Medical Questions » Mouth and Throat Questions » Question No. 1379
| Question: | I have Candida, and some anti-candida diets recommend avoiding gluten grains. Why is this? |
| Answer: | Gluten is a protein in certain grains such as wheat, and one of the reasons for avoiding them on a Candida regime is because they are often allergenic, and so compromise the immune system. Some practitioners also believe that, like sugar (but to a much lesser extent), gluten grains feed the Candida by causing a rise in blood sugar. Finally, Candida can damage the integrity of the gut lining, making it more susceptible to irritation by these grains.
If avoiding them altogether seems too extreme, a compromise would be to balance your intake of grains and other carbohydrates with protein, so that you don' t flood your blood with glucose (the breakdown product of carbohydrates). In practice, this means eating meat, fish or vegetable protein with brown rice, pasta, oatcakes, baked potatoes and so on in equal portion size, and non-starchy vegetables in unlimited quantities.
But ultimately, a Candida diet is hard to follow, so you have to find a way to manage it that is workable. And if this means eating grains, then it' s not going to undermine your good work; it may just take longer to clear the Candida. |
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