Many authors claim you need a special Candida diet to prevent chronic yeast infections, but this may not be true.
That is, of course, as long as you use common sense and eat a healthy diet. Sugar and white flour should be avoided if you have chronic yeast infections, but no other changes appear to be necessary – although the importance of eating lots of green veggies and cutting back on your portion always applies, whether you get yeast infections or not.
Dr. William G. Crook, one of the people who started the whole “systemic Candida infection” craze with his Yeast Connection books, based his recommended diet and cookbook on the nutritional research done by Nathan Pritikin, a man Dr. Crook greatly admired.
However, the Pritikin diet was not developed in response to yeast infections – it was designed to reduce the incidence of heart disease, and research has proven over many years that it is highly effective in reaching that goal. That means that it’s a good idea to consider at least some of the changes that Pritikin recommended, especially if your current diet is loaded down with refined carbohydrates, which can increase the incidence of Candida overgrowth.
A good diet will make you healthy, and a healthy body is far less likely to get yeast infections. You don’t need a special diet to stop chronic yeast infections, you need a healthy diet.
If you would like to know more about good nutrition so you can develop a healthy, lifelong eating plan, I hope you’ll choose a book that is based on solid research rather than the latest fad. Nathan Pritikin is no longer with us, but The Pritikin Longevity Center that he founded continues to do nutritional research and each year the center helps many people regain their health, lose extra weight, and avoid heart disease. They also give away free recipes on their website at pritikin.com
If you would like a book that’s a bit newer, I would recommend Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, MD and Eat More, Weight Less by Dean Ornish, MD.They provide excellent, well researched and proven dietary plans that will help anyone stay fit and healthy. You don’t need a special Candida diet, but we all need a healthy diet, and these books will help you move towards that goal.
, about her personal experiences with sugar addiction.
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Thanks for your informative articles. I suppose I am attracted (though skeptical) to the anti-candida “craze” due to its more holistic approach as opposed to traditional/western medicine which merely treats symptoms while neglecting overall health and lifestyle/diet. Here, just slap on some cream! Nevermind the underlying cause.
Anyway, regarding sugar, I was slightly surprised to read from anti-candida promoters that most fruit should be avoided since it breaks down into sugar/glucose. Would you disagree?
Paul, I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist. I agree that a holistic approach is good, but I’m concerned about the authors who suggest very complicated herbal therapies, often just copied from somewhere else but never really tested in a controlled study. About the fruit, I think that’s a really easy thing to test for yourself – or better yet, make an appointment with a reputable naturopathic physician. That way, you can find out for sure that there’s no other illness that’s causing the infection. Get an exam, and ask the doc for a good diet that will help you control the yeast infections, and a natural remedy that will get rid of your current infection. Fructose is a form of sugar, and yeast likes sugar, so they may be right in extreme cases.