Sondra Forsyth - Candida Cleanse: The 21-Day Diet to Beat Yeast and Feel Your Best

CANDIDA CLEANSE

The 21-Day Diet to Beat Yeast and Feel Your Best

SONDRA FORSYTH

Ulysses Press

Text Copyright 2014 Sondra Forsyth. Design Copyright 2014 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the Internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in the U.S. by:

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN13: 978-1-61243-325-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013957238

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Acquisitions Editor: Katherine Furman

Project Editor: Keith Riegert

Managing Editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Susan Lang

Proofreader: Elyce-Berrigan-Dunlop

Index: Sayre Van Young

Production: Lindsay Tamura

Cover design: Double R Design

Cover artwork: Jenny Solomon/shutterstock.com

NOTE TO READERS: This book has been written and published strictly for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or to be any form of medical treatment. You should always consult with your physician before altering or changing any aspect of your medical treatment. Do not stop or change any prescription medications without the guidance and advice of your physician. Any use of the information in this book is made on the readers good judgment and is the readers sole responsibility. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition and is not a substitute for a physician.

Contents

The Fungus Thats Now Among Usand Why

Remember the schoolyard taunt Theres a fungus among us? The chant was typically followed by a chorus of Kill it before it multiplies! Those bullies on the playground might as well have been talking about the fungus Candida albicans. It starts out as a friendly yeast among the beneficial microbes in your intestines but morphs into a meanie if you indulge in what is called the Western dieta diet high in sugar, red meat, white flour, and processed foods. The transformation from benevolent yeast to nasty fungus might also happen if you take certain medications such as antibiotics and oral contraceptives or you undergo chemotherapy. Whatever the cause, the result is a condition called Candida overgrowth, which can bring on myriad health problems.

First, the Good News!

The main strategy you have to follow is to starve it by cutting out the foods it needs to survive. Thats the good news. The even better news is that because those foods just happen to be the same ones that are bad for your health in general, the Candida Cleanse diet will boost your vitality and give you a wonderful feeling of overall well-being.

One thing leads to another: When you cut out sugar and white flour, that means most processed foods are outbut you still need to eat, so you go for fresh foods instead of processed foods and whole grains instead of white flour, and you quit craving sugar. The result? You feel terrificand virtually rejuvenated! Imagine waking up in the morning refreshed and invigorated, ready to take on the joys and challenges of the day ahead instead of dragging yourself out of bed with aches and pains and a general sense of malaise. Convinced? Great!

But what next? What exactly should your diet consist of? If you search for Candida on the Internet, youll get tens of millions of results. Change the search to Candida albicans and youll reduce the results to a few million. Candida cleanse will net you about a couple of million choices, and Candida cleanse diet will yield nearly that many possibilities. Im pretty sure that you dont want to wade through all those results. Fortunately, this book organizes all the important facts available about Candida overgrowth and presents them to you in an easy-to-digest form. Youll find concise yet comprehensive information about diet and lifestyle changes that can get your system back to normal after the good little yeast in your gut morphs into an opportunistic pathogen.

You dont have to resort to liquid diets or colonics to beat back the Candida fungus. Instead, the Candida Cleanse is a very easy-to-follow three-phase program: is your diet for life. Honestly, its simpleand you wont feel deprived!

Okay, so you know you can defeat Candida overgrowth. Thus far Ive given you the bare essentials of how and why the overgrowth happens, so now lets get into detail. Why does Candida go on the rampage?

Gut Microbes out of Balance

Candida isnt inherently a bad guy. In its one-celled state, its a valuable yeast that helps absorb nutrients and protects your intestinal tract from infections. Candida turns into a villain only when your gut flora (the microbes in your intestines) are thrown off balance. Overgrowth is simply the phenomenon of the benign one-celled yeast transforming into its menacing formwith long filaments penetrating mucous surfaces and becoming invasive. This overgrowth happens because the bacteria that keep Candida in check have been depleted.

One result of the overgrowth can be the miserably itchy genital infections that plague both men and women. Another common problem is oral overgrowth, known as thrush. Beyond that, a wide range of disorders, including chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, and depression may result when Candida runs amok.

WARNING!

Invasive candidiasis and candidemia, a form of invasive candidiasis, are potentially fatal bloodstream infections. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the infections are extremely rare in people without risk factors such as a compromised immune system, but they are the fourth most common hospital-acquired bloodstream infections in the United States. Symptoms include fever and chills. The diagnosis is made with a blood culture. Immediate medical attention and treatment with antibiotics are essential.

Antibiotics Overprescribed

One reason for the high incidence of Candida overgrowth is that doctors vastly overprescribe antibiotics for ailments that dont call for these medications. A study led by the University of California, San Francisco found that in the United States between 2007 and 2009 broad-spectrum drugs aimed at a wide range of bacteriarather than narrow-spectrum drugs aimed at a limited rangeaccounted for the majority of antibiotic use among people who were not hospitalized. Not only that, but more than a quarter of the prescriptions were for conditions against which antibiotics arent even effective.

The result is that the gut flora of the hapless patient who swallows this unnecessary medication is thrown out of kiltergiving Candida just the opportunity it needs to dominate and transform from good yeast to menacing fungus.

Taking antibiotics, whether you really needed them or for no good reason, may be at least one of the reasons for your Candida overgrowth. But take heart! The Candida Cleanse can correct the problem by depriving the fungus of the nutrients it needs to survive.

Heres a real-life story about Sharon, a victim of what has been dubbed French bread thumb:

While cutting a loaf of bread I sliced into my left thumb. Instinctively, I stuck my thumb in my mouth and sucked on the wound. Bad move! As I later learned, the human mouth is rife with germs that can cause harmunlike animal saliva, which can actually promote healing. Because I was in a rush to complete the preparations for my dinner party, I simply ran cold water over my thumb and didnt bandage the cut.