yeast-free dieting - ouch

april522

At my yearly ENT doctor's appointment, I decided to do the blood work for an allergy test to determine what I was allergic to. I've been taking 2 prescription allergy medications for at least 2 years, having adding Zyrtec into the mix for the past 6 months or so. I also use over-the-counter nose-spray recommended by my doctor when my nose gets really stuffy. But, none of that was effective enough. I would still wake up with a stopped-up nose, have frequent sinus headaches, and I sneezed a lot - complete with itchy eyes, nose & face.

I got the results back last week. I am allergic to both dust mites, cat hair dander, and 8 of the 11 molds they tested for. Okay, so the dust mites and cat hair dander and most of the molds have somewhat of a doable solution. I just need to do a few extra things to cut back on dust mites and cat hair in the house, and I will need to take a few extra precautions when around my five cats that we simply cannot get rid of. The cat hair dander ranked as "mild positive" on the test, the dust mites a "high positive," and one of the molds was a "very high positive."

Upon research, the mold I'm most allergic to (very high positive) is Candida albicans, which turns out to be naturally occur yeast in everyone's body. Awesome! I pretty much have an overgrowth of this stuff in my intestines and digestive track, so the doctor highly recommended a yeast-free diet. Upon hearing this, I thought it meant no bread or any other baked goods that contained yeast, which was daunting enough. Wrong... I always told myself if I was diagnosed as a diabetic, I would be screwed because I love carbs and desserts way too much (went to culinary school for bakery production). Yeast-free diets are worse than regular diabetic guidelines. It's like I'm having to follow a yeast-free, a dairy-free, a sugar-free, and a gluten-free diet simultaneously. This means no fruit, very limited dairy, and a lot of other foods I had no idea you couldn't eat on a yeast-free diet, including anything vinegar-based because the products are fermented. All of these foods will help feed the candida rather than help kill them off. It doesn't matter than fruits have naturally occurring sugar rather than refined sugars; the yeast (Candida) don't know the difference and will eat/feast on either.

The ENT office sent my results in the mail and a print-out of an online article regarding yeast-free diets:
http://suite101.com/article/yeast-free-diets-made-easy-a28076

I have been researching this for the past 2-3 days, making a list of questions I want to ask the doctor when I go in at the end of this week or beginning of next week to pick up my first 2 vials of allergy drops (alternative to allergy shots). It's a little overwhelming, but I know I can do it. However, I'm having so much trouble eating right at the moment, that I can't help but be a little concerned about how I will follow an even stricter diet (at least until the symptoms of candida overgrowth go away). This is going to be a VERY difficult diet for me to do, but I know that once I am used to it, I will feel so much better. Being that this is the thing I'm most allergic to, it's the thing I need to focus on the most right now, especially since the organisms are inside me rather than outside (where I can spray them and control them more). On a good note, this is exactly what I need to help me kick-start my weight-loss again. I will still be able to eat carbs in moderation (such as brown rice, oats, popcorn, oatmeal, FEW potatoes, & breads made with gluten-free flours & pastas). I've already bought groceries for the week, so I'll try to tweak as much as possible this week and then start next week, cutting back things day by day (rather than all of it at once).