The sugar and yeast free diet - a 3 week update

It is now 3 and a half weeks since I started my diet. For those readers new to this blog, I am following a sugar and yeast free diet after self-diagnosing Candida-Albicans. With the help of my herbalist and a lot of reading, I designed a diet designed to kill off any yeast growth in my digestive system. The basic rules of the diet and information about candida are given in a previous post.

The diet has taken quite a lot of thought and preparation in terms of what I can eat and how I can maintain a balanced diet with all of the nutrients that I need. I have spent a lot of time looking at labels to see if any nasty extras have been sneaked into food products that would make them unsuitable for me and a lot of time searching for recipes. When following such a diet, most meals have to be prepared completely from scratch. I have made my own mustard without sugar or vinegar, my own mayonaise and my own bread spreads. Bread spreads are important even though I am not allowed bread. Staple snacks have been oatcakes (homemade), rye crackers and rice waffles and after a while the same spreads become tiresome.

As you can imagine it has been quite a challenge to keep an interesting and varied diet while following the rules of the sugar and yeast free diet, but my girlfriend and I have managed it. Actually it has been an opportunity for us both to search for new recipes and some of the ones we have found are delicious. I plan to post a selection of candida diet friendly recipes and guidelines over the coming weeks to perhaps ease the workload of others following a similar path.

The diet itself has not been the main challenge for me, the problem has been how I have been feeling healthwise as I have been following the diet. The first week was so easy because I could see that I was improving healthwise. There was an almost immediate effect. My eyes were clearer, I had more energy and the wind that I had been suffering from died back somewhat. This made it easy to continue with the diet because I felt it was doing me good.

The second week was not so easy however. I had problems with low blood pressure and was panicky about this even though I don't think this was anything to do with the diet. On top of this I had increased wind which worsened as the week went on. I also had increasing tiredness towards the end of the second week. I attributed these second symptoms to two things: 1)the relete acidophilus that I was taking along with the diet to rebuild my gut flora and 2) some kind of die of reaction from the candida.

Sure enough, at the start of the third week, when the course of replete was complete, I came to a turning point. I started to feel much better, both mentally and physically and this continued for the whole of week 3. I've been able to work effectively, get out and about more and generally enjoy my life. Christine and I have been able to do things together; we've been to museums, out with friends, and to watch her nephew play football. So this week has been great. Hopefully, it continues this way.

Now, I am moving on to the next phase of the diet, where I take capryllic acid, which should take care of the remaining candida. I have been warned during this phase that I may experience some discomfort due to the yeast dying off, but hopefully because I experienced these symptoms earlier this final phase of the diet will become easier. Wish me luck!