Raw Vegan Diet and Anti-Candida Diet

Therapeutic Efforts Supplements & Lifestyle
#1

I see many people recommend either of these diets as a treatment for the mental side effects of finasteride. I would like to post my experience with both.

I tried a raw vegan diet for 8 months. I lost ~25 pounds. I felt like complete and total shit the majority of the time (and this is coming from someone who has been a vegetarian for a long time, so the lack of meat had nothing to do with it). My brain symptoms did not improve at all, and I was exhausted throughout. I should mention that I researched this diet thoroughly, and spent A LOT of time and money preparing myself varied meals, meeting my caloric and nutrient requirements etc. This diet made me feel, and look like I was dying.

I also tried the “strict” version of the anti-candida diet I found on the forums for the anti-candida website. I ate the exact same thing for every meal for approximately 3 months. Fried vegetables, coconut bread, and the herbs + other pills they wanted me to take. This diet did nothing for my mental symptoms. I also took several rounds of diflucan around this time with no effect. I do not think fungal infection is the cause of this problem.

I am curious what SPECIFIC foods have YOU thought to increase your brain fog?
For me, I THINK cookies might be making my symptoms worse within 10-15 minutes of eating them.

#2

This is interesting. I never went as strict as you but right after my crash I started eating almost a paleo diet. It may have been more a function of proximity to the crash, but I felt horrible on the diet! The first real glimmer of hope came over Thanksgiving, ironically when I was cheating on the diet, eating lots of little candies that my relatives had bought.

I used to eat vegetables for lunch and always felt way more tired than normal after lunch. Also, these days I find that dark chocolate (especially with a very high cacao content) makes me both anxious and brain foggy.

#3

yeah, cacao does that for me too. dunno what part in it (i doubt it’s l-dopa cos the effects aint the same as in l-tyrosine) causes it!

faded, this might be strange but if you are still on paleo… would you like to try a high simple-carb version of it? It basically means honey, fruits, berries in abundance + if you want, table sugar in moderation (probably organic natural better??) and only if you are eating any of the 3 earlier along with that sugar. You can also add butter olive oil etc and/or protein along with those dishes. Also, if you can tolerate, add some starches but eat it with protein fat simple carbs etc. This is basically Peat/Danny Roddy - version of Paleo. This is roughly (and maybe little inaccurately, probably not by whole much) the details of the diet and I was thinking that if you have a positive experience while on this diet, then maybe you should read more about it after that.

#4

Cocoa has L-theombrine in it which acts as a stimulator just like caffeine. You will see it in lots of diet supplements.

I prefer a whole foods/paleo diet, but I try to not go under 150 carbs a day. Without strong adrenals, dropping carbs too low will tax them even more forcing you to run on adrenaline, which eventually wears you out.

#5

gef- What you’re describing (adding carbs) is kind of where I’m at. I eat beans and fruit. I just avoid refined sugars when possible. But honestly I think my insulin reaction is a little more regulated after a year of this diet. On the rare instance where I eat candy, I don’t feel the same type of sugar freakout that I used to.

Moon-what you mention about too few carbs hits the nail on the head for me. When I added a degree of healthy carbs to the diet I felt better. Is an inability to deal with stress a symptom of fatigued adrenals? I had that for a while.

#6

Yeah, i think it’s more likely the problem (adrenals causing reduced stress tolerance) than the lack of androgens. As my adrenals improve, so does my stress tolerance. I can’t promise you it is the culprit but I literally have no brainfog at all and great energy levels constantly at 7 until sleep as my cortisol skyrockets. It’s not good ofc but i know my cortisol changes pretty well and I know what causes what at this point with cognitive stuff.

I also realize I was lacking in my description, i def wouldnt want you to do refined processed shit in any form (including pasta). What i was talking about is Peat/Danny Roddy diet, basically a high glucose diet (with variety of sugar forms) where the goal is to increase the thyroid/metabolism activity back to normal thru adequate daily glucose, thus supporting the adrenals in the best way. Paul Robinson’s Circadian T3 protocol also directly supports adrenals with T3 so that got me interested into it. And tbh before xhorndog linked me this stuff… i slowly by myself veered towards fruits and honey etc and i dont really understand why. I was a full paleo you know? and i still cant use starches as source due to fucked up gut flora (have diabolic diarrhea every time i try to test it) but somehow I think i just liked the fructose/glucose sources, like I felt less brainfog than on protein-fat - heavy diet.