My AIP (and Candida cleanse meals) starting 2/3

First Week of My Candida Cleanse

I started my Candida cleanse on the 3rd.  So far, so good.  I definitely had a couple days of feeling fairly “detox-y” but it’s not bad.  Like I said in my video last week, I’m really not focusing on the “seek & destroy” method that a lot of cleanses promote.  I’m not using antifungals or anything designed to “kill” the Candida.  I’m mostly working to make my body an environment that’s not friendly to an overgrowth.  Next week I will start some special enzymes called Candisol.  They promote no die-off and are supposed to be a gentle way to help remove the Candida.  In a couple weeks I’ll do a Facebook video and a post for you about my cleanse and why a Candida cleanse was indicated & important for me.

What My Diet Looks Like for the Next Few Weeks

I’ve been following some of the GAPS principles of cooking things in stock whenever possible, I’m also following the GAPS method for reintroducing foods.  I started my cleanse with a couple days of a liquid-only diet of bone broth with veggies cooked in them & strained out.  This helped give my gut a rest and didn’t give the Candida sweets or starches to eat.  I think if you asked 10 different practitioners what the ‘best” approach and diet was for Candida you’d get 10 different answers.  I’m listening to the suggestion of my practitioners, for the most part it’s not vastly different diet than what I was following when I eliminated FODMAPS.  For the Candida I’m doing low fructose fruit a couple days a week, eliminating starchy foods for a couple weeks (this is the hardest for me so far… I eat sweet potato or parsnip almost every day), fermented raw cow milk (I cannot wait until our goat milk comes back again!) and eating raw garlic and lots of bone broth.

Here are my meals from last week.  I hope they give you inspiration!

Drinks 

• Warm lemon water
  • I’m starting every day w/ warm water & a squeeze of lemon juice
• Lemon ginger tea
  • In between meals I’m doing warm water that I’ve steeped fresh ginger in (I’m steeping ginger overnight) and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
• The adrenal cocktail
  • Check my video from yesterday for more info
• Apple cider vinegar “shots”
  • 15-20 minutes before eating I do a dash of ACV in water to stimulate bile production & digestion

Breakfasts

• Liquid diet
  • Chicken broth with kale, celery, green onion & garlic cooked in it & then strained out
• Butternut ginger soup with shredded chicken
  • This is a family favorite.  I toss some chicken broth in the crockpot with chunks of raw butternut squash, garlic & ginger (and usually a bit of turmeric but don’t tell my kid who thinks he doesn’t like turmeric!)  let it cook most of the day, blend w/ the immersion blender & then toss in some leftover chicken (or any other meat).  I also add about 1t of raw yogurt.
• N’oatmeal
  • This time I made it from all pumpkin and left out the sweetener- it was really yummy!  Added a tiny bit of raw yogurt to this as well.
• Roasted prosciutto with half a grapefruit
  • I am going to cut most pork during the cleanse but I was a day off of grocery shopping and it was all I had that I could eat!
• Chicken pate!
  • I usually do organ meats 4-5 days a week for breakfast and I only got them in once this week & I was feeling it

Lunches

• Liquid diet as above
• Leftover butternut ginger soup (with kraut)
• Boiled chicken with boiled veggies
  • This was what I had for my first couple meals after the liquid diet days.  Added lots of salt.  Boiled chicken is sad
• N’oatmeal
• Rainbow chard & lamb stew w/ beef and kraut
  • This was our favorite meal that we’ve had in a while.  I almost couldn’t believe I made it.  I used lamb bone broth and cooked some red chard in it, pureed the heck out of it and then added in cooked ground beef and topped it with green onion.  So good!
• Whole foods Rotisserie chicken
  • With a tiny bit of sweet potato (I have little self-control with sweet potato), kraut, and a green salad
• Big salad and a fermented veggie
  • Raw greens are really important when cleansing to help keep the digestive system open & happy

Dinners

• Liquid diet
• Boiled chicken
• Leftover soup (my meals this week were not super varied)
• Beef & broccoli soup
  • I made a batch of beef broth in the crockpot, strained out the bones & left in the meat and then added in chopped broccoli for the last few hours.  I also added a generous amount of pink salt.  My kid gobbled it up.
• Chard & lamb broth stew without the beef
• Sardines with cooked kale, capers, black olives & kraut
• Chicken “chili”
  • I made chicken bone broth & removed the bones & added in raw chopped butternut squash, ground ginger, ground turmeric, Celtic sea salt, chopped garlic, green onions and shredded leftover chicken and left it on low for about 5 hours.  It was incredible & super gentle & nourishing for my system.

    DISCLAIMER- I AM A BLOGGER AND SELF-PROCLAIMED “RESEARCH JUNKIE”, NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL.  THESE COMMENTS ARE SOLELY EDUCATIONAL.  THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FDA AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT OR CURE ANY DISEASE.  PLEASE CONSULT WITH A QUALIFIED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BEFORE UNDERGOING CHANGES TO YOUR HEALTHCARE OR DIETARY ROUTINE.