256 Diet Wise
The moldy patient
I continue to use the concept of “Candida” in talking to
patients since most people have heard of it and believe that is what they
have. However, I prefer the flippant label I used in my Allergy Handbook
(Thorsons, 1988), the so-called ‘moldy patient.’ It is a term that stays in the
mind, broadens out the debate and gives better insight into what we are
dealing with. Whatever the nature of this illness, its manifestation is of a
disease caused by encountering and being sensitized by biological products
from yeasts, fungi and molds.
Patients are made worse by anything that can be fermented, such as
starch and sugars; they react to foodstuffs containing yeast or mold (bread,
wine, mushrooms etc.); they are often ill in moldy or musty surroundings
(old buildings, woodlands or animal byres); some are even sensitive to damp
weather, when molds are sporing freely; often there are accompanying
infections of the fungus type, including athlete’s foot or other skin infections
such as Tinea and Epidermophyton.
Finally, the patient may have been diagnosed as having Thrush,
either in the mouth, gut or vagina, which is indisputably caused by the
organism Candida albicans.
Treatment spectrum
Treatment is really a spectrum, not just one action. Taking antifungal
medications is not enough and may not even be needed, if you follow the
rest of this advice.
The secret to success, as you have learned all the way through this
book, is lowering the body burden. That means cutting molds and yeast out
of your diet, at least short-term. But you must also eradicate fermentable
foods, otherwise it is like taking with one hand and giving with the other.
If you reduce fermentable foods, notably sugars and starches, you starve
the enemy into submission. A supply blockade is one of the oldest military
tactics in the book!
Use non-fermentable sweeteners if you must, like sorbitol and
xylitol, but please NOT aspartame or sucralose (see page XXX)!
Extreme denials are not called for. Some writers foolishly
recommend avoidance of fruit and similar natural foods. Others say no root
vegetables because the soil in which they grow contains many molds! This
may lead to dangerous inadequacies in nutrition and is bad advice because