If you are on of those people who hasn’t heard about Candida Albicans before, then I envy your luck.
Although it’s possible that you do actually have Candida Albicans, suffer from the symptoms and don’t even realize it because you’ve never heard of it before.
It’s possible. Even though Candida affects hundred and hundreds of people, a lot of people are still unaware of it.
Symptoms include things like fatigue, oral thrush, joint pain, itching and it can also affect your digestive system in a variety of ways.
This includes just general intestinal discomfort as well as constipation and diarrhea. But it can also cause long-term issues like IBS if left untreated.
The reason for this is that Candida is a fungus that will generally build up in the human gut. There’s a few different types but this one is caused primarily by dietary choices.
Lot’s of foods can factor into the growth of Candida Albicans, even some that you would assume are healthy. Here’s five of those:
1. Fruits
I’m not suggesting that you should stop eating fruit entirely, in fact that would be a terrible idea, but eating a lot of fruit can contribute to growing Candida in your system.
Something that can be a big problem for Candida sufferers is sugar. As you probably know, sugar causes a lot of problems and Candida is just another one of those.
Candida loves anything that’s sweet and sugary, and so you’ll also see things like chocolate and ice cream on lists of foods to avoid on the Candida diet, but those are a given.
Deciding to be healthy often means cutting your sugar content down, and so people expect that. What they don’t expect is the connection between sugar and fruit.
Some fruits are worse than others for this. Bananas have an awful lot of sugar in them, as do grapes and mangos.
So if you find yourself suffering from Candida but still want to get the nutrients from fruit, then just go for the less sugary ones.
So we’re talking avocados, raspberries, blackberries and although they might seem like some of the more sweet fruits, lemons and limes are actually low in sugar too.
Fruit doesn’t have to, nor should it go away completely, but you can certainly work it into your diet differently.
2. Grains
The connection between grains and Candida is similar enough to the one that we just talked about with fruit.
Now grains themselves aren’t necessarily that high in sugar, but what they do tend to be high in is carbohydrates, and those will break down into glucose.
A lot of people who take up the keto diet tend to notice that their digestive system seems more stable than before, and this is often linked to the lack of Candida growth.
Inflammation is also a big factor when it comes to Candida and for a lot of people that is caused by gluten, which is also found in most grains.
So the unfortunate thing about this is that most of us rely on grains as a source of nutrients, and it’s not that easy to cut them out.
Wheat, rice, barley, rye, all of these things are eaten pretty much daily by some people and removing them is essentially a complete diet overhaul.
But also like the fruit situation, you can find ways to work around this. There is substitutes out there that offer the same function.
You could try things like collard wraps, chickpea socca bread or cauliflower rice. These should fill that void without contributing to Candida.
3. Starchy Vegetables
I’m sure that the last thing you expected from this list was to see both fruits and vegetables on here but Candida will have its way no matter what.
Starchy vegetables are a good source of carbohydrates, which as we mentioned earlier will break down in your system into glucose which will strengthen the Candida.
You’ll often find starchy vegetables are recommended over other vegetables because they do have certain benefits, but in the case of the Candida diet it’s essential that they’re avoided.
So this means any kind of squash vegetable such as butternut squash or spaghetti squash will cause you problems whereas the more leafy ones won’t.
You’ll be safe enough by eating things like cauliflower and broccoli. Asparagus is also a really popular, nutritious vegetable that isn’t high in carbs.
With this in mind, you also have to steer clear of potatoes and sweet potatoes. They are packed with starch so they’ll only aggravate you.
4. Mushrooms
Mushrooms won’t necessarily cause Candida, but if you’ve already got it in your system then eating mushrooms is likely to make it worse.
Mushrooms, and any fermented foods really, tend to serve as a pretty good source of probiotic bacteria, which is generally considered to be a good thing.
But while this bacteria is beneficial for us, it is also unfortunately beneficial for Candida too and will act as food for the Candida cells.
If you eat mushrooms while the Candida is growing in your gut, then what you’re basically doing is feeding a fungus with another fungus.
Mushrooms are definitely a healthy thing to have in your diet but I would suggest that you get your Candida under control before going back to this particular fungus.
5. Beans
Like I’ve probably said about like half of the other foods on this list, this doesn’t necessarily apply to all kinds of beans.
In fact eating red kidney beans is actually a good thing to do when you’re on the Candida diet but black beans, legumes and pinto beans should all be avoided.
The reason is pretty simple. Much like the starchy vegetables that we talked about, beans are generally high in carbohydrates.
And they can also be high in gluten too which as we said already is something that can cause inflammation for a lot of people.
The benefit of beans is protein for the most part, and you can get that from a lot of other sources.
Again, once you’ve got the fungus under control you could probably reintroduce some of these beans to you diet, but don’t go overboard.
People who suffer from Candida are people who tend to be susceptible to it for one reason or another and so it’s likely to recur if you fall back into similar habits.
Conclusion
If you think that you’re suffering from Candida overgrowth, the first thing that you should probably do is consult a doctor to make sure it’s not something else. To receive help from a doctor that provides value based care check this out.
If it is, they might have some recommendations for you, but you should also make a diet plan for yourself.
There’s stuff to avoid and there’s stuff that you can incorporate into your diet, but as you can see, a food being healthy doesn’t necessarily make it good for a specific condition.