Confused about what you can and can’t eat on a yeast infection diet?
Is your head spinning from trying to imagine life without bread, potatoes and pasta?
Most of us go into some sort of meltdown anticipating a life of eating nothing but lettuce and broccoli!
Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s involved in a Candida diet;
The yeast infection diet is a way of starving the Candida fungus by not eating the foods that it lives on, namely sugar, mold, and starches. It is also a way of identifying which foods may be causing an allergic reaction which places a huge strain on our immune system and allows the Candida to take hold in the first place.
It runs over three stages, with stage one being the elimination phase, stage two is when we start to reintroduce foods and stage three is when we have introduced most of our regular foods back into our diet.
The elimination phase of a yeast infection diet basically involves taking out all sugars, starches, gluten, dairy, stimulants, processed meats, preservatives, foods containing mold and chemical additives – which as you would imagine, leaves very little left for you to eat!
Here is a list of foods that are definitely allowed on stage one of a yeast infection diet;
Vegetables
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Silverbeet
- Bok Choy/Pak Choy
- Broccoli
- Asparagus
- Cabbage
- Turnips
- Kale
- Peppers – red, green, yellow, orange
Meat
- Lean lamb
- Chicken
- Fish
- Turkey
Eggs – limit to two a day
Nuts and seeds - almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds – avoid peanuts and cashews because of the potential for mold.
Herbs – All herbs are allowed, especially black pepper, garlic and ginger
EFA’s / Omegas – Found in oils like coconut, flaxseed, sesame and sunflower oil.
Water
The following foods are on the ‘maybe’ list because each yeast infection diet seems to have a differing opinion about whether they are allowed in stage one or not.
Maybe’s
- Yogurt – plain, unsweetened with active cultures
- Cottage cheese
- Whole grains – like millet, amaranth, oats, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, rice flour……
- Sprouts
- Peas
- Low sugar fruit like pears, rhubarb, pineapple, papaya, lemons, limes, kiwifruit, berries.
The general rule here is that if you want to include any of them, then have really small servings once a day – I know that I would have gone mad in the first four weeks of my yeast infection diet if I could not have had lemon juice on my stir fry and cottage cheese with cinnamon on a rice cracker for supper!
If this all seems too much to start with then the best advice is to just cut out the sugar for a couple of weeks, then start to cut back on the rest. Once you have got your diet down to the minimum, then start stage one.
To have the most effect, stage one of a yeast infection diet should last at least two weeks, preferably four.
Want a Step by Step Yeast Infection Diet Plan? Click Here For Your Copy
Stage two of a yeast infection diet is when we start to reintroduce foods.
This should be done really slowly, one food at a time, one serving at a time.
Start with your whole grains, legumes or starchy vegetables. The main thing to remember here is to notice if your body reacts in any way – this may be as subtle as your heart starting to beat faster or it may mean a full blown relapse of all symptoms. This reaction can take place up to two days after you have eaten the food, so this is why it is important to only try one food at a time.
If you do have a reaction to a food, then stop having it for at least another two weeks. Then try to gently reintroduce it. If you keep getting a reaction then it would probably pay to eliminate the offending food from your diet permanently.
Stage three of the yeast infection diet is when you have safely introduced all of your normal foods, well done!
Remember that a yeast infection diet is just the tip of the iceberg when treating your Candida.
To be completely Candida free you also need to use supplements that will boost your anti fungal treatment, help you to heal and remove the toxins that the Candida has left behind.