Candida

How to test for candida

Our candida testing kits come with full instructions but essentially you order the kit, provide your sample, send it back to us for testing and then we will contact you with your results. Order a home candida testing kit.

Anti-Candida Diet Advice

If your findings show that you have an intestinal candida overgrowth that needs treatment, your therapist will prescribe an effective remedy to you, which you have to take according to the instructions. However, experience has shown that medication for intestinal fungi without a special diet is not sufficient and a candida diet plan should be put in place. The dietary advice given below is based on the scientific research of the German Professor Dr. Hans Rieth, MD, and has become the gold standard.

Yeast-like fungi need to have a source of organic carbohydrates to live on. Their easiest supply is organic carbohydrate in the form of short chain sugars, like our household sugars or fruit sugar. The more sugars they have available the better they thrive. For this reason, foods to avoid with candida overgrowth are short chain carbohydrates like glucose, fructose, household sugars, malt sugar, all kinds of sweets, chocolate, sweet juices and other sweet drinks, white flour products, jams etc in your daily nutrition; during the anti-candida treatment. Of course you also have to avoid foods which you are intolerant to as well.

However, be warned of extreme diets, which reduce not only the short chain but also the complex carbohydrates and fruit for weeks or even months. Here not only the fungus, but also the patient, will be harmed.

You might be very concerned before starting a candida diet that it will be extremely hard to avoid sugars, but please note that your need for sugars will decrease rapidly once the candida is eliminated. Sticking to a candida diet meal plan will help you avoid impulse sugar intake.

It is very important to sweep out the accumulated yeast cells with fibre. A rich supply of fibre mechanically eliminates the accumulated yeast cells from the intestines. This is especially efficient when you eat fibre several times a day, also for example in form of a supplement. Fibre also encourages a faster digestion, which is important to get the candida out of your intestines and has the additional advantage of making you feel full. This makes the diet easier.

Rich on fibre are:

• All kinds of vegetables: especially raw
• Breads: Wholemeal rye breads, wholemeal breads, bran breads
• Cereal products: seed sprouts, wholemeal, wholemeal flakes, grains, whole grain pasta, brown rice

Are you allowed to eat yeast during your Candida diet?

In principle you can eat baking yeast, beer yeast and other food yeasts as they don’t colonise your gut like candida albicans and its relatives. However, if you have an allergy or sensitivity to candida you might experience a cross reaction against the related food yeast. In these cases you have to avoid any yeast-containing foods and eat an anti-yeast diet. Watch out for yeast also in stock cubes, Marmite or other sandwich spreads. If you are not sure if you are allergic to yeast, please leave out yeast from your diet as a precaution.

If you have tested sensitive for certain foods, you should only reintroduce them after the candida treatment.

Please do not drink great quantities of milk during the diet as this has been shown to make the candida more persistent. The same applies to great quantities of calcium supplements (if you take much more than the recommended intake). Candida cannot digest lactose, however.

It is important to make sure you drink enough liquid – as clean, still water, thinly brewed herbal or fruit teas etc.

Supply of nutrients:

Always make sure that your intake of vitamins, minerals and trace elements is sufficient, as candida sufferers are often deficient in them.

You are allowed to eat:

• potatoes, brown rice and brown pasta, buckwheat
• full grain bread, crisp bread, also sugar free wholemeal
• baking products (those baked with yeast only if you are not allergic to yeast)
• fruits which are not so sweet, fruit low on carbohydrates like strawberries or raspberries etc. (= low GI and GL)
• meat and fish in all variations except in batter or a breadcrumb coat
• egg dishes with milk or milk products, oven baked egg dishes
• milk and milk products without sugar, natural yoghurt
• all kinds of vegetables and salads
• mushrooms
• milk sugar (lactose)
• wholemeal bakery, nuts in moderation, muesli without sugar
• sugarfree chocolate, for example with Maltitol
• artificial sweeteners like aspartame, xylit, saccharin
• sugarfee drinks like mineral water, coffee, teas, moderately dry wines and dry champagne

You should avoid:

• white rice, white pasta
• yeast and all foods with yeast if you are allergic to yeast
• any kind of white bread or white flour products
• sweet fruits (like grapes, bananas, dates etc. with a high GI/GL)
• dried fruit
• egg dishes with white flour
• yoghurts or similar with sugar and/or sugared fruits
• glucose, household sugars, malt sugar,honey, fructose (!)
• any kinds of sweets, cakes, biscuits, custard
• sugar substitutes like sorbit or mannit
• sweet drinks like lemonades, coke, fruit juices, sweet wines, beer, sweet liquors

Is a diet alone enough to kill Candida?

The special diet is vital to diminish the number of fungi but you will need the medication in addition as nobody can starve candida to death. In an emergency candida can switch to a protein metabolism.

How should you eat after the diet phase?

After approx. 8 weeks of a candida diet meal plan you should not go back to nutrition rich on sugar and sweets. Instead you should try to eat healthy whole foods for as long as possible, at least for 4 – 6 months. Whilst eating whole foods you should avoid all refined sugars, but you are encouraged to eat all kinds of fruit, including the sweet ones. White flour is not advisable anyway, as it is low on nutrients and fibre.

Whole foods contain a high percentage of vegetables, fruits and salads. They should be prepared very gently (not overcooked) and should supply you with moderate quantities of milk, milk products, eggs, fish and meats. Your diet should be versatile but not too rich.

Speak to your nutritionist or naturopath about a healthy diet.