Decisions, Decisions... Candida/ GAPS/SCD/Maker's Diet
Michelle and I have been following the anti-candida diet for seven weeks now. This is Michelle's last week; I still have three weeks left. Today, I'll give a review of this low-carb/low-sugar diet and its effects so far.
MICHELLE: She can hardly wait until she finishes this diet and can eat more carbs. Right now, she's eating meat all day long, with a tiny amount of vegetables on the side, and she's sick of mostly grain-free eating. I'm proud of her for riding it out for two months, but she'll definitely be reintroducing more carb servings and grains in a week or two.
ME: I've learned that my body loves a low-carb/low-sugar diet. My blood sugar is more stable, I'm not hungry as often as I used to be (I used to need to eat every hour or two to prevent passing out), and I don't need to eat as much food to feel full either. When my three weeks are up, I'm going to continue limiting my fruit to a serving or two a day (I can hardly wait to eat fruit other than berries!) and keep complex carbs to around 4 servings a day (a little more than what I'm doing now).
I previously wrote that Michelle and I tried the GAPS diet for two days, since we felt that we were sensitive to the starches in sweet potatoes. I suspect we have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which makes it hard to digest complex carbs and could be contributing to Michelle's IBS. We both feel better eating simple sugar than the complex carbs found in foods ike sweet potatoes. GAPS was so restrictive, it was too much for Michelle to handle on top of the anti-candida diet, so we stopped. I'm not going to take anything else out of her diet, but I have been researching diets for myself that take out most complex carbs: GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome), SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet), and The Maker's Diet. GAPS is based on SCD but is more restrictive. The hardest thing about GAPS/SCD is that they are both long-term low-carb interventions with no clear end date. The average amount of time spent on GAPS is 1-2 years, but there's no definite length of time. I don't think I have the emotional energy to do that on top of taking care of Michelle and following the anti-candida diet.
Instead, as of tomorrow, I'm incorporating The Maker's Diet into my plan. In a nutshell, The Maker's Diet is a Christian version of an ancestral diet. After the first couple weeks, it's not as restrivtive as GAPS/SCD/Candida. It has its roots in the Weston A. Price Foundation, which encourages eating whole foods and properly prepared grains like traditional cultures did, as well as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (it eliminates complex carbs, but only for two weeks). Its biggest influence, though, is the nutrition guidelines outlined for the Israelites in the Bible. The Maker's Diet advises eating good quality meats, animal fat, all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and healthy complex carbs, but it also recommends avoiding foods listed in the Bible as unclean (which means no bacon). The best part is that it has a clear timeline, and I can easily incorporate it right away. The first two weeks basically looks like an anti-candida diet, but it also removes grains/starches. I get to add starch and more fruit options the 3rd-4th weeks. I'll be finished with the candida diet then, so I won't have to count carbs (yippee!!). After that, I'm on the full diet, which is really more of a sustainable lifestyle like Paleo/Weston A. Price.
I highly recommend reading The Maker's Diet. It does a great job of explaining the pros and cons of various diets such as vegetarianism and even the candida diet, and it debunks mainstream health myths about topics such as saturated fat and cholesterol. And while it does include Bible verses, a Christian worldview, and chapters on addressing emotional/spiritual health, it also does a great job of explaining the science behind the benefit of a traditional, whole-foods diet.
I found The Maker's Diet on ibooks, and Gut and Psychology Syndrome on Amazon.
Additional sites:
If you have any thoughts about The Maker's Diet or any of these other plans, please leave a comment below! :)
