Treating Candida Overgrowth with Your Diet

Candida overgrowth is something many people experience without even knowing it. 
Candida (in the form of yeast) exists in your intestines and mouth, but when there is an 
overgrowth, it can lead to a lot of different problems.

It is important that you understand what it is and get on the right diet to help reduce the 
candida and start feeling like yourself again.

How Candida Overgrowth Affects You

Candida overgrowth isn’t extremely obvious in the beginning, since the symptoms mimic 
symptoms of many other medical and mental health issues. However, you should look 
at your symptoms in combination with each other, and start ruling out other causes. 
There are also some tests your doctor can perform.

Candida overgrowth causes a wide range of changes in your body, mood, and behavior, 
including:

Chronic fatigue 
Joint and muscle pain 
Memory loss and concentration issues 
Brain fog and focus problems 
Anxiety and depression 
Mood swings and irritability 
Gut and digestive issues 
Recurring vaginal infections 
Skin and nail infections

It affects people in so many ways, which is why you should find out if this is what you 
have so that you can make the right changes to your diet.
Why Change Your Diet?
Even if your diet isn’t the actual cause for your candida overgrowth, it can worsen it. 
Plus, good dietary changes can actually starve the candida and allow it to dissipate. 
Changing your diet is often the best course of action when dealing with candida issues.

1. Basic Dietary Changes to Make

Before getting into details of what a candida-fighting diet means, it helps to get more of 
an overall picture of what you should expect. These guidelines give you a clear picture 
of how the diet works and what types of foods you can (and can’t) eat until the diet is 
under control.

Getting Rid of the Bad Stuff

There are two basic principles of the candida diet – adding in good foods that help to 
starve the candida, and removing foods that will feed it and make it worse. 
To start with, you need to remove foods that feed the candida and lead to the 
overgrowth, including refined and processed carbohydrates and sugar. You are 
reducing your fruit intake since a lot of fruits are high in sugar, but mostly you are 
moving refined sugar foods like candy, cookies, baked goods, and most processed 
foods.

Adding in the Good Stuff

The foods you are adding into your diet will be low in sugar and refined carbohydrates, 
high in nutrition, and be anti-inflammatory foods that are good for the gut.
This might be a big change for you in the beginning, but once you start noticing how 
much better you feel on the candida diet, it will all be worth it. There are also many other 
benefits people experience from these food changes, from more energy to weight loss.
In addition to these changes, you will also be adding in more fermented foods and 
taking a probiotic to help ensure you reduce the candida overgrowth.

2. Foods to Incorporate into Your Diet

Now that you have a better understanding of a candida diet, you can learn about the 
foods to add into your diet. Don’t worry – the next section will cover foods NOT to eat. 
Luckily, there are many foods you probably enjoy now that you can keep eating while 
trying to fight your candida overgrowth through your diet.

These include:

Fermented Foods

The first recommendation you will get for a candida-fighting diet is to go for fermented 
and cultured foods. These are amazing for good bacteria in the gut and fighting off that 
excess candida. Think about fermented foods like kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi. 
Coconut is also considered in this category.

Vegetables

You will need to remove some vegetables from your diet, especially the ones high in 
starch, but others can actually help to fight the candida. You want to stick to your low-
starch vegetables like leafy greens, including spinach and kale, cauliflower, and green 
beans. You should also try to eat more cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and 
brussels sprouts.

When choosing vegetables, look at the carbs and sugar. Avoid high-carbohydrate 
vegetables like carrots, corn, and sweet potatoes.

Healthy Fats and Oils

Don’t be afraid of fat! You simple want to switch out the bad fats for the good fats. Avoid 
fats like vegetable oil and lard, and switch to healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, and 
coconut oil. These are very good for you, not to mention how amazing they are for the 
gut.

Protein

You can keep eating your favorite meat, poultry and fish, but it is a good idea to stick to 
highest quality meats you can find. When choosing fish, always go with wild caught over 
farmed fish, preferably fresh or fresh frozen. For meat and poultry, try to find grass fed 
or pasture-raised meat. 

It is a great idea to keep eating meat and seafood as long as you are not a vegetarian 
or vegan, as it provides some essential nutrients you need for your candida overgrowth.
Candida-Fighting Spices

The anti-candida foods you should add to your diet also include some spices and herbs 
that you can cook with. These not only add flavor without using sugar or preservatives, 
but they are really healing for your gut and have anti-fungal properties. These include 
garlic, oregano, cinnamon, and cloves.

3. Foods to Avoid

Your diet has a large impact not only on candida overgrowth, but working to reduce it. 
Unfortunately, some of the foods you love, you will need to stop eating for the time 
being. Moving forward, it is good to keep reducing these, but you don’t necessarily need 
to avoid them entirely.

Some foods that are good to avoid while on a candida diet include:

Starchy, High-Carbohydrate Vegetables

As we mentioned in the previous section, you want to avoid vegetables that are high in 
starch, sugar, and carbohydrates. This includes any type of potato, sweet potato or 
yam, as well as high-sugar vegetables like corn, carrots, beets, pinto beans, lentils, and 
chickpeas.

There are still a lot of vegetables you can enjoy while on the candida diet, including 
leafy greens and most lettuce, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, 
zucchini, and pumpkin.

Sugar and Most Fruit

Sugar unfortunately feeds candida, so now is the time to start eliminating it from your 
diet. This means avoiding any “sweet” foods with sugar or natural sugar, including 
candy, cookies, cakes, baked goods, and many processed foods. Sugar is often found 
in sauces, dressings, and other packaged foods, so look carefully at the labels.

You should also reduce how much sugar you get from fruits, voiding high-sugar fruits 
like apples, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, pears, and many others. The 
lowest sugar fruits are berries like strawberries and raspberries, so those should still be 
okay to eat in moderation.

Dairy

You are probably already aware of the impact dairy can have on your gut, even if you 
don’t have an intolerance to lactose. While on a candida diet, it is best to reduce it or 
eliminate it entirely. This includes:

Animal milk 
Butter (go for ghee instead) 
Cheese 
Cream cheese 
Sour cream 
Cream-based foods

Grains

Lastly, get rid of grains from your diet, as both the carbohydrates and sugar can affect 
your gut and the candida. It can be difficult avoiding grains as it is in just about every 
bread, baked good, or packaged food, but you will need to eliminate it for now.


4. Re-Introducing Foods

When your candida is under control, you do have the option of re-introducing some of 
the foods you removed from your diet, but be careful. You don’t want to just go back to 
your old habits and encourage candida overgrowth again and again.

You should treat this like an elimination diet, where you are slowly adding in foods one 
at a time, then waiting to see how your body reacts. If you add in something, like sugar 
or a processed carbohydrate, and suddenly you have some of those candida 
symptoms, you know your body has a bad reaction to it.

Tips for Re-Introducing Foods

This is not something you should rush into. Make sure you start with one type of food at 
a time until you figure what affects you, and what doesn’t. here are some tips to help 
you re-introduce foods.

Wait until the candida is under control. Make sure you don’t re-introduce the foods 
too quickly. You need to have your candida under control, where you no longer have 
any of the symptoms and you are feeling like yourself again.

Start with a healthy, low-sugar food. When choosing what foods to add back in, go 
with a healthy food that is lower in sugar and refined carbohydrates, or has natural 
sugar. Fruit is great because while it does have fructose, it is natural and not added 
sugar. Try having an apple or a banana first, then see how your body reacts.

Give it a few days before introducing another food. You should re-introduce your 
foods just one at a time, waiting at least a day or so in between. Introduce foods that are 
gentler on your stomach first before going with the more processed foods.

Keep a log of all your reactions to these foods. Every time you add in a new food, 
you should write it down in a food journal. This is not only a good way to determine what 
types of foods trigger more candida growth, but is good to show to your doctor during 
your follow-up appointment.

With these simple recommendations, you will be on your way to treating your candida 
overgrowth with your diet, and the negative side effects you have been experiencing.

