If you're fighting candida, you may have heard of Dr. Elaine Gottschall's Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The diet originally was designed to treat inflammatory bowel diseases such as colitis and Crohn's disease, but Dr. Gottschall's book states that it also treats candida infection successfully.
Significance
Candida, a form of yeast, occurs naturally in the human body, according to Columbia University. In most cases, your digestive system keeps it in check. However, in people with compromised immune systems, candida can grow out of control, potentially causing a wide range of problems, including fatigue, irritability, depression, joint aches, constipation and bloating, and migraines. It's possible to fight candida through diet, which is where Dr. Gottschall's diet comes in.
Function
It's possible that eating too many foods loaded with highly refined carbohydrates and sugar can lead to a candida infection, according to Columbia University. Dr. Gottschall's Specific Carbohydrate Diet eliminates those refined carbohydrates and many other complex carbohydrate foods, replacing them with a short list of allowed simple carbohydrates.
Types
Dr. Gottschall's diet allows you to eat only carbohydrates with a single molecule structure that makes them easily digestible. Complex carbohydrates with a double or multi-molecule structure can't be digested easily by the body, and so the diet bans them. When fighting a candida infection with Dr. Gottschall's diet, you'll eliminate all grains and all sugar except for honey from your diet, since they're considered complex carbohydrates. You'll also eliminate all potatoes, including white potatoes and sweet potatoes, for the same reason.
Features
When following Dr. Gottschall's diet to treat your candida infection, you can consume most fruits and vegetables, but you'll need to check them against the Specific Carbohydrate Diet list to make sure they're allowed. For example, bananas are allowed only if they're very ripe, and most commercially prepared fruit juices are off-limits. You can consume plenty of meat, poultry, fish and nuts while following the diet, and many people create baked goods using nut flours.
Considerations
There are no medical studies showing that the Specific Carbohydrate Diet works effectively against candida, but Dr. Gottschall reported in her book, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle," that the diet does fight candida. When following Dr. Gottschall's diet, you'll avoid bread, sugar and other processed carbohydrates, which can contribute to candida overgrowth, according to Columbia University. Before deciding to try Dr. Gottschall's diet to fight your candida infection, check with your doctor to make sure you don't have any other medical conditions that could be contributing to your symptoms.
References
- "Breaking the Vicious Cycle;" Dr. Elaine Gottschall; 1994
- Columbia University: Candida (yeast)
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