What is the Candida diet?

There are some practitioners of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) that recommend a diet known as the candida-cleanse diet to help in eliminating the symptoms of headaches, fatigue and memory issues associated with brain fog.

The diet is still a controversial topic, yet some people believe that this cleanse is able to cure the syndrome, however, this theory is not yet proven.

The basic idea behind the diet is that the patient should eliminate the following foods entirely from their diet:

• Yeast
• Cheese
• Sugar
• White flour

As these are said to promote candidiasis. Because there is still a large amount of research needed to be conducted on the more invasive types of this infection, some practitioners do not endorse the use of the candida-cleanse diet and there are currently no clinical trials documenting the validity and effectiveness of the diet for the treatment of the recognised medical condition.

However, the majority of sufferers have noticed improvements in a number of their symptoms when they follow this diet strictly. The thinking behind this is that through cutting out these foods, you will effectively be eliminating sugar from your diet which in turn will starve Candida of the substance it needs to grow and spread.

In addition, by eliminating the majority of processed foods, the person following the diet will be looking for more nutritive alternatives which are normally healthier. By replacing junk food with healthy food, the individual is likely to have more energy and generally feel healthier.

What is the outlook for candidiasis?

The more superficial kinds of candidiasis (oral and genital thrush etc.) tend to have a more positive prognosis. These kinds of infections are common, and when diagnosed correctly, can be treated effectively with the individual suffering from only mild discomfort or pain.

More extensive research regarding invasive candidiasis is vital to ensure early diagnosis and effective treatment. At present, there is little information regarding the condition and the sites of infection are so vast, with each one having its own unique symptoms that many questions remain unanswered. 

Until such time as the medical field has these answers, it is important to bring all recurrent cases of Candidiasis to the attention of a treating medical professional in order to ensure early diagnosis and treatment.