 months pregnant - just not good.
Side note: My doctor told me I had IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) because that really sums
up what my symptoms are like when I eat these foods.
Need I say more?
Feeling better is what it is all about for me. It really is that simple.
But, this said - I do have moments when I wish I was a "normal" eater. Especially, when I must go out and eat. Inevitably, I have someone
feeling sorry for me that I can't eat the good stuff, or asking if I just want a little, or asking what happens to me if I eat it or calling
me a health freak, or saying that I have such will power, asking if I am on a diet, or wanting to know what CAN I eat.....you get the idea.
Part of my trouble is that I HATE being the topic or center of discussion. So, moments like the ones described above can feel torturous.
Usually, people are well-meaning. But, often the people asking do not have food intolerances, allergies and haven't even heard of Candida.
(Or, they're in denial...hmmmm).
On the opposite extreme, when people 'get it', it is fantastic. They realize that I eat the way I do because of neccessity and choice. Also,
they understand that there are many options out there - that different foods can be considered 'the good stuff'. It is all up to your own perceptions.
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