First of all, thank you for the compliments. I'm no expert, but I am passionate about learning all I can about nutrition and exercise for my own benefit and to help my family and friends. Whatever I learn and find to be especially true and useful, I post here to spread the word. I figure stuff that helps me can help anyone and why keep it to myself?
It does sound like it could be Candida, but a carb addict isn't always a Candidiasis sufferer, and vice versa. My best advice to start investigating the possibility os to check out a good book, like The Body Ecology Diet. That takes a while to get if you order it online, but a lot of big health food stores, that sell books, sell that one. Whole Foods in particular. It addresses everything about Candidiasis; what it is, what it feels like to have it, how to get back in balance, etc. The author also has a website to accompany the book's info (
www.bodyecologydiet.com) that might also have the "test" you take to see if you think you have it. The only real way to know for sure is to try the elimination diet and see how your body responds. It's very difficult, I won't kid you, but it's also been THE most significant life changing event in my life. Because when I got my body balance and health back, I became a happier person all around. Weight loss was a nice side benefit, but my focus was feeling good, which I never did.
If you'd like, feel free to email me (
[email protected]) and I'd be happy to shoot the breeze further about it all. It could just be that you have a sugar addiction, which I take as seriously as alcoholism. It's a physical response thing, your body becomes accustomed to a certain high from any type of sugar, whether it's table sugar or breads. My sister-in-law has that problem and she's experimenting with the Carb Addict's Diet. It has some sound ideas, but I'm still waiting to get my copy of the book to read myself and to see how she does. Her situation with sugar is reall bad. I think she also has a Cnadida imbalance but she doesn't feel she has the desire to follow the Body Ecology Plan, even loosely. It's a big committment, and for a lot of people it's a big change in lifetstyle. For me, it wasn't so new, just more like mom's cooking than my recent bad habits. But start with checking out the website and book to see if it rings familiar to you. And don't be discouraged or intimidated, because at first everyone reads the book and thinks "no way! I can't do this!" So just ignore that alarm that will inevitably go off. Realize, too, that if you do have a yeast and/or parasitic imbalance, they are living things that havea lot of control over your body. My doc and I were pondering the possibility that they can even effect your decisions when they threaten their existence. For instance, making you think you can't possibly follow the plan. I know that sounds far out, but I think we all know how amazing micro-organisms can be. The way viruses mutate to survive isn't a far cry from thinking parasites might guide you away from a way to flush them out of their homes. So keep that in mind, that you want to have control over your own body, not let them have the control.
So, one step at a time. Check out the website, then maybe grab the book and let me know what you think. I can help you out with figuring out meals, shopping lists, etc.