Phase TWO

I’m gonna be real with you–treating candida is not fun, particularly in the first 2 weeks. Don’t let that discourage you. Nothing worthwhile and provides lasting satisfaction comes easy. Meal planning might seem tricky and your cravings may be strong, but that will seem like a necessary and growth-inducing step once you see this through.

In these 2 weeks, you will experience something called candida die-off, where the candida will begin dying off and releasing a lot of toxins in your body. It’s a detox period that lasts about a week, and often feels like the cold/flu. It will leave you feeling lethargic, sore, sniffly, and perhaps emotionally frail. This is totally normal as we are withdrawing from sugar and letting large parts of the candida exit our body.

The food portion of this might seem complicated at first, but it definitely gets easier after the first 2 weeks. Your tastebuds will calibrate. Your ability to taste deliciousness in food will heighten. It’s really difficult to take anything for granted once you’ve gone through this. You will absolutely find favorites, go-tos, and comforts in some of the foods you’ll be eating. If you stay ready and prepared, you will see the results beginning 2 weeks and onward, and that will be enough motivation for you to continue with the other phases.

You will need to get through your pantry and refrigerator to get rid of the ingredients that are not candida friendly. A great way to do this without wasting a bunch of food is to donate pristine items to food pantries, make complete dishes to give away to friends who aren’t suffering from candida (so far I’ve made a sushi bake and banana bread for my friends–just because I have to go through this diet doesn’t mean that my friends can’t enjoy themselves), and store any future foods you can reintroduce back into your diet in the freezer and/or obscure cabinet space.

Have food in your refrigerator you can eat at all times. Bring things you can eat with you when you’re out in the world. This means staying on a regimented meal plan so that you won’t be caught without food and having to eat something that is not candida friendly and having your symptoms flare up again.

Be transparent with the people around you, and be willing to receive support from them around this. They may be confused at first, but the people who are willing and able will do research and help you through this. Send them this guide so they can understand where you’re coming from. I’ve had friends who have gone out of their way to work with me to find restaurants where I can eat, made me dinner, even bought monkfruit sweetener to make me baked goods. I’ve asked restaurants lots of questions to navigate whether or not there is something I can eat there, and people are generally helpful and accommodating. It’s really warming and even connective to show up wholly throughout this process.

SUPPLEMENTS

I am recommending a mix of Western and Eastern herbs, as they have different effects. Western herbs will be taken heavily in the first month, then into a hybrid of the two.

The reason being Western treatment of all ailments, including candida, is targeted and isolated rather than holistic and integrative. Many of the Western herbs seek to eradicate candida, but we need a little bit of it to have a healthy gut. This level of intensity is great for the beginning if you are experiencing acute symptoms, but once those die down, it is helpful to switch to a mixture of Eastern and Western herbs to maintain balance while ridding your body of candida biofilms that may allow them to exist in detrimental colonies.

First 30 days:

  • Yeast Cleanse Formula - a great combination of herbs that fight off candida

  • Berberine - anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory herb (this will come in 60 capsules, keeping taking them until they are all finished)

  • Oil of Oregano - breaks down biofilm and keeps candida from spreading (this will come in 60 capsules, take daily for 3 weeks, then 3 weeks off, rotate until bottle runs out)

  • Vitamin C - gives your immune system a boost while you are navigating die-off and healing of the gut (stop taking after 30 days)

  • Activated Charcoal - helps detox process by gathering toxins and allowing them to expel (take daily until capsules run out)

  • Milk Thistle Tea - wonderful for liver support, which needs a lot of aid during this period (drink daily for 30 days)

  • Goodbye Fungi Salve - topical use only—great for skin folds and rashes due to candida.

Second 30+ days:

  • Candida Relief+ Tincture by Lily Choi - maintains balance with candida (will last more than 30 days, keep taking it according to the lunar cycle or 5 days on, 5 days off until bottle runs out)

  • NAC - breaks up biofilm to keep candida from overgrowing

  • Caprylic Acid - breaks up biofilm to keep candida from overgrowing

  • Probiotics - restores good bacteria in the gut

FOODS TO EAT AND AVOID

Foods to Eat

  • Lots of steamed vegetables, soups, stews, cooked foods

  • Non-starchy vegetables (leafy greens, seaweed, bok choy, mustard greens, morning glory, chrysanthemum greens, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, avocados, etc.)

  • Sprouts (I like to grow my own)

  • Chicken, turkey, fish, seafood, soybeans/tofu/tempeh/textured vegetable protein

  • Gluten-free grains (buckwheat, millet, quinoa, rice very sparingly)

  • Sauerkraut, kimchi (made without sugar and fish sauce)

  • Nuts and seeds like almonds, flax, sesame, sunflower

  • Good fats like avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, ghee

  • Apple cider vinegar

  • Natural sweeteners like stevia, monkfruit

Foods to Avoid:

  • Salads, raw & cold foods (smoothies)

  • Commercial yeast

  • Sugar (cane, brown, beet, coconut, honey, agave, maple syrup, etc.)

  • Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucrose)

  • Grains that contain gluten (wheat, barley, rye)

  • Dairy (cheese, yogurt, butter, etc.)

  • Legumes and beans

  • Starchy/sugary vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, peas)

  • Fruit* (all with the exception of lemons, limes, grapefruit, green apples, berries, lowest sugar fruit)

  • Ferments* (vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, pickles) sauerkraut is okay in small portions daily due to probiotics

  • Red meat, processed meats

  • High mold nuts (peanuts, pistachios, cashews, pecans, brazil)

  • Processed inflammatory oils (peanut, canola, vegetable, etc.)

  • Sugary drinks (including store-bought kefir and kombucha, there is always added sugar)

  • Caffeine

  • Alcohol

Gray Area Foods:

  • There is a lot of mixed information on whether or not mushrooms is permitted on the candida diet since it is a fungi, but specific mushrooms like reishi, chaga, and shiitake have anti-fungal effects. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is encouraged to eat mushrooms since the fungi of candida does not feed on the fungi of mushrooms.

  • Most Western candida diets recommend eating oats, but oats turn into sugar in the blood. Try it out to see if this works for you.

  • Rice is allowed in the TCM treatment of candida, but white rice becomes sugary in the blood, just like oats. Test this out and see what works for you. I ate rice a few times during the earlier period of my diet, and it didn’t impact my symptoms. You can also try brown rice.

  • Tomatoes are another one that depends on the individual.

  • No one can agree on miso. I would test this one once acute symptoms are gone.

HELPFUL TIPS

Let’s go back to basics:

  • There is a correlation between candida overgrowth and high levels of cortisol aka the stress hormone. Due to this, try yoga and/or pilates for body engagement to alleviate the lymphatic system rather than high intensity body movement. This will aid your healing and immunity immensely.

  • Your plate should be 1/2 fiber, 1/4 protein, and 1/4 “starch” or more fiber of choice.

  • Chew your food thoroughly. Your gut is healing, and chewing helps break down some of the food before it reaches your gut, which already does a lot of work to break down foods. In general, and particularly during this healing period, it helps to chew your food more as to not exhaust your digestive system.

  • Drink warm or room temperature water with meals. Cold beverages can cause distress to the gut, especially when it’s trying to break down foods through creating internal heat to extract nutrients from waste. It has to work extra hard to heat up when it is ingesting cold solids and liquids (this is why it is recommended to avoid salads and raw foods). Give your gut a break by reaching for warm or room temp water with your meals.

  • Eat 3 meals a day. Breakfast will be your largest meal, as your body is ramping up to do many tasks and needs fuel to get through it. Lunch will be a medium meal–it’s the middle of the day and you still have a stretch of time before you begin to wind down. Dinner will be your smallest meal—it is the end of the day and you don’t need quite as much fuel since your activity is lowering at this time.

  • During your meal, eat your fiber first, then protein, then starch to keep from getting a glucose spike in your blood and further feeding the candida. If you plan on having dessert, eat it 20 minutes-1 hour after your meal. It makes sense why the traditional coursed meal is salad first, entree, then dessert. This habit dates back to ancient Roman times, but got rearranged by the French in later history when they decided the salad’s function is to be a “palate cleanser.”

  • If you know you’re going to have something that may flare up symptoms, like a noodle soup with fish sauce, or white rice, drink a shot of apple cider vinegar 20 minutes before your meal. Do this sparingly. This doesn’t prevent your candida from flaring up, but it does cushion the glucose spike so that your symptoms won’t be as intense. This is not a cure-all for candida, and should not be used as such.

  • Avoid snacking. Your gut is designed to break down whole meals. Putting food into your system signals for your digestive system to work, so reserve that energy for breaking down whole meals. Snacking requires intermittent work from your gut to break down the food, which can be disorienting for the body because it uses so much energy for very little food/nutrients.

  • Listen deeply to whether your hunger is mental or physiological. Helpful cues and questions are: when you last ate, what you ate, and how much you ate. If you had a big meal last, it’s more than likely that in 4-5 hours you’re going to be hungry again, but if it’s only been 1-3 hours, take a pause and let your body work through the food it already has.

  • The quality of food is incredibly important. Stay away from meats where the animals were treated with antibiotics and eat GMO feed, as this strips the gut of its healthy bacteria. In fact, antibiotics are often what sets off candida, as it kills off all the healthy bacteria in the gut and candida begins to take over. If you eat meat, be sure to get pasture-raised meats that eat grass, and are never treated with antibiotics or growth hormones.

RECIPES

OUTSOURCED

Savory:

Sweet:

JOEY SPECIALS

  • Vegetable & egg tacos (use Siete almond flour tortillas, top with avocados, pico de gallo, cilantro, hot sauce)

  • Chicken or shrimp tacos (same as above, but I like to top mine with sauerkraut and/or homegrown sprouts)

  • Spicy salmon, cucumber, avocado wrapped in snack-sized seaweed dipped in coconut aminos

  • Canned sardines, almond flour crackers, homegrown sprouts

  • Kimchi stew w/ shrimp, vegetables, silken tofu

  • Japanese chicken curry (use any ol’ curry powder, avocado oil vegan butter, and arrowroot powder to make a roux, then add chicken, chicken stock, carrots, daikon, and other desired vegetables

  • Baked salmon w/ lots of seasonings and roasted vegetables

  • Salmon sinigang (yes, I did use a touch of fish sauce, but replaced the taro with daikon and turnip)

  • Vietnamese noodle soup w/ shredded poached chicken, chicken broth (go ahead and treat yourself to a tablespoon of fish sauce here), tapioca noodles, shredded cabbage, mung bean sprouts, scallion, cilantro, and crispy shallots fried in avocado oil (can be made vegan with vegetable broth, omit fish sauce, replace chicken with tofu)

  • Chicken thighs marinated in coconut aminos, sesame oil, a dash of apple cider vinegar thrown into the airfryer, served with a plethora of roasted vegetables and mashed cauliflower (can be made vegan with tofu)

  • Mashed cauliflower, boiled in water and blended with a very small amount of said water, salt, one clove of garlic, and 1 tablespoon of vegan butter (a great substitute for mashed potatoes)

  • Buffalo chicken wings marinated and basted in hot sauce (Marie Sharp’s is 100% candida friendly) and avocado oil butter served with lots of vegetables and a side of dairy-free ranch

  • Chia seed pudding with almond milk, cocoa powder, monkfruit, cinnamon

  • If you wanna have some fun, try making vegan mozzarella and topping it on a cauliflower crust with some homemade tomato sauce and other toppings of your choice as pizza.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

  • There are specific anti-fungal foods that are beneficial to be eating during this time. Coconut oil, olive oil, cinnamon, clove, lemon, apple cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, cruciferous vegetables to name a few.

  • Get familiar with the substitutions. Where a recipe calls for soy sauce, reach for coconut aminos, replace all sugar with monkfruit or stevia, etc. Think of replacing the things you can’t have with the things you can have.

  • It will definitely be jarring at first, but you’ll get used to cooking candida friendly.

  • Spend 1-2 hours meal prepping once or twice a week. Turn on your favorite music/podcast, pull up your go-to recipes or a new one you want to try, make yourself a warm beverage to sip on while you cook, light a candle, and make a moving meditation out of it. Remember that you are investing your time showing your body gratitude by preparing food it’s asking for.

  • If you don’t have time or energy to meal prep, don’t be afraid to just throw plates together. I often just eat a small portion of chicken, sprouts, sauerkraut, and almond crackers. Piecing things together to make a complete meal also works, especially if it is comprised of things you enjoy eating and alleviates the pressure to cook so you can have some time to decompress.

  • These foods will keep you satiated and full. You may begin to notice some of the effects, such as: cleared brain fog, better cognitive functioning, elevated mood, clearing of depression/anxiety, glowing skin free of acne, shinier hair, less cravings, faster growing nails, very regular bowel movements, etc. It’s because this is all unprocessed, nutritionally dense food that is balancing out your gut health, which is the second brain. Your gut is highly influential when it comes to brain function and emotions.

  • If you’re really craving carbs and comfort, have some flours on hand that will allow you make almost anything: almond, coconut, tapioca, buckwheat.

  • If you really want to do right by your gut, drink fresh ginger turmeric lemon shots daily. This is wonderful if you have a juicer, and can get pricey if you don’t.

  • What’s your heritage? Chances are your cuisine is mostly candida friendly, especially with a few swaps.

  • I’ve noticed that the candida diet is pretty close to keto and paleo diets, except the candida diet doesn’t allow for dairy and sugars that are usually OK for the other diets (maple syrup, coconut sugar). I’ve seen some packaged foods and recipes that intersect and work for both, but I still have to look out or adjust recipes that have specific things that aren’t conducive to healing from candida like soy sauce, dairy, sweet potato, etc.).

  • Bookmark your favorite recipes, and have some go-tos when you’re hardcore craving sweets or carbs. For me, it’s been chocolate almond milk w/ coconut oil, cinnamon, and monkfruit sweetener, chicken tacos made with almond flour tortillas, and Vietnamese chicken noodle soup with tapioca noodles. It takes some problem solving and creative cooking to arrive there, but it will come to you in a few week’s time when ingredients more familiar to work with.