Candida, H-Pylori and SIBO

Candida albicans is a fungus that is naturally present in the gastrointestinal tract, mouth, eyes, skin, vagina, nose, and sinuses.

Our microbiome is composed of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. In individuals with healthy immune systems, Candida is often harmless and kept in balance with other microbiota, but given the opportunity to grow, Candida will because it is an opportunistic fungus.

• Changes in microbiota or immunity can allow Candida albicans to overgrow and cause infection when the balance of gut flora is disrupted or the immune system is altered.
• Antibiotics, stress, or weakened immunity often trigger candida overgrowth, particularly in those with compromised immune systems or during periods of high stress or illness.
• Pregnancy and hormonal changes such as those caused by HRT or the contraceptive pill can contribute, as high estrogen levels support candida proliferation.
• Diabetes increases susceptibility to yeast infections, making people with unstable blood sugar levels more prone to overgrowth.
• A leaky gut (intestinal permeability) facilitates invasive Candida infections, with the gastrointestinal tract being a common source (White et al., 2007).
• A Western diet high in sugar and refined carbohydrates is a leading factor, as these foods feed Candida and contribute to gut dysbiosis (Fajstova et al., 2020).
• Poor nutrition and pH imbalance can shift gut conditions in favor of fungal overgrowth, increasing the risk of infection.

• Recurring symptoms like thrush and fatigue may indicate candida overgrowth, along with sinusitis, headaches, athlete’s foot, PMS, mood swings, sugar cravings, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, brain fog, and low mood.
• ADHD has been linked to candida overgrowth in some research, suggesting potential neurological impacts.
• A white-coated tongue is a common physical sign that candida levels may be elevated in the body.
• Candida produces over 79 toxins, including acetaldehyde and gliotoxin, which contribute to symptoms like hangover-like headaches, mental fog, and fatigue. These toxins enter the bloodstream when candida contributes to leaky gut syndrome, potentially affecting various organs and promoting chronic inflammation.
• Chronic inflammation caused by candida can have widespread effects on health, and addressing it often involves an anti-inflammatory, gut-friendly lifestyle.

If you recognize these symptoms of Candida, restoring gut balance and addressing yeast overgrowth is key.Sign up to access the full guidance, and members can keep reading for practical, targeted strategies to help rebalance your system.

There are blood, saliva, and stool tests that can detect the presence of candida overgrowth.

You can also refer to the symptoms listed above or do a spit test at home.

Here’s how to test for it at home: upon rising and on an empty stomach, fill a glass with water and spit as much saliva as you can on the water. Wait for three minutes. If the saliva floats and strings appear running down and if a cloud forms at the bottom of the glass, the test is likely positive for candida overgrowth.

Candidiasis and Helicobacter pylori are opportunistic pathogens that can thrive when your immune system is compromised—often due to stress, medications, hormonal changes, or poor gut health.

Left unchecked, they may contribute to gut imbalance, inflammation, and a wide range of uncomfortable symptoms.

The key? Stop feeding the overgrowth and start supporting your gut.

At Eat Burn Sleep, we focus on addressing root causes rather than masking symptoms. Our anti-inflammatory lifestyle is designed to help restore gut balance, support liver function, and strengthen your immune system for long-term health.

Want to understand how to approach Candida and H. pylori with food, supplements, and expert strategies?

When you join the Eat Burn Sleep anti-inflammatory lifestyle, you can follow the section below dedicated to managing and reducing Candida, H. pylori, and Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). This includes guidance on foods to limit and prioritize, supplement support, “healing crisis” (die-off) considerations, and practical lifestyle strategies.

Sign up to access the full guidance and explore the complete approach. Members can keep reading to implement these strategies step by step and support lasting gut health and balance.

SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) is a condition where there is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. Bacteria are present abundantly in the large intestine but are meant to be scarce in the small intestine. This overgrowth leads to early fermentation and gas production and can cause other issues, including steatorrhea (presence of fat in stools), nutrient and vitamin deficiencies, signs of low albumin (fatigue, loss of appetite, water retention), and abdominal swelling (Skryzydlo-Radománska & Cukrowska, 2022).

There isn’t always one single cause of SIBO. Several factors can disrupt the normal movement and balance of the digestive system, increasing the likelihood of bacterial overgrowth.

These may include:

• Reduced gut motility, which can allow bacteria to accumulate in the small intestine rather than being moved effectively through the digestive tract.
• Previous gastrointestinal infections, including food poisoning, which may affect the nerves and processes involved in normal intestinal movement.
• Changes to the gut microbiome, including those associated with illness, medications, or repeated antibiotic use.
• Low stomach acid or changes in digestive function, which may affect one of the body’s natural defenses against excessive bacterial growth.
• Structural changes within the digestive tract, which can sometimes interfere with the normal movement of food and bacteria.
• Certain underlying digestive or metabolic conditions, which may increase susceptibility to SIBO.
• Chronic stress, which can influence digestion, gut motility, and the gut-brain connection.

Because SIBO can have several contributing factors, simply trying to eliminate bacteria without considering why the overgrowth occurred may not address the bigger picture.

SIBO symptoms can vary considerably from person to person and often overlap with other digestive conditions.

Common symptoms may include:

• Bloating, particularly after eating
• Excessive gas or belching
• Abdominal discomfort or cramping
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Alternating diarrhea and constipation
• Feeling unusually full after eating
• Nausea
• Changes in appetite
• Food intolerances or increased sensitivity to certain foods

In some cases, ongoing SIBO can also interfere with normal digestion and nutrient absorption.

Importantly, bloating alone does not mean you have SIBO. IBS, constipation, food intolerances, and several other gastrointestinal conditions can cause very similar symptoms, which is why proper assessment matters.

Supporting and Treating SIBO the Eat Burn Sleep Way

Managing SIBO isn’t simply about restricting more and more foods. Overly restrictive diets can be difficult to maintain and may not address the underlying reasons symptoms developed.

At Eat Burn Sleep, our approach takes the bigger picture into account, supporting the body as a whole while creating an environment that promotes better digestive and metabolic health.

Members have access to our dedicated SIBO guidance, including information on how to obtain an appropriate diagnosis and undergo testing, along with our step-by-step approach to supporting SIBO. This includes foods to limit and prioritize, targeted supplement support, lifestyle strategies, and practical guidance for supporting your gut.

Rather than focusing only on short-term symptom relief, our aim is to help you better understand what may be driving your digestive symptoms and build habits that support your gut health for the long term.

Sign up to access the full SIBO guidance, including information on diagnosis and testing, and discover the Eat Burn Sleep approach to managing SIBO and restoring gut balance. Members can keep reading for the complete guidance.

In addition to the week 1 advice, here are additional recommendations to help you deal with candida overgrowth. Please read the labels to ensure the ingredients comply with the advice in this section.

Foods to avoid:

• Coffee and tea sometimes contain mold. It’s ok to have freshly ground coffee, but consume it within a couple of weeks once the vacuum-packed container is open.
• No fruit apart from the low-sugar fruit and fresh coconut, as fresh coconut has antifungal properties.
• Do not eat paleo treats or light banana bread, as it contains bananas.
• Avoid mushrooms as they are fungi and can feed candida.
• Apart from the low-sugar fruit and fresh coconut, do not eat fruit as fresh coconut has antifungal properties.
• Avoid peanuts and pistachios.
• Do not consume alcohol.
• Avoid condiments such as ketchup, mustard, pickles, etc.
• Avoid all kinds of vinegar except apple cider vinegar.
• Avoid kombucha (it can be high in hidden sugars).
• Avoid soy sauce.
• Avoid emulsifiers and thickeners like “guar gum” or any “gum” additives.
• Avoid butternut squash, sweet potatoes, yams, and all other squashes and pumpkins.

Foods to include:

• Have herbal teas, preferably fresh (fresh mint, fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks in hot water, etc.).
• Low-sugar fruit and fresh coconut as fresh coconut have antifungal properties.
• Paleo Bread and rolls.
• Nuts and seeds are OK (not peanuts or pistachios).
• Pure stevia is OK to consume.
• Apple cider vinegar is fine.
• Use fresh lemon juice and olive oil for salad dressings.
• Raw sauerkraut is fine.
• Include antifungal foods in your diet: carrots, garlic, and onion.
• Cook with coconut oil, as it has antifungal properties.

Like many other physical ailments, the most powerful thing you can do for candida overgrowth is to improve your dietary habits. However, here’s a list of dos and don’t on the supplement front:

• Favor garlic in food form over supplement, as allicin is released when chewing or chopping garlic.
• Oil of oregano is a potent natural antifungal. You can take it on an empty stomach for maximum effect.

Many people with fungus overgrowth will suffer a “healing crisis” due to a die-off of candida, which means you may feel worse before you start feeling better. Sometimes people feel nauseous, have headaches, feel weak, get bloated, have a runny nose, and they can get acne or even a cold.

This is because when candida dies off, it produces even more acetaldehyde. If this happens, rest, keep well hydrated, and have a good intake of sea salt, as cutting out grains, sugar, and dairy will make you lose water and, consequently, sodium and minerals. You can also include snacks if you feel weak, as long as they adhere to the advice below. To deal with Candida, H-Pylori and SIBO, you should follow the week 1 advice for 21 days (3 weeks). After the 21 days, you can move on to week 2.

After following this advice carefully for 21 days, your symptoms (thrush, sinusitis, digestive upset following a course of antibiotics, etc.) should ease. Whenever these symptoms come back, you can do this again and restore balance in your gut.

Check out Yalda’s Live on “How to tackle candida overgrowth” below.

SIBO cannot be reliably diagnosed from symptoms alone because its symptoms overlap with those of many other digestive conditions. Many people with IBS also suffer from SIBO; this 2018 study shows that more than ⅓ of patients with IBS tested positive for SIBO. Symptoms of IBS and SIBO can be similar, hence the importance of establishing a diagnosis.

A breath test is commonly used to investigate suspected SIBO. This test measures gases – hydrogen and methane- produced by microorganisms in the digestive tract after consuming a specific test solution. This test is easily available in big cities and is reliable when it comes to confirming a diagnosis (Losurdo et al., 2020).

For many years, medicine looked at each system individually. Nowadays, an increasing body of research shows links among different body systems and the interplay between gastrointestinal issues and other medical conditions.

A systematic review by Sroka et al., published in December 2022, sheds light on the complex interplay between SIBO and medical conditions that affect the body in a systemic manner. “Multiple studies confirm a constellation of correlations between digestive, cardiovascular, endocrine, neurological, nephrological, connective tissue, or dermatological disorders and SIBO, confirming its multifactorial impact on various medical problems.”

Consequently, it is imperative to address digestive issues and gut dysbiosis to improve prevention, quality of life -from a physical and cognitive standpoint- and longevity.

Resolving SIBO is achievable, but it requires consistent adherence to protocol. SIBO arises from bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, so the EBS SIBO protocol works by restricting the substrates that feed this bacterial population, thereby inducing a controlled bacterial die-off. As bacteria die, they can release endotoxins and other metabolic by-products, which may cause a temporary increase in symptoms before improvement — a process sometimes referred to as a ‘healing crisis’ in the naturopathic literature, in which a patient’s symptoms transiently worsen before they resolve. This is a recognized and generally expected part of the process, not an indication that the protocol isn’t working.

Following the Six-Week Reset with SIBO

Weeks 2–4: Low-Fermentation Nutrition Phase

For members with SIBO, we recommend completing Week 1 of the Six-Week Reset as standard. For Weeks 2, 3, and 4, follow the SIBO-specific nutrition guidance below for a defined 21-day period. Weeks 5 and 6 then return to the standard Six-Week Reset protocol.

The rationale for this phase is substrate restriction: SIBO involves an overgrowth of bacteria within the small intestine, and many of these organisms preferentially ferment short-chain, poorly absorbed carbohydrates (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols). By temporarily reducing the fermentable carbohydrate load reaching the small intestine, this phase is designed to limit the substrate available for bacterial fermentation, which is associated with reduced gas production and improved bloating, distension, and abdominal discomfort. This is a time-limited intervention, not a long-term elimination protocol; the aim is to reintroduce dietary variety once the 21-day phase is complete.

Foods to Restrict During the 21-Day Phase

The following are restricted or limited due to their higher fermentable-carbohydrate or fermentable-sugar content, which is more likely to provoke symptoms during active bacterial overgrowth:

• Fruit, with the exception of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries).
• Refined sugar-containing baked goods (EBS baking recipes are excluded during this phase, with the exception of EBS breads and savoury items).
• Alcohol.
• Higher-sugar vinegars, such as balsamic vinegar and balsamic glaze.
• Caloric and non-nutritive sweeteners (honey, maple syrup, date syrup, artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols), with the exception of pure stevia.
• Condiments containing added sugar (e.g. ketchup, pickles).
• Mustard with ingredients containing sugar (check labels, French and English mustard should be okay)
• Mirin and Coconut Aminos
• Kombucha, due to variable and often significant residual sugar content.
• Root vegetables from the standard EBS lifestyle list (beetroot, quinoa, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, yam, celeriac), with the exception of carrots.
• Squashes, pumpkin and butternut squash.
• Legumes, pulses, lentils and chickpeas (raffinose-family oligosaccharides).
• Garlic, leek, spring onion and onion — fructan-containing and frequently poorly tolerated in SIBO; monitor individual tolerance.
• Coffee — monitor individual tolerance and discontinue if it aggravates digestive symptoms.
• Emulsifiers and thickening agents (e.g. guar gum and other gum-based additives).
• All items on the EBS red foods list.

These restrictions are time-limited and intended to be applied for the duration of the 21-day phase only; the objective is not progressive dietary restriction or indefinite elimination.

Foods to Include

This phase should be built around simple, well-tolerated meals using foods with a lower fermentable-carbohydrate load:

• Herbal teas, ideally prepared fresh (fresh mint, fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks in hot water, etc.).
• Green tea.
• Berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries.
• Non-starchy vegetables.
• Protein sources from the EBS green foods list.
• Nuts and seeds, excluding peanuts and pistachios.
• EBS-approved bread and rolls.
• Pure stevia.
• Apple cider vinegar.
• Fresh lemon juice and olive oil, or the apple cider vinaigrette, for salad dressings.
• Unsaturated fats as listed (olive oil, avocado oil, flaxseed oil, raw nuts, nut butters excluding peanut butter).
• Clean nut milks and clean soy milk (soy milk restricted to women over 40, given its isoflavone/phytoestrogen content).
• Soluble fiber.

Top Tip: Use Anchovies to Replace Garlic and Onion

Mashed anchovies are a great way to add the savory depth normally provided by garlic and onions. When gently cooked in oil, they melt into the dish, losing much of their distinctive fishy flavor while adding a rich umami taste.

Use 1–2 anchovy fillets in place of a clove of garlic or a small amount of onion.

Add the anchovies to your cooking oil at the beginning and stir over a medium-low heat until they break down and melt into the oil. As anchovies are naturally salty, wait until the end of cooking before adding any additional salt.

Works well in: tomato-based sauces, stews, braises, pan sauces and vinaigrettes.

Less suitable for: light or delicate dishes, where the stronger savory flavor may overpower the other ingredients.

Focus on Soluble Fiber

Prioritize soluble fiber, which can help regulate bowel movements while being gentler on the digestive system. Good sources include chia seeds, flaxseeds, psyllium husk, carrots, and zucchini. During a SIBO flare, reducing harder-to-tolerate insoluble fiber, such as wheat bran and large amounts of raw vegetables, may help reduce bloating, gas, and digestive discomfort while supporting regular bowel movements. (Suran et al., 2026).

Why Is This Only for 21 Days?

A highly restrictive diet isn’t intended to be followed indefinitely. Long-term gut health depends on supporting a diverse and resilient microbiome, and unnecessarily restricting foods for extended periods can work against this goal.

After completing the 21-day SIBO-specific phase, return to Weeks 5 and 6 of the Six-Week Reset. If you notice bloating after meals, reduce your consumption of “ good carbohydrates” (except carrots), fruit, honey, maple syrup, quinoa etc. Indeed, carbohydrate intolerance has been linked to several malabsorption diseases, including SIBO (Burke, 2019). Slowly reintroduce carbohydrates based on your tolerance.

The aim is not to become fearful of food, but to temporarily reduce digestive triggers while supporting your gut, before moving towards a broader and more varied anti-inflammatory diet.

The SIBO Protocol can feel overwhelming at first, especially when you’re trying to figure out what to eat each day. We’ve created this 21-Day SIBO Meal Plan to make it simple.

Inside, you’ll find three weeks of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack ideas, using Eat Burn Sleep recipes that work with the SIBO Protocol. We’ve also highlighted simple recipe adaptations where needed, such as omitting onion and garlic and using SIBO-friendly alternatives.

You’ll also find a blank meal planner so you can create your own plan using your favorite recipes from the platform.

Use this meal plan alongside the SIBO Expert Advice and 21-Day Protocol to help you plan ahead, stay organized and take the guesswork out of what to eat.

<<Coming Soon!>>

Support the Gut–Brain Axis

The gastrointestinal tract and central nervous system communicate continuously via the gut–brain axis — a bidirectional network of neural, hormonal and immune signaling that influences digestion, gut motility and symptom perception. A growing body of physiological research shows that acute and chronic stress alter this axis via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system and the autonomic nervous system, thereby changing gut motility, secretion, and visceral sensitivity, and worsening symptoms in functional gastrointestinal conditions, as shown in this study. In practical terms, this means nervous-system regulation is not a peripheral add-on to a gut protocol — it’s mechanistically linked to how digestive symptoms are experienced. Support your nervous system with Eat Burn Sleep meditations, breathing exercises, and other calming practices; even a few minutes a day can help create a calmer physiological environment for digestion.

Walk Every Day

Gentle, regular movement supports digestive motility and metabolic health. A controlled study using continuous glucose monitoring found that slow-paced walking after meals reduced the post-meal glucose rise by over 100% relative to remaining seated, with the effect present in both healthy participants and those with impaired glucose regulation. While that trial measured glycaemic response specifically, the same post-meal activity is consistent with supporting gastrointestinal transit and reducing the physiological “stagnation” that can compound bloating and discomfort.

Aim for a 10–20 minute walk after meals where possible, and avoid prolonged sitting — build movement into your day naturally rather than treating it as a separate task.

L-Glutamine – Whilst L-glutamine can not treat SIBO directly, there is strong evidence around glutamine’s role in intestinal barrier function/permeability and gut barrier health. (Buchman, 2001).

Collagen – Collagen provides amino acids that support tissues throughout the body, including the gastrointestinal tract. Research into collagen suggests it may help support the integrity of the intestinal barrier and gut lining. While collagen has not been shown to treat SIBO directly, it can be included as part of a wider nutritional approach to supporting gut health during the SIBO protocol. (Chen et al., 2017).

Watch Yalda’s SIBO Masterclass here.