Stacy emailed me with another jewel of misinformation about Candida and acne.
She said that she just discovered that she "suffers" from severe Candida infection. I put the word suffer on quotes because Candida is not something you suffer from. In all likelihood it’s saving your life. Anyway, she said that after her "research" she discovered that she shouldn’t eat fruits. The reasoning goes that fruit has sugar and sugar feed Candida. Hence fruit is bad.
I covered this in Candida and acne page on natural-acne-solution.com. Anyway, here it is again in a nutshell.
First, Candida is not caused by eating sugar. It’s caused by problems with blood sugar metabolism. There’s a world of difference there.
In a recent blood sugar post I mentioned that blood sugar metabolism problems are an issue of output. Meaning the glucose can’t get out of the blood stream. That means insulin resistance.
Here’s how the blood sugar thing and Candida works. You eat and the food is converted to glucose. Glucose goes into the bloodstream, and from there insulin escorts it into your cells. Insulin resistance weakens the action of insulin and glucose stays in the bloodstream.
Your body cannot allow too much glucose to remain in the bloodstream. It can cause some serious health problems, and even death.
That’s where Candida comes in. It multiplies and eats away the excess blood sugar and hence saves your live. So instead of cursing Candida, bless it.
Now that you understand Candida let’s see what you can do about it.
The culprit behind insulin resistance and blood sugar problems is excess fat - not carbs.
When you eat too much fat, your blood gets ‘fatty’. All the fat you are is now floating in your blood. Now your red blood cells, sugar molecules, insulin and insulin receptors at cells are all covered in fat. This layer of fat prevents insulin from working effectively; hence causing insulin resistance.
And after a high-fat meal your blood can remain fatty up to 24 hours.
Clear out the fat from your bloodstream and you can go willy-nilly on fruits without any problems. And soon you’ll discover that your Candida infection is gone.
I know that practically all Candida sites tell you the exact opposite thing. They also say that you have to stick to the diet for months. Some people have been on these high-fat, low-carb diets for years without making any progress.
Candida, like all yeasts, is a short-lived organism. It’s life span is measured in hours. If you don’t constantly feed it with glucose it cannot survive in your bloodstream in large numbers. Candida overgrowth dies-off very quickly.
Just to nail the point home I’m going to quote Steve Pavlina. Steve writes one of the most popular self-development blogs in the web. A while ago he did a 30-day trial on low-fat, raw vegan diet. He kept a detailed diary during the whole time.
Here’s his comment about blood sugar levels during the trial:
I monitored my blood sugar using a blood sugar testing device, the same kind diabetics may use. It showed no discernible spikes in blood sugar throughout the trial whatsoever — absolutely none. In fact, my blood sugar remained incredibly steady throughout the trial. My highest blood sugar reading of the trial was 94, which is still medium-low. All that sweet fruit in my diet simply did not have any adverse effect on my blood sugar.
Eating this way gave my blood sugar more consistency than ever. I couldn’t spike my blood sugar on this diet if I tried. Even eating 19 bananas in one day made no difference.
Isn’t that just weird that all that ‘evil sugar’ did nothing to spike his blood sugar levels? Not even 19 bananas.
I recommend you read Steve’s post. It details out what happened to him during 100% raw food diet. It’s going to blow your mind, especially the tidbit about athletic performance and muscle development.
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September 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am
[…] See example here: Candida and acne - Misinformation strikes again […]
September 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Funny thing. I was thinking the exact same thing as whoever wrote you yesterday. However, the person I’m seeing for my acne said I shouldn’t eat any sugar- in any form.
This is because:
I do have many symptoms like muscle ache, acne, inability to think clearly etc and I didn’t think they were all connected but they are. Though I love your book, I think people should be more careful with advice that is not tailored to their needs. I bought the book, I ate healthily, there was a bit of improvement but the acne never went away. Why? because I was feeding my overgrowth of candida.
So please stop dismissing candida as easily as that, it becomes more dangerous if people who have it ignore their condition.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Lily,
Thanks for a great comment.
We talk about two different Candida’s here. Your quote mentions the one that resides in the digestive track. I talk about the one that’s living in the bloodstream.
I’m not sure if they are different but the issues we talk definitely are.
Hostile Candida in the digestive track probably has much more to do about the content of the digestive track than blood sugar levels.
I’m speculating here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Candida in the bowels would react differently to different substances there.
For example, when one eats meat it causes different type of fermentation happening than when one eats fruits. Different fermentation results in different chemicals being released.
It’s well known meat ferments into very nasty toxins in the gut. And these toxins also cause leaky gut.
One can fix LG by eating plenty of fiber rich, healthy foods, and in simple combinations that digest easily.
I also wouldn’t jump to conclusions that you didn’t get clear because you were feeding your Candida overgrowth. With the symptoms you mentioned I’m not surprised you didn’t get clear.
It may be because of you diet or your body was just detoxing.
Regarding Candida and most health information I tend to trust Dr. Graham the most. He has been successfully treating people with Candida and other health issues for more than 25 years. Plus he has followed his own advice much longer than that. And what he says makes perfect sense.
Because of his track record with Candida I do dismiss it. I think people make far too big deal of it.
I agree with the need of individual recommendations. But I never give very specific recommendations. I’m not qualified to do that. I give guidelines that one has to apply to their own lives.
I do believe these guidelines apply to everybody. As humans we almost identical in terms of our digestive physiology and nutritional requirements. So it’s quite absurd to claim that different people would require wildly different diets.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:41 am
I have to say some of your advice is extremely confusing. You say Candida in the bloodstream is a life preserving mechanism used to stabilize blood sugar when the insulin can no longer function due to fat coatings binding to their receptor cites and those of the cells. In another ACNE 101 lesson, you discussed the cause of leaky gut syndrome, pointing out fungal Candida and other bacteria overgrowth in the gut the rhizomes of which has burrowed into the intestinal wall essentially enabling undigested food particles and toxins to leak freely into the bloodstream.
So now we have two types of Candida, fungal and yeast roaming freely in our bodies without any supervision so to speak. Both gives off toxins as metabolic wastes and eagerly lap up any sugar present in bloodstream or colon or intestines.
When the cat’s away the mice will pay sort of scenario. On the same token, you advice a low-fat diet can eliminate the problem at its source and recommends fruits and raw vegetables in the form of a daily green smoothie.
My question is: While the insulin is compromised and one inhibits fat to bring insulin back in the game…what happens to the current sugar in the bloodstream? Would the Candida not eagerly leap at the opportunity to feast on the sugar from fruits n carbohydrates?
This has been a worry for me….mostly b/c after starting the “green smoothie” regime, my symptoms exacerbated…my energy levels have plummeted, (I get sleepy straight after a meal) and zits popped out of nowhere…and a host of other symptoms I thought were finally far behind me.
While I would loveeee to believe it is safe to resume eating fruits again, this seem to confirm the exact opposite.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Rina,
Good points.
First, some chapters of Acne 101 were written quite a while ago. And I’ve learned a lot since. That can make for small contradictions, but nothing major.
What you should take from the lesson about LGS is that your gut may be compromised. Don’t worry about different strains of bacteria or fungus. They are quite irrelevant (except in special cases). As you get healthier and the body fixes the digestive system those issues generally resolve themselves.
“My question is: While the insulin is compromised and one inhibits fat to bring insulin back in the game…what happens to the current sugar in the bloodstream? Would the Candida not eagerly leap at the opportunity to feast on the sugar from fruits n carbohydrates?”
If there were large amounts of glucose in the bloodstream, yes Candida would probably leap to the opportunity. And you better hope it does.
But once you take care of insulin resistance (partly with correct diet) there won’t be large amounts of glucose in the bloodstream. The levels remain remarkably steady. Candida is only an issue of chronically elevated blood sugar levels.
Since the body clears excess glucose out of the bloodstream very quickly there’s not that much for Candida to eat. Thus large numbers of Candida cannot survive.
Now, to your other question. Why do you feel worse after eating fruits.
There can be many reasons for that, and I can’t say what’s the exact reason for you.
One possibility is that you are not following a low-fat diet. What most people consider low-fat still has 2 to 3 times more fat than is healthy.
Second possibility is that there’s more to insulin resistance and blood sugar problems than diet. I explain these in detail in Clear for Life. Without knowing all the factors I can only speculate.
Third possibility, maybe you are doing everything correct but it just takes time for the body to clear out the ‘old garbage’. These things are not fixed in few weeks.
Fourth, maybe you are going through a detox. Sleepiness, breakouts and generally feeling bad are a common sign of detox. It’s a possibility.
Finally, some people have preexisting conditions (such as food allergies) that make eating fruits difficult and can lead to health problems.
Those were just from the top of my mind. So as you can see there can be a number of reasons for what you are going through. Blaming it simply for Candida (as most people do) doesn’t even begin to address the complexity of the issue.