CAN DIETS HELP CANDIDA OVERGROWTH, ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS AND IBS?
In this blog, we are going to look at the most commonly recommended diets, starting with the Anti-Candida Diet.
Anti-Candida diet
If you have environmental illness you are likely to have been told you have an overgrowth of yeasts, or Candida, and may have tried various anti-Candida diets which generally involve cutting out sugar and alcohol, and sometimes also starches and fruit. But yeast overgrowth is a symptom of a damaged biome (please see previous blog CAN A DIET HEAL?) and is simply one of many bugs that will colonise a body with compromised immunity and which has been weakened by toxins. That doesn’t mean the Candida doesn’t need treating, but only as part of a programme that restores the biome and improves the biological terrain. Bugs can only live off toxic matter so detox is an essential part of this process. Unless you do this, and strengthen your immune system, the yeasts will simply grow back. It is impossible to have a stand-alone yeast infection. There will almost certainly be chronic bacterial and viral infections as well. One way of dealing with this is to follow the three-phased raw diet advocated by Dr Gabriel Cousens, outlined in his book Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, where you can read a more detailed explanation of what goes wrong with the immune system and how to put it right.
Gluten and Casein Free Diets
Perhaps the most well-known of the prescriptive diets is the gluten-casein free diet recommended for autism and M.E., autoimmune diseases and weight loss. And there is no doubt that everyone notices improvements when cutting these foods out. This is because the proteins in grains and milk have been so damaged by modern agricultural methods, chemicals and processing that they are no longer recognised as foods by the immune system. In adddition, they are difficult for the digestive system to break down and since they have only been eaten since Paleo times, they were not part of our natural diet.
Dr Western Price was an American dentist who travelled the globe in the 1930s and 40s, researching the links between diet and disease. He studied fourteen indigenous peoples who were still eating their ancestral diet and following the hunter gatherer lifestyle. He discovered they all had straight teeth, good musculature and the prowess of an athlete. Unfortunately, these characteristics disappeared upon adoption of the refined, ‘civilised’ diet, but were reversed within one generation upon a return to their natural diet. You can see the before and after photos and read about Dr Price’s findeings in his seminal book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
The WPF supports a return to a pre-industrial diet when grains and dairy were grown and prepared as they had been for thousands of years. Grains are GM-free, organic and naturally produced. Before the invention of the combine harvester, wheat was allowed to mature until six feet in height and would then have been fermented into a sourdough, which partially digests the gluten. Over the last 50% years wheat has been bred to contain 50% more gluten and it is also stickier and more likely to constipate.
Dairy is taken raw rather than pasteurised or hydrogenised. Contrary to popular belief, refrigeration has negated the need for pasteurisation. It simply allows the industry to sell old milk. If you would like to know about the effects of pasteurisation and homogenisation on milk and health, and why you should never drink skimmed milk, please read Go Paleo – Feeding the Urban Caveman.
The Industrial Revolution marked the introduction of mechanised, mass production and refining of food which coincided with the appearance of food allergies and digestive problems. But even though the hybrid forms of these foods may have initiated sensitivity, in my experience, once you have become sensitised to these foods, even eating them in their natural state may still provoke a reaction. I, personally, don’t consider grains to be a very good source of nutrition, as they are heavy on the digestion and require more nutrients to break them down than they supply. For more information about this, please read Go Paleo – Feeding the Urban Caveman.
Diets for Environmental Illnesses
Autism, M.E., M.S., and other neurological diseases are becoming epidemic with dementia overtaking cancer and heart disease as the number one cause of death in the western world. Dementia is not a disease of aging. It is caused by the accumulation of neurotoxins over several decades which are sprayed on our foods and released into our environment. It is also linked to EMF damage to brain cells, which is why in Korea, the first country to introduce the smart phone, people in their twenties are being diagnosed with digital dementia.
Dr Terry Wahl has written two books detailing how she improved her M.S., symptoms where meds had failed. She managed to swop her wheelchair for a bike simply by going Paleo and eating huge amounts of leafy green veggies every day. I suspect the reason she improved may have been because she was offsetting a methylation problem by focusing on high folate foods. She was also avoiding pesticides, GMOs and other chemicals. Additionally, the chlorophyll in the greens would have helped bind and remove toxins. (M.S. is associated with heavy metal toxicity and chronic infections and can be helped with natural treatments.)
FODMAP Diet
If you have IBS, you may have come across the FODMAP diet developed by gastroenterologists in Australia. The FODMAP diet eliminates different groups of sugars, such as fructose or lactose, which can cause fermentation in individuals with an imbalance in gut ecology.
Whilst the FODMAP diet may reduce intestinal inflammation in the short term, it does not correct the dysbiosis associated with starch intolerance as it eliminates the very sugars needed to grow beneficial bacteria. (A common cause of lactose intolerance is antibiotics as they tend to kill off starch digesting bacteria.)
SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) is linked to EMF exposure (radiation kills everything, so if you are the size of a gut bacteria you will be destroyed from one exposure), and ICV (ileo-caecal valve) problems. The ICV allows food to pass from the small intestine into the large intestine. If it doesn’t close properly afterwards, there can be back flow from the bowel allowing bacteria and toxins into the small intestine where they set up inflammation. Overgrowth of bacteria from the large intestine can swamp the ecology of the small intestine replacing strains needed to break down sugars with strains that ferment them instead. You can find out more about diets to support gut health from the books Eat Dirt and Grain Brain.
The SIRT Diet
The high SIRT diet boosts antioxidants and immunity, helping to reduce the risk of degenerative disease. The aim of the SIRT diet is to activate sirtuins, proteins which regulate ageing, cell death and inflammation and this can be a good way of eating for some. Unfortunately, foods that are high in sirtuins are also high in phenols which can cause migrainous headaches in those who lack the enzyme to properly break them down.
Don’t miss my next blog in which we will look at the increasingly popular AIP and ketogenic diets, and diets to reduce sensitivity to histamine and oxalates.