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Is Candida Making You Fat?

Do you find yourself struggling with a strong, sometimes uncontrollable, sweet tooth? Do you get bloated or feel swollen after eating sugar or carbohydrates? Is your clothing size going up each season? If you answered yes to any of these questions then there’s a chance Candida overgrowth may be causing your symptoms.

Over the last few weeks, we have been discussing Candida Overgrowth, or yeast infection, all its various causes and symptoms. If you want to catch up read the previous articles in this series:

Today I am going to talk about how underlying Candida overgrowth can not only make you fat, but also make it near impossible to shed those extra pounds. If you find that you have been struggling with your weight and uncontrollable sugar cravings over the years then you may have an undiagnosed Candida condition.

As we saw in part two of this series (Is Your Sugar Addiction Feeding Your Intestinal Candida?), Candida is a simple organism that needs only a warm, dark, moist, sugar-filled environment in order to thrive; precisely the environment our digestive system provides.

Candida eats sugar in any form – and lots of it. So, when we eat sugar either as candy or in the less obvious form of pasta, breads and potatoes (which are carbohydrates broken down into simple sugars), the Candida that lives in our gut gets a good feed and begins to grow. The bigger and stronger it gets, the more food it requires and so we start to crave the foods it wants. In this case, sugar. Lots and lots of sugar!

When you have a Candida overgrowth the sugar cravings are not in your control. Try as you might, you cannot will yourself away from those cookies. The Candida inside your gut is driving your sugar cravings which increase as the Candida starts to demand more and more of its favorite food. The more sugar you eat, the more sugar you want to eat – it becomes a vicious cycle and, as a result, you wind up consuming more sugar and more carbohydrates than your body needs and you start to gain more and more weight – and this weight is stubborn! No matter how hard you try to lose it, it just won’t shift. No matter how much diet and exercise you try the scale will not budge and this can be extremely frustrating.

This is not just true for us mere mortals. Even high-performance athletes struggle with Candida and the resultant stubborn weight gain.

 A Short Case Study

“James”, a long distance cyclist came to me because he was suffering from chronic digestive symptoms and bloating. He had been on strict diets for years to maximize his athletic performance. After blood-work revealed he had food sensitivities and Candida overgrowth I put him on a food elimination diet and Candida cleanse. James had an intense exercise schedule and had been cycling for many years but it was only after he did the Candida cleanse that he reported he was finally able to  shift those last 10 pounds he had been trying to lose for years. He said he knew that it had to be diet-related since it did not matter how much he exercised he just could not lose the weight. One of the issues with athletes is they often consume pure sugar and/or simple carbohydrates to give them the energy they need to be able to exercise for long periods of time. Of course, this is exactly what Candida needs to flourish and so overgrowth often follows. In James’ case, and for many other patients I have treated over the years, it is not until we treat the underlying Candida that they are able to drop the extra weight they have been trying to lose.

How to Lose Stubborn Candida Weight

There are many diet plans out there and most people do well losing weight on various kinds of low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet. However, for those people who struggle with Candida overgrowth the typical weight-loss diet plans simply don’t work. In my experience, in order to shift stubborn Candida weight you need to eliminate sugar and carbohydrates completely from your diet. In addition to this you need to treat the underlying yeast overgrowth by cutting out pasta, bread, potatoes, fruit, honey, candy, ice cream, pizza, and alcohol while killing off the yeast and repopulating the gut with healthy bacteria.  For the individuals who struggle with Candida overgrowth weight loss is accelerated when we address the Candida overgrowth.

How Do We Treat It?

Candida overgrowth can be the hidden culprit in people who have an inability to lose weight, even after they have tried the standard low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets. If you suspect you might have Candida overgrowth and would like to find out more about my specially designed Yeast and Candida Detox Program, please book an appointment today. This is a three-tiered treatment that:

*Eliminates the foods that cause the yeast to grow
*Kills off the yeast
*Repopulates the intestines with healthy bacteria

I love to read your comments; if you have any thoughts or experiences you would like to share about your battle with Candida, or if you have any questions, please use the comments box below.

I will be taking a summer break over the next few weeks and will return towards the middle of August with the last article in this series, The Top Ten Worst Foods to Eat When You Have Candida. To be sure you don’t miss it you can subscribe to this blog using the subscription box on this page and have it sent directly to your inbox.

 

Author
Dr. Maura Scanlan

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