Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
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
It’s really hard to know what to believe! There is so much information out there. Sarah, some of what you say makes sense. I didn’t see any references to use of antifungals nor biofilm disrupters. There are actually two diets, I am aware of, that promote the use of bone broth. One even suggests starting a candida diet by using a three-day bone broth fast. Everyone is a little different. What works for me may not work for you. One of the major problems is everyone posting information about what candida diet works only gives their interpretation of how the diet should work to eliminate candida. I certainly am no expert but I strongly believe that antifungal supplements not only need to be used but also rotated on a regular basis and a biofilm disrupter needs to be included since the bugs can actually morph. Diatomaceous Earth and bentonite clay seem to be an important inclusion in any candida protocol as well. I do agree about various protocols continuing to change as time goes but is it because the root problem is due to these bugs morphing and being protected by the fortress called biofilm? I can remember in the not too distant past that candida wasn’t much acknowledged by the medical community. Now, you don’t go long without seeing an ad on television for a culture containing yogurt or probiotics. The real attention needs to be directed to the biofilm and how to effectively break it down so the immune system can do its work by destroying the uninvited invaders! Wouldn’t it be great to finally have a tried tested and proven protocol to eliminate the problems due to candida? I almost said to completely eliminate candida but that simply isn’t possible.
I have been researching candida diets… every single one of them i have stumbled upon DO NOT recommend fruits, grains (mainly glueten free), or starchy vegetables… so im very confused here.
The candida diet is ever changing … it doesn’t work so they keep changing things up and bringing it closer and closer to an actual healing diet that DOES work like GAPS. However, the candida diet is still doomed to fail as it doesn’t include bone broth (or meat stock for very severe cases) with every meal like the GAPS diet does.
Skip the candida diet. Flawed from the beginning back when my husband and I tried it and still missing the mark!
They don’t recommend grains or starchy vegetables, but they recommend the AIP diet which allows fruit, honey, and maple syrup? How does that make sense?
I guess there are different Candida diets. The one I did did not allow starchy vegetables. I did the one in Candida crusher, works great.
I gave myself a candida overgrowth by brewing my own Kombucha, loved it but drank way too much… the results of my overindulgence was candida fungus in my eyes, lips, loose stools and rash on hands. I tried so many different diets, treatments and cures, some helped but nothing really got it out of my system. Here’s what I’m doing now… Organic Raw Bitter Apricot seeds and Fresh Water Diatomaceous Earth (food grade) which is a Bug Killer You Can Eat! I feel that my body is being cleaned out of fungus and parasites (pin worms). I know my story is pretty disgusting but maybe it will help others as much as it is helping me. Good Luck
@Tony, I am trying Biocidin liquid for my daughter she has severe issues.
I agree sara,with you ,I ate grains all the time and with a candida imbalance my health went down protein and and lots of vegetables is the way too go
I agree with you Nick. Once you pigeon hole everyone be into these exclusion diets people become weak. It’s a bad practice and to tell everyone that a candida diet doesn’t work and only the Gaps works gives no credibility to your own theory. One diet may work for you while another works for a different person. You are being hypocritical in this article and you don’t even realize it. I think the vast majority of people now understand the importance of the gut lining.
FYI if I attempted the GAPS diet Id be dead. Literally. Meat protein causes me to obstruct and I have anaphylaxis to eggs plus fermented foods create a histamine storm. YOu are clearly misguided and in your own world as it relates to the complexity of each individual. People and their biology is highly unique and while the gut lining may be the same denominator for everyone correcting the issue is unique to the individual. Making blanket statements on how to achieve a restored health is unintelligent and detrimental to others. People need to listen to their body using sound judgement and a guided practitioner if they require more help.
What do you reccomed doing in combination with the diet? I’m trying to cure a candida issue.
This article is misleading. A Candida diet didn’t include the things this article says it does, and tout HAVE to ALSO take steps to kill the Candida. You can still do that naturally and inexpensively but just changing diet alone wing be the “cure”