Diets that have changed our lives.

1. Gerald Green's The Anti Candida Dietary Regimen formulated by Nikki Zalewksi . (We found this in a little book called the ABC's of Disease by Phillip Day a medical researcher from Britain. We heard him speak and bought the book at the seminar. (Both these links are to Phillip Day's website www.credence.org . We would honestly recommend all of their publications. Not all that well edited but great life-changing info for people with chronic illness, allergies, cancer, or people who want to avoid them.)

The diet is basically - absolutely no yeast, no sugar(including sugary vegies such as root vegetables) no lactose, no gluten. Avoid most processed foods especially processed meats.

This diet made the most significant difference to our health. At the height of our CFS we both had live blood testing on the advice of a Naturopath. In both our cases we had ridiculous numbers of Candida Albicans in our blood stream.

This is a damaging fungi present in everyone's gut but out of control in many people because of our high carbohydrate western diet. It gets into the bloodstream through a tiny perforation in the bowel one day, then multiplies in the bloodstream depending on how healthy or unhealthy you are. Apparently 70% of people in Western civilization would have it in their bloodstream to some degree. Look at your tongue in the mirror. Does it have a white coating? This is a sign of Candida Albicans - often known as Thrush.

When we found the Anti Candida Diet we thought 'we need this'. (Craig's tongue was completely white and slimy to the tip, Lauren's was white but not so slimy to the tip) So we tried it.

At first we thought what DO we eat? It looked like the ultimate alfalfa diet but that was because we didn't know much about using nuts & seeds for cooking at that point. But we were diligent and prepared to do anything because we had nothing to lose and everything to gain. We threw out everything in our pantry that didn't suit the diet.

Craig was not working at the time but living on the lounge and Lauren was working full time. We had no children so we could experiment with cooking on ourselves. Lauren did most of the cooking and Craig admits he never would have done it if he didn't have a crazy and desperate wife who is prepared to try new ideas. Lauren admits she would have given up very quickly if she didn't have a husband with great consistency and follow through.

The diet suggested 3 months. We did it for 12 months with no breaks. The difference in our lives was so worthwhile and it created some awesome habits which we now consider 'normal' and can't believe we ever didn't. After that we began to relax a little and moved onto the Food For Thought Lifestyle Regimen by Philip Day. We basically live by that now (Except when Lauren has given in to sugar cravings while pregnant.)