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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI appreciate any suggestions on this topic. I’m fairly new to this raw thing and loving it. I’ve recently become interested in the topic of candida (yeast) and I’ve been looking into ways to detox/rid my body of this unpleasant “parasite”. The challenge I’m facing is that there doesn’t seem to be a product out there that’s safe to use while breastfeeding. I know detox is not recommended for pregnant or nursing mothers, would combatting candida fall under detox??? Is there a safe way for me to get rid of it while nursing?
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Well, since candida is a yeast and yeast feeds on sugar, the simplest safest thing to do would be to cut all sugar (including fruit and highly starchy veggies), and all fermented/processed foods out of your diet. I went through the same thing over the last summer and did some research on it. I basically ended up needing to follow this restrictive diet for about 3 months and then I could slowly add in other things again. I also took bentonite and psyllium husks in water twice a day but you might have to skip that part if you are breastfeeding.
If you go to wholeapproach.com you will find more information of this as well as lists of what foods are good, what foods to minimize, and what foods to competelly avoid.
thank you for all the valuable info. I hear that yeast is very difficult to get rid of, if you don’t mind me asking, are you now “free” of candida? Is there a test you can take to find out if you’ve got it or if you’re “clean”? And is all fruit prohibited while you’re fighting the yeast?
I don’t think anyone is ever really free of candida as it’s supposed to be 15% of the naturally occurring intestinal bacteria, and does serve a purpose of its own. At least that’s what I’ve read.
I’d recommend reading ‘Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine’ because it deals with candida and also has lots of sugar-free recipes. Even though it’s not specifically a raw book I do recommend “The Body Ecology Diet” because it teaches you some things about food combining and you’ll learn about the importance of fermented foods. In fact, you can go to the body ecology diet website and find out how to make coconut kefir and fermented veggies. Rainbow Green also has some recipes for nut mylk kefir.
There’s another school of thought that it’s not the fruit which causes the candida, but rather the fats that we consume cause our bodies to have more difficulty digesting the sugars.
As for a test, google ‘candida spit test’. I think that one is fairly accurate.
When I had colonics done the lady told me that it washed away candida. You can see it going out the tube it looked like clumps of dead skin. You’d still need to tweak your diet but a round of colonics might give you a head start. I have a friend who cured her candida just by going raw and doing coffee enemas.
Hey agamur, I wish I had known about this lifestyle when I was breastfeeding. I would be really careful doing any kind of cleanse while you’re breastfeeding, even Dr. Gabriel Cousens Phase 1 (Rainbow Green Live Food). My scientist friends have explained to me how toxins pass through breastmilk in all mammals, and when I was in the Phase 1 diet to deal with candida I had terrible lower back pain which I attribute to my body dealing with the candida die-off. Not only would I not want to be passing that along, I wouldn’t want to be dealing with that pain while taking care of a baby. Maybe a more gradual approach? My daughter had candida right off the bat, thrush in her mouth. Good luck!
Thank you rawmumma, I also had colonics done, but never thought to inquire whether it got rid of the yeast??? Will definitely keep colonics in mind in the future though.
And Amysue, I wholeheartedly agree with your advice to be cautious. I guess I’ll try to keep it in check while nursing and take serious steps to get rid of yeast once I’m no longer breastfeeding. And my son also had thrush when he was born…funny how the doctors treat it as a “non-issue”!
And Raw_Chocoholic, I’ll do the saliva test first thing tomorrow, sounds easy enough. Thank you for all the book suggestions!