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Chapter 8 - Diet and Yeast Infections

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I believe that in many ways our traditional western diet is killing us slowly.  Sugar is, by far, the biggest offender.  It is in everything and Candida albicans feeds on it!  A report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest issued in 1999 stated Americans eat an average of 64 pounds of sugar a year.  This translates to 2.8 ounces each and every day (http://www.cspinet.org/new/sugar_limit.html).  You can see the sugar trend has been rising steadily over the last 20 years.

The Sugar Association, Inc. (http://www.sugar.org/science/consumptionscoop.html) inevitably supports this information (although they say they are refuting it) stating  after food loss, etc., is accounted for we really only eat about 64 pounds of sugar per year, translating to 2.8 ounces per day.

 



Regardless, it is pretty easy to see sugar is in everything these days.  Just pick up any container in the grocery store and read how much sugar is in a serving.  Even a supposedly healthy snack such as Yoplait yogurt contains almost 40 grams of sugar.  In addition to sugar, simple carbohydrates (white flour, potatoes, other starches) can feed candida.  It is very easy to convert a simple carbohydrate into a sugar.  You add insult to injury by eating a donut.  Not only do you feed the candida a LOT of sugar, but you also include the white flour in the donut.  Your hips will be wider and your candida will be very happy.  We seem to provide a perfect environment for the growth of candida in our systems and to make matters worse, the candida drives you to crave the things that feed it best.  Cravings for sugar are very common in people with systemic yeast infections, even cravings for coffee, beer and mushrooms are suspect because each of these feed the yeast.  I have included a listing of foods Candida albicans loves.  If you notice you eat a lot of these foods, it may be worth eliminating them for a while and seeing if your chronic yeast infections clear up.

Now, I am not saying that you should go ON this diet..  It is a very rigorous diet and one that must be pursued for a long time (you have to be on the diet for 1 month for every year you have had candida - this is NOT a nutritionally sound diet). Not many of us (me included) have the discipline to stay on it for very long.  Our lives just don’t seem to allow it.  It is interesting, however, to see the sorts of foods this list contains which are thought of as yeast feeders.  If you notice a correlation between what you are eating and your occurrence of a yeast infection, it might be a good idea to eliminate that food and see if it affects the reoccurrence of your yeast infections.  However, if you are disciplined and want to give it a go, I know you will feel better (perhaps much better than you might expect) if you can stick with it.

This list of foods to eat can be found at http://www.bioelectric.ws/eng/diet.html.

Diet - Simplified Version

Just avoid all sweets (including fruit and fruit juice) and things made from white flour. Eat more protein and vegetables (raw if possible) and whole grain bread (without sweetener which may mean you have to make your own).

 



Diet - Complex Version

The foods listed below are foods you want to avoid eating as they may help feed yeast.

GRAINS: Avoid prepared flake cereals or sprouted grain cereals of amaranth, buckwheat, corn, millet, rice, rye, spelt, and wheat. Avoid granola, instant oats, pearl barley, blue corn meal (degerminated), degerminated cornmeal, degerminated hominy grits, and microwave popcorn.

PASTA: Bufin (Japanese noodles), farina, semolina, somen (Japanese noodles), and white flour.

BAKED/PREPARED PRODUCTS: Avoid any yeast sweetened baked/prepared product, mochi (sweet brown rice unleavened bread) pita bread, yeasted chapatis, white flour, taro chips, white flour tortillas, sourdough bread.

LEGUMES: Avoid beans and peas with sweeteners, all kinds of bean sprouts, peanuts, tempeh (fermented tofu), tofu, TVP (textured vegetable protein).

NUTS & SEEDS: Avoid coconut (the sweetened variety), peanuts, pistachios, and walnuts.

Avoid soymilk (sweetened), buttermilk, all kinds of cheeses, cottage cheese, kefir, milk, sour cream and sweetened yogurt.

FRUIT: Best to avoid all at first but after eliminating the candida infection you can eat low sweet fruits such as apple, grapefruit, strawberries, melons. Definitely avoid all dried fruits.

BEVERAGES: Avoid all types of alcoholic drinks, all types of cereal beverages, chocolate drinks, coffee (regular or decaffeinated), all fruit juices (fresh or processed), soft drinks (sugared or diet), sugar-sweetened drinks, tea (black or oolong).

 

SAUCES: Sauces with sweetener (ketchup and steak sauce), tomato sauce with sweetener.

ANIMAL PROTEINS: Avoid antibiotics in meats and eggs (usually in beef, chicken, pork) smoked meats and meats prepared with sweetener.

CONDIMENTS: Avoid capers (dried and powdered), garlic (dried and powdered), herbs (dried and powdered), miso (consolidated tofu soup), olives, onion (dried and powdered), pickles, sauces with vinegar and sweetener, sauerkraut, spices (dried or powdered), distilled vinegar.

VEGETABLES: Avoid cucumber skins, mushrooms (all types), potato skins, prepared soups, canned tomatoes

Seems like a bunch of things, huh?  After that list you are probably wondering what can you eat?  Well, here is that list.

Foods that are OK to eat

GRAINS: Whole amaranth and flour; whole barley, flour and hatomugi; Buckwheat flour and groats; undegerminated corn meal (fine or coarse grind); masa harina; popcorn (air popper), whole millet and flour; oat bran, flour, groats, quick; whole quinoa and flour; wild rice; brown rice (long, med. or short grains), brown basmati rice, texmati brown rice, and wehani brown rice; rye flour, groats, and cream of rye cereal; whole spelt and flour; whole teff and flour; wheat berries, unprocessed or miller's wheat bran, bulgur, cracked, durum, graham wheat flour, whole wheat flour.

PASTA: Corn, quinoa, saifun (Japanese noodles), soba (buckwheat), udon (Japanese noodles), and whole wheat.

BAKED/PREPARED PRODUCTS: (Any whole grain unsweetened, unyeasted) chapatis, whole wheat flour, corn chips, quick breads, unsweetened rice cakes or crackers, tortillas, brown, corn or whole wheat.

LEGUMES: Beans and peas (canned with water and salt only), dried or frozen black-eyed peas, chickpeas, garbanzo beans, lentils, soybeans, soyflakes, and split peas; unsweetened soymilk.

NUTS & SEEDS: Almonds, brazil, cashews, hazel, macadamia, pecans, pinenuts, poppy, pumpkin, sesame (tahini), and sunflower.

FRUITS: Small amounts of fresh lemon, lime, tomato, and eggplant.

BEVERAGES: Vegetable (no carrot or beet), mugicha, toasted whole barley, coffee substitute (without malt), unsweetened soymilk, unsweetened Taheebo or Pau d'Arco tea, and water (plain or carbonated).

CONDIMENTS AND SEASONINGS: Chicken broth without sweetener, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh herbs, fresh onion, pepper, salt, tamari (unfermented soy sauce), and raw organic apple cider vinegar (Bragg or Spectrum brand).

VEGETABLES: Fresh, canned or frozen (except tomato).

ANIMAL PROTEINS: Antelope, bear, beef, buffalo, caribou, chicken, deer, duck, eggs, elk, all types of fish, frog legs, game hen, goat, goose, grouse (partridge), guinea fowl, moose, mutton, peafowl, pheasant, pigeon (squab), pork, quail, and turkey.

DAIRY PRODUCTS: Plain yogurt with acidophilus culture. kefir

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