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Login Here Signup Here Signup using Facebookk, I’m new here, so ya’ll don’t know me yet. My name is Karen, and I’m a sweet addict! There, I’ve said it. I’ve been a vegetarian for 19 years, and vegan on and off for several of those years, but am new to RAW eating. I dove in and have been enjoying it for about 5 months now, but I have to admit, I’ve been eating a ton of fruit, agave, or dates in most everything that I eat. So, now that I’ve done the Candida Spit Test, and know for a fact that it is Candida that has been giving me problems, I need to do something drastic. I’m an all or nothing kind of gal, so this will be hard for me.
If there is anyone else who is struggling with Candida and is cutting out sugars from their RAW diet, I’d love some company on this journey. We can share RAW sugar-free recipes, or perhaps you’re cutting out fat? I am so confused I’d love to hear lots of perspectives on this. Like, are lemons and tomatoes out too????
anyone up for a support group. :)
Comments
here’s a post from a friend of mine in response to a very ‘female’ candida-related problem
his name is adam greer and i asked for his permission to quote him ‘in full’
hope it helps
:o)
“Treating candida topically is simply treating the symptom. If candida is present, and especially if it is recurrent, it is your body telling you something is wrong…or more specifically, you are doing something that it does not like.
Candida is a useful organism to have around in the body. It only becomes a problem when it starts to proliferate in your system. When it gets to the point where it is noticable, vaginally. This is saying there is definate proliferation going on.
The body allows candida to reside in it, ordinarily as a lifesaving mechanism. If your blood sugar levels ever become too high, and insulin cannot meet its demands, or the insulin cannot do its job properly for some reason, candida and other organisms will feed off this sugar to reduce blood sugar levels. If this did not happen you could have a very serious situation; in the worst case, coma and death.
There are several primary causes of candida proliferation:
1) Imbalanced bacteria levels in your intestines. 2) Impaired immunity, usually related to (1) and (3) 3) Adrenal stress, usually due to both emotional stress, and blood sugar imbalance.
Let me explain number 3 a little more. When you consume too much fat, it tends to stick around in your blood stream way longer than it should do. This can be anywhere upto 24 hours. This can block insulin receptors in cells and prevent insulin from being able to take blood sugar into cells. This means that when you ingest sugar, either from refined sources, such as sugar, honey, syrups, juices, or from fruit or dried fruit, blood sugar becomes too elevated. So the pancreas secretes insulin to take sugar into the cells. When this latter part doesnt happen the body goes’ “Oh shit, produce more insulin”. So the body tells the adrenals to produce adrenaline and cortisol, two stress hormones to kickstart the pancreas into working in overtime, thinking that more insulin is needed to get the blood sugar levels down. It keeps on doing this until the levels eventually go down to safe levels. If this happens just once in a blue moon, the body can handle it. The problem is that most people consistently consume high sugar high fat diets. Whether they eat raw or cooked. It can actually be even worse on a raw diet, due to all the nuts and oils consumed by many people, plus juices, fruits and concentrated dried fruits.
So people say, Oh cut the sugar out, that will sort out candida/diabetes. Heres the reason why thats flawed: whether you eat proteins, fats, complex carbs, refined (fibreless or waterless) carbs, or simple whole fruit carbs, if the body is to use it for fuel, it will convert it to glucose, because that is the only form it can use for fuel. We are a sugar fuelled organism. So cutting out sugar wont make any difference because your body will still be getting sugar from a high fat diet. Its just it will stress the adrenals even more trying to sort it out. This is why candida typically takes so long to get rid of by cutting out sugar, and why you need to use tonnes of different herbs etc.
But heres the thing, if you stop eating too much fat, your insulin receptors wont get blocked up, and so it will be able to get sugar into the cells, and so the candida wont have any excess sugar to feed off, and so it will start to reduce in numbers, very quickly. Usually within 2-6 weeks. Much quicker than on the so called candida diet.
Eating fruit (as long as its not dried or juiced) is easy to digest and will support your adrenals. It will also quickly replenish your intestinal bacteria, since fruit is high in Fructo-oligo-saccharides (FOS) which is what those friendly bacteria feed off. This will in turn support your immune system, since 80% of your immune system is in your intestines and is dependant on balanced bacteria levels. Its usually a good idea to eliminate fats entirely for 2 weeks and eat soley of fruits and greens.
Thereafter, its a good idea to use something like nutritiondata.com or nutridiary.com to work out your individual caloric requirements, based on your body statistics and activity levels, and record your diet and exercise levels for a week or 2, so you can work out if you’re getting enough food, and what % of calories you are getting from fat. Aim for ideally no higher than 10%, after your initial two weeks without overt fats.”
little gems-I’ve battled Candida for a few years now and a 100% raw diet is your answer as long as you don’t have an acute yeast infection or active raging rash that is affecting your ability to function. that said, please read Dr. Douglas Graham’s book on this topic. he’s written several articles for Living nutrition magazine and I will dig out the exact issue you want. 80/10/10 goes into it a little as well. To sum it up in a nutshell-it’s NOT the sugar. It’s the fat you are eating that keeps the sugar circulating in your bloodstream wreaking havoc on all your organs. The sugar never has a chance to get absorbed and used by your cells. Friut sugar is quite necessary and the recent bad press about all sugars being bad just does not apply here. 100% raw. Try not to combine fats with fruit, but have your fruit. fruit+fat= bad news That said—I have had great success with GSE in my water, 100% raw foods and LOTS of water. If I limit anything, it’s nuts. In a typical day, i eat all fruit or fruit/green smoothies until about 3:00. An avocado by itself will often hold me well until dinner, usually a large green salad with dressing.
ahhh, thank you for your posts, that clarifies quite a bit. I was reading online about the “candida diet” and it seemed to focus on veggies and meat… well, since I don’t eat meat I was worried about protein.
So, if I limit my nut consumption, I should be able to continue to eat fruit? So, aside from avocados, which veggies are highest in protein? Should I worry about getting enough protein in my diet from only fruits and veggies? Also, what about sprouted grains, are those ok to consume in limited quantities while trying to get my candida in balance? The traditional candida diet folks say no grains and no fruits… so I can’t go by what they say.
:)
Highest in protein are you leafy greens, believe it or not and you need LOTS!. Way back when I did that candida diet-lost too much weight. I looked old and wrinkled (dead food), my breath stunk all the time (ketones from no carbs). Horrible. When I consider that nice raw food triangle (fruits, green leafys, nuts/seeds). The huge problem is that most raw nuts aren’t even raw. So…easiest for me to start my day with lots of fruit. If i overload the end of my day with nuts/fats, they’ll still be circulating in my bloodstream when i have that morning fruit so i’m careful. Those sprouts are great. When i have any distress, i revert to the mono meal-3 bananas or 3-4 peaches. We are all so different and i have no idea your symptoms, but i know this works. fruit=happy food, but lots of fruit+cooked food will cause trouble.
ok. I knew that leafy greens were high in protein, but I wasn’t sure it was enough. oy, this gets confusing to read different opinions on it.
I’m so happy to hear about this new to me approach to dealing with Candida. I’ve been fighting it off and on for years. I went on the typical no sugars anti-candida diet for a year once and lost so much weight I looked terrible and frequently suffered from really low energy, I guess due to the extreme low carb intake. I’ve recently been diagnosed with candida again from the results of a live blood cell analysis. I’d love to hear about others proven results and experiences clearing it up following 80/10/10. I just got the book but I’m not quite ready yet to start practicing it. I’ve been transitioning to raw for about 10 months now and I’m still only at 80% raw.
Hi LimeLady. I’m going to give it a try. I just put all my nuts in the fridge (where they perhaps should have been anyway) to keep until I get a handle on this Candida overgrowth. I think I’m going to need to figure out a good salad dressing that doesn’t contain oil. I think green smoothies and salads are going to be key here. For snacking, I’m going to make a batch of kale chips (dehydrated kale with seasoning)... I love sunchokes for snacks but they are so expensive!
I found that after a day or two of eating all raw, all of my previous cravings are gone. My biggest cooked addiction is coffee! I tried to give it up and my headaches were terrible. I’m going to have to wean myself off of it slower.
One thing. What about sprouted grains and legumes?
I can’t tell you how glad I am to have found this forum, as I too have been stuck with candida problems for years and years. This is the first I am reading about the role of fats..
I have done the whole no sugars diet off and on for what really does feel like ever, and I suppose it’s been forever since I have been going about it all wrong.
I hope things clear up for you, littlegems! looks like I will be making the same changes you have been.
From what I understand, caffeine addiction is similar to sugars.. where it usually takes about 3 days of just having cut it out entirely for the cravings/headaches to subside. Decaf coffee does have a small amount of caffeine in it.. perhaps you could switch to that for a bit before going off it completely to help with the headaches?
it’s amazing when you think that candida overgrowth can be controlled within days/weeks that people have suffered for so long…...yet some people in the raw world are still promoting the same ‘line’
hmm.. interesting, I’m still not convinced that high glycemic fruits are good for you anyway, insulin-levels-wise etc… but I might be wrong. It’s really interesting nonetheless. I am currently taking MMS I feel it’s pretty strong, I don’t know how well it works though. ANd yes, like Beany I have kind of the same question, what about sprouted seeds, because, well, they’re not really seeds anymore… and what about the EFA’s, what about the antifungal properties of coconut butter/oil etc..? BTW, why is it usually said that you should avoid raw apples? because of the malic acid? too cleansing on a regular basis?
and what about fruits consuming if it’s not “in season”?
--and on anti-fungal. Did you know carrots are anti-fungal? Maybe that is one reason it helps those rid themselves of cancer. That is also another reason to eat carrots when battling Candida.
little gems—you could try limiting the raw fats to 10% of the diet for the first 3 months as outlined by both Dr. Graham and Gabriel Cousens. Don’t eliminate that part of your triangle completely. I don’t think you’d get the calories or fat that you need. Anyway. keep reading. I do think you need to alternate your anti-fingals as well. Oregano oil is amazing as is GSE. i needed to take them in rotation for 60 days in addition i took Udo’s adult probiotic. I think management of this candida monster is quite individual. Please let us know how you are doing. And…yes, the day the anti-fungal started going in was the day my cravings for cooked starches ended.
How are you all doing with this?
I have made a few observations. The first couple of days of my diet change, I had stopped eating all fruit, which made me feel lightheaded and a bit withdrawn. However, I did feel that my Candida symptoms were improving.
Then, when I realized that the excess fat in my diet was my problem, I cut way back on the fat, but began eat a ton of fruit. Now my symptoms are worse than before. So I’m thinking I need to first allow some time for the excess fat to leave my system before I go back to consuming so much fruit. I’ll still have a little bit, but not as much as I was eating before.
yes I have cut on fats and started eating much more fruits. I feel my overall level of health has dramatically decreased and my condition is worse than before. Maye as well, time is needed to allow fats out but now I am highly skeptical. What does the organism do with all the sugar not used as fuel? Isn’t it stored as fat?