I Tried The Low-Sugar Candida Diet For 2 Whole Months: Here's What Happened

Here are the seven most important things I learned from following this diet for two full months:

I was never really one to have sugar cravings before this but about three days in, I was about ready to break down the door of any bakery and eat everything in sight. I had actual dreams about brownies and my mind would wander to sweets whenever it got the chance. I had to remind myself daily that it was not actually my body craving these things. Pathogens are smart. They want you to crave things that continue to feed them, and candida (like most yeasts) feed off sugar. By giving into these sugar cravings, we are feeding a beast. After three weeks, all of my cravings disappeared. Most importantly, I was no longer ruled by food. I know that the choices I make now come from truly listening to what my body needs.

As a food lover and blogger, when your diet suddenly becomes extremely restrictive, it is easy to feel quite hopeless. The reality is that how we deal with restriction is completely up to us. Instead of looking at all the things I couldn’t have, I saw the list of foods that were allowed as my personal color palette. I challenged myself to create as many delicious dishes as I could with those ingredients, and in the end, I not only created recipes that I will continue to make (hello, grilled kale and black cod over cauliflower mash), but I showed myself that limits are only as limiting as you allow them to be.

There is a beautiful duality to experiencing life’s lows. Without sadness, we can never truly appreciate happiness; without hunger we can never appreciate the feeling of being full; without loneliness we might not properly appreciate love. Experiencing a healing crisis opened my eyes to how much I took my health for granted before. I witnessed my body fight back (and harder than ever) to get me back to optimal health. This taught me to always thank my body for being on my side and to never forget that the only way I would have learned this was by going through a struggle.

As someone who has struggled with disordered eating, I find myself craving certain foods when I am sad, anxious, or upset. I have learned to recognize this behavior but there are times that I give in. With the inability to turn to these foods, I had to find new ways to recharge my mind. I read a lot about self-care Sunday routines but have always associated comfort with food. Finding new ways to soothe myself is something that I will carry with me forever. I now know that there is nothing that a good bubble bath, digital detox, face mask, and essential oil-infused meditation can’t fix!

I am an optimist at heart. So during the days when the healing crisis was at an all-time high and I was often sad for no apparent reason, it was hard for me to sit back and allow myself to feel that way. My optimism is such a defining feature of my personality that I felt like I had lost who I was without it. I had no choice but to sink into the sadness and let it wash over me. It turns out, allowing myself to feel sad ended up being one of the most cathartic experiences I’ve ever had. Instead of beating myself up for feeling that way, I let myself relax and gently said, It’s OK. You are safe. And this won’t last forever. This is something I think we can all benefit from—there are moments when sadness is a powerful tool that can teach us to slow down and practice kindness toward ourselves.

Initially I began this diet for digestive reasons. Little did I know just how many of my wide array of symptoms were rooted in this one cause. After just one month, my skin cleared up, my seasonal allergies were barely noticeable, my anxiety decreased significantly, brain fog disappeared, even my PMS symptoms improved. Not to mention my energy levels are almost twice as high as before without any caffeine. Functional medicine focuses on healing the root cause, not covering the symptoms. There is always a reason that your body is reacting in a certain way—whether it is elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, or hormonal imbalances, finding the root cause will allow you to heal from the inside out.

Do you suspect you may have candida overgrowth? Check out these 10 classic signs of a candida imbalance or healthy habits that could be making your candida worse.