What is the Candida Diet?

What is the Candida Diet?

Ah, at last, the infamous Candida Diet! As I mentioned earlier, the Candida Diet is one of the options you have in effort to bring your body back to balance. Just so you know (not to pat myself on the back), but I observed not only the 10-Steps, but the Candida diet as well for more than a whole year, praise God. I am saying this to say, if I can do it, you can too! For me, I had no choice, as I was pregnant with my second child, and it was a very uncomfortable pregnancy until I started on this journey. I continued on it because after I had my son, in nursing him I noticed when I ate certain things he was the one who had the reactions. Things only got worse after I introduced him to food, so you see, for me it was really a matter of life or death.

Anywho, if you have been successful with the suggestions made prior to talking about the 10-Steps, as well as the actual 10-Steps, observing the actual diet should be relatively easy. In observing the diet, Dr. Crook breaks it down a bit differently. The steps are only four, each with their own category/subheading.

The First Step is referred to as:

Elimination, whereby you will eliminate all foods containing sugar, which includes processed foods, as they contain not only sugar but chemical additives as well. You must also get rid of all fruits, yeasts and fungi for the first three weeks.

In the Second Step, called:

The Challenge: Don’t you just love a good challenge! Anyway, at this point you are probably feeling much better. The reason for this is because you have literally eliminated quite a bit of the unfriendly bacteria. You may feel as if you are going backwards, but this is when you are allowed to become reacquainted with some of the foods you have been abstaining from.

The Third Step, called:

Reassessment: In having put back some of these foods back into your diet, you may have noticed how your body has been responding to certain foods. It this point, you should be able to track them down.

Now you’re ready for the last and final Step:

Maintenance: Now you can relax a little, being able to put your own program together, where you rotate the foods that you can have in small portions.

Now we will discuss each one in a little bit more detail:

Step 1: Elimination

By organizing, or shall I say reorganizing your kitchen will help you because it will be done in such a way as to how you think of food.

Make sure you have enough food. If you haven’t already, acquaint yourself with your local health food store.

If you have not already done so, clean out those cabinets, the refrigerator, and freezer!

As I said before, you must throw away all of the sugar, corn syrup, white breads, as well as any other white-flour products, sodas, kool-aid and juices, as well as your ready-to-eat cereals!

Replace these foods with more vegetables, especially the green ones, as well as some of the other grains like quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat. I know, I know, "I don’t know how cook these things!" Calm down, that's okay, because Dr. Crook has an excellent cookbook to help you with this.

Get rid of all of the junk foods, as well as the processed foods, because they have hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, not too mention the food coloring and additives.

You can however add small amounts of olive, walnut, flaxseed, sesame and other unprocessed, unrefined oils.

As mentioned before, getting aquainted your health food store, or your local supermarket looking for organically grown vegetables, or fresh vegetables if there is no organic vegetables available; vegetables can only last so long before spoiling, so you can also freeze them or buy frozen vegetables, fresh meat, poultry, seafood, cage free eggs, olive oil, pure butter, sardines packed in its own oils.

Fruits are good for you under normal circumstances, but for the first three weeks it must be avoided.

What Can I Eat the First Three Weeks?

The foods you can eat as you please, they contain few calories for those of you counting calories, as well as low-carbohydrate vegetables, containing lots of fiber and essential nutrients. It would be best to eat them raw or steamed.

Meat, Seafood, Cage free Eggs, and Other Foods

Beef, lean cuts or ground
Chicken
Cod
Lamb
Mackerel
Other fresh or frozen fish
Salmon
Sardines
Shellfish: shrimp, lobster, crab
Tuna
Turkey
Veal
Wild game

Nuts, Seeds and Unprocessed Oils/Cold Pressed

Almonds
Brazil nuts
Cashews
Filberts
Flaxseeds
Pecans
Pumpkin seeds
Butter in moderation
Almond, Olive, Safflower, Sunflower, Walnut

Foods That Should be Eaten Cautiously

Artichoke
Avocado
Beans, peas & other legumes
Celery root/celeriac
Fennel
Sweet potatoes
White Potatoes
Beets
White sweet potato/Boniata
Breadfruit
Winter, acorn or butternut squash

Dairy Products*

Cream cheese
Hard cheeses
Yogurt

Whole Grains

Barley
Corn
Kamut
Millet
Oats
Brown Rice
Spelt
Teff
Wheat

Grain Alternatives

Amaranth
Buckwheat
Quinoa

Breads, Biscuits and Muffins—Only use baking powder, unless sensitive to corn, then you need to use two teaspoons of cream of tartar plus one teaspoon of baking soda, giving you three teaspoons of baking powder, or you may use baking soda by its self as leavening agents. Good recipes and more information are available in Dr. Crook’s cookbook. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE YEAST UNLESS YOU PASS THE YEAST CHALLENGE which is discussed in detail as you read on.

Foods You Must Avoid Completely

All sugar and foods containing sugar, other acting carbohydrates, including sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, glycogen, glucose, mannitol, sorbitol, galactose, monosaccharides and polysaccharides. Also avoid honey, molasses, maple sugar, date sugar, as well as turbinado sugar.

Packaged and processed foods, be it canned, bottled, boxed and processed foods, as they usually contain refined sugar products and/or other hidden ingredients. It is more than likely that these things should be avoided all together.

For the first 10 days of the diet, avoid yeast-containing foods. Here’s a list of foods that contain yeasts and/or molds:

Breads, pastries, as well as other raised-bakery goods.
Cheeses: All of them. The worst ones being Roquefort.
Condiments, sauces and vinegar-containing foods like: Mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire, Accent/ MSG—monosodium glutamate ; steak, barbecue, chili, shrimp and soy sauces; pickles, pickled vegetables, relishes, green olives, sauerkraut, horseradish, mincemeat and tamari. Vinegar and all kinds of vinegar-containing foods like mayonnaise and salad dressings. Use freshly squeezed lemon juice as a substitute for vinegar, along with olive oil as a salad dressing.
Soy. Yes soy. "What's wrong with soy?"
Malt products: Malted milk drinks, cereals and candy. Just so you know malt is a sprouted grain that is a sprouted that is kiln-dried and used in the preparation of many processed foods and beverages.
Processed and smoked meats: Pickled and smoked meats and fish, including bacon, ham, sausages, hot dogs, corned beef, pastrami and pickled tongue.
Whether pickled or not, you need to avoid eating any part of the pig.
Edible fungi: All mushrooms, morels and truffles.
Melons: Cantaloupe being the worst, watermelon, and honeydew.
Dried and candied fruits: raisins, apricots, dates, prunes, figs and pineapple.
Leftovers: Unless properly stored develop mold. Freezing them is the best method.

What You Should and Should Not Drink

Water: If you were told you should drink 6 to 8 glasses a day, this is incorrect. You should be drinking half your body weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 100lbs., divide it by 2, which we know is 50, so this would equate to 50 ounces of water. Not just any water, alkaline water.

Fruit Juices: Because most fruit juices, including frozen, bottled or canned, are prepared from fruits that have been allowed to sit in bins, barrels and/or other containers during the manufacturing process anywhere from one hour to several months at a time, and even though juice processors discard the fruits that are obviously spoiled by mold, most fruits used for juice contain some level of mold.

Coffee and Tea: Keep in mind that these teas are prepared from plant products, and that there is a possibility of mold contamination. Many believe there is therapeutic value in them. As for coffee, if you are one who drinks a lot of coffee, try cutting it down to one or two cups per day, drinking it plain or sweetened with stevia.

Alcoholic Beverages: As you know in the aging process the wines, and beers contain high levels of yeast, so if you find out that you are allergic to yeast, such alcoholic beverages should be avoided all together. Another ingredient contained in alcoholic beverages is the quick-acting carbohydrates. By drinking alcohol, you will be feeding the yeast in your body.

Diet Drinks: This goes without saying, as the active or key ingredient in it carbonated water breaks down the immune system as well. Let's not talk about the artificial sweeteners, as this is more damaging than using regular sugar!

Meals

This particular area is for those of you who feel like you don’t know where to start. Just think of this as sample menu ideas.

Breakfasts

Oatmeal with coconut oil, flaxseed or pecans.

Brown rice with filberts, sardines packed in sardine oil and rice cakes.

Well-cooked eggs, two breakfast beef or turkey bacon strips and grits with butter.

Oatmeal, lamb chops and cashew nuts.

Cooked amaranth, tuna, tomatoes and walnuts.

Cooked quinoa, baked sweet potato and pecans.

Lunches

Wraps made with romaine leaves: roll-ups with turkey or tuna, grated carrots

Caesar salad with grilled chicken breasts with lemon juice for the dressing.

Kitchen sink salad: use every veggie you can find on a bead of romaine lettuce, with thin sliced turkey or chicken.

Yogurt with lemon, sweetened with stevia, or plain yogurt with a handful of nuts.

Hard-boiled eggs and carrot and celery sticks.

Scoop of egg, tuna or chicken salad with lemon and olive oil mixture and a tomato.

Burger patty with lettuce, tomato and onion.

Vegetable soup with rice cakes or spelt crackers.

Dinners

Baked Cornish hen, steamed cabbage, asparagus, salad with lettuce and pecans, with a walnut oil and lime juice dressing.

Steak, or burger patty, eggplant, mixed green salad with cucumbers and green peppers.

Lamb chops, turnip greens, okra, carrot and celery sticks.

Roasted turkey, baked acorn squash, steamed spinach, grated cabbage, almonds with lemon juice and flaxseed oil dressing.

Mixed vegetables and pecans.

Tuna fish, broccoli, with black-eyed peas.

Warning: You May Experience Die-Off Symptoms

If you are one with severe Candida, at this point in the diet you may experience “die-off,” detoxification, or a healing crisis, especially if you are taking the anti-fungal medication. I will go into more detail about this later, but just so you are aware, this means you are riding yourself of the unfriendly bacteria, whereby metabolic products are being released. At this point you may feel worse, it’s okay, Lord-willing you will get better. You may feel as if you have the flu, or really tired, weak even. You may also feel depressed with possible abdominal pain. Don’t give up, hang in there! Lord-willing this will pass soon, approximately a week to ten days.

You can lessen these symptoms if, and only if you start the diet a week or two before you start taking the antifungal medications. By taking 3-5 grams of vitamin C daily plus 400 IU of vitamin E three times a day and special enzymes taken in between meals you stand a good chance of eliminating the toxins.

Step 2: Challenge

This is the point where the yeast overgrowth is beginning to get under control. Now you will challenge your system to see what you can and can’t tolerate. How long this takes is up to you. You’re not off the hook yet, you will still need to observe Step 1 or the Candida Diet!

If up to this point you managed to abstain from eating anything with yeast in it, you will be able to find out if you are sensitive towards it. Remember the yeast challenge I spoke of earlier? Well, here it is: go to your nearby health food store and pick up some brewer’s yeast, taking only one tablet. If you find that you are not bothered by it, you can then start eating a couple of small bits of moldy cheese like blue cheese or brie the next day. You want to make sure that you are not overdoing it, so you must wait to eat this the next day.

You may also try a couple of tablespoons of vinegar, by putting it into your salad. Again, it would be best to wait until the next day. You should be able to notice sensitivities/allergies right away, Lord-willing. If however you don’t, it is always good to give your body at least 24 hours before reintroducing things again.

Another thing you want to start doing, a food journal; where you will be able to right what you are eating, when you ate it and what your reaction was to what you ate, or if you even had a reaction.

As previously mentioned, fruits and vegetables and grains contain some yeast and molds on their surfaces. With that in mind, you have to judge how much of it you can tolerate by taking the fruit challenge. Start out with a banana. Just take one bite, wait 10 minutes then take a second bite. If no reaction in the next hour, you can finish the banana , but If in eating the banana you did not notice any kind of reaction, the next day you can try a pineapple, apple or citrus fruit, in the same manner as you did with the banana. I hate to sound like a broken record, but once again, this has to be spaced out over a 24 to 48-hour time span—one fruit per day. If all is successful, you may eat fruits in moderation as well as breads containing yeast. By eating in moderation, it would be good to eat these things/all things in rotation, as the more you eat of a particular food, the more prone you are to developing an allergy towards it, and God-knows best.

You may also continue eating fish, lean meat, eggs, nuts, seeds and oils.

You still need to leave sugar, maple syrup, honey and corn sugar, date sugar and sugar-containing foods, packaged and processed foods of low/no nutritional value, as they contain sugar, and hydrogenated fats and oils You may also be developing some anger, because you crave so many things, this is normal, but you have to stay strong. Ironically you may experience withdrawal symptoms, like a person who was addicted to cigarettes, this is so because most of us who suffer from hidden food allergies are often addicted to foods that do more harm than good.

Step 3: Reassessment

As I said earlier, you should eat in rotation eating a particular food every four to seven days because by consuming too much of the same food too often will cause a hidden food allergy, which may in turn give you fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, depression or other symptoms. At this point you can now eat/drink the following:

any vegetables but corn

any fruit but citrus

any meat but bacon, sausage, hot dogs or luncheon meats

rice, oats, and the grain alternatives such as amaranth, quinoa, and buckwheat

unprocessed nuts that are fresh, refrigerated or frozen

water, again alkalized, filtered or good bottled water that you have added a lemon to.

Avoiding these:

chocolate

citrus

corn

food coloring and additives

fruit punches

milk

processed and packaged foods

soft drinks

sugar

wheat

yeast

When you add a food to your diet, be sure to add it in pure form. Using wheat as an example, make sure you use whole wheat instead of bread since it also contains milk, thus confusing your results. If however, you are testing milk, use whole milk instead of ice cream since ice cream contains sugar, corn syrup, and a whole host of other ingredients.

If you are one that identifies one or more troublemakers and you are still experiencing problems, try the “Cave Man Diet—“consisting only of protein and vegetables. In so doing, you will need to eliminate all the common allergy-causing foods previously listed.

In addition, you have to also avoid:

beef

chicken

coffee

eggs

oats

pork

rice

tomatoes

wheat

white potatoes

any food or beverage you eat more than once a week

Another reminder if you will, you can return these foods one at a time, giving 24 to 48-hours between each so that you can fully experience your results, enabling you to identify your hidden food sensitivities.

If you are still not feel so well, you may want to also eliminate shell fish.

Now for the good news: If the foods you’ve been successfully able to avoid are causing your symptoms, after four to six days, for sure by the 10th day, Lord-willing you will definitely feel better as you eliminate these particular foods!

Going back to the rotation, if on Monday you ate oranges, on Tuesday you may want to eat a banana, on Wednesday apples, perhaps pineapples on Thursday, then on Friday you could begin again with oranges or another citrus fruit. You will also want to do this for other food groupings as well.

Maintenance

Now you can celebrate; congratulations, as you’ve been doing your homework, paying close attention to what you can and cannot eat. Have you lost some weight? I thought so! By having been so committed, this has become a habit and on occasion reward, and you can reward yourself, but with some caution, as you will still need to continue to monitor your foods. If by chance you have had a little set back, you must back track, taking the necessary measures to correct it.

Your doctor may decide to keep you on the antifungal medications indefinitely just in case of occasional set backs. So as to maintain your new sense of well-being, you may need to consider observing this diet indefinitely. If you are one who is doing well with this diet, you can ease up and not have to be so strict, especially if you have incorporated other measures to regain your health. In so doing, you may also need to add/include nutritional supplementation, exercise, stress reduction, and avoiding or reducing unnecessary exposure to environmental chemicals, electromagnetic pollution or electromagnetic (EM) radiation, and mold spores.

Meal Suggestions After Step 1

Breakfasts

Ground beef patty, scrambled eggs, grits, with butter, applesauce muffin.

Lamb chops, steamed Brussels sprouts, whole wheat biscuit, grapefruit.

Toasted rice cakes with peanut butter, sliced banana, turkey butter.

Brown rice with coconut oil and chopped almonds, water packed tuna, fresh pineapple.

Well-cooked eggs, any style; pancakes made with teff, spelt kamut; freshly squeezed orange juice.

Barely cereal with banana and pecans, milk, baked or broiled fish.

Hot oatmeal with cashews, milk and fresh or frozen peaches.

Lunches

Sloppy Joes, corn bread, coleslaw; orange.

Tuna salad on lettuce, whole-grain flat bread, fresh pineapple.

Fruit salad and yogurt.

egg salad, rice cakes, apple.

Chili, raw celery and carrots, whole wheat biscuits, pear.

Dinners

Sautéed liver, lima beans, baked acorn squash, sliced tomato, banana oat cake.

Broiled fish, cabbage and carrot slaw, wax beans, whole wheat popovers, baked banana.

Burger patty, steamed cauliflower, steamed broccoli, boiled potatoes, baked apples.

Hen steamed carrots and peas, wild rice, rice crackers.

Roasted duck, collards, barely soup, sweet potato, steamed cabbage, corn bread.

Broiled steak, baked potato, lettuce tomato, cucumber salad with freshly squeezed lemon juice and olive oil, mixed greens, fresh strawberries.

Chicken and rice steamed carrots, steamed kale, corn bread, pear.

Shopping Tips

Buy/use whole foods.

Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably certified organic.

Avoid foods labeled “enriched,” especially if you are allergic to yeast.

Avoid all canned, packaged and processed foods because they tend to have sugar, dextrose and other carbohydrate products.

If you must use canned or packaged foods, make sure you read the labels carefully.

When buying frozen vegetables, choose the ones without sauces or additional ingredients.

Avoid processed, smoked, or cured meats, like salami, wieners, bacon, sausage and hotdogs, since they usually contain sugar, spices, yeast and other additives. Side note, they also contain the wrong kinds of fat.

Avoid bottle, frozen and canned juices. Buy freshly squeezed fresh fruit juices, or make your own.

Buy nuts/seeds from a health food store, making sure they are fresh and not rancid or contaminated with molds, storing them in your refrigerator or freezer. Avoid peanuts if you’re allergic to yeasts or molds.

All commercial breads, cakes, and crackers, as they contain yeast. If you aren’t ready to start baking yeast-free breads yourself, you’ll have to find some on your own, starting with the health food stores. If by chance they don’t have any, it won’t hurt to ask some one where you can get them or the name of a person willing to be hired for baking some things for you. Also inquire about their knowledge and experience with cooking with the alternative whole grains we’ve been talking about.

Start using expeller-pressed vegetable oils. I will put them in the order of importance: flaxseed, coconut, olive, sunflower, and safflower, and corn. Remember, for salad dressing, use any of these oils with lemon juice. You may also use some of the nut oils as well.

Start buying the whole grains—barley, corn, kamut, millet, oats, rice, spelt, teff and wheat. You can use any of these to make porridge.

When pressed for time, you can purchase excellent bagged organic salads.

Eating Out-If you are one of those who literally live in their cars/always on the go; you have to make the best out of a bad situation, by doing the best you can. You are going to get use to making yourself lunch to take to work by planning ahead. As far as what to eat while dining out, you must avoid foods that trigger your symptoms, packing fresh veggies, nuts and rice cakes or rice crackers, perhaps vegetable based burgers, as for meats, to ensure there are no pesticides, buy the organically raised, grain feed meat products.

Vegetarian—Make sure your fruits and veggies are organic; include whole grains.

Dry Cereals-It is best to purchase from the health food store, as most of the cereals in the regular grocery stores are processed or prepared under high heat, not to mention that they have lots of sugar, often containing malt and added yeast-derived B vitamins. I know I don’t need to remind you that if you are one who is allergic to yeast, that you must stay away from these, do I? Back to the good ole health food store, in buying your cereals there, most sold there are organically produced, containing a variety of grains and if sweetened, it’s with fruit sugar. For additional suggestions or menus for making all of the investigative work easier you will need to become familiar with The Yeast Connection Cookbook, as it contains more than 225 recipes using grain alternatives.

Ok, I've done both the 10-Steps as well as the Candida Diet, but I am still not seeing/feeling the results of being normal!

If that is the case, you may either consider you might have Celiac Disease where you are in need of eating gluten-free foods, or a food intolerance. Lisa Morris of lisasglutenfree.com is an excellent resource for getting a better understanding of what Celiac Disease is. As for the food intolerance, check out Deborah Manners' website by clicking here.

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