Moderation and the Candida Diet

Moderation is defined by Dictionary.com as  the quality of being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme.  I have always had a problem with the concept of moderation in many areas of my life but I find it especially hard to grasp on the candida diet.  Those of you who are familiar with the candida diet have probably become very familiar with the list of approved and prohibited foods and ingredients.  A few of the foods and ingredients that are approved for the candida diet include the following caveat; In Moderation.  To be honest I have pretty much ignored this warning and I do experience an increase in symptoms when I do binge on the foods that are supposed to be eaten in moderation.  I have consumed large amounts of brown rice, brown rice pasta, potatoes and popcorn and then immediately regretted doing so. 

So what does it mean to eat in moderation and why is it so hard to eat in moderation on the candida diet?   Eating in moderation is hard in general but when there are a limited amount of foods that you can eat like on the candida diet, I believe that it is much harder.  In terms of dieting eating in moderation means sticking to serving sizes and not over indulging in any one food.  I have been thinking a lot about the brown rice pasta that I eat.  I realize that it contains a lot of carbohydrates so I must stick to only eating 1 serving size.  Even 2 servings is too much for the candida diet but I often eat just that without even thinking about it.   I believe the problem is that a serving size of this pasta is only 2 ounces.  So what exactly does 2 ounces of brown rice pasta look like? 

This is what 2 ounces of brown rice pasta looks like.  Would anyone find this 2 ounces of pasta filling? This is approximately 50 noodles.  This is certainly not enough pasta for me but it is plenty if you are on a yeast free diet.  So even though brown rice pasta is allowed on the candida diet, moderation is key as this 2 ounces contains 43 grams of candida loving carbohydrates. 

So what is a candida dieter to do?  Shall we omit the foods that we are allowed to eat in moderation if we are unable to stick to serving sizes.  I believe that we can still have these foods but the focus of our meals must be around foods that we can eat liberally, such as lean meats and poultry, fish and low starch vegetables.  If you are preparing a meal thats main ingredient is one of these in moderation foods sticking to serving size will be important, especially in the early weeks of the candida diet.  I will try filling up on the foods that I can eat liberally first and hopefully this will leave less room for those other foods.  This is something that I really struggle and am trying to better with this time around.