No fruit? Or, no fat??

[Pailani]

My candida seems to be back! I can't figure out what to do. One school of thought says to cut out all fats (and eat lots of fruit?) and the other school of thought says to cut out all fruit (and go ahead and eat lots of nuts and avocadoes?) I'm so confused that I keep going back and forth, eating no fruit one day and no fat the next day, but suspecting deep down that I probably should be cutting out both. But how can I do that? I don't think I want to live on lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and bell peppers.

It's really depressing to read, 'If you're hungry, eat more fat,' 'You can eat whatever you want on a raw diet,' 'Eating raw isn't deprivation, it's about eating,' 'If you crave sweets, try some dates' when I know that that's true for everyone else, but for me, apparently, it's going to have to be about deprivation, nothing sweet, and never feeling satisfied because fat is a no-no. So then I get frustrated and have a boiled egg. :eek:

How many books do I have to buy to get everyone's theories about what might work so I can make some kind of decision? Why does this have to be so confusing?

[asil]

Boy, do I hear you. So much conflicting advice. What's a person to do? And IMO, there's really no such thing as evidence when it comes to diet. I mean, I know of no true double-blind human studies done on *any* diet. How could there be? Could a scientist lock up a bunch of humans in cages for 20 or 30 years? And anecdotal evidence is notoriously unreliable. For every healthy long=term raw-foodist, or natural hygenist, or vegetarian, or Atkins devotee, or whatever, I can point to as many people I've known who lived long, healthy lives doing nothing in particular to enhance their health. My own grandfather died in his late nineties, still vigorous, alert, perfect eyesight, all his own teeth, after a lifetime of smoking Camel Unfiltered and eating lard at every meal.

And yet....despite all these conflicting anecdotes, and against my own logic above, I feel really strongly that raw foods are for me. I feel really, really good eating them. The fat v sugar debate is a hard one for me too. After years of low-fat indoctrination, it was hard for me to believe that it's healthy to eat fats. But boy, my bpdy sure let me know that it's happy when I eat fats, and not so happy when I eat too much sugar.

Has your body let you know anything? Is there perhaps a balance between the two that makes you feel best?

Good luck. I hope you find some answers.

[Pailani]

<<Has your body let you know anything? Is there perhaps a balance between the two that makes you feel best?>>

I don't know, I don't know if I know how to listen to my body. Actually, I feel fine, better than I did before a raw diet. But I'm so itchy all over! My eyelids, inside my ears, patches.

But, on the postive side, the hives that plagued me are gone. This is a different kind of itching. A candida kind of itching, I guess.

[rawelkie]

Hi!
Have you already tried a treelac -cure?That's something that ight help you.I took it ones and I thought it helped my candida.You have to take an orange tasting powder(yummy taste!),at first three times a day.Actually you have to repeat the cure(wich I didn't) for really good help.
I bought it from Shazzie's website in England.You can see the product there.
I should give it a try,if I were you.....
Ihope this post helped you a bit.
Take care,
Elke.

[jackierr]

I had really bad candida before I turned raw and eliminated everything but protein and greens from my diet. A week later I had horrible itching I couldn't stop!! Are you sure its not just die off??? I would try taking oil of oregano, its very good for fighting candida, parasites, and viruses. The higher the clavicol percentage, the more fighting power it can have. Most commerical oil of oregano only has about 17% clavicol but one I get from www.mhdewormer.com has 78% clavicol. I saw a slightly more expensive one that has 85% clavicol but I dont remember the website, you could probally "google" it. I think this will help you. I would say stay away from fruits that don't have much water content, like dates and bananas as those are mostly sugar and tend to feed the bad guys.

[JustMe]

Also increase your greens and try to take probiotic formulas or make rejuvelac. YOu might want to consider getting green powder drinks. As that would be a great way to get extra greens and alkalize your system.

[Sweet lips]

Pailani,

I am so sorry about this itching, however, I want to address this:
> " I don't know, I don't know if I know how to listen to my body."<

That statement touch me, and believe me I understand this statement, because I too do not know how to listen to my body, and I am learning now - I read something recently, that really hit me: Many women are searching for their inner princess, the one that got hidden, when we were growing up, and never got to really develop fulling, the one that wanted just to be surrounded by beauty.

So there were suggestions - to learn who she is - first, connect with your belief system and ask for guidance as to who you are. She really is there Pailani, but she may just be behind some stuff that needs to be let go of.
Second - even with small children, find time during the day to talk with her, and journal that which you receive - it really will be revealed, thirdly pay attention to your dreams, she will be reveal there as well, and then, integrate her into your life - because she is you - fancy yourself as very special and you will learn you and value you, and love you and awaken you.

Fasting helped me, you may desire to try it for a couple of day, with the itching.

[CSunshine]

Hi there,
How long have you been raw for? Are you still eating irritants (spices, onions, garlic, honey)? Are you combining foods properly? Have you eaten cooked foods? These things could bring about new candida growths. I had problems in the past, and also ulcers, as well as Colitis/Crohn's symptoms. These all disapeared ENTIRELY after six weeks on a strict FRUIT diet. I went from meat eater to frugivore overnight and never looked back. Sure it takes awhile to get the balance right, I am now eating more veggies, with some avocado, nuts, and (soon) olives.
For healing, I would eat minimal amounts of fruit in a mono meal (ie. one fruit per meal, as much as you need, but only one variety). Eating only when you're hungry, you don't want to feed you AND your Candida! If you aren't processing your foods (digesting) properly then what you eat is fermenting, feeding ground for problems. Chew until your food is a soup in your mouth, then it is well mixed with enzymes, and ready to pass easily through your system.
Also, food is not the ONLY culprit for problems, like Candida. Stress, emotional imbalance, environmental irritants, etc, can all cause irregularities in our systems. Best to eat when calm and not distracted. Take a walk in nature. Breath fresh air, treat yourself respectfully, you will reap massive benefits in many many ways.
And- don't use med's for Candida, even herbs will disrupt your body from healing itself! Many anti-Candida products are built around citrus fruit bases. How about eating the actual fruit instead? Be careful not to over eat though, too much acid fruit is not a good thing either (potential dental problems, but only if you go overboard).
Anyway, I hope some of this helps. Best of luck :)

[Pailani]

Thank you for all your support and suggestions. I took a day off from this board to think. The itching is a lot better, I've cut way down on fruit and fat and I'm back to taking Candex twice a day for a week or two, anyway. Looking back over last week, I might have just overdone the things I knew I shouldn't have been overdoing--I discovered Lara Bars and banana ice cream. I've decided that I can live without Lara Bars, but I hope to find a way to have banana ice cream. Maybe if I just make that the only fruit I have (except green apples in my smoothies), I'll be able to get away with it. And it would be a mono-meal.

rawelkie, I've heard about threelac, but it's super expensive (a couple hundred dollars per month to start!) and then you have to stay on a maintenance program ($50 a month, presumably for life), plus I'm not sure it's safe while nursing.

jackierr, I'll look into oil of oregano. I keep seeing that greens and protein is the routine diet suggested for candida, but I keep hoping to be pretty much raw-vegan. I'm rather distressed that, any time I try something off the raw diet (garbanzo beans, Ezekiel bread), I have terrible stomach pain, but not when I had non-vegetarian protein.

JustMe, I'll try adding some green powder to my banana ice cream and see if I can tolerate that, maybe it will help offset the sugar in the banana? I've been taking a probiotic and I do green smoothies with quite a bit of lettuce, so that might be enough greens. I'll look up rejuvelac, I know I've heard of it before, just not sure exactly what it is. Alkalize my system -- after 3 months on an almost 100 percent raw diet, I thought I was about as alkaline as I could be. Are there raw foods that I should be avoiding?

Sweet lips, thank you for your kind words! I read about a raw diet bringing up some past emotional issues, but I don't think that's happened with me yet. I'm pretty reserved, so it wouldn't surprise me if I wasn't allowing them to be brought up!

CSunshine, lots of good suggestions, thank you! I think I can put some of those into use!

[VeganVixen]

have you tried the raw hemp protein? You can get it at whole foods or another usually larger h.f.s. or go to www.nutiva.com for it ,it REALLY great -It has VERY little fat ,no sugar -basically protein and fiber ,I STRONGLY reccomend it (sheeze they NEED to pay me for pushin their product so much! :p )