No carb/no sugar diet

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  • yo_andi
    yo_andi Posts: 2,178 Member
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    Not to get graphic but usually a diagnosis of candida overgrowth by a real MD involves blood/stool samples and multiple tests.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    If all that your doctor told you was no carbs/no sugar, I would go back and ask to be referred to a dietitian to help you get a better meal plan started. No carbs is fairly non-specific, since so many people define that differently. Did your doctor mean no vegetables either or just no breads/no pastas? If there were no further instructions given for this diet then you need to go back and get some.

    Or a second opinion. Never a bad idea, either.
  • vismundcygnus27
    vismundcygnus27 Posts: 98 Member
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    Thank you for that link! I love that blog, but hadn't thought to search it for any enlightenment on this subject.
  • ValGogo
    ValGogo Posts: 2,168 Member
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    When I looked up "leaky gut syndrome", one of the first pages to come up was a Dr. Oz article, so I was a bit skeptical. The wiki article isn't that encouraging - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_gut_syndrome

    According to Wiki, it's not a recognized medical diagnosis. And the website "Quackwatch" lists it as a fad diagnosis with no scientific backing. I'd definitely get a second opinion on this.

    Okay I guess I should not have mentioned her mention of "leaky gut syndrome" because this is NOT MY DIAGNOSIS and not my point of this post!! My diagnosis is candida overgrowth in my gut which means that feeding the yeast in my gut with sugary foods will only make it continue to grow and get worse. I posted this to get help with ideas for things I can eat in the next month or so. I do not need a second opinion on the overgrowth of yeast in my gut. My blood test was positive and it will come out positive in the next blood test as well. An opinion by a nutritionist on what to eat yes, but not by another doctor who will tell me my blood test is positive again.

    I sighed for you. Wrong place to post this I guess. I would just do what the doc says; it's only temporary and in my unprofessionsl opinion, lowering simple carbs is a good thing. We eat way too many carbohydrates to begin with anyway.

    Good luck.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    I would suggest getting some clarification as well as a 2nd opinion.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    I have to ask as well: what qualifications does your doctor have?
  • beldenc
    beldenc Posts: 10
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    I am dealing with candida overgrowth right now.

    You don't have to completely cut carbs/sugars. Steer clear of artificial sugars, added sugars and anything that says "Naturally sweetened". Steer clear of bread, pasta, and limit other starchy carbs to a few times a week if that.

    Fill up on veggies, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, and whatever protein sources you currently use (provided they don't contain the added sugars mentioned above.

    Finally, add a high quality prebiotic and a probiotic every day.

    Good luck. Hope you feel better soon!

    Thank you!! My doctor mentioned some of what you did as well. Thanks for actually believing me unlike many people posting on this... Thank you very much for the suggestions!
  • beldenc
    beldenc Posts: 10
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    I have to ask as well: what qualifications does your doctor have?

    What qualifications? As in did she go to medical school? Does she have an M.D.... Yes she has all of those. I saw her because I was feeling lethargic, tired, moody, poor concentration and bloated and wanted to know if it was a result of me going off my anti anxiety medication lexapro. Instead of just sending me home with no answer other than "wait it out and we'll see" like all my other doctors have done she ordered blood and urine tests to see if where my levels were at (b12, vitamin d, hormones etc. like I mentioned in the original post) to see if that could be a possibility. When those tests came back I was positive for candida overgrowth (you have 80% good yeast in your gut and 20% bad and mine was too much of the bad) and she suggested this diet plan for a month and maybe more if my levels don't return to normal in 4 weeks. I don't know how else to explain a blood test confirming that there is too much bad yeast in my gut but apparently no one wants to believe me?? Would you be satisfied if I scanned in my blood test paper that says positive? I came here for support and help with ideas to eat and I'm honest offended and sad by most of you no taking me seriously.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    I had similar symptoms when I was younger and my doctor wanted to label me with IBS. I took a really good probiotic for months (Garden of Life RAW is my favorite) and felt better without changing my diet. I was having symptoms daily for years, and now it's been years since I've had those symptoms, and I'm pretty sure that the "cure" was just restoring intestinal flora which had been damaged by antibiotics use. Regardless, it sounds like your doc is into a lot of quack psuedo-science and if you really like your doc you should proceed with caution and research everything your doc tells you.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    I have to ask as well: what qualifications does your doctor have?

    What qualifications? As in did she go to medical school? Does she have an M.D.... Yes she has all of those.

    Thanks. That's all I really wanted to know because, to my knowledge at least, such a diagnosis would not have been made in the UK. Therefore it sounded odd to me.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    How can one be a "no carb" vegetarian? Vegetables are complex carbs.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    Ok, and in answer to your specific question you may want to look into the Harcombe Diet - she has a specific section in her book on diet modifications to deal with Candida.

    I think it is mostly quackery myself having looked into the diet but you may feel differently.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,667 Member
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    Doc wouldn't happen to be a holistic doc?

    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    Leaky gut syndrome and candida overgrowth are both staple diagnoses of alternative medicine.

    I'd want a different doctor asap.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    Based on the title of the thread, it doesn't sound like you get to eat for a while since you don't eat meat.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,661 Member
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    When the results came back she found I was positive for candida overgrowth in my gut as well as what she believed to be "leaky gut syndrome". In order to get rid of the yeast overgrowth she wants me to take oil of oregano, a probiotic which I can't remember the name of right now and to eliminat carbs and sugars for 1 to 3 months or until the yeast overgrowth is gone.
    "Leaky gut syndrome" isn't a diagnosis taught in medical school. Instead, "leaky gut really means you’ve got a diagnosis that still needs to be made,” Kirby says. “You hope that your doctor is a good-enough Sherlock Holmes, but sometimes it is very hard to make a diagnosis.”

    “We don’t know a lot but we know that it exists,” says Linda A. Lee, MD, a gastroenterologist and director of the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center. “In the absence of evidence, we don’t know what it means or what therapies can directly address it.”

    idk, my read is that the doctor is deleting sugar to treat the yeast overgrowth and not necessairly the phantom 'leaky gut syndrome'.

    im not a doc either of course, and i've never heard of a yeast over growth in the gut, but if thats whats going on then reducing sugar makes sense to a lay person.

    a second opinion never hurts too
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    What is a candida cleanse diet and what does it do?
    Answers from Brent A. Bauer, M.D.

    Some complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners blame common symptoms such as fatigue, headache and poor memory on intestinal overgrowth of the fungus-like organism Candida albicans, or yeast syndrome. To cure the syndrome, they recommend a candida cleanse diet, which includes no sugar, white flour, yeast and cheese, on the theory that these foods promote candida overgrowth.

    Unfortunately, there isn't much evidence to support the diagnosis of yeast syndrome. Consequently many conventional practitioners doubt its validity. And there are no clinical trials that document the efficacy of a candida cleanse diet for treating any recognized medical condition.

    Not surprisingly, many people note improvement in various symptoms when following this diet. If you stop eating sugar and white flour, you'll generally wind up cutting out most processed foods, which tend to be high in calorie content and low in nutritive value. Within a few weeks of replacing processed foods with fresh ones and white flour with whole grains, you may start to feel better in general. That, rather than stopping the growth of yeast in the gastrointestinal tract, is the main benefit of a candida cleanse diet.

    Taken from: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/consumer-health/expert-answers/candida-cleanse/faq-20058174

    The only reputable source I could find about candida overgrowth
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    It sounds like you went to a holistic doctor, and just so you know, you will not get much love for anything "alternative" on the MFP forums. From my month or so of reading, it seems any theory that is relatively new or hasn't been verified by years of well-funded research is deemed pseudo-science and laughed at. So if you are into the "alternative" view of healthcare, you probably don't want to post about it here!

    Having said that, I have learned a ton about food and exercise here, so it is definitely worth checking in regularly. Just don't expect to have a rousing discussion on the latest theories in alternative medicine :)

    Good luck, I hope you find some relief!
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    I came here for support and help with ideas to eat and I'm honest offended and sad by most of you no taking me seriously.

    I don't think it's a case of anyone not taking you seriously, it's just that we see people with legitimate health care issues being taken advantage of by alternative practitioners who have no motivation other than lining their pockets and the diagnosis that your doctor offered you are ones frequently given by quacks.
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
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    I have to ask.....was this a real doctor you saw?

    The leaky gut syndrome & candida overgrowth rang alarm bells......

    http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/candida-and-fake-illnesses/

    I have to ask as well: what qualifications does your doctor have?

    What qualifications? As in did she go to medical school? Does she have an M.D.... Yes she has all of those. I saw her because I was feeling lethargic, tired, moody, poor concentration and bloated and wanted to know if it was a result of me going off my anti anxiety medication lexapro. Instead of just sending me home with no answer other than "wait it out and we'll see" like all my other doctors have done she ordered blood and urine tests to see if where my levels were at (b12, vitamin d, hormones etc. like I mentioned in the original post) to see if that could be a possibility. When those tests came back I was positive for candida overgrowth (you have 80% good yeast in your gut and 20% bad and mine was too much of the bad) and she suggested this diet plan for a month and maybe more if my levels don't return to normal in 4 weeks. I don't know how else to explain a blood test confirming that there is too much bad yeast in my gut but apparently no one wants to believe me?? Would you be satisfied if I scanned in my blood test paper that says positive? I came here for support and help with ideas to eat and I'm honest offended and sad by most of you no taking me seriously.


    I personally know of some "physicians" who prescribe every gimmick in the book to make money. Phrenology, "laser" treatment for smoking and obesity, magnets... you name it. When their patients discover that one gimmick doesn't work, they move to the next one.

    No reason to take offense or feel like people are "not believing" you just because we are skeptical of the diagnosis. It's no reflection of you as a person.

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