Define low or no carb for me--tell me what I can eat

[Harriet Vane]

Hi folks,

 

My dr has recommended I give up sugar and carbs for six months due to a massive, systemic candida infection. I'm also taking meds to address this.

 

What can I eat? What not to eat?

 

Obviously no bread or pasta--is rice ok? Wild rice? Potatoes??

 

 

Here's a normal day for me:

 

Breakfast: Starts with tea (2tsp. sugar) and fruit, moves on to fried eggs with either toast or fried potatoes.

 

Lunch: Sometimes fried potatoes and onions, or dinner leftovers, or possibly a meat or tuna sandwich or broiled meat. If I have a sandwich it's on homemade whole wheat bread. The meat is always cooked by me (not deli meat). I always have fruit with lunch as well.

 

If I eat a mid-morning snack it's most likely more of what I had for lunch or homemade, whole wheat toast.

 

Dinner: I work with a formula.

--Protein (beef 1x/wk, chicken 1x/wk, fish 1x/wk, vegetarian 2x/wk (pizza or beans or spaghetti, etc.), 1 random other (sausage or pork chops or whatever I feel like) 1x per week. We eat leftovers on Sunday.

--Rice or bread or potatoes

--Vegetable

--Salad

 

I drink water all day, though I might have one cup of decaf tea or decaf coffee some days. In the summer that's hardly ever.

 

I eat dark chocolate nearly daily, but have not had any in three weeks.

 

I'd appreciate any advice. I'm a little overwhelmed at how sick I am and overwhelmed at giving up carbs.

[PiCO]

Depends on how strict you want to be. Very low carb would be proteins with no fillers and non-starchy veggies.

 

Did you get a recommendation as to the number of carbs you should restrict yourself to per day?

 

My favorite low- carb program is South Beach. You can probably find it at the library.

[Harriet Vane]

Depends on how strict you want to be. Very low carb would be proteins with no fillers and non-starchy veggies.

 

Did you get a recommendation as to the number of carbs you should restrict yourself to per day?

 

My favorite low- carb program is South Beach. You can probably find it at the library.

 

She didn't give me a number. She advised me to be "draconian" about dropping sugar/carbs, though.

[Jean in Newcastle]

This sounds very similar to what your Dr. wants you to do. http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/candidadiet.html

[Lightly Salted]

Top two resources for fighting candida:

 

The Candida Diet

 

and there's a massive thread on a low-carb forum I can email you about; I'm not supposed to link here, I don't think ...

 

I did the Candida diet earlier this year, for about a month, and I won't lie, it was hard - and I had already been eating super-low carb for 9 months. The first couple of weeks are a time of intense detox, but past that it gets much easier to tolerate. The ladies on the LCF thread suggest starting small with a few natural antifungals (virgin coconut oil and apple cider vinegar with 'the mother') while you're cutting out sugar and carbs.

 

I hate to tell you, but we crave (or rather the Candida makes us crave) the things that FEED the yeast, so a lot of your diet will change. The following would probably be off-limits:

 

Breakfast: Starts with tea (2tsp. sugar) and fruit, moves on to fried eggs with either toast or fried potatoes.

 

Lunch: Sometimes fried potatoes and onions, or dinner leftovers, or possibly a meat or tuna sandwich or broiled meat. If I have a sandwich it's on homemade whole wheat bread. The meat is always cooked by me (not deli meat). I always have fruit with lunch as well.

 

If I eat a mid-morning snack it's most likely more of what I had for lunch or homemade, whole wheat toast.

 

Dinner: I work with a formula.

--Protein (beef 1x/wk, chicken 1x/wk, fish 1x/wk, vegetarian 2x/wk (pizza or beans or spaghetti, etc.), 1 random other (sausage or pork chops or whatever I feel like) 1x per week. We eat leftovers on Sunday.

--Rice or bread or potatoes

--Vegetable (high-starch ones are out)

--Salad (gotta watch the dressings - Newman's makes great low carb ones, though!)

 

I drink water all day, though I might have one cup of decaf tea or decaf coffee some days. In the summer that's hardly ever.

 

I eat dark chocolate nearly daily, but have not had any in three weeks.

 

And I really don't mean to be discouraging, but all those things are feeding yeast, so if that's contributing to your health problems, it's important to cut those out. In the first couple of weeks, be strict, and then usually you can start to reevaluate on low glycemic fruits (berries) and some of the higher starch vegetables.

 

The Candida diet breaks it down into 3 stages:

 

Candida Treatment

Step 1: Detox

Step 2: Elimination

Step 3: Repopulation

 

and suggests what you can eat, should avoid at first and foods to add back after detox, and I know it sounds daunting, but it REALLY DID HELP!

Edited August 4, 2010 by Lightly Salted

[holdoll]

This sounds very similar to what your Dr. wants you to do. http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/candidadiet.html

 

:iagree:

 

Remember, anything you pick up at the store that says "low fat" is usually higher in sugars. They've got to make it taste good somehow.

 

Shop the outside edges of the store. Most packaged and canned foods are not for you and they are found on the inside rows.

 

Fruits, veggies (except carrots), meats, dairy. Keep cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs on-hand in the fridge for snack attacks. It will take about 3/4 days to get through the carb deprived feeling.

[HeathenMom]

sounds like Keto to me.

 

you can use a food log like DailyBurn.com to make sure you are doing things right and really keeping up with your carb intake. the macro breakdown for the Keto diet is 65% fat, 30% protien, 5% carbs.

 

if you have a few pounds to shed, get ready to drop 'em! :D

[Harriet Vane]

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for all your help. The links and advice provided are great.

 

I am horribly overwhelmed with the diet but glad to have specific guidelines.

[Jan in SC]

I have wondered if a systemic infection could be causing some of my health issues. Do you visit a (MD) typical doctor, or a naturopath or something like this?

 

Best of luck on your diet!

[EKS]

No grains, potatoes, fruit, or sweets.

 

So of your list you could retain: tea (without sugar) and eggs, onions, meat, tuna, vegetable (not corn), salad (no croutons).

 

I'd get one of those low carb diet books (Atkins or whatever) as it will tell you in much more detail what you need to know.

 

Once you get going with it, it's much easier to figure out what's ok and what's not.

 

Good luck, and I hope you get better soon.

[ma23peas]

Just looking at your typical day, I'd simply do these three things..

 

NO SUGAR (on or IN anything)

 

NO POTATOES, corn, carrots (or limit it to once every 2 weeks)

 

NO White bread (whole grains..no jellies...just a pat of butter..one slice of multigrain wheat bread a day is GOOD for you..not all carbs are bad..and it's when we overdo them that it becomes harmful to us..if you're making your own bread just make it full whole grain, no white flour in it...I use wholegrain flour in addition to what I grind when I make it, tastes as good)

 

Fruits (stick to 2-3 servings a day, sometimes those big apples can be 2 servings! :)) Only raw fruits no juices.

 

That should help you immensely, giving up potatoes will be hard, but it's probably contributing to it...also add in some probiotics with yogurt or the such...

 

Get better soon!!

Tara