Ultimate Candida Diet — Foods to Eat, Foods to Avoid

The ultimate candida diet focuses on controlling a normally beneficial GI tract fungus. The trick is keeping it in check, not eliminating it entirely.

Image by Silvia from Pixabay

Your Best Defense Against Candida

Microbes in your GI tract are like little armies doing battle with one another. Your health depends on the friendly ones winning.

When they do, it’s the best way your body has for keeping yeast growth in check.

For that reason, I thought you might want to know more about the bacteria who are your friends. So I’m providing my brief book on the topic for you, at no charge.

You can download it here: Probiotics Overview: Why You Need Friendly Bacteria for Optimal Health and Wellness.

Now on to the rest of this article…

Confusion About Yeast Infections

Yeast infections — aka, candidiasis — are much more than the popular concept of an annoying vaginal irritation for women.

It’s a body-wide problem, from your head to your toes. And it impacts men, not just women.

Indeed, candidiasis is a modern epidemic even though it’s mostly under the radar of the public’s awareness. Bringing it to your attention was the main point in my previous post, Natural Candida Cleanse for Addressing a Modern Epidemic.

If you, like me, are a health do-it-yourselfer, you can get a good idea of how far along you might be on the candidiasis spectrum with a quick survey I put together for you, here: CANDIDA QUESTIONNAIRE.

The good news is, there’s plenty you can do for controlling it by diet alone. This means adding the right foods to your meals as well as avoiding the wrong ones.

That’s the focus of this post. I call it the ultimate candida diet.

Before going on, read that earlier post in case you’re not sure whether you suffer from candidiasis. And, if you do, what you can do to put your candida overgrowth back in its place.

The idea is control, not elimination. This is a critical point emphasizing the need to maintain candida in your GI tract. After all, it does help with absorption of nutrition from what you eat. You need it for good health. Your health goes awry only when it gets out of hand.

When you have candida overgrowth, you have many natural treatments to choose from. The main one — and the easiest — is changing your diet.

(I’ll have some commentary on candida diet supplements later in this article, too.)

Eating right for controlling candida is a lifestyle. As you read the following to see what that means, keep in mind a candida diet is best applied once you’ve done a candida cleanse, as described in that post linked above.

That being said, what are the right and wrong foods?

Let’s start with the positives — what you should be eating.

After that we’ll get to what you shouldn’t be eating.

What is the Ultimate Candida Diet?

Of all the foods you can eat for controlling candidiasis, 10 of them stand out. These foods actually act as candida suppressors. They’re not microbe killers like antibiotics, which are designed to wipe out bacteria completely. Nope, more like ‘keeping fungi in line’ without totally destroying them. (Besides antibiotics don’t kill fungi in the first place).

The following image shows you at a glance what my top 10 list is. Take a quick peek at it, then read my comments about each food below.

Those are the foods for reducing candida AND for restoring the balance of bacteria in your microbiome.

1. Olive Oil. This is the top oil for bioactive polyphenols. These substances are powerful antioxidants for helping to fight candida. The main fatty acid, oleic acid, also supports the immune system for helping keep candida under control. Other oils, notably those from avocado, primrose, and flax, also contain polyphenols and are good substitutes for olive oil when needed. The key for all such sources is using only certified organic, cold-pressed oils from them.
2. Apple cider vinegar. This is the only common type of vinegar allowed on the candida diet. It can actually damage the cell walls of candida, thereby inhibiting its growth. Other types of vinegar, made from grains or alcohol, aren’t nearly as helpful. In answer to the common question, can you have vinegar on the candida diet is: yes, if it’s the right source.
3. Garlic. The main active ingredient of garlic, allicin, is a sulfur-containing organic compound. It’s more familiar to you as the key aroma of garlic. The allicin content of fresh garlic is higher than that of the cooked or dried herb. Remember: You can never have too much garlic!
4. Cloves. The active ingredient in cloves, eugenol, occurs in a handful of herbs. It’s more concentrated in cloves than in the others. This substance provides a powerful anti-fungal activity. It even works well as a topical application against nail fungus.
5. Coconut oil. Coconut oil contains a small group of medium-chain saturated fatty acids for promoting gut health. Like apple cider vinegar, these fatty acids — capric, caprylic, lauric — have the ability to poke holes in the cell walls of candida.
6. Ginger. Some 400 ingredients are known in raw ginger. Of all those, the sesquiterpenes — zingerone, zingiberene, the shogaols, and the gingerols — are the most active. They’re responsible for the pungence of ginger. They also boost levels of your most powerful internal antioxidant, glutathione.
7. Lemon. Lemons work primarily by aiding the liver in its role as your main detoxifying organ. They boost the ‘after-party’ of candida blooms when the die-off produces a boatload of toxins.
8. Cinnamon. Cinnamon, like coconut oil, also has direct antifungal activity. Many types of cinnamon are known. More than 160 natural ingredients are known from cinnamon. Be cautious, though. One ingredient is coumarin, which is a powerful natural blood thinner. (See more details on this and other natural blood thinners in my previous post, here: Natural Blood Thinners You Already Have at Home.)
9. Cole crops. These are also known as cruciferous veggies, which includes a long list of crops from different species and varieties of the mustard family. They include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and kohlrabi. They all produce a group of sufur-nitrogen containing substances known as isothiocyanates. These compounds are known for their ability to directly inhibit the growth of candida.
10. Wild-caught oily fish. Salmon, ahi tuna, mackerel, herring, and sardines come to mind. Their key ingredients are omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA and EPA. These two omega-3s are known for many health benefits, including their antifungal properties. Both of them also provide anti-inflammatory support for promoting gut health. NOTE: Make sure you consume wild-caught seafood whenever possible. These are the best sources of natural omega-3 fatty acids. (Details about the importance of whole food sources of fish oils is the topic of a previous post, here: Fish Oils — Industry BS Just Plain Fishy.

Other Super Important Foods

The Top 10 above is a good start. A handful of additional foods can also be super important.

These include:

1. Additional greens. Leafy green veggies, the darker green the better, help your body control the acidity that seems to promote candida overgrowth. Green leafy veggies in particular, since they contain little or no sugar and provide plenty of detoxifying magnsium. (Every intact chlorophyll molecule contains an atom of magnesium.) Greens also provide a variety of vitamins, notably vitamin C and B vitamins, for detoxing and energizing your body. Fresh greens are the best. Next best is a green smoothie.
2. Cranberry juice. As long as it’s unsweetened, cranberry juice also helps balance the acidity that can foster candida growth.
3. Kefir. This fermented dairy product has proven its anti-candida effects on lab animals. It’s most powerful when made from goat’s milk.
4. Stevia. This is the top of the line for plant-derived sweeteners NOT containing sugar. It’s the perfect choice for use on the ultimate candida diet. WAY better than the most popular artificial sweeteners (aspartame [Equal), saccharin [Sweet ‘N Low], sucralose [Splenda]).
5. Pau D’arco tea. This commonly available herbal tea contains an ingredient — lapachol — that provides a powerful antifungal activity against candida.
6. Bone broth. A good bone broth might be the best healing food of all time for gut health. Taking care of your gut is crucial for preventing candida from escaping the GI tract into the bloodstream. A healthy gut is the foundation for preventing candida overgrowth.
7. Organic meat. Although plant-based diets are biased against meat, you’ve got to have a good source of protein for your best chance at controlling candida. And what matters most is organic, pasture-raised sources of meat. No grain- or seed-based feeds, no hormones, no antibiotics. This is because factory-farmed meats can actually feed candida growth.

Foods to Avoid on the Ultimate Candida Diet

The foods to consume, as listed above, are just the beginning. You also must avoid certain foods that will set you back.

Removing the problem foods, therefore, is crucial for balancing your ultimate candida diet.

Some of them are probably already familiar to you as general foods you should limit for overall health anyway. Now, by avoiding them, you can add ‘not fueling candida’ to the list.

• Sugar. Put it this way: If you continue to consume sugar, you might as well send your internal candida an invitation to ruin your health. None of the recommendations for what to eat and what to avoid will have any significant positive impact unless you severely reduce your consumption of sugar. If you feel you’re surrounded by sugar, you’re probably right. It’s seemingly everywhere: soft drinks, candies, baked goods, salad dressings, and low-fat processed foods (including so-called ‘nutrition’ bars) are just a few examples where you’ll fins it. By the way, ‘natural’ sources of sugar — e.g., honey, agave syrup, maple syrup — are often claimed to be good for you. However, they’re just different sources of sugar.
• Refined wheat flour. This goes for all processed food made white flour. The easy-to-digest carb in starch from white flour is your primary blood sugar — glucose. So eating refined carbs is just another way to consume that simple sugar.
• Yeast. Since candida is a yeast, consuming foods made with yeast can add more of it to your yeast overload. They include many fermented foods and beverages. For example, most vinegars, soy sauce, the majority of breads. (BTW…tortillas and unleavened bread do not contain yeast, so they can replace bread in your diet without influencing candida overgrowth.)
• Alcohol Particularly wine and beer. They’re both fermented with yeast and can also be high in sugar. In addition, beer contains gluten, which can ruin your gut health and lead you quickly down the candida path.
• Fruit and fruit juices. Even though some berries are antioxidant-rich, most are high in sugar. This goes doubly for dried fruit and fruit juices, which can also contain extra added sugar. Although they may seem like healthy options, fruits and fruit juices are major culprits behind candida overgrowth.
• Starchy veggies. Since starch is an easy-to-digest source of blood sugar, at least at the beginning of your ultimate candida diet you should avoid veggies containing a lot of it. These include potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, beets (which are also high in sucrose {table sugar]), beans, and yams. You may re-introduce them as your effort to reduce your candida proceeds successfully.
• Gluten-producing grains. Gluten is a common culprit behind leaky gut syndrome. It’s highly inflammatory and shouldn’t be consumed at all on the ultimate candida diet. Gluten enables candida to escape the GI tract and go body-wide. Avoiding the common grains known for their gluten content is therefore a must. The most common grains containing high levels of gluten are wheat, rye, and barley.
• Genetically modified crops. Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup herbicide, is used heavily on genetically modified (GMO) crops. It’s designed to disrupt weeds, although a side effect is its destruction of your friendly gut bacteria. These bacteria are your best defense against out of control candida growth. When they’re suppressed, they’re unable to perform this critical task for your gut health. Avoiding GMO crops therefore helps keep candida in check. By the way, although wheat is not a GMO crop, it’s sprayed heavily with glyphosate to induce all the seed heads to dry out at once, the easier to harvest. The problem of glyphosate toxicity is so nasty that I wrote a 3-part series on it, starting with this one: Glyphosate Toxicity — Government Approved Lies That Keep On Giving.
• Peanuts. Any storage seed with the propensity to grow mold on it is dangerous in many ways. The molds themselves are super toxic. They also make candida overgrowth worse. Peanuts are the most common source of such mold.

What About Candida Diet Supplements?

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