Hi All,

This is my first post here, though I've been reading the daily
digest for a couple of months now. My name is Emma, I'm in Australia
and I'm really sick with candida and I'm needing all who are
interested's opinion/view on this.

Due to multiple food intolerances (candida related) my doctor,
dietician and I are supportive of me trying an enteral nutrition
formula, which is a liquid diet, consisting of predigested
nutrients, ie. amino acids, maltodextrin, vitamins, minerals,
glutamine etc. (Examples of this are Vivonex, Tolerex, Peptinex,
Absorbplus etc.) This means that I recieve all my nutritional needs,
calories etc. by drinking this fluid several times a day. Because it
is predigested, this means that the digestive sytem does no 'work'
and gives it a chance to heal. The drink is fully absorbed by the
time it reaches halfway through the small intestine, which makes it
low residue.

I have a quote here regarding this sort of drink and candida, though
the one I will be drinking contains NO sugar, as the one listed in
the following quote does. (Though it does contain significant
carbohydrate in the form of maltodextrin).

I guess I'm interested to know if anyone here has ever had
experience with these 'diets'. They are commonly used in people with
chron's disease and ulcerative colitis etc. to induce remission.



Here's the quote: (I'll just add that I don't fully agree with this
the author's view, that candida doesn't cause many problems, it
does).

"Candida
The yeast, Candida Albicans, became the most popular colon microbe
in the 1980's and many people still pursue yeast-free diets in an
attempt to treat "candida infection" and to solve bowel symptoms.
Claims that candida overgrowth in the GIT cause ill-defined
illnesses are probably not true. Candida populations are balanced by
competitive microbes. Colon candida are fed by milk sugar and
starches in the diet which reach the colon undigested, not free
sugars in food which tend to be absorbed before reaching the yeast.
The presence of other kinds of yeast or fungi in the diet has little
or no effect on the growth of candida in the colon. On a food
holiday, the food supply to the Candida and all other colon
microorganisms is reduced and the population decreases. The use of
an elemental nutrient formula, even with high glucose content, is
associated with reduction or disappearance of candida in the colon.

I guess my concern is exacerbating candida, but also if the yeast
are getting no food (being starved) in the colon, could they move
into another part of the body or just die off??? Scary...

I'm taking threelac currently and doing my best to stick to a
modified candida diet, but because I'm severely underweight and was
close to death due to anorexia from all my candida related
intolerances and digestive problems, and I also cannot tolerate any
oils or red meats, or nuts (they burn my digetive system like it's
on fire) I can hardly stick to an ideal restriction diet. I
currently eat no sugar. My carbohydrates are brown rice and
buckwheat bread, and green apples. Occasionaly white/spinach pasta.
So I'm doing my best. I also eat fish, chick peas, skinned organic
chicken, zuchini, non sweetened yoghurt, some ricotta cheese,
canellini beans and brown rice cakes. All my food is organic. I am
blessed to have health conscious parents.

Hope to hear from any or all of you.

I apologise for the long post...

Best,
Emma