One Day Candida Meal Plan

I have spent several years researching candida protocols and my biggest takeaway is that there is a lot of confusion surrounding what you can and cannot eat.

Every protocol has a slight variation and it leaves a lot of people feeling uncertain about what they can and cannot eat. When selecting a candida protocol to follow, I decided the best route to follow was to listen to my body first and foremost – but also pick one and stick to it. 

Given my dietary restrictions (ovo-vegetarian, dairy-free), I chose to follow Ricki Heller’s book “Living Candida-Free: 100 Recipes and a 3-Stage Program to Restore Your Health and Vitality”. While I developed my own recipes that fit my lifestyle better, this protocol allowed me to eat cranberries in the beginning stage (most protocols forebay any fruit at the beginning – thus making my smoothies rather lacklustre) and most importantly allow 1 cup of legumes a day. In addition to my daily supplements, biofilm buster and antimicrobial herbs, I also took a digestive enzyme with meals and a probiotic. 

Below is a day in the life of my first stage candida protocol:

Morning

• Wake up, drink a tall glass of water and take my biofilm buster
• 45 minutes later, take antimicrobial herbs to eradicate candida
• 1 hour later, water with a tablespoon of aloe vera gel (aloe vera is soothing and helps heal stomach and intestinal lining) and a cranberry smoothie

Afternoon/Lunch

• Large salad with 1 cup beans
• Daily supplements:
  • Multi-vitamin
  • Immune boosters (echinacea, zinc, garlic)
  • Spirulina

Late Afternoon/Second Lunch

• Large green salad
• Bowl of vegetable soup
• Magnesium (at the beginning when my anxiety was terrible, I would supplement magnesium to help with sleep)

Evening/Dinner

• Baked rutabaga and broccoli
• Sauerkraut

Late Evening

• At least 2 hours after dinner, antimicrobial herbs (no food after this)
• Chamomile tea (when my anxiety was bad)

To set myself up for success and make things easier for myself overall, I premade the bean salad and the soup to minimize the amount of preparation needed. You may also notice that this meal plan does not include any snacks – this is because I filled up a lot on vegetables during my meals and did not need snacks (for the first time in my life).