I just got my diagnosis two days ago and started on antibiotics yesterday. I have probiotics as well.

I'm finding it difficult to balance my meals and medications between what needs to be taken with or without food, 2 hrs apart from what, yadda yadda yadda.

Plus I'm paranoid about this whole yeast thing I keep hearing about.

I'm a vegetarian so a lot of what I eat is carbs and sugars...but I eat good carbs and sugars! Juices, fruits, whole wheat breads...

Lots of salads, tofu, and soy-based substitutes. Mmm.

How worried to I have to be about yeast problems? How will I know if one is going to crop up, or if it has?

My mother is very concerned that if I cut out too many carbs and sugars, I'll lose weight, and I'm already about 15lbs underweight barely reaching 110lbs.

So what's the deal with yeast?

Here are a few links that have lots of information about yeast.

Tincup's Yeast Information http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001199.html

Tincup's Food Allergy Information http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/005561.html

Tincup's Leaky Gut Syndrome http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/022031.html

I hope this helps some.
Beverly

I know that many people on this board are probally going to disagree with me.....

I personally don't worry about the carbs to much... I defetinetely dont worry about natural sugars. and I eat things in the bread group. I do try to cut out junk food sugar... and i try to aviod adding sugar to foods or drinks (like tea)

I have had a couple problems but some of my problem was the pills sat in my stomach forever (i have a very slow digestion) the other was because i didnt know alot about acidolphilous and i didnt get a good one.

Currently i take culturelle twice a day and no problems with yeast.... of coarse some people seem to develope yeast problems easier.... If you are correctly taking a good acidolphilous and develope a yeast infection.... ask your dr. for diflucan to kill the yeast...

some people dont want to use diflucan because it is hard on the liver and they rather try natural things... me I like diflucan it works fast. and IF you get a yeast infection you can then start to restrict carbohydrates more rigidly.

I'm 110 and 5'5 (size 1 jeans) and if I would cut out carbs completely I would loose so much weight so i understand ur problem.

This is the kinda of acidolphilous I use and like... there are lots of other kinds though

Culturelle

www.culturelle.com

it has to be refrigerated as soon as you get it

I know that many people on this board are probally going to disagree with me.....

I personally don't worry about the carbs to much... I defetinetely dont worry about natural sugars. and I eat things in the bread group. I do try to cut out junk food sugar... and i try to aviod adding sugar to foods or drinks (like tea)

I have had a couple problems but some of my problem was the pills sat in my stomach forever (i have a very slow digestion) the other was because i didnt know alot about acidolphilous and i didnt get a good one.

Currently i take culturelle twice a day and no problems with yeast.... of coarse some people seem to develope yeast problems easier.... If you are correctly taking a good acidolphilous and develope a yeast infection.... ask your dr. for diflucan to kill the yeast...

some people dont want to use diflucan because it is hard on the liver and they rather try natural things... me I like diflucan it works fast. and IF you get a yeast infection you can then start to restrict carbohydrates more rigidly.

I'm 110 and 5'5 (size 1 jeans) and if I would cut out carbs completely I would loose so much weight so i understand ur problem.

This is the kinda of acidolphilous I use and like... there are lots of other kinds though

Culturelle

www.culturelle.com

it has to be refrigerated as soon as you get it

You can't always tell if you have a yeast problem, because many symptoms are things you probably already have: fatigue, muscle ache, etc. Some very clear signs are itchiness or vaginal symptoms, but not everybody gets those symptoms.

As far as yeast goes, juices and fruit are bad sugar. Some fruit, such as berries and granny smith apples, are considered ok if eaten with protein. This is because of the high fiber.

I understand the difficulty you have being a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian for 14 years, and started to eat meat again in March. The reason was the anti-yeast diet. I tried the yeast diet years ago as a vegetarian, and I couldn't stay healthy. I lost a lot of weight and was constantly tired.

I decided that if I am investing so much in my health right now - with time, money and energy - it didn't make sense to put that health at risk by remaining a vegetarian. It was a hard decision. I prepared mentally for months.

I have to say, I started feeling much better when I began eating meat again and my muscles strengthened very quickly. I can't be sure it's the meat. I think it's the combination of increased protein and cutting out the simple carbs.

I'm not telling you to eat meat. That's a decision only you can make. I just wanted to share. There are also some middle points that you may want to consider, such as eating fish.

If you stay vegetarian, make sure you have protein with every meal. If you eat grains, make sure they are whole. Read labels, because many things made with whole grains have some form of sugar added. Some food ideas are:

Aniek:
My mom's main worry was meat, and she was worried years ago but when I conceeded to eat chicken once a month or so and tried to do that, I found quickly that my body can no longer properly digest real meat. I did it for two weeks and couldn't take it, plus it broke my heart. So I'm not willing to go back to meat both from my belief system and the fact that my enzymes are "dormant", if you will.

I try to eat a boca burger every day, i eat it with a potato-whole-wheat dinner roll as the bun. I also eat a romaine, feta, and tofu salad every day, and I have plenty of those 'smart deli'/'the good deli' soy lunch "meats".

I'm finding that I get a lot of good advice from my diabetic friend as well...it seems to be a similar set of restrictions.

But still...I wonder how worried I should be about it at this point...

Is this something that crops up as a problem only after long-term use or is it something to keep strictly under control from the get-go?

Not everybody will have a yeast problem. But, if you do get one, it's hard to get rid of. It is something I think should be taken into consideration the moment you start antibiotics.

Years ago, I had problems after 2 months on an antibiotic. It took almost a year to get rid of the yeast. During that time I was almost always uncomfortable and tired and it really impacted my relationship because I couldn't be intimate.

Everyone is different and our bodies react differently to different things at different times.

I was a strict vegetarian for 10 years (not vegan but no "flesh" of any kind).

When I started having severe yeast problems about 10 years ago (in my pre-LD days) I had to give up eating ALL sugary things for a while (fruit, honey, molasses, juice etc).

I was able to get back to those again but I kept junkie sugars to a minimum. After being a sugaraholic (most chocolate) for years as a vegetarian I found that I craved heavy protein without the sugar in my body.

So I eventually added fish and chicken to my diet on a minimal level and still ate mostly vegie.

As I've aged I've found that I seem to be healthier with more "meat" in my diet and less carbs-not NO carbs-just less carbs and good carbs-(brown rice, sprouted grains, etc) not bad carbs-(white flour and other "white" items)

In learning about hormone imbalances I've realized that my feeling better eating meat may be related to hormone issues.

Also be aware that many yeast free diets also restrict foods made with yeast, fermented foods (like tofu, pickles and vinegar), "fungus" foods (like mushrooms), and also PEANUTS which can harbor fungus at times.

Also I think many people may be sensitive to one or more of these foods dairy, eggs, soy, corn, and wheat products as well as the "nightshade" family (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant) and because vegetarians eat more of these than omnivores do they have strange maladies that they can't attribute to anything in particular.

In my case I've discovered that I have sensitivity to cheese and other dairy products.

This is terrible because there's nothing I adore more then a good stink piece of cheese.

But I've learned to limit my consumption of cheese and I feel much better for it. But as a vegetarian I would have been lost without my cheese everyday several meals a day.

Anyhow I think that we all need to gather as much info as we can and then try to figure out what works for each of us.

Wishing you healing and good health.

Most packaged, processed foods have lots of things to help sustain the shelf life and to give them the flavor of something they are not - like bacon or burgers.

I learned the hard way that I had to go clean & fresh with my diet and, I had to have some protein.