An anti- candida diet

Dietary control is vital in an anti- candida diet to fight against yeast or candida infection. Because you want to eliminate or at least minimise those foods that promote the growth of candida.

The most important food to avoid is sugar, as sugar feeds yeast.

This is actually easier said than done. If you really try to give up sugar completely, you might find that it is more difficult than, say, giving up meat.

And when the yeast in your body is starved of sugar, chances are you will experience very strong sugar cravings. This is the most important time to resist the "temptation" of sweets. Your anti- candida diet is almost working. But once you give in, the yeast in your body will again multiply.

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Other foods to be avoided in an anti- candida diet include:

• Refined carbohydrates like white rice and white flour, as well as flour products like noodles, bread, cakes and pastries
  
  
• Yeast and foods made with yeast, including regular, yeasted bread as opposed to unleavened flat bread
  
  
• Fermented foods – but salty fermented soy products like miso and shoyu are okay in small amounts (See macrobiotics diet, below)
  
  
• Mushrooms and fungi
  
  
• Excessive amounts of fruits and fruit juices
  
• Vinegar and products containing vinegar, like pickles
  
  
• Alcohol
  
  
• Milk and dairy foods
  
  
• Food chemicals, including most drugs and medications

It is especially important to avoid antibiotics, because the overuse of antibiotics is one ofthe main reasons why candida infection is so widespread in modern societies in the first place.

Many doctors will say it is absolutely necessary to take antibiotics when one has an infection. However, this writer has been avoiding antibiotics for more than 22 years already. And it is not that I never fall ill. But when I do, I seek natural solutions like Chinese herbal medicine.

If you want to be extra careful about antibiotics, you would have to take a closer look at meat and meat products as well. In modern farming practices, farm animals are regularly given antibiotics and their meat contains antibiotic residues.

From the perspective of a macrobiotic diet, there is another good reason to avoid meat, eggs and other animal products. These are strong yang foods and taking them will induce a craving for yin foods like sugar and fruits.

But if you eat a more centrally balanced diet of mainly whole grains, vegetables, beans / bean products , sea vegetables, etc, you will feel very satisfied after a meal and not crave any sweets.

The macrobiotic diet, with slight modifications, is actually very effective as an anti- candida diet. In a macrobiotic diet, the main food is whole grains, which typically make up about half of the total meal. Whole grains contain lignans and other phytochemicals that naturally suppress yeast and help restore the balance of friendly bacteria in the intestines.

The macrobiotic diet also uses fair amounts of fermented soy products such as miso and shoyu. While fermented foods are generally not recommended in an anti- candida diet, the experience of macrobiotic practitioners is that persons with candida infection can take small amounts of these foods.

Salty fermented foods make the body more alkali and this will slow down the spread of yeast. However, less salty fermented foods like white miso are better avoided or minimised.

Other foods to be avoided in a macrobiotic anti- candida diet include:

• vinegar, including rice vinegar, barley vinegar and umebosi vinegar that are normally recommended as part of a macrobiotic diet
  
  
• raw salads
  
  
• spices and other stimulating foods.

In addition, macrobiotic home remedies, such as sweet vegetable drink, can be helpful in controlling sugar cravings but balancing the bood sugar level slowly and naturally.

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