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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
The Candida Diet is horrible, I’d rather be dead than follow that diet. It’s miserable, sucks and you have to stay on it for the rest of your life. To be controlled by this diet is like being in HELL. There has to be a better way.
Not sure why I even kept reading this article, as my first impression was “how negative, and untrue”. I have done the candida free diet and love how good it makes me feel. It actually DOES encourage a healthy gut and rids your body AND gut of yeast. Even when you are allowed to reintroduce the other foods eventually into your diet, I kept off the weight I had lost as well as belly bloat and fatigue. And the yeast never re-occurred until I started my bad eating habits again, like a family size bag of M & Ms and drinking 3 cups of coffee every day. Before learning about the cleanse, I went and bought Pau D’arco tea (which tastes horrible!)….but drinking it 3 times a day didn’t do ANYTHING for me until I actually did the cleanse….just saying…..
I used to think exactly like you! there is a much better way, and I was able to heal eating fruits after 20 years of suffering trying all these no sugars diets…at the time, I came across a few online posts by the candida experts group that they were all about natural healing, listen to your body, etc so your body naturally restore the balance and to my surprise they even allowed fruits on their diet! I got better very quick and after 6 weeks I was 100% cured…
hope it helps 🙂
Hi Sheryl, would you mind sharing this diet? I have been suffering from candida for 9 months now and I’ve tried just about everything.
Thanks
Stef
Hey Stef, any luck??
Sheryl i’d love to hear what diet you used as well 🙂
This is a good article about Candida and diet only being a part of the problem. The truth is, due to the amount of toxins we inhale, ingest and absorb these days, our immune systems are overloaded trying to protect us from these poisons. When our systems cannot eliminate toxins immediately, a fungus is formed around the toxin in order to protect us. Fungus (Candida) has what is called a Chitin shell which in turn protects the fungus from being destroyed by your immune system. This fungus is then fed, stealing your nutrition and creating cravings for sugar to keep it alive and thriving. The ONLY way to eliminate the Chitin shell, so your immune system can attack the Candida and the toxins bound within, is to use the Chitin Synthesis Inhibitor; Lufenuron. This inert compound removes the shell. Staying on a ketogenic diet to alkalize the system, the immune system can then remove the Candida and catching compounds such as Zeolite and MMS then catch the toxins and heavy metals bound within. This detox is the only sure way of removing Candida completely, as well as removing the poisons bound within. Some of these toxins may have been stuck in your body since childhood.
So I did a search for candida experts group and found these guys. the diet she’s talking about can be found here: candidaspecialists.com
Good luck and god bless, all!
The problem with any diet is that people go into it all crazy instead of starting gradually and making small changes over time. I believe Eric Bakker puts it the right way in his video on youtube youtube.com/watch?v=9STMHAszZH0 common sense is not so common these days and that is why there are so many health issues.
no Fruits are allowed on candida diet, in fact anything that rots, think of apple or banana, cut em put some fleshman yeast on em come back in 4 hours and set over temp to 100 ! Rot ! fungus, fruits are loaded with sugars what do you thing they make wine out of ! No sugars period !!! meat only first 90days, get a dr to run labs during this time and get on antifungals = simple
the find out the underlaying cause
It was so sad to read such a negative article and one that could deter people from the Candida diet. My only comment on this is that the Candida diet TOTALLY changed and improved my life a million percent, after a long time of getting no where and getting no help it turned the whole situation around for me and gave me back a happy healthy life without all the nightmare problems that I had been dealing with.
A total success a total life changer
Did you do any research before writing this article? The foods you’re claiming are accepted are absolutely not.
There’s a list of what to eat and what to avoid on the candida website. Breaks it down for those of you who are seriously looking into changing your lifestyle.
thecandidadiet.com/foodstoeat.htm
thecandidadiet.com/foodstoavoid.htm
Um, yes. We were on it under the care of a holistic practitioner.
Well, there’s your problem. Practitioners are often undereducated on this subject. Many doctors in general are. There’s better research now than there used to be, but it’s still being medically ignored despite it helping tons of people.
The Hadza eat raw honey nearly all the time and they don’t appear to have any Candida problems at all.
Here is video to watch on youtube with regards to the Hadza tribe in Africa and the Honeyguide bird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ETvF9z8pc0
They’re also not taking antibiotics all the time and eating processed foods loaded with sugar like people over here … who when they finally decided to get healthy are ridden with candida. Honey isn’t a problem if your gut isn’t a mess in the first place.
I agree with you totally. I’ve tried the candida diet for years, and failed. I’ve recently discovered for myself that starches and grains were keeping my candida at bay, plus it also caused me painful gastritis. Great article.
I’m not sure where you learned restrictions of the candida diet, but yours sounds a lot more lax than almost all of the research I’ve done on the topic. For example my understanding is that no starchy foods nor fruit are allowed in the first two weeks. After the first two weeks there are few foods that you are allowed to slowly reintroduce back into your diet but you really need to be careful and you’ll want to monitor your symptoms closely to make sure a particular food doesn’t trigger anything.
On top of that you should be taking a probiotic to help heal your gut and some anti-fungals to help kill the yeast in your system. You need to follow the diet for at least 30 days but I often see 60 or 90 days suggested.
Perhaps this is why the candida diet didn’t work for you. I know a few people who swear by it so I wanted to share this experience with you. I hope you find it in this swarm of comments!
I think maybe sometimes the Candida Diet doesn’t work for certain people if they have high Histamine levels/intolerance. Here’s my story that may be helpful to others.
The Candida Diet worked for me if I stuck to it for 42 consecutive days, as suggested by my holistic doctor. In my case I also have a Histamine intolerance (many yrs ago tested positive for the MTHFR Gene) so I had to also eliminate certain foods that are nutritious and that I like, and are allowed on the Candida Diet, but that were high in Histamine, such as spinach and a few other foods.
That meant that for me the list of ‘allowable foods’, was a very short list… and I am a foodie. I really struggle with this on a daily basis. I also take daily probiotics (that are not Histamine releasing) and find that helps.
But as other posters mentioned, most illnesses and disease are due to toxic overload, which is my problem. The worst part of having this (MTHFR) genetic defect is that my body cannot remove toxins easily or naturally. Even the best cleanses don’t seem to work. My holistic/biological dentist has suggested Oil Pulling, which I just started.
Does anyone here also suffer from Histamine intolerance and toxic overload, and if so what have you tried that worked that can help me safely remove excess toxins from my body?
I think I have MTHFR too. So my holistic doctor one Lipotropic Detox pill a day. I think it is helping me to detox. Maybe that will help you 🙂
I have the MTHFR mutation with elevated factor VIII, so I can definitely understand where you are coming from. I also have a myriad of other health issues to include an immune disorder that I battle with. I am still trying to find a balance of what works. Even though I have limited what I eat, am very good about portion control and things like that I constantly struggle with my weight. I also know very well that candida is a major problem for me. If you or anyone has suggestions on what has proved beneficial please share. Thanks!
I have found colloidal silver to be the key for me. But, do your research and be sure to buy the right type. I used colloidal silver to treat a severe case of thrush and it was decimated within one week. I would rinse/gargle/hold 2tsp. in my mouth for 5-7minutes before swallowing. Colloidal silver is nature’s best anti-viral, anti-fungus, anti-bacterial all in one……It somehow knows to leave the good/beneficial flora alone while destroying pathogens and parasites like candida. Although, this works best when on a NO-sugar, NO-starch, NO-grain diet. And I take a good quality probiotic EVERY DAY (it must be “alive”)
Good luck to you.
what brand of colloidals do you use please?
how do you deal with die off symptoms?
Colloidal silver is great, but it kills off both good and bad micro-organisms…just keep that in mind.
I just read your post. I too suffered from candida. Forget a 6 month cleanse or a special diet. Most people do not know that Candida is but a symptom of heavy metal toxicity. Probably mercury or lead. I am using a product that is a cellular detox drop
is passive and works on cellular and mitochondria level. I did Dmsa. I did chelation. So hard on the kidneys and liver. This is the solution.
Please understand this-
almost ALL illnesses are due to toxicity
the illness or disease is not the problem
the illness or disease is the symptom
this product gets rid of the problem-
be it metal toxicity, environmental toxicity, radiation-
correct the problem and the symptoms change
Can you please show me how or who I can contact to help me detox my body with Dmsa and chelation?
I desperately need help since I have leaky gut and fibro/arthritic autoimmune condition after heavy second hand smoke exposure.
I don’t know who I can go to to help detox my body.
okey so if medication did not work , and the candida diet will not work either , can somebody tell us what is the solution for candida ?? I’ve tried everything and nothing works !! help please
Coconut Oil. In fact, it was the “Eat Fat, Lose Fat” book by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon that was the answer for me. After 3 years of extreme candida diets, I tried the Health Recovery plan in this book, and it was like a miracle. I was even able to eat grains again, as long as they were soaked. But, I sure was cautious since I had been off gluten for such a long time!
And, I put coconut oil on everything. Also ate some directly. However, I had to use the oil that was centrifuged, not fermented. I made my own coconut milk and had that in a “coconut milk tonic” twice a day (a menu item in the recovery plan). The diet is so nutritious that I felt human again.
The best way to combat candida is from all directions and very very aggressively. Stop any birth control or antibiotics. Take all of the following in high doses: Niacinamide 3k-6k per day, Pau D’arco, vitamin C (15-20 grams a day) in sodium ascorbate form, lots of greens in drink or caps, chlorophyll, grapefruit seed extract caps, fulvic acid (not at the same time as vitamin C, fo-ti, and echinacea, pro-biotics and nutrabio yeast.
Take everything daily as well as doing the candida diet. Especially avoid sugar and dairy.
Take until symptoms are gone. If they come back then take them again as needed. It will usually come back again. You will just have to stay on top of it and it will not bother you.
If needed use monastat, and athletes foot spray vaginally at the same time. It will burn like hell, but give results. Cleanse and then use this every few hours until symptoms are gone vaginally.
Good luck. It sounds like a lot, but it will work. I have known your pain and suffered for years. This works.
I’m not sure what diet you’re talking about, but it sure isn’t the Candida DIet.
The Candida Diet is: vegetables*, meat, eggs, and lots of fat.
*avoid carby vegetables like potato and sugary vegatables in moderation (carrots).
That’s it.
You can find more details (if you really need it) for free on Healing Naturally By Bee’s website. She has a Yahoo Group full of hundreds of people who were cured by this diet and it’s all 100% free.
Seems the candida diet is different things to different people and that’s good news that it is evolving because it really is a complete waste of time when trying to actually heal the gut.
To some people it’s either black or white, yet they don’t realize that the level of infestation may vary. It can actually become conscious so to speak, and it does want to survive, so trying to find a balance where it can have what it wants, and give a little to the host to keep it alive long enough.
Such a shame isn’t it? Everyone has an opinion, and I think you’ve brought up excellent points; namely that of the gut flora and how it is necessary for the healing process. But still, most will rely on the high protein high fat diet, and pay the price later. (borrow from Peter to pay Paul)
I Have IBD, and recently diagnosed with leaky gut / chronic Candida.
I can not even eat, I get sick with everything I put in my mouth, so my Doctor wants me to do a 500 calorie diet with HCG, I am already malnourished and over weight as it is and She already had me on HCG before and it helped but all my symptoms came back.I do not think nor do I want to go back to 500 calories, no sugar ,no dairy, only 3.5oz Chicken, I cant eat fish ,no red meat, and only leaf lettuce,& asparagus, only an orange or an apple a day and Melba toast.I can not mix the fruit or veggies unless I make that the meal. I can not over
5.Oz. and while everything makes me ill I have no energy to even simply walk. I cannot do this again she says it heals my gut, but in the meantime I am miserable.I keep gaining weight while I literally eat nothing, which is not a good thing.
Hi Loretta,
I’m sorry to hear you are having such a difficult time. I’m not a doctor, but from my experience with IBS, Wheat Intolerance etc I’ve tried a lot of weird diets! I definitely recommend eating the little you are allowed as strictly organic food to avoid further toxins on fruit & veg and to avoid drugs from meat, especially for chicken. I would also get a big jar of organic coconut oil (in glass) and put it in the fridge. Take little teaspoons throughout the day when you remember, in about 2 weeks you will be used to coconut oil and like the taste. Have you investigated your thyroid? (FYI pharmaceutical synthetic options do not contain all the ingredients of natural alternatives – if interested read ‘STOP the thyroid madness’ book). I know you should not have sugar, but Manuka honey 15+ (not-blended) has some very interesting properties aiding healing. I take it with apple cider vinegar & warm water as a drink, instead of tea, when I start to feel sick/tired and it helps me. I really hope something above will help you, wishing you the very best on your road to recovery, Frances
(Watch Food Inc on youtube to learn more about organic food & its importance in our diet when sick).
I don’t know whats best for you but for me I respond very well to plenty of coconut oil, prefferably organic, I have suffered from chronic pain and fatigue for years and just recently started with this and I feel much better within a few days from the coconut oil.
For your overweight issues I would look into low carb high fat diet, fat seems to be really awesome and not what makes people fat, carbs and sugar seems to actually be what makes people fat.
good luck