Incorporating fermented foods (sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, vinegar, etc) helps increase acidity, feeds good flora, introduces more good flora into the body, and is very nourishing. Eating foods that act as prebiotics helps too (rice bran, yucca, fibers, etc). Fermented foods offer a double punch because many contain prebiotics as well as probiotics (example: coconut vinegar contains FOS, which feed the good dudes).

Eating nothing processed helps too.

Avoid sugar.

Keeps carbs low and sensible. Veggies are great (but too much will be alkalizing...however, these should be the bulk of your carbs). Fibers are important. Fruits only if tolerated, and at a very small amount.

Healthy fats are vital. coconut oil is fantastic, as are almonds, avocados, and EVOO.

Probiotics are essential too...but fermented foods are more "potent." However, with dysbiosis, you can't get enough, it seems!

All good flora helps to produce an acidic environment due to the acetic acid (and other byproducts) they produce as they ferment fibers. Bad flora create an alkaline environment, and their byproducts are toxic.

Thus, increase the good flora! :-)

many people report good results and reversal of many issues with SCD and GAPS diets. I'm still learning more about these. If anyone has more insight on SCD and GAPS, I'd love to hear.

Well, as I said in this post, this is my personal experience with candida, and for me it has definitely been due to hyper-acidity. As I wrote, I am open to the fact that some people may be overly alkaline and that could also throw the body out of balance. But in my experience, and the people I have talked to on this message board and others, the majority of them that have candida seem to be overly acidic.

Would you mind sharing your sources of why you believe the small intestine to be acidic. I have done a lot of research on anatomy and nutrition and everyone seems to be in agreement that the small intestine should be alkaline. I know that some of the good bacteria in the small intestines produce different types of acids to help in the digesting of food, but just because these bacteria are producing acids, doesn't necessarily make the small intestine acidic.

I would also like to know your source that says candida thrives in an alkaline environment. There have been plenty of studies done on this; they are quite easy to perform, you probably even do it yourself at home with a few candida samples and some water of different Ph levels. It seems that everyone is pretty much in a agreement based on the research that candida thrives in an acidic environment. Honestly, I wasn't even really aware that there was any debate on this subject.

As far as the underlying cause of candida, I know the prevailing ideas that it is from vaccines, toxins, metals, etc. I'm not saying that I'm 100% sure about this theory, I'm just going with what has worked for me, and I do think it is all about bringing your body back into the correct Ph balance. But there is nothing easy about it. It takes a long time, lots of dedication, you have to find what works for you.

Thanks for your post; I am really getting some new perspectives on this. For the longest time, I have only been focused on curing myself, but now I really want to hear more about other people's experiences, maybe if I can help someone with a different point of view, maybe they can help me to understand something that I had a little wrong. I don't claim to have all the answers, only my personal experience and a lot of research.

James, what is your opinion on the specific carbohydrate diet or GAPS diet for intestintal dysbiosis? I'm currently reading Breaking the Vicious Cycle and it makes a ton of sense.

Thank you for this post. A refreshing voice of reason :-)

Just sharing what has worked for me my friend. I have suffered with extreme health problems and candida for many, many years and now for the past couple years, my health is finally back in order. You can look at my posts as to what my previous symptoms were and what my health is like now. I am not acting like an expert. I am acting like someone who has got my candida back in check and my health back in balance. I have become extremely good at listening to my own body and understanding what is happening inside my body. I know that everyone is different and what has worked for me, will not necessarily work for everyone (in fact I think that is one of the main problems on curezone when these "experts" recommend the exact same diet and same herbs for everyone and they say this is a cure for candida). But maybe some people will see what has worked for me and pick up something that also works for them. This is the only purpose of my posts.

I have done quite a bit of scientific research on body anatomy, pH, nutrition, etc. Just to let you know, I am NOT one of these people that thinks that everyone is overly acidic and so everyone should follow an alkalizing diet. As I said in this post, it was my theory that most people who have candida are overly acidic, but I am very open to the possibility that people being too alkaline could also be a cause of candida. My theories on pH balance mainly come from ancient Indian medicine, called ayurvedic medicine. I don't want to go into the specifics of ayurvedic medicine here because it is extremely complicated. The information that you find on the internet regarding ayurveda oversimplifies everything and is completely inaccurate. Without going into detail, the basis of ayurveda says that there are three main elements in the body, acidity, alkalinity, and an element that helps to balance the two. Some people are overly acidic, some people are overly alkaline, some people are a combination of the two (overly acidic in some places, overly alkaline in other places) and some people don't have the ability to balance the pH. Also diet can throw off various areas in the body. According to ayurveda and also other ancient eastern medicines, when the body is out of balance, the body stores toxins in various week points in the body according to the nature of the toxicity (in other words if the toxicity is due to excess acid, then acidity is stored in that part of the body, if the toxicity is due to excess alkaline, then alkalinity is stored). The key to good health is to have everything in balance.

I know that some of the things that I am saying may seem strange to many people. When I first came across ayurvedic medicine I didn't buy into it either (like all things there is a lot of misinformation and bad doctors). But then I found some amazing doctors that were able to tell me all of my past and current health problems after a simple 5 minute examination, without me saying a word. I was able to get back into almost perfect health by taking some herbs and following what these doctors recommended for me. And it was all so simple.

Again, I'm not here to preach to anyone and say do this, do that and your candida will be gone (unlike many supposed experts on this site). I'm saying that I have found something that worked for me. Maybe someone here can take something from what has worked for me and it can help them out too. And isn't that really what we should be doing here on this site? Look scientific research is great. I think we need to do a ton more research on candida. But if you really think about it our Science is very crude. Sure, it's come miles in the past hundred years, but just look at what is happening in standard medical science. We all know the problems with that. So then we turn to alternative medicine, and that's great. But let's be honest, there are no experts. Even in the best science, we can only make observations and draw conclusions. But many times the conclusions are wrong because we didn't properly understand the observations. I am currently watching some of Dr. McCombs' videos and youtube and they are great. They are backed by a ton of science, but even he says that we truly understand about 1% of what is going on in the body and we don't understand 99% of what is happening. I have a lot of respect for any doctor that speaks this way.

I think someday our Science will progress to the point that we will be able to start understanding how our body actually works and be able to treat diseases safely and effectively. Unfortunately, that time is not now. Isn't that why we're all here? So we all have to become our own scientists and try to understand what is really happening inside of our bodies.