Is Paleo Diet Good To Treat Candida?

Hi there. It’s Eric Bakker, naturopath from New Zealand. I’m author of a book called Candida Crusher and formulator of the range of supplements called Canxida. Thanks for checking out my video. A question I get asked from time to time from patients all around the world is “Eric, is the Paleo diet any good for Candida? What do you think of the Paleo diet?”

You may know by now if you’ve seen some of my videos, the views I have on diets. Diet to me is not really a word I like to use too much because I believe that we’re all individuals and we all need to really work out what foods best suit our needs. If you’ve looked at my book, Candida Crusher, you’ll realize that I give you a lot of suggestions and guidelines, but I don’t say, “You need to do this and you need to have to do that.” I’m very open for people to experiment on different kinds of diets and I’ve always believed that no one size fits all. That’s for sure.

I went out clothes shopping yesterday. My wife took me out because I don’t really like buying clothes. I hate it, so she takes me out. And I go to have a look at the rack with T-shirts in it and there’s a million T-shirts with all different designs and colors and there is a really nice one I liked, a purple one with all flowers on it. And my wife said, “You can’t have that. You’ll look crazy in that.” And then I picked up another one and she said, “No. You’ll look even weirder in this one.” It’s a perfect analogy to show you that everyone has got different tastes. There are many different designs, shapes and colors out there. And why do you think they’ve got a rack with a zillion different designs and colors? Because not one size fits all. That’s why.

It’s the same with Paleo diets and SCD diets and jelly bean diets and South Beach diets, Atkins diets. Whatever diet you want. There are a million diets. You can see the books I’ve got on my bookcases. I’ve got a huge big bookcase the full length of this wall here. They’re all diet books. I’ve looked at lots of diet books over the years and I can tell you now, I’ve applied lots of different kinds of diets to people and I’ve found that many people would agree with parts of the diet, but not agree with other parts of the diet. They would incorporate some foods they weren’t supposed to do and yet, they felt okay on it. I’ve particularly found that with the blood type diet. Remember the blood type diet? The A, the O type, AB type. If you’re an O type, eats lots of meat. If you’re an A type, you’re more the vegetarian type. What a load of crap. I don’t really believe in these sort of diets.

When I went to the States in 2003, I can remember a doctor at a seminar saying, “I’ve got a new diet. Eat according to your social security number diet.” Don’t fall for diets. The Paleo, though, is not new. It’s been around a long time. I’ve been reading books like this for a long time. Paleolithic Prescription, this is back in the 80s. This is a good book. Native Nutrition. Quite a nice book. These books have been around 20, 30 or 40 years. I was recommending Paleolithic kind of eating habits to people back in 1986, a long time ago now, telling people that they need to cut back on a lot of different kinds of foods in their diet. Cut back a bit on bread. Cut back a bit on grains in general. Eat more of the lean meats and eat lots of vegetables, which is basically a Paleo diet. That’s the way I eat.

But I can tell you now, the research I’ve done, I’m not a fan of red meat. Small amounts of red meat from time to time are okay. One day red meat will be seen to be very, very toxic to the body like alcohol is. I think red meat is fine. Don’t get me wrong. But I think people in this country where I live eat red meat nearly every day. And I know in the States, a lot of people eat big steaks three or four times a week. It’s too much. Meats are a very powerful concentrated food. If you are going to eat red meat like I do, you have a very small piece of red meat. You don’t have like a big 16-ounce steak. It’s not good for your digestive system to do that. Not at all. It’s a very heavy, strong food.

I’m more of a fan of fish. Fresh fish that I catch myself or fresh fish that’s been caught on the day. I love eating fresh fish at least three times per week and free range eggs. Those are my two preferred proteins. I also like to eat a lot of different kinds of things like chickpeas or garbanzos, broad beans that I grow myself. Different kinds of grains. Brown rice I find is quite a good food for most people on the Candida diet approach. And again, this flies in the face of the Paleo diet. Paleo adherents who are strict say no rice. Preferably no grains, all meats, all vegetables, some fruits, some legumes, nuts and seeds and things like that. I think that’s all okay. But I think you need to work out the protein that suits you best. It’s probably like going shopping. What color do you like to wear? Do you like light colors? Do you like dark colors? What are you attracted to? What makes you feel good when you wear it?

Protein is the same. What makes you feel good when you eat it? I feel great on fish. I feel really good when I eat fish, and I know it. I sleep better. I feel better, so I’ve learned that over the years. I stay with fish. Now, you may feel better eating lamb or eating pork or eating beef. You need to try this out. See how your gut feels. Literally, what kind of gut feelings do you get from eating this kind of protein. Because protein forms the basis of the diet. It’s a very important thing to eat is a good quality protein in your diet.

Once you’ve worked out the good quality protein you eat, then you need to work out what quantity of protein you need to eat. And that all depends on how much work you do. If you’re very physically active, you can usually eat more protein. My 20-year-old son is working out, getting into the weights, building up muscles. He’s eating three times more protein than I am. That’s because he’s training a couple of hours a day. Training hard and he’s walking twice a day. He’s looking quite all pumped up. I think when you’ve got that kind of life style, and I had that in my 20s, you need to increase your protein intake.

However, when you’ve got your face in a laptop like I have and you’re not really lifting a lot of heavy weights anymore, you don’t need to eat that quantity of red meat or any kind of protein for that matter. I tend to do a lot of gardening and walking, so lighter duties. But still quite a bit of digging. I find that the protein load I eat is quite sufficient. I like to eat protein at least twice per day. I usually have rolled oats in the morning, so porridge that is cooked with water, and I’ll have a green apple with that. For lunch most days, I’ll make up a kind of vegetable dish maybe with a bit of eggs and spinach in it is quite a normal combination we have. But it could be a piece of fish. It could be a stir fry dinner or something like that. In the middle of the day and at the end of the day, I have something similar. And then I’ll often have one or two pieces of fruit between the meals.

And again, if you are picking Paleo, a good diet will give you good energy, good sleep patterns, and it will help you to maintain your weight. You shouldn’t gain excess weight or lose excess weight. That’s a good barometer also of your diet is your weight. Energy and weight are two good barometers. Diets should make you look good, feel good, satisfied, not looking for lots of sweet food all the time.

Yes, I am a fan of the Paleo approach. But I would say modify the Paleo approach to suit yourself. Maybe get some books out on Paleo and read them. Get a feel for it. Or go online, there are some good websites on Paleo diets. It’s my preferred form of diet. Specific carbohydrate diets are quite good, too, but again, you need to modify the specificity to suit yourself. The body ecology diet is another good diet, but again, you need to modify it to suit yourself. I’m sure that’s what most people do. When they look at these diets, they look at it and they initially go quite strict on what that person recommends, but then they modify that diet to suit themselves. That’s what it’s all about.

I hope that’s given you a bit of insight on the Paleo approach to Candida. It’s a good one. You call the shots.