Daniel:  “You've been through a lot of diets. Now you have settled on one kind for some time. Can you explain what you are doing and why?”

 Angie:  "The diet I follow now stabilized my blood sugar, been effective for candida, lowered my cholesterol and triglycerides, and reduced my fibromyalgia pain and fatigue from chronic fatigue. In itself, it is not the "cure" for my problems, but it is the eating plan that has helped me the most.  It's an essential part of my wellness plan.  When I go off this diet, everything flares up.  Stay on it and I do better.

For many years I was vegetarian.  I found that the large amounts of carbohydrates, even though in the form of whole grains, beans and veggies, was not the best thing for me. I believe that over the long term this diet can impact blood sugar negatively as well as feed infection.  I can tell you that my current diet made a HUGE difference for me.  It's really one of the first steps of healing. 

The problem with most folks with cfs/fm, immune and autoimmune diseases is that they often have a problem with fungal infections, parasites and bacteria in the gut and body. These little buggers cause problems as they use our nutrition and put out toxins.  This can cause too many problems to name.  When we eat refined carbs such as pasta, bread, potatoes and sugar, we feed these bad guys and they flourish!

Many folks with candida and chronic illness do well on a diet that is low in carbohydrates.  I do not do atkins, which is very high in all types of fats and low in veggies. I do something more along the lines of what's in the book Protein Power.  For me, I have found this to be the thing that makes me feel the best, and it's the easiest to do.

The fungus, bacteria and parasites can actually cause you crave sweets and carbs.  I used to be a total sugar and carb addict. By altering the diet to eliminate the things that feed them, we can starve them out.  I know it's difficult at first to change your diet, but it can make a drastic difference.   

My diet consists primarily of lean chicken, occasional beef, turkey, fish, eggs, plenty of non-sweet and non-starchy vegetables, good oils, nuts & nut butters, occasional low sweet fruits like berries, low carb breads such as Bread For Life's sprouted whole grain bread, etc. I try to eat organic whenever possible. It's very expensive so I do not buy everything organic, though I would prefer it.

OK - here's something many "purists" in the alternative health movement will disapprove of.  In an ideal world I would agree with them.  Personally I eat the way the book Protein Power suggests, but I also use carbohydrate substitutes like low carb breads and desserts.  I use splenda instead of sugar.  Though not perfect, I consider this to be the best of the substitute sugars.

There are lots of low carb foods in the grocery store and the health food store like ice creams, english muffins, bagels, pizza, protein bars, etc. Including a small amount of these foods helps me so that I don't feel completely denied of fun foods. This helped me get off the sugar and carb rich foods, and helps me avoid cravings and stick to the low carb diet.  I actually feel better eating these substitute foods than eating real sugar foods or even whole grains and carbs on a regular basis.

I believe it is also helpful to keep my body more alkaline than acid. The pests do not thrive in an alkaline environment, and there are many problems associated with being overly acidic.  For this reason, I try to compose my meals of more veggies than animal proteins.  I also use a lot of celtic sea salt, which is alkaline and has trace minerals.  I take calcium and magnesium as well.

I also avoid acidic things like soda.  If I have a huge craving for soda, I will drink RC cola or their other flavors, which are splenda sweetened, with no caffeine.

We also wrote about juicing for low carb/low sugar eaters."

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