Re: GAPS and diatomaceous earth - my story and what I eat

Respectfully, it's my humble opinion that everyone is overthinking this. I think we do more harm than good putting all these supplements in our body and then we wonder why we can't get better. If the candida has taken over then it is absorbing everything - vitamins and probiotics included. My strategy was to eat ONLY foods that does not benefit candida - leafy greens and CO - take the most powerful antifungal I could get my hands on that doesn't do any damage to the body, and once I had made some space in my gut, repopulate with tons and tons of good bacteria. Oh, and stop drinking coffee and alcohol and eating crackers and junk. My laziness and self-indulgence had to stop right there.

I found out about candida because my only child was going downhill really fast. She was born perfectly healthy, but by age 2 was completely nonverbal and showing signs of autism. :-( I still cannot watch old home videos of her the memory is so traumatic.

I was researching autism and the GAPS diet popped up on youtube, and I adopted this diet because what Dr Campbell-McBride said made so much sense for my particular situation. I'm not saying this is an appropriate diet for everyone, but I was fending off a candida infection actually causing autism. The SCD diet is too complicated for me to even start to have time to do! For me, simple is better.

The GAPS info rang so true that I stayed up all night researching candida, gut dysbiosis, and autism. Everything made sense! Antibiotics! Colic! Neurological delays! Cravings! SUGAR!!! I pulled all fruit, rice, crackers, and dairy out of our diet - all sources of sugar for us both. We both had fever and flu like symptoms for 3 days just from this, but then - she snapped out of her "brain fog." She started making word attempts and connecting with things that were going on around her. She has made so much progress in the last 2 months that her speech therapists are amazed, though they laughed at my perceived ignorance when I told them I thought it was the dietary changes. Get used to people thinking you are crazy! I'll take crazy over sick any day.

Below is info on DE. It's gross, but most people are walking around with worms. Do you have a pet? If so then be assured you have worms. We worm our pets but somehow think that we are immune! Worms rarely cause major symptoms, but do bog down your immune system which helps the candida. It is all natural ground up diatomes (from the ocean) and is silica and also minerals. And it's cheap. Everyone should be drinking this stuff every day just for the benefit of having great skin and hair and getting absorbable minerals.

https://www.earthworkshealth.com/


I also wanted to add that we both take nystatin powder as an antifunal after I implemented the diet. This is mostly to help her since she needs to make progress quickly. Taking any antifungal and not adhering to a restricted diet will make you worse! I have also ordered water kefir grains to see if she will drink that. Water kefir is a good probiotic, especially if you are milk intolerant. I plan to make mine using raw virgin coconut water.

Personally, I think probiotic pills are a huge waste of money and studies have shown that candida can use it as a food source. Well, candida actually uses EVERYTHING as a food source, even your muscle tissue if it has to. I would not supplement with probiotics of any kind until you have beaten back the infection enough to leave space for the good bacteria to adhere. This all depends on how severe your infection is.


Sorry for ANOTHER long post! But what I did was remove ALL starch and sugar, except for almonds, but I limited the little cakes to just a few a day. I eat dandelion greens and arugula and kale by the bunches. Eat leaves for every meal, as many as you can stand, then eat another plate. I bring my leaves to work in a gallon ziplock bag and get laughed at sitting at my desk and munching on plain leaves - not chopped up or anything - stems and all. I get made fun of for "eating my yard weeds," but that's just fine with me. :-) I'm only 120 pounds, so not much weight that I can spare, but once you knock back the candida your body can actually absorb some nutrients and you don't need nearly as many calories. I do eat several teaspoons of coconut oil a day as well.

Here's what we ate today as an example.

Breakfast:
Start your day with a tall glass of diatomaceous earth and 2 tsp psyllium husks in water. My kid gets scrambled eggs (lots of CO in there), a few little almond flour waffles - I just eat some almonds. I eat my eggs on a bed of spinach or mixed greens, or if I'm in a hurry drink a few raw eggs mixed up in a cup of milk. I have my OWN backyard chickens so it is safe for me to do this as I know I am not going to eat a salmonella bomb!

pau d'arco or dandelion root tea at work when I get hungry

Lunch:
A gallon ziplock bag of dandelion and arugula leaves. Yes, I said a gallon and it takes me about an hour to eat it. Then I have about 1 cup of home made kefir. All those leaves are filling. My kid usually has a snack of either avocado or a pancake if she didn't eat them for breakfast. Her dad doesn't really cook so she's starving by the time I get home.

Dinner:
When I get home I make a blended salad real quick with avocado and yes, more leaves, usually spinach. My kid will usually pick at this while I'm furiously getting supper ready. I steam at least one vegetable - acorn squash, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. The whole time I cook dinner I'm choking down more leaves or it probably won't happen. At first we did NO grains, but by now I've added rice back in and she is not losing any ground. However she is still getting the antifungal. I do not eat the rice, just leaves, veggies, some seeds, kefir, eggs, and meat. I'll have a baked chicken leg with the skin on it tonight. The fat and skin is what heals your gut, the protein is not really what you want since it can feed candida, so be sure the meat is organic (grass fed is better) and the bone is in and skin on. BUT, I'll say again, until you've beaten back the candida nothing you eat can be absorbed and the candida will take all nutrients. That's why I did only leaves and blended salads at first for several days at a time. I lost weight at first but then I leveled out once my body adjusted.

So what I did that worked for me was just simplify everything. I stopped counting calories and obsessing on how many grams of protein I got, etc. I had to get rid of the worms, eat leaves, deal with feeling hungry for awhile, and stay away from things I knew proliferated the fungus. The antifungal definatly helped speed the process. Now that I have a clue what's going on, I will never be in the same boat again!

I really hope this helps.

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