Busting Candida Diet Myths

[shelley]

Myth #1: You can't eat cultured foods.

Wrong! Cultured foods are rich in probiotics, the very microbes you need to restore the proper balance to your gut so that candida no longer runs amok. It is, however, best if you make these foods yourself. They should be REAL cultured foods with live cultures still in them, such as:

Kefir - the bomb. Get the unsweetened, unflavored kind, or make them yourself from kefir grains.
Yogurt - not as good as kefir, but still somewhat helpful in propagating the gut with friendly flora. Again, get unsweetened, plain yogurt, cow or goat.

These are tastiest if you add vanilla and Stevia for flavoring and sweetness, and be sure to always add some pungent spice like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger or cardamom for Pungent Therapy, which prevents mucus.

Saurkraut - very healing to the bowels, promotes friendly flora. Only contra-indicated for bad cases of leaky gut.

Myth #2 You can't have condiments.

Okay, you can't have Ketchup, it's full of sugar. But Mustards, horseradish, Tamari (fermented soy sauce), Fish Sauce (Nam Plah) are all allowed. Horseradish and mustards are especially great yeast killers. Chili blends like Thai Red Chili are great sources of Pungent Therapy, which is very very cleansing. Tobasco is a fantastic yeast/parasite killer.

Myth #3 You can't have vinegar.

Wrong again! Vinegar has been used for centuries to kill Thrush and skin yeast infections like Athelete's Foot. Vinegar is the safest household cleanser. A solution of 10% vinegar, 90% water, will kill approximately 92% of all molds, mildews and bacteria! Yeasties hate vinegar. I recommend Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar. Drink it diluted in lemon water or it will eat your teeth. Add it to enema solutions to really exit yeast from the colon fast.

Myth #4 You can't have carbs.

Not all carbs are created equal. Yeasties will feed off of anything that moves very very slowly thru the intestines, and anything that is not properly cooked and/or digested in the stomach. That includes proteins even. But yeasties don't like COMPLEX carbs all that much. You can leave rice out on the counter for 3 days before any mold will show, and even bread lasts for a week before it turns moldy, and since all foods tend to leave your intestines in just 24-36 hours, chances are your grains and rice and even bread will NOT feed yeasties, especially if you prepare them right.

The real reason you need to limit bread is because of wheat and its protein gluten, which most yeast people are incredibly sensitive to. Gluten causes leaky gut and celiac disease, and these illnesses are often misdiagnosed as yeast, so we tend to consider them all as the same exact illness - it just makes treatment more thorough. This leads us to our next myth...

Myth #5 You can't eat Yeast of any kind.

Wrong! Dietary yeast like Brewer's Yeast, or Nutrional Yeast Flakes, or the yeast cakes used to make bread rise, will not promote systemic candidiasis. Yeasts don't eat other yeasts, and live yeasts can't spring from these dietary/nutritional yeasts.

So you really can eat a wide variety of foods and still balance your microbe colonies, you just have to make sure that you:

-prepare them with lots of spices that yeasties hate (see Pungent Therapy)
-make sure they move thru you quickly - constipation causes yeast
-slow-cook or germinate and/or blend your rices and whole grains so they digest quickly and don't cause constipation (brown rice should be congee, for instance).

Hope that helps!

[ivana]

This is a great post Shelley, helps a lot

Did not know that Brewer's Yeast is safe, as I can't find Nutrional Yeast Flakes here.


Thanks again Shelley for making such and effort.

ivana

[Anna]

Good Suff Shelley!

Now maybe you won't have to answer these common question 100 times a month!!! LOL

[Troy]

does it mean i can buy any food products that have yeast in it like yeast or yeast extract?

Thanks

[shelley]

Yep!

[Troy]

How about mushroom? can i eat them on candida diet?

Thanks

[shelley]

Yes.

[Troy]

even i'm allergic to yeast, can i still eat foods containing yeast and mushroom?

Thanks

[shelley]

oh course not!

[ithast2bu]

Please forgive my ignorance: I've tried finding the answer but cannot.
What is the difference between alcohol and vinegar--why does one feed yeast while the other kills it? chemistry is not my forte...

[shelley]

Both alcohol and vinegar kill yeast. You're just supposed to avoid alcohol because of what it does to the body. Candida people are constantly drunk on alcohol because that's what yeasties excrete. They turn sugars into alcohol. That's what fermentation means. The first stage of fermentation yields vinegar. Wait long enough and feed different microbes with sugar instead of salt and you get alcohol instead of vinegar.

[beachbuminthecountry]

[quote="shelley"]Both alcohol and vinegar kill yeast. You're just supposed to avoid alcohol because of what it does to the body. Candida people are constantly drunk on alcohol because that's what yeasties excrete. They turn sugars into alcohol. That's what fermentation means. The first stage of fermentation yields vinegar. Wait long enough and feed different microbes with sugar instead of salt and you get alcohol instead of vinegar.[/quoteThis may be a dumb question, but what about beer or are you talking about the hard stuff.

Thank you and God Bless
Beachbum

[shelley]

beer is alcohol, hard stuff is alcohol, it's all alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol.

[beachbuminthecountry]

But doesn't alcohol have sugar? I know some do some don't right? Can you tell me which ones have no sugar, cause I might want to break down and have a few drinks over the holiday with out sugar.

Thanks again Shelley

[shelley]

Did you read my "how to cheat" post in the FAQ? It tells you how to drink alcohol without doing too much damage.