You've gotten the message about eating the sugar- and yeast-free diet to address the problem of yeast overgrowth, and if you're following that diet, you're most likely eating in a healthy way.
Now I'd like to throw out a few basic ideas about healthy eating.
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| Diet For Yeast Infections |
Over the years, Americans have become very confused about this topic. There's the high-fat low-carbohydrate diet. There's the high-fiber, low-fat diet. There's the cheeseburger diet, the grapefruit diet, the good fat versus bad fat diet. I'm sometimes confused myself. I certainly don't know all the answers, but I can give you the bare bones of what I consider some of the best approaches to healthy eating.
Shop Around the Outer Perimeter of Your Supermarket where you'll find the fresh foods. The interior aisles are crammed with processed foods. And, as I mentioned in previous posts, rotate your foods so you eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
Eat Lots of Fruits and Vegetables. Eat at least five servings a day, nine or 10 is better yet. Of course, if you're doing the anti-yeast special diet, you'll want to keep your fruit intake very low.
There are dozens of scientific studies which show that people who eat the largest numbers of fruits and vegetables are generally healthier and live much longer. Make fruits and veggies the mainstay of your eating plan.
Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables as Close to the Natural State Possible. This means fresh and raw is best, frozen is second best and canned is a far distant third (except tomatoes and tomato sauces, which actually have more healthy lycopene when they are cooked).
If you can grow your salad greens and tomatoes and other vegetables, that's even better, since they are as fresh as possible and you can assure they are pesticide-free.
If you aren't able to have a garden, buy your produce at your local farmer's market. It hasn't traveled far to get to you, which means its vitamin and mineral content will be high. Buy organic if you can to avoid the pesticides and chemicals.
If you have no other choice, look for organic fruits and vegetables at your supermarket. The problem with these is that they have often traveled along distance to get to you, so their nutritional content has diminished. Avoid non-organic vegetables and fruits at the supermarket since they have most likely been sprayed with all sorts of pesticides and fungicides, the residue of which can remain in the food. However, eating fruits and vegetables washed carefully is much better than not eating any at all.
Eat a High-fiber Diet Rich in Whole Grains. In addition to all those fruits and vegetables, which are great sources of fiber, look for whole grains. Throw away all white-flour products, white rice and processed foods in your pantry. Not only are they detrimental to yeast elimination, they're simply not healthy.
If you're not sensitive to these grains, use whole wheat, brown rice, stone ground cornmeal, oats, barley, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat. Become an avid label reader, and if a label says a product contains wheat flour - this is a euphemism for white flour. Don't buy it!
Eat Modest Amounts of Good Fats. Nut and seed oils like olive oil, canola oil, safflower, walnut, sunflower, sesame and flaxseed are the fats you should seek out. They're all great sources of essential fatty acids. Be sure to get unprocessed, unrefined oils that have EFAs intact. Oils tend to become rancid when they remain on a shelf at room temperature, so purchase your oils from a store with a rapid turnover and keep them refrigerated.
Avoid Hydrogenated Oil Products like Crisco or any other spread that remains solid at room temperature. New
government labeling requirements will also let you know the trans fatty acid (TFA) content of foods. Basically, you want to avoid TFAs completely.
Keep Your Meat and Dairy Consumption Fairly Low. In general, a vegetarian diet is very beneficial for almost everyone, but if you still want to eat meat, look for organic chicken and beef.
Much of the non-organically produced meat supply contains antibiotics, which can worsen your condition if you have yeast overgrowth. Insecticides are also commonly used in beef and pork. It's given to the animal before slaughter and after slaughter as a preservative.
Natural yogurt is great - the plain, unsweetened kind. I recommend low-fat varieties for general good nutrition and to help rebalance the intestinal flora.
Eat Seafood in Moderation. Seafood is good - but the pollution of the world's oceans, especially with heavy metals like mercury, has entered the food chain and made it inadvisable to eat seafood more than three times a week. Unfortunately, the best nutritional sources of seafood like salmon and tuna that have high levels of essential fatty acids are also the ones with the highest concentrations of heavy metals. Be sure to rotate the types of seafood you eat. Trim away the fat and dark meat. Also avoid stews that call for the whole fish since toxins accumulate in the internal organs. Avoid raw shellfish entirely if you have cancer, diabetes or any disease that impairs immunity.
Avoid Tap Water. Tap water often contains chemicals from a variety of sources. These include insecticides and weedkillers that remain in the water in spite of purification and filtration. Fluorine, chlorine and other chemicals are added to the water, and chemicals are picked up from plastic or copper pipes. Use well, spring or distilled water.
Don't Microwave Food in Plastic Containers. Plastic can actually release toxic substances into the food, especially into fatty foods.
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| Diet For Yeast Infections |
MY COMMENTS
Again, this is only the bare bones primer of healthy eating. This is what everyone should do, regardless of your health condition. If you have yeast-related problems, you'll need to be much more vigilant about all the types of food you eat, at least until you've controlled the yeast overgrowth and identified your hidden food sensitivities. To find out more, you can check out Diet For Yeast Infections.