A:
Antioxidants are CRUCIAL to the immune system. Vitamins C and E really help to keep us (or get us) healthy. Saturated fats play a huge role too though. You can’t have one without the other.

And lets define “a lot” here when we’re talking about veggies. There were times when I’d eat several pounds of veggies a day because I thought I needed all that to be “healthy”. My antioxidant nutrient values were quite high when I did this, but like I said, I could easily eat 3lbs of veggies in one day, and that only added up to about 70-80 carbs.

If you choose nutrient-dense veggies and you supplement well, you’re getting superior nutrition and not just adequate nutrition. How many of us ate that many veggies and fruits in a day before we tried to be healthy? Most of us didn’t. Most of us had a diet based on grain/legumes/unhealthy fats with the occasional pieces of fruit and servings of veggies thrown in for color. So even eating “not a lot of veggies” on MOVES still has a lot of us better off than we were when we were much sicker.

And with respect to fruit, we do allow some “fruits” like tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers. And of course there’s lemon and lime for those who can tolerate it. While some foods are higher in certain enzymes than others, you can have a perfectly varied and nutrient-dense diet if you limit your foods to the ones we recommend.

It IS hard to believe that fat consumption is necessary, because we’ve been conditioned by this whole “low-fat” thing that started in the late 70s. Did you know that the incidence of heart disease has gone up significantly as we’ve reduced our fat intake?

Bruce Fife, N.D. is considered one of the most prominant experts on saturated fats and coconut oil, and I haven’t found anything saying that he died. And remember that a lot of things can cause a stroke that have NOTHING to do with how you eat (even if someone DID eat coconut oil and then died from a stroke.) This sounds like some kind of urband legend to me — the same kind that was stirred up when Dr. Atkins died. (He fell on ice, hit his head, and ended up dying 10 or 11 days later, but the people who wanted to discredit him said he died of a heart attack and he was
“obese”. He wasn’t even overweight when he went into the hospital after his fall, but he gained something like 50lbs from fluid in those 11 days of his coma before he died.)

My results speak for themselves. My cholesterol looks great, my blood pressure is perfect, and I’m losing weight. Best of all, my Candida symptoms are improving every day. No doctor in their right might would argue with the results (even if they can’t wrap their minds around HOW I got them.)

I’ve done enough research over the past 10 years and I’m quite confident in the way I eat. It’s hard to sort out the brilliance from the BS sometimes though, and I understand. The initial leap of faith was tough, but when I started digging and finding information that appealed to my scientific nature, the information was impossible to ignore. It’s a
learning process though. I learn EVERY day.

There are a lot of things that are great for the immune system. Things like lauric acid, found in coconut oil, and garlic, are also great for the immune system. Antioxidants are also found in meats.

I have read in the ‘Harvard Health Letter,’ Vol 32, #11, Sept 2007 the following (brief):

There are four varieties of saturated fat in our diet:
lauric acid
myristic acid
palmitic acid
stearic acid

Their effect on LDL cholesterol levels varies, so among the saturated fats, there are degrees of bad. Stearic acid seems to be the least bad because it’s rather quickly converted into a healthful monosaturated fat & doesn’t increase LDL levels very much, if at all. THAT’S GOOD NEWS FOR STEAK LOVERS: Half of the saturated fat in beef is stearic acid.

There’s a great chart in the newsletter showing the specific types & percentages of fat in common oils & fats: saturated, trans, monosaturated, & polyunsaturated fats.

From the looks of the chart, coconut oil doesn’t appear to be a good option over other oils like canola, olive, safflower, & sunflower oil.

Here’s an interesting twist:
The tropical oils in small amounts are okay, & they’re certainly an improvement over trans fat. Americans were scared away from them because of their saturated fat content. But REMARKABLY, COCONUT Oil & OLIVE OIL HAVE SIMILAR EFFECTS ON THE RATIO OF LDL TO HDL.

(This isn’t so bad either–When it comes to chicken, go ahead & leave the skin on. Because of the polyunsaturated fat content, says Dr. Willett, ‘a little bit of chicken fat isn’t such a bad thing.’ Besides, he says, ‘cooking chicken with the skin on makes it taste a lot better.’

Meat aversions are tough. Under normal circumstances, I’m one of the biggest carnivores you’d ever meet, but during early pregnancy, the last thing I want to look at is meat or eggs (let alone actually EAT them!) The fact is though, pure animal fats/proteins are essential to good health. Animal food contains nutrients that you can’t get any place else, and pure animal fats (lard, tallow, butter) are invaluable when it comes to healthy living.

Dealing with meat aversions is well worth the effort because with good fat and protein, your body can more efficiently use the nutrients you give it.
This means you can heal better.

Most people think that yogurt is good for people with yeast, but in many cases, we candida sufferers are very sensitive to any dairy but butter. I never would have believed this a year and a half ago, but once I gave up dairy (other than butter), it was easy for me to see why I had to do it.
For financial reasons, I’ve been eating dairy recently (including heavy cream which is quite low in carbs), and I’m definitely having some yeast issues that I never had without the dairy (SEVERE epigastric pain, sinus/ear problems, vaginal yeast, yeast on my skin…)

While yogurt does contain beneficial bacteria, you don’t get nearly enough to outweigh the issues that the dairy itself can cause for candida sufferers. Taking a good quality probiotic is a much better choice in my opinion as you’re curing candida.

I have PCOS (polycystic ovaries), and it’s absolutely AMAZING how quickly these things resolve themselves as we start to treat candida. The same thing can be said for endometriosis. As you heal your body and deal with the candida, your body is more able to use (and appropriately react to) all your hormones including reproductive hormones, insulin, thyroid, adrenal, and pituitary hormones.

Under normal circumstances, I’m one of the biggest carnivores you’d ever meet, but during early pregnancy, the last thing I want to look at is meat or eggs (let alone actually EAT them!) The fact is though, pure animal fats/proteins are essential to good health.
Animal food contains nutrients that you can’t get any place else, and pure animal fats (lard, tallow, butter) are invaluable when it comes to healthy
living.
Dealing with meat aversions is well worth the effort because with good fat and protein, your body can more efficiently use the nutrients you give it.
This means you can heal better.

Most people think that yogurt is good for people with yeast, but in many cases, we candida sufferers are very sensitive to any dairy but butter. I never would have believed this a year and a half ago, but once I gave up dairy (other than butter), it was easy for me to see why I had to do it.
For financial reasons, I’ve been eating dairy recently (including heavy cream which is quite low in carbs), and I’m definitely having some yeast issues that I never had without the dairy (SEVERE epigastric pain, sinus/ear problems, vaginal yeast, yeast on my skin…)

While yogurt does contain beneficial bacteria, you don’t get nearly enough to outweigh the issues that the dairy itself can cause for candida sufferers. Taking a good quality probiotic is a much better choice in my opinion as you’re curing candida.

Having PCOS (polycystic ovaries) myself (which is associated to insulin resistance), I find it is absolutely AMAZING how quickly these things resolve themselves as we start to treat candida. The same thing can be said for endometriosis. As you heal your body and deal with the candida, your body is more able to use (and appropriately react to) all your hormones including reproductive hormones, insulin, thyroid, adrenal, and pituitary hormones.

> – Calories should be 10-12 times your body weight. So for instance if you weigh 200 pounds your calories should be 2000-2400.

Many people don’t seem to understand that when you’re eating a high-healthy-fat, low-carb, moderate protein diet, calories don’t count like they do when you’re eating a low-fat, high-carb diet. I’ll post an interesting article shortly that describes why “a calorie isn’t just a calorie” when you’re following a low-carb, high-fat diet.

I bring this up because the calorie issue can be just as important for people who’re underweight (or of average weight.) If you have trouble keeping weight on, remember that you may need more calories than you think are necessary because your body is using the nutrients you provide it quite efficiently.

> – Avoid eating 3 hours before bed time. If you get hungry before bed, have 1-2 tbsp plain coconut oil. Also you can always bring coconut oil with you to eat in emergencies.

If you’re pre-diabetic or diabetic though, you may need to eat a high-fat snack (which can include a bit of protein too) right before bed to combat the “dawn effect”. Personally, I can’t stomach plain coconut oil, but I have been known to have a shake before bed that includes 1 egg, 1T butter, and 1T coconut oil (along with some stevia and a cup of water.) That fat/protein snack is really easy to digest AND it keeps my liver from thinking that it needs to make glucose overnight. When I have something like this right before bed, my morning fasting glucose is always much better than it is if I eat at 6:00pm and then don’t eat again ’til the next morning.

> – Eat your largest meal in the morning, and break your food down into 4-5 smaller meals (unless you have digestion issues).

Again, if you’re pre-diabetic or diabetic, it’s wise to eat your largest meal (which presumably contains the most carbs and protein) in the middle of the day. Blood sugars can run higher in the AM because of the dawn effect, so you don’t want to go and dump more protein/carbs into your system when your body’s already struggling to deal. And if you have too many carbs (or too much protein) with your evening meal, you don’t have a lot of time to mediate your blood sugar through activity. Again, you’ll head into night time with higher blood sugars and then your liver can compound the problem by thinking it needs to make even MORE glucose.

Yes, following a quality candida diet (low-carb, high-healthy-fat, adequate protein) goes a long way toward helping you maintain stable blood sugars, but people often still have trouble as they heal their bodies because of the damage that the candida toxins do to our endocrine systems and cell walls.

> – If you are stalled, make sure your calories are correct and your ratios. Do not go overboard with either protein or fat.

FitDay.com is our friend, everybody! No matter whether you’re overweight or just tracking your diet as you cure your candida, that site is invaluable! It can really let you know where you stand, and if you start to have problems, you can look back at what you’ve eaten to see if you can figure out what’s going on. For instance, some long-time low-carbers will get to the point where they have trouble losing weight. They start entering their food in Fitday and find that they weren’t eating enough or they were eating more carbs than they thought. The same bits of information can be helpful to candida sufferers. For instance, if your symtoms get worse, you can spot-check. Am I getting enough fat? Am I eating too many carbs? Am I feeling poorly because I’m not getting enough calories?

> – Also if you are stalled, consider ditching stevia, dried spices, salt, lemon juice and butter along with your typical candida diet.

Respectfully, I have to disagree on the salt thing. If you use nothing but sea salt, and you use it to taste, AND you’re drinking your water, it’s likely that the salt is not the issue. Nutrient deficiencies as well as the consumption of refined, iodized salt can certainly cause weight loss issues though.

If you suspect salt is a problem for you, look at your diet. Is there refined salt that’s sneaking in? Is your butter salted? What about seasoning blends that you use with protein and veggies? Are you eating any protein or veggies that are hiding extra salt? (Some canned fish and frozen veggies will contain added salt, so you have to look.) A little refined salt can actually do a lot of damage, but if you use SEA salt to taste, you drink your water, and you maintain an adequate mineral balance, you shouldn’t have any trouble with “salt”.