So I've been dealing with candida since March, and though I have found some relief of on HFLC, I could definitely be feeling better. I don't have alot of energy, and being vegan to begin with, having to maintain my weight through so many nuts and seeds does not make my digestion happy. My RD and I have recently added back some steamed squash, millet, lentils and low-glycemic fruits to my diet, so at least I'm getting a bit more variety now, but I still want to see if there's something else out there for me. I'm not sure HCLF is right me for either, but that's why I'm here (plus, I wicked miss bananas).
Having a history of disordered eating, perfectionism is not my friend. I never want to experience guilt or shame when it comes to food again, or feel deprived. Even if I choose to eat raw in my home, I want the freedom to choose to have a bit of cooked food in the winter or enjoy dinner out with my friends. I don't want to worry about what GMOs may be in my food, fat content, or alternatively, sugars, etc. -- I do not want food to rule my life.
I've already been eating a high-raw diet for the past few months, sometimes having steamed vegetables or pseudograin with dinner. I've also been vegan for years, eating mostly whole, organic foods. I don't use chemicals in my toiletries or cleaners, I use my cellular sparingly -- I have already been striving for a healthier lifestyle, and am open to positive changes. I just don't want a diet of any kind becoming an obsession.
As many of you may know, candida is not the ROOT issue -- it is the effect of a greater issue, which is not the same in everyone. I have yet to identify my own with certainty, though I would bet my money on it that I probably triggered this all through stress. This is another aspect I am working on.
I would love to hear any positive (or negative) experiences from people who've used this diet to help treat candida overgrowth. Though I am open to (and appreciate) all comments, my specific questions, to those relevant are:
- How did you treat your own candida infection?
- What were your symptoms?
- How long did it take to resolve your symptoms?
- How are you certain that you had candida?
- Were you able reintroduce "forbidden foods" after healing?
- Which cooked foods could you tolerate, if any, while healing?
Also, I recently came across a claim on a different forum that 80/10/10 is only effective for certain strains -- can anyone verify or elaborate on this?
Replies
My candida stays at bay with no overt fats in the diet and eating a 90/5/5 raw vegan fruit based diet.
Have either of you had a clinical diagnosis? Also, on another note, did either of you have any difficulties with weight or digestion?
I had a diagnosis when I was 12, the doctor brushed it off and just gave me some medication to cure the symptoms temporarily but that obviously didn't cure the cause. I haven't had any problems with my weight but my digestion used to be terrible before I came into this lifestyle. It works really well now.
Glad it worked for you. Thanks for sharing.
Also,the symptoms I was having before was mainly vaginal yeast infections and I know I 100% had a problem because I always had a yeast infection and constantly had to go to the doctor. No over the counter or prescription medicines helped at all. I seriously thank my lucky stars is stumbled upon this lifestyle. It saved my life, living with a candida problem is no joke. It can mess with you both mentally and physically and I feel completely cured now :-) Hope this helped sorry I'm on my iPhone so it's hard to answer all your questions please feel free to ask more!
I don't know if this will help you that much but I suffer from Candida as well and I have proven to myself that this diet absolutely works for healing it. I can't give you complete answers to your questions but I'll try my best. I've been struggling a lot with restricting certain foods that "make me feel bad" (never restricting calories though) and then going through periods of time where I slightly binge on them which has prevented me from being consistent with my fat intake. I'm always high carb but I'm constantly switching from low fat to high fat and so on. During every single period of time where I had a fat intake less than 10% of my calories, my candida went away literally in 4-5 days if I had some cooked food. Eating fully raw and low fat would make it go away EVEN faster.
The combination of high carb and high fat is the winning combination for candida overgrowth from my experience, especially if there are other issues like taking antibiotics etc.
Sadly in my case I wouldn't be able to tell you a lot about long term results because of the problem I had mentioned, but at least I know that high carb low fat=normal amounts of candida in the body and high carb high fat=candida overgrowth.
I usually have it on my tongue and I'm talking about really annoying amounts.
I know what you mean about not wanting to be obsessed with your diet and that's exactly what I've been overcoming and working on lately but I don't think you need to stress about the hclf diet for healing candida if you're doing it properly which of course means carbs in abundance and a small amount of fat but if you eat enough carbs you won't even desire that much of it!
Some people recommend cutting all overt fats in the beginning when healing candida but for me it was too restrictive mentally so as I said already, just by keeping it under 10% it was working. So it isn't and shouldn't be anything unusual or restrictive, just a usual hclf vegan diet.
You can also check out Freelee's video "How to cure your candida and STD problems quickly" if you haven't already.
Note that I'm quite young so there aren't many reasons for my candida issue apart from using antibiotics in the past and the high carb high fat combination.
Sorry if this was too long, had to share everything I knew!