This will be the first in a series of posts documenting my month on an anti-candida diet - or, more specifically, an elimination diet.
MY purpose in doing this for MYSELF has to do with symptoms of candida overgrowth - chronic fatigue and generally not feeling well among them.
My purpose in documenting this for YOU is to show that it CAN be done, and somewhat affordably (I'm going to just say here that, if I can afford to do it, so can you!).
My disclaimer - and this is the only time you will see this - is that I am NOT a doctor, nutritionist, or scientist. I am an average middle-aged woman with undiagnosed autoimmune symptoms, and I have come to the realization that there are a whole heck of a lot of folks out there just like me - folks who sick and tired of feeling sick and tired; folks who are sick and tired of having doctors look at them like they are crazy and tell them there's nothing wrong; folks who know there is something wrong - but... what?
I am here to tell you that all I really need to know about my health, I learned from my own body! I had a lot of health problems for a lot of years, and I didn't start getting "well" until I stopped searching for a diagnosis and started focusing on getting better. It has been a daily struggle ever since, but I am very happy to report that that the uphill battle is getting me, well, up the hill.
The "treatment plan" - eating food.
Yes, you read that right - eating.
Food.
Because, let's be honest, what most people in our society today eat on a daily basis isn't really food.
Think I've lost it? Go to your pantry right now and pick up a loaf of bread. Or a box of snack cakes. Or a package of "instant" anything. Or any one of those powdered beverages or sports drinks or diet sodas you like to drink. Or, go to your freezer and pull out a frozen dinner. Or a carton of ice cream.
Read the ingredients.
Don't know what that word is? Go ahead, look it up...
Scared? You should be!
Chances are, some of those ingredients are making you sick. What's worse, chances are that even if you eliminated all of the chemicals and artificial stuff, you would still be sick, because the "real food" that is left is oftentimes so heavily proccessed that it no longer resembles "real food"!
So, how do you know which foods are hurting you?
I'll cover that next time, and I'll tell you a little more about what I've been through and where I'm going this next month - I hope you'll think about going along with me!
