Candida albicans is a type of fungal bacteria that naturally lives in your digestive tract. When Candida multiply out of control, you may experience a number of different problems including oral thrush or cancker sores in your mouth, diaper rash, jock itch or vaginal yeast infection or even athlete's foot. Dietary changes that include eliminating sugar and simple carbohydrates while repopulating your gut with beneficial probiotic bacteria may help keep Candida in check.
Candida Albicans
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, 75 percent of women will experience a vaginal yeast infection caused by Candida at some point. Although most common in people with weakened immune systems, candidiasis is caused when something interferes with the balance of bacteria in your body; most commonly antibiotics, which kill the beneficial bacteria that prevent the rapid growth of Candida. Pregnancy and diabetes, birth control pills and obesity may also allow Candida to spread. Anti-fungal medications can help relieve symptoms such as itching or discharge. Dietary changes may help prevent future outbreaks.
Candida Diet Overview
Candida feed on sugar; the first step in a Candida diet is to eliminate as many different types of sugar from your diet as possible -- including natural sugars in fruit and foods that quickly turn to sugar such as refined flours and alcohol. This starves the Candida, stopping population growth. Some Candida diets suggest starting with a colon detox, which may involve fasting, hydrotherapy or combinations of cleansing herbs -- but there are no medically proven benefits to that type of cleanse. After the Candida begin to die off, either from cleansing or starvation, you'll start to repopulate your intestine with beneficial bacteria -- called probiotics -- which will stop the Candida from multiplying out of control.
What To Eat
The Candida diet allows you to eat non-starchy vegetables, all types of meats, fish and seafood and whole grains that don't contain gluten, such as millet or quinoa. It is a very limited diet, but you shouldn't need to stay on it more than a few weeks before beginning to add more foods back into your diet. Because all forms of sugar are eliminated, that does include fruit and most dairy products. Fermented dairy products such as yogurt or kefir are allowed because they contain probiotics. Fermented vegetables, such as sauerkraut or pickled vegetables are also encouraged. Foods that may contain yeast, such as baked goods, alcohol, aged cheeses, mushrooms and peanuts are discouraged.
Safety
The Mayo Clinic says that although there "is not much evidence to support the diagnosis of yeast syndrome" that the Candida diet may help you feel better in general because it eliminates empty calories, processed foods, sugar and white flour. You may lose weight on the Candida diet, because so many foods are restricted. This could be a positive, if you need to lose weight or may leave you underweight. If you modified the Candida diet to eat some low-sugar fruits such as peaches, plums or oranges it would be a more well-rounded eating plan.
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