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Review of the Candida Diet also known as the Anti-Candida Diet and why it typically does not produce desired results long-term with only short-term alleviation of symptoms.
Thinking of going on the Candida Diet to heal your gut and stop sugar and carb cravings?
While this may seem like a logical idea at first, be warned that it likely won’t heal you over the long term.
The article below explains why as well as my personal experience with it.
What is Candida Anyway?
Candida is a term that refers to a large family of yeasts, or one-celled fungi. Under normal circumstances, these organisms harmlessly inhabit the tissues of humans. This is because a balanced intestinal tract from mouth to colon contains a preponderance of beneficial bacteria that keep Candida in check.
When not enough beneficial bacteria are present in given body tissue to keep pathogenic yeasts under control, it transforms from a harmless state into an invasive species. In this rapidly growing state, Candida puts out long stringy hyphae or “roots”.
They have the ability to embed and penetrate through the gut wall and eventually cause leaky gut.
Candida overgrowth can occur in many tissues of the body. Well-known examples are oral candidiasis known as thrush, the scalp as dandruff, and vaginal yeast infections.
What Causes Fungal Overgrowth?
Candida is an opportunistic pathogen that can rapidly take over when a person is under a course of antibiotics. Antibiotics decimate beneficial gut flora but have little effect on Candida. This gives this normally harmless yeast the chance to take over dominance of the gut environment very quickly.
Many women don’t realize it, but oral contraceptives imbalance the gut in the same way as antibiotics. Again, this gives pathogenic strains of yeast an open door to take control.
A diet of processed foods high in sugars and simple carbohydrates also encourages Candida overgrowth as yeasts thrive on sugars.
Babies born via C-Section or to mothers who were treated with IV antibiotics during labor are especially vulnerable.
The reason is that they are not exposed to Mom’s healthy flora in the birth canal prior to birth.
Symptoms
Symptoms of Candida overgrowth are many the most common being fogginess in the morning upon waking (brain fog), digestive complaints of all kinds and a myriad of skin issues.
Many women plagued by yeast infections don’t realize that the source of the problem is actually their diet.
Over time, this leads to a pathogenic state in the gut environment. Using drugs and creams to resolve the problem is only a temporary solution when the source of the problem – gut imbalance – is not addressed head-on.
The Candida Diet
My husband and I tried the Candida Diet to resolve gut imbalance many years ago that had been exacerbated by our stressful and overworked lifestyle at the time.
It failed miserably!
Why?
The Candida Diet only goes part of the way in doing what is necessary to resolve gut imbalance.
It also did not include foods and supplements that help repair the intestinal damage caused by the overgrowth of pathogenic yeast.
For example, the Candida Diet removes sugar from the diet in all forms…even maple syrup and honey. Fresh fruit, however, is commonly allowed.
Candida overgrowth can frequently trigger an allergy to molds and other types of fungi. Hence, beneficial fermented foods including cheese are also eliminated along with any bread and other foods containing yeast.
Other foods excluded from the Candida Diet include vinegar, mushrooms, tea, coffee, dried fruit, and any form of fruit juices.
Temporary Improvement But No Healing
The typical scenario for a person who goes on the Candida Diet goes something like this:
- They feel better almost immediately primarily because all the sugar has been removed from their diet.
- They continue on the diet for some time perhaps many months or even a year. Pleased to see that symptoms diminish considerably during that time, they are convinced that the diet has “worked”.
- After a period of time, they try to reintroduce some of the foods that were removed. Sadly, they usually discover that their symptoms come raging back with full force.
- They realize that it is going to be next to impossible to continue the Candida Diet indefinitely. It is simply too hard to give up cheese and any and all sweets forever.
- They get discouraged, give up and stop the Candida Diet for good.
3 Reasons Why the Candida Diet Fails
The paradox of the Candida Diet is that symptoms greatly diminish. However, the patient doesn’t actually heal from the root cause of the problem which is a breach in the integrity of the gut lining.
Long-term healing is prevented on the Anti-Candida Diet for the following key reasons:
Reason #1
The Candida Diet allows starchy vegetables and tubers like sweet potato, cassava, yams, and arrowroot.
Note that some anti-candida diet practitioners recommend caution with these foods, but others do not.
Reason #2
The Candida Diet doesn’t include a small cup of traditional bone broth with every single meal. This is an incredibly necessary food for proper healing/sealing of the gut wall caused by candida overgrowth.
For more severe cases, short-cooked meat stock needs to be used and NOT bone broth. Some people cannot tolerate the glutamate in long-cooked broths.
Long-term gut healing is quite simply NOT going to occur without using the correct form of stock or broth.
Thus, any candida diet benefits will usually be temporary.
Reason #3
More important than the allowance of starch in the Candida Diet is the inclusion of grain-based foods. Some practitioners recommending the Candida Diet misguidedly include gluten-free grains.
Others recommend none at all (in an apparent scramble to mimic diets that actually work to fix the gut like GAPS and to a lesser extent the bone broth diet).
The bottom line is that there is no uniformity to what is recommended, hence, the protocol’s unreliability in providing relief over the long-term.
Anti-Candida Diet Shortfall
Even if the Candida Diet is used in conjunction with a gluten-free, casein-free diet, it fails in the majority of instances.
The reason is that disaccharides, or double sugars, are present in many carbohydrates including ALL grains – not just gluten-containing ones.
An inflamed, imbalanced gut overridden with Candida is unable to digest double sugar molecules completely. This occurs because the lack of beneficial gut flora has compromised the function of the enterocytes.
According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome and one of the key scientists at the forefront of gut restoration research today, the enterocytes are the cells that reside on the villi of the gut wall and produce the enzyme disaccharidase.
This enzyme breaks down the disaccharide molecule into easily absorbed monosaccharide molecules.
When the enterocytes are not nourished and strengthened properly by adequate beneficial flora, they become weak and diseased and may even turn cancerous. They do not perform their duties of digesting and absorbing food properly.
Undigested Food Nourishes Pathogenic Yeast
Weak and diseased enterocytes also have trouble digesting starch molecules. They are very large with hundreds of mono sugars connected in long branchlike strands.
People with weak digestion due to Candida overgrowth and messed up enterocytes have a terrible time digesting these complex molecules.
The result is a large amount of undigested starch in the gut. The putrefying matter is the perfect food for pathogenic yeasts, bacteria, and fungi like Candida to thrive upon.
Even the starch that manages to get digested results in molecules of maltose, which is — you guessed it — a disaccharide! This maltose also goes undigested due to a lack of the enzyme disaccharidase and becomes additional food for Candida.
Biggest Candida Diet Benefit
We’ve established that the Candida Diet usually fails miserably in resolving gut imbalance problems over the long haul.
However, it does include and recommend one fantastic herb that is very helpful for keeping Candida under control if only temporarily…Pau d’Arco tea.
I’ve found this herb is especially helpful during traveling (when the diet is less than optimal) or for a few days after you get home to get back on the wagon.
What is the Best Diet for Candida?
In conclusion, it is best not to waste your time with the Candida Diet. It doesn’t work in the majority of cases and you will ultimately feel frustrated in your efforts to heal over the long term.
The best diets for healing and sealing the gut wall and permanently rebalancing the gut environment are the GAPS Diet or the very similar SCD (Specific Carbohydrate) Diet.
To read more about the GAPS Diet and what the food list includes, check out this introductory post on using GAPS to heal autoimmune disease.
Also, this post The Five Most Common GAPS Diet Mistakes is a review of the most common pitfalls of this approach to gut healing.
Reference
Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD
More Information
Macrobiotic Diet and Extreme Vitamin D Deficiency
Biofilms: Overlooked Step in Treating Candida
Can Candida Sufferers Drink Kombucha?
How to Take Probiotics
This article is not addressing the proper Candida Diet, the one that excludes grains, fruit and starches…
Been on this diet for years and have followed all recommendations to the letter and still not ‘healed’ so the conclusion I’ve come to is that I get candidiasis because my digestion doesn’t work well enough, never has and never will.
Why so negative saying your digestion will never heal?
Rachelle,
Have you tried HCL with Pepsin? My homeopathic doctor found my stomach acid to be low and told me to get some HCL with Pepsin. I think everyone should see a homeopathic doctor that finds your nutritional weaknesses via bioelectric testing.
Sarah,
What about ancient grains, like millet and quinoa?
I agree. I’m on a parasite cleanse and taking HCL working with a natural DR and its working. I was having chronic bladder, yeast infections for 2 years I’ve been grain free for 4 years and bad Rosacea for a year. Finally I am healing, I’m also taking DHA that is clearing up the Rosacea, and starting on FCLO today.
I search long and hard to find the best info on various health topics and found this to be one of the best books on candida : Candida: Killing So Sweetly: Proven Home Remedies to Conquer Fungus and Yeast Infection
Thompson, Bill
My two cents worth – I was on Candida Diet for 6 months and it worked great! Not saying it was easy by any means. The die off phase was awful and I can only imagine that it must be like a drug detox. Whats worse is that I breast fed my child not knowing I had this problem. Now she also struggles with overgrowth symptoms. The book I used also suggested supplements to heal the stomach lining, therefore, the root of the problem. Depending on your body, it is a life long commitment to avoid/limit yeast feeding foods. It is a daily struggle and takes maximum effort. The more healthy a person eats, the more they spend in food. The flip side is spending more money in doctors visits and medication. Pay now or pay later.
This article confuses me, although due to it’s older nature, maybe information out there about the diet has since changed? But every single candida diet or “do’s and dont’s” article/post I’ve read all stress to eliminate starches and gluten. This includes starchy vegetables, breads, and almost all grains besides quinoa, buckwheat, and millet. They also list the importance of, in conjunction with “starving the candida”, to introduce the good bacteria by taking pre and probiotics. Anyone here doing the bone broth? How has it been working for you?
I have been suffering with Systemic Candida for over 2 years now and I am still fighting to keep it at bay. I have tried the Candida Diet several times with no success. The Gaps Diet works for me. I am not cured, but I have noticed a difference is many of my symptoms while on the diet. The problem for me now is being able to stick to it. I have never tried Pau D’Arco Tead, but I do have Pau D’Arco extract drops that I got from Nature’s Sunshine. I put a few drops in water and drink it daily.
Sarah, I want to first appreciate your perseverance in finding the best way to provide a quality life for your family but to share that with all of us. THANK YOU!
I will try to keep this a brief as possible as you probably have a full plate. I have been struggling to find what’s causing all my symptoms and I think I have overgrowth of Candida. Symptoms are: brain fog, bloating, inconsistent bowel movement, rashes on my hands that come and goes, itchy armpits, hard to fall asleep and stay asleep, poor memory, lethargic, etc.
I have read about GAPS and recently looked at Candida Diet and then this post….and I need some clarification as I want to really to be healthy again.
I have been seeing a naturopath doc but she is heavy on the supplements side. She suggested that I take 2 capsules of Uva Ursi a day for 1 week then take a break for 1 week (all this while monitoring my daughter’s temperament) and then try Grapefruit seed extract 250 mg twice a day for 1 week then a break. She did recommend taking a probiotics with these: Culterelle. And she suggested taking glutamine and N-acetyl glucosamine to heal the gut.
I am a bit discouraged because it seems that in order for me to tackle the overgrowth of Candida is for me to alternate with natural killers every week or so like Pau D’arco, olive leaf extract, propolis, raw garlic, etc. My challenge is I am currently nursing my 7 months old daughter and plan to continue nursing her till she’s 2 years old (supplementing with whole foods; thanks to your egg yolk/raw liver post). As I was about to start the Intro GAPS diet, I was told by a friend to hold off as the die-off can put toxins in the breastmilk. That’s my other big discouragement is I don’t think I will ever NOT be pregnant or nursing for a long time. I have been either pregnant or nursing since 2010. I feel like I can’t take certain things like Pau D’arco to kill this Candida for fear that it will decrease the quality/quantity of my milk supply or put toxins in milk supply. And that removing all starches and grains will affect my milk supply. I certainly want to kill this overgrowth before having next child because both of my kids have eczema and I’m guessing they inherited my bad bacteria (both births were vaginal).
Also, I read in the comments that having mercury filling can get in the way of fighting the overgrowth so I’ll get that taken care of this year (thank you again).
I know your response is not a medical advice but would LOVE to hear your opinion on this matter. So my questions for you are:
1. Do you think I have a chance to kill the Candida overgrowth while nursing without harming my daughter?
2. Do you think it’s necessary for me to alternate the Candida killers like the ones I mentioned above or just drink the Pau d’arco tea?
3. Do you think doing the INTRO part of GAPS is not a good idea while nursing as my friend suggested?
4. Do you think those gut healing supplements that my naturopath suggested are worth it?
Please feel free to share anything that I may have missed. Thanks for taking the time to read my story. -Cindy
I just read the “Cautions” on Pau d’Arco website. However, I’m well aware that most companies truly state that one who is pregnant or lactating should not consume their products for liability reason.
Cindy,
You should go and see a homeopathic doctor so you can be sure that it is Candida. He or she can help you with a diet and supplements that you can safely do while breastfeeding.
Hi Cindy!
I realize your post is over a year old, but I’m writing to see if you found answers to your questions. I am in almost the exact situation as you. I think I have either candida or leaky gut (likely both) but I am also breastfeeding my 1 year old (13 months). I had a natural (non-medicated) vaginal birth with my son and like you, I’m certain he’s taken on my unhealthy gut bacteria. He had cradle cap and then eczema on his cheeks since a few weeks old. It’s significantly less on his cheeks now but very bad above his mouth. At first I thought food sensitivities (to something I was eating and it was coming through my breast milk), so I’ve done 30 day elimination diets and haven’t been able to pinpoint the issue. Now that he’s on solids, I do not give him dairy or gluten to be safe. We eat a strict certified organic diet, but I believe there’s gut healing that needs to take place for myself and him. As for my issues, I have a stubborn rash on my hand that started during pregnancy and will not go away. I am also tired all the time, have brain fog, bad memory, and sugar/carb cravings.
I also just bought Dr. Natasha-McBrides GAPs book. We just started high quality probiotics (both of us). I’m concerned about die-off, milk supply, supplements like L-Glutamine while breastfeeding, etc.
I’d love to hear if you found answers to your questions and how you are doing with your issues!
Thank you for taking time to respond. If it’s easier, you can reply to me directly at jennykeaney AT gmail
Hi Jenny,
I feel like im going through a very similar situation with my baby who is a similar age.
It would be great to have someone to talk to and share trials/successes.
If you would like to you can email me on [email protected]
Low stomach acid is serious, without being a big problem. It just leads to so many other problems. What is stems from is often a depletion of minerals- which is often caused by – a mix of excessive food or life style, poor diet, high stress. The simplest route is to take HCL (betain hydor-chloric acid) – b4 all meals, Your dosage can be found by taking 1 tablet every 2 minute until you feel a slight burning sensation – then decrease by one.. that is your needed amount. It can take months to re-build. Otherwise – to intensive mineral building with a professional. Getting a hair analysis first to make sure you don’t over do something you already have too much of.
Grace in Healing!
Chandra Wellness
TheCandidaConsultant.com
Ohhh, THAT’s why you haven’t cured your candida yet, because you haven’t eliminated enough foods. Riiiight. I wonder at exactly what point these candida diets become an eating disorder. Oh that’s right; from the very beginning. The article above is the beginner phase of understanding candida. Let me show you the end phase:
I had candida since I was born, and a heavy case of it. It very much becomes part of your personality. When I was older, I NEVER cured my candida by going on a candida diet. It NEVER worked and only starved me. There was nothing to eat because so many foods “feed candida.” In the end I figured out that I had to go with the flow with diet based on what I really craved at the time, and to forget about candida. I ate everything and gave my body what it wanted, including fruit, honey, grains like oatmeal (a favorite), cooked soup, salads, and non-homoginized milk. I didn’t eat anything I didn’t want during a meal, and I quickly started to feel better, within the first day. I did eliminate meat completely, replacing it with egg/dairy, because I strongly believe it is an evil food and completely unncessary. I also eliminated alcohol except for on occasion.
Candida is caused by going on a strict diet. These diets starve the body and weaken the immune system. Your body wants one thing, then you take another because you’re “eating healthy.” Diet wasn’t meant to be a tribulation. Your body knows when it wants raw vegetables or cooked soup, yet we allow our minds to dictate what we should eat and when. And the enemy is in the mind, you know.
Absolutely, I lived in Germany just post WW II. Antibiotics were still not well understood and many military bases employed ex- Nazi doctors, when as a five year old femaleIi had bad tonsilitis, I was considered worthless enough to experiment on.
If a little penicillan was good a bushel would be better, right? So, and few people mention this, along with a poor diet ( this was the TV dinner, boxed mac and cheese, coke for a drink age…..) my health quickly deteriorated. No one noticed and now at 66 I’m reaping all of this. I found that mostly complex carbs and a lower protein diet really helps me. But if you aren’t taking acidophilus, forget it.
Hi. I am curious what are the symptoms to look for? I believe I have a candida over growth, still learning about it. What helped you to heal your gut?
You must be blood type A.