Bex,

I hear you, because I am also on the Whole Approach anti-candida diet that Sandi is on. I've been on it for about 2 1/2-3 years now. But let me tell you, it was incredibly hard to give up - my favorite foods were cheese, anything sweet, and I liked to drink specialty beers. Very hard to give that all up. And there are many reasons for the discomfort, besides cravings and a desire to eat those foods. There is a very big social element to eating. It's hard not being able to find food at restaurants, having to make most everything you eat from scratch, dealing with endless questions from people about why you can't eat these things, to be hungry when you are out of the house and not being able to find food you can have, not being able drink socially (especially when that used to be a big part of social life), etc. And if people use food for comfort, that is a huge layer to peel away on top of everything else. Once I adjusted to the diet and was able to make sugar-free sweet treats, I didn't feel that deprived anymore. But as you said with your experience, it's so hard to get past that initial frustration and set of cravings. For me, the cravings never fully went away, although they did lessen.

On top of all that, I think people are very skeptical that such a diet would truly help them. Between being emersed in a processed food culture - one that does not value anything natural, especially not medicine or foods, and being in denial that these things will help because it invloves a radical life change....I don't blame people for it (or at least I can understand where they are coming from). It took me about 6 months of only doing the diet half-assed, before I realized that I was only getting worse. Then I went full out into doing the diet proper (with a few splurges with pizza each year!), and it truly did help. But I am still sick as hell, and cannot wait to get my mercury detox really under way because I'm sick of battling this. I finally understand why I haven't been able to get well - the mercury would not allow me to heal from the candida. What a mess it all is.....

That's all for my late night ramblings! Take care.
~Tia