Hi there.
It's New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker, author of Candida Crusher and formulator of
the Canxida range of dietary supplements.
I've got an email here from a guy in America who wants to remain anonymous.
Then he asks me, "Can I eat rice on the Candida diet?
Is rice suitable?
Will it affect my yeast infection?"
This is a question I get asked all the time about rice.
I've just had a look on several websites and different forums about rice.
Half the people say yes; half the people say no.
A lot of experts say no.
But in my opinion, a lot of these experts have never had the kind of experience I've
had treating tens of thousands of people with yeast infections or bowel problems.
They've treated all kinds of conditions, but they haven't specialized in gut disorders
with people.
I can tell you now, eating rice on the Candida diet is very interesting for some people in
terms of the effects it can create.
For many people that I see, they have no issues at all eating rice when they've got Candida
and that includes white rice, brown rice, wild rice, basmati rice, all kinds of rice.
But I'll be quick to add that you're better off avoiding white rice on the Candida diet
until you get a very good gut function back.
Until the bowel motions improve.
Until the bloating and gas disappear.
Until your weight's under control.
Be careful with rice because some people eat much too much rice, just like they eat much
too much bread or potatoes or these kinds of starchy carbohydrates.
I prefer to eat brown rice.
I like brown rice with some wild rice thrown through it, the black rice.
You can also eat red rice.
In fact, brown basmati is quite a nice rice to eat, so there's a rice you can get called
basmati rice.
I prefer to use a basmati rice for making Palou dishes, which is really a steamed rice
dish with vegetables mixed through it.
That's called a Palou and then you can put different kinds of things like peas or carrots,
some cardamom, some cloves, and some cinnamon sticks.
You can put different spices and vegetables through the basmati and a bit of water in
there.
And I usually put a little bit of water that's about one knuckle or even a half to one knuckle
joint above the rice in the pot.
I use a cast iron pot and I use clean water.
Usually just cold water.
I don't usually rinse the rice.
You're supposed to rinse it and all this business.
I don't do that.
And then I'll get it on high, get it boiling, and then turn it right down to low.
I'm going to put a lid on the saucepan.
Again, a heavy lid, I usually wrap a small tea towel around there.
And I've learned that putting a small cloth under the lid absorbs a lot of the steam and
moisture and it also gets the top of the rice nicely steamed.
When you are going to eat rice, make sure you don't use those aluminum saucepans.
Rice cookers tend to be aluminum.
Throw them out.
You don't want to have aluminum in your diet in a saucepan or in a rice cooker.
Do the steaming method using a heavy saucepan.
A stainless steel saucepan with a heavy copper base is also good to use.
Brown rice is preferable.
You can steam that or boil it.
If you do want to stick with white rice, there's nothing stopping you from using an 80/20 blend
of 80 percent brown, 20 percent white, a long grain.
Basmati's a better kind of white rice to eat than other kinds of white rice.
Some people say one cup per day.
No more.
I mean it's up to you.
If you're used to eating rice, you'll sort of know how much you need to eat.
Just don't eat too much rice.
Keep your amount down and make sure that if you do have rice, you have it alongside plenty
of vegetables and protein.
Don't just eat a large plate full of rice.
That's a big mistake.
Can you eat rice on the Candida diet?
That's the question.
Well, if you are getting symptoms like brain fog, joint pain, bloating, gas or you're not
feeling good and you are eating rice, stop the rice temporarily to see if it improves
your gut function.
If you are eating rice and you get none of those symptoms, try to switch over to brown
rice, which has got a higher fiber content.
There are a lot of B vitamins.
Some experts even believe that brown rice contains digestive enzymes.
I know that when I eat more brown rice, I have better bowel function than if I eat white
rice.
I think it's a really good food, a good quality organic brown rice.
It's a fantastic food.
Particularly, the B vitamins are rich in the brown rice.
Don't be afraid of eating rice on the Candida diet if you can tolerate it.
It's also going to help you maintain weight and stop you from starving.
Because if you do what all these experts say like Dr. Joseph Mercola and take all grains
out of your diet, you're going to be looking for food.
You're going to be hungry more often and you're going to find it difficult to control your
appetite and your diet.
I don't care what these experts say; I don't really believe it's healthy to maintain a
diet purely on vegetables and meats.
To me, it just doesn't make sense to do that.
It's a boring diet.
And you can't maintain it for years on end.
Having some carbohydrates in the diet makes sense, whether it's millet, rice, or buckwheat,
so try to add some kind of grain in there, and brown rice to me is a very good grain
to have included in your diet.
Don't forget the wild rice, the black rice; it's quite tasty.
A small amount of that gives your rice a bit of color and a bit of extra flavor.
I hope that answers your question about rice on the Candida diet.
Last thing I'll leave you with is as your bowel function improves and you get very good
bacteria in the intestines, you'll find you can easily tolerate rice.
If you can't tolerate it, you need to work on the bugs, the parasites, and the Candida
and help to clean the gut up and repopulate with beneficial bacterial, and then you should
not have much problem.
Particularly if you chew the rice properly, you'll have even less problems.
Check out yeastinfection.org.
I've got a lot of articles on there.
Also, check out a lot of my FAQs on this channel.
There are many questions regarding different kinds of carbohydrates and foods I've answered.
Don't forget to do my quiz at yeastinfection.org.
And also, just a quick plug for my products.
At Canxida.com, you will find some of the best products for Candida on the internet.
Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to subscribe.
Thank you.