Polly Hattemer Book 3 Diet

The Health Forum
Book 3
The Health Forum

Book 3
Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health
Edited and Compiled by Polly Hattemer
2003 by Polly Hattemer, also known as Pauline Hattemer All rights reserved. Permission must be obtained from the individual contributors before republishing their work. Purchase of this PDF file entitles you to use it for yourself and immediate family, but not to distribute copies to others. Please contact us if you wish to make hard copies for a support group.
Published by Health Reflections Book Corp PO Box 900 Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-0900 USA email: [email protected] August, 2003 version Minor updates will be made occasionally.
More Health Forum books can be found at www.dysbiosis.com

Book 1: Candidas Impact on your Health Book 2: Candidiasis and Dysbiosis Abatement Techniques Book 3: Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health Book 4: Hormones, Dysbiosis and Candidiasis Book 5: Hope for Autism through Nutrition Book 6: Cleansing the Body of Mercury Book 7: Fibromyalgia Treatment Options
Disclaimer
This book contains the opinions, anecdotes, and speculations of lay people. Anecdotes are for pondering. They are not necessarily representative of the majority of people. However, anecdotes do serve to illustrate possibilities as well as how different we are. The contents of this book should in no way be considered professional advice nor should it be interpreted as prescribing treatment. Use your own judgement. If you do not understand the risks involved with a particular treatment or supplement discussed in the book, please consult a knowledgeable professional. We have tried to present the well-known dangers of treatments and supplements in this book. However, never treat this or any other information as the whole truth. There is always more to be learned. Nothing is absolutely safe. Accordingly, the publisher and the contributors to this book do not assume any liability in connection with any of the supplements or treatments mentioned in this book. Although all contributors have tried their best to provide reliable information, this book is not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. Readers are encouraged to consult other sources. Please note that the principal editor, who gathered these posts, does not have any financial interest in any of the supplements or laboratories mentioned. If only one brand or one distributor is mentioned, it is not necessarily an endorsement. It has just been included to give the reader at least one place to readily obtain a remedy. There is no guarantee that the website addresses in this book will be valid or correct. Website addresses go stale and sometimes they are taken over by other businesses. There are also many phone numbers in the last index of this book. There is no guarantee that they will remain valid. Prices of supplements are as of the writing of this book. Again, there is absolutely no way that we can guarantee that these will remain the same. Listed prices may just give you an approximate idea of the cost of products.
Table of Contents
Whats Dysbiosis? ................................................................................................. 8 About The Health Forum Books .......................................................................... 9 The Internet Forum ............................................................................................ 10 Diet Considerations ............................................................................................. 11 Meal Preparation............................................................................................... 11 Food Allergies.................................................................................................... 12 Soy Foods and the Impact on Your Thyroid ...................................................... 15 Infant Soy Formulas Particular Dangers ...................................................... 16 Detoxify, But Dont Fast .................................................................................... 16 Undenatured Whey............................................................................................. 18 Raw Milk ............................................................................................................ 19 Yogurt................................................................................................................. 20 Fruit Kefir .......................................................................................................... 22 Why Cant We Drink Milk?................................................................................ 24 Salt and IodineWill eat Seaweed for Thyroid ................................................ 25 Smoking, Coffee? ............................................................................................... 28 MSG ................................................................................................................... 29 Raw Broccoli Can Make You Fat! ..................................................................... 31 But Carrots Can Keep You Trim! ...................................................................... 32 Raw Foods ......................................................................................................... 32 Carbohydrates ..................................................................................................... 35 Breaking the Vicious Cycle The SCD Diet..................................................... 36 Raw Honey ......................................................................................................... 41 Caveman or Paleolithic Diet ............................................................................. 42 Celiac Disease ................................................................................................... 44 Protein .................................................................................................................. 46
Protein Intolerance ............................................................................................ 46 Vegetarian or Omnivore? .................................................................................. 48 Irradiation Of Meat............................................................................................ 53 Fats And Oils ....................................................................................................... 55 Excessive Omega-6 Oils In The Diet ................................................................. 55 The Warm Body Argument................................................................................. 56 Animal Fats........................................................................................................ 57 Heating Unsaturated Oils Create Transfatty Acids........................................... 57 Pizza Poem......................................................................................................... 57 Canola Oil or Olive Oil? ................................................................................... 58 The Virtues of Coconut Oil ................................................................................ 59 Doesn t Coconut Oil Cause Heart Disease? ..................................................... 60 Emu Oil .............................................................................................................. 61 Mead And Intrinsic Oils..................................................................................... 63 Fish Oil .............................................................................................................. 65 Flax, Primrose, Or Borage Oil Anyone? ........................................................... 66 Correcting the Fatty Acid Profile ...................................................................... 70 Acid & Alkaline ................................................................................................... 74 The Benefits Of Controlling pH ......................................................................... 74 Bicarbonates And Food Reactions..................................................................... 77 Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, And Breathing .......................................................... 78 Dr. Cheney s Oxygen With Carbon Dioxide Treatment .................................... 79 Yeast And Acidity ............................................................................................... 80 Is This Food Acid Or Alkaline? ......................................................................... 81 Many Factors Influence pH ............................................................................... 82 Should We Alkalinize The Body? ....................................................................... 83 Let The Body Cycle ............................................................................................ 85 Biological Terrain.............................................................................................. 85 Index ..................................................................................................................... 87
Preface
The true power of the Internet is the people who are on it. Rather than being a huge impersonal library, the Internet is filled with live people from all over the world who contribute their thoughts, perspectives and experiences. At one particular site in this vast sea of exchanges, people have gathered to discuss health concerns related to the yeast syndrome and dysbiosis. The people at this Internet site/forum have learned and gained so much from their cyberspace meetings that they decided to create this book to let others share in the ideas and information exchanged. This book is a gift from our hearts to you. No one was paid for his or her contributions, and all net royalties will be donated to charity. May our efforts bear fruit, and may you, the reader, enjoy this book, and learn as much from the people at the healthy awareness forum as they have from each other.
Acknowledgement
This work would not have been possible without the support of my husband, Dale Goudey, PhD. Thank you for your patience and for your generosity. A special acknowledgement is due Raymond Peat, PhD. Without his 1985 lecture on The Endocrine System and Candidiasis, I would have surely lost my health. More than anyone else, his books and newsletters have influenced the way I think about nutrition. Thank you Andy Cutler, PhD, for teaching me about mercury poisoning, and thank you Willis Langford for teaching me about autism. I owe much to the Candida and Dysbiosis Information Foundation, as they were my only link with reliable information for many years. Thank you to all my friends on the Internet who participated in this endeavor. Special thanks to Susan Rodriquez, Shelley Thorstensen, Kippy Noble, Thone Ritch, Billie Jo Secrist, Marilyn in Seattle, Jeanne Jackson, and Taylor Vance for their suggested improvements to the book. Also, Huy Hoang, MD was kind enough to review the book for me. Thank you Brent James for the formatting suggestions. Rosalind James, Shari Ostapiuk and Sondra Lewis have my sincere gratitude for proofreading the manuscript. And of course, last but not least, thank you to Kelly Nowicki for bringing so many of us together at the healthy awareness Internet site. This book would not exist if it werent for the help of so many.
Whats Dysbiosis?
Dysbiosis means there is too much yeast, harmful bacteria, viruses or parasites in the intestines. Dysbiosis does more than interfere with digestion. Dysbiosis makes you tired. It alters your immune system. It upsets your hormonal balance. It can even make it difficult for you to think clearly. Dysbiosis can cause anxiety, depression or mood swings. Dysbiosis can affect almost every aspect of health. A person with dysbiosis is more likely to suffer from Frequent Colds or Flu Brain Fog Attention Deficit Autism Crohns, Colitis Anxiety Prostatitis Interstitial Cystitis Food Allergies Mitral Valve Prolapse Leaky Gut Sinus and Ear Infections Constipation or Diarrhea Fatigue Arthritis Hypoglycemia Eczema and Hives Hypothyroidism Carpal Tunnel Asthma Migraines Poor sleep Fibromyalgia Depression Notice that many of these same ailments are attributed to Candida or The Yeast Syndrome. That is because the yeast syndrome is really dysbiosis. Dysbiosis is just a more general term. It encompasses the observation that yeast arent the only intestinal residents that can cause these symptoms. In fact, intestinal bacteria or viruses may have center stage in some of these illnesses, not yeast. Even though yeast isnt the culprit every time, the presence of intestinal yeast can be a huge factor in the health of some patients. Unfortunately, yeast overgrowth is particularly hard to eradicate because yeast can live inside body cells where antifungals cannot kill them. The sickest dysbiosis patients will have both yeast and harmful bacteria in their intestines. Depending on the situation, a person may want to employ antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals or antiparasitic medication to kill the pathogens inside the intestine. However, there is a lot more to the art of getting well than just killing pathogens. If you kill off one resident of the intestines, another is going to take its place. Will it be good? Seeding the intestines with good
What s Dysbiosis?
bacteria can help ensure that the new growth is healthy. Sometimes the lining of the intestine must be washed in order to make space for the implantation of the good bacteria. Although this may be very helpful, this doesn t assure a successful outcome. The situation is very analogous to farming. You can remove rocks, kill weeds and plant good seeds, but you aren t going to get a good crop if the soil is poor. Your body is the soil. Bacteria live off of the mucous lining of the intestine. You grow this lining. Therefore, the bacteria are living off of you. If your body chemistry is wrong, your intestinal bacteria aren t going to be healthy. That is one reason why some people get yeast/Candida after taking an antibiotic, and other people don t. Their body chemistry is different. How do you change the body s chemistry? Good food is part of the answer. How you can aid the body digest this food is covered in book 2 of The Health Forum. Book 3 will give you some idea of how to choose and prepare that food. Aren t there enough diet books out there already? Unfortunately, there isn t one that explains why our dietary needs are so different and how the food we eat affects our intestinal flora and body chemistry. This book attempts to fill that gap. Please be aware that since everyone s needs are so different, this book will not give you simplistic rules to follow. Instead, you may be shocked, because many of today s dietary golden rules will be shown to be dangerous. This book will teach you why our modern diet promotes dysbiosis and teach you how to find a personal diet that will help you heal.
syndrome, autism and mercury poisoning. The conversations first took place on the Internet. Then they were compiled with permission into these books. However, you will not be reading exact replicas of the Internet conversations. Editing was necessary to avoid repetition of information and to help with the clarity of presentation. Often a person will post a message that covers many different topics. Including the whole message/post would make organization of the book impossible. So most posts were shortened to only include comments on one topic at a time. To improve the organization further, several real discussions on the same topic were often combined to create what appears to be one long discussion in this book. Background material and introductory remarks were added through the voice of Polly, the person who gathered the posts for this book. Occasionally, you will find a post from a Mr. or Mrs. Generic in this book. This was a necessary artifact to keep the discussion moving. Because there was so much information gathered, it was necessary to split The Health Forum into several books. Book 1 Candidas Impact on Your Health. Is the problem really Candida, or is it just a weakened and toxic body that allows the candida/yeast to take over? What about bacteria, parasites and viruses? This book also covers the total body load, liver support, and the usual concurrent health problems associated with yeast overgrowth. Book 2 Candidiasis and Dysbiosis Abatement Techniques. This book delves into some basic methods for eliminating the problem, like employing the right antibiotics, antifungals, and probiotics. Also, this book discusses the particular vitamins and minerals that are more likely to be depleted in this syndrome.
About The Health Forum Books

In these books, you are listening to real people talk about their experiences with the yeast

The Health ForumBook3
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Book 3 Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health. There isn t a perfect diet for everyone. However, some very common mistakes must be avoided. There is much that we can learn from each other. Book 4 Hormones, Dysbiosis and Candidiasis. When there is dysbiosis, often there is low thyroid, high estrogen and/or weak adrenals. This book explores the proper use of hormonal support when dysbiosis is present. Migraines are also covered. Book 5 Hope for Autism through Nutrition. This book covers autism, attention deficit, and vaccinations. Most people with autism have severe dysbiosis. What helps the autistic provides insight into everyone else s dysbiosis problem. The treatment of attention deficit is also touched upon in this book. The treatment strategy is very similar to that for autism. The role of vaccinations and mercury in triggering autism is also explored. Book 6 Cleansing the Body of Mercury. Those who are mercury poisoned are very likely to have dysbiosis. This book covers mercury detoxification methods and the role of amino acids in dysbiosis and mercury toxicity. Book 7 Fibromyalgia Treatment Options. Fibromyalgia is a special case of dysbiosis, with usually a bacterial overgrowth in the intestines. This bacterial overgrowth can contribute to the poor sleep, lack of energy and hormonal disturbances found in this condition. This book departs from the usual format, and is but a summary of the information gleaned from the patients and medical literature. Even if you are only interested in the conditions specifically covered in the latter books, at some point you should consider reading the first few
books. The earlier books will add depth to your understanding and give you many practical hints on how to recover. All the chapters are fairly self-contained, so you can read the chapters or the books in about any order you wish. However, if you are new to this subject, you will find that the chapters in the first books are easier to grasp. The vast majority of messages found in books 1 to 4 came from the Healthy Awareness Internet forum. These messages can still be found in the archives at www.healthyawareness.com. However, the latter books are a little different as they focus on autism, mercury poisoning and fibromyalgia. Although these illnesses are discussed at the healthy awareness site, they are not the main thrust of the conversations. Therefore, to a much greater extent, other Internet resources were tapped to complete these books.
The Internet Forum

The quotes in this book are but a snapshot in time of the interactions found at the healthy awareness forum. As people heal and move on with their lives, they visit the healthy awareness forum less often. If you come visit the forum, most of the people found in this book will no longer be there. Yet, you will find other very interesting and caring people at the forum who would love to have you join them. Please be aware that at any Internet site, including this forum, unfortunate misunderstandings arise. When you visit, please try to keep your posts polite and unambiguous. For many of us, fatigue and brain-fog make it difficult to create perfect posts. Please don t expect perfection. The forum is a place to learn, express your thoughts and enjoy the camaraderie. Have fun!
Diet Considerations
Polly: In this book, we will explore how to support the immune system with diet, and how to heal the intestines. Unfortunately, this book cannot give you one ultimate diet that is right for everyone. This book will, however, give you many things to think about, and a place to start. To heal, most people focus on eliminating yeast and Candida from the intestines. However, we need to take a broader perspective and realize that the immune system allows the Candida / yeast to grow. We also need to respect the role that intestinal bacteria, parasites and viruses play in altering digestion and immunity. Since most people have had success with restricting dietary sugars and carbohydrates, try this first. Give it at least three weeks to determine if sugar is a factor or not. You might not be able to tell immediately because during the first couple of weeks, you may be experiencing dieoff symptoms. Look for foods that are not far from what nature provides. Then try different things mentioned here, and observe your body closely. Your body will decide what is right in your diet at any given time. Keep a diary, and observe what helps you and what doesn t help. Also, learn what you can from other people s experiences and thoughts. Try to keep an open mind and choose what makes sense. Be willing to give up your present diet, even if logically you consider it an ideal diet. Your body is the ultimate master. Pay attention to how it reacts. Also be aware that the diet which is best for your body will change as you heal. There are five chapters on diet in this book. Several miscellaneous topics are presented in the first chapter, followed by chapters on carbohydrates, fats, protein, and acid/alkaline balancing.
Meal Preparation
Mrs. Generic: I quit making myself low carbohydrate meals because so much cooking was involved. I have a high stress job, and little time for this. Is there some way to minimize the amount of time spent cooking? Dhyan: I am afraid I will be of no help in giving you quick food ideas, but I would like, if I may, to express myself on food in general. In this culture, we have funny ideas about food. We cannot take the time to prepare it, which implies it is of low worth to us, but then we will pay large sums in fancy restaurants and such for others to do the work for us and serve us the rich and poorly combined food that promotes our illnesses. We tend to put our jobs, our leisure, our relationships ahead of food, something without which, none of those things would be concerning

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us. I see at least a part of the struggle with candidiasis as a healing of our relationship to foodthe thing we do not live and breathe without. There is nothing anymore important than this, nothing, yet we want it fast, furious, and deadly. I too have a very busy job at university and have stresses as well with which to deal, but until I began putting nutrition first and healing my relationship to food, I made very little headway with this affliction. Now, in spite of how busy I am or all else that needs being done, twice a day, I find a way to tie on my apron, cease all else, bow low, and enter my kitchen to prepare my medicine, my food. There is no more beautiful thing in my life. These meal-makings have become sustenance for me in more ways than oneboth physically and spiritually. This may sound very silly, but my kitchen has become my temple, for in it, I find nutrients for both the body and soul. The more I give over to each meal experience, the more I receive. Healthy food made with attentiveness and appreciative wonder tastes entirely different from food made in distraction or haste. I hope this does not sound too silly to you, but this is very much the case for me. As I mentioned, until I gave myself permission to forsake all else, suspend all other worries and take whatever time is needed to eat healthy everyday, my progress was fitful and slow. I cannot tell each and every one of you how to make time for this. Each has to first understand its importance before you can understand that you CAN unseat your career, your stresses, your leisure and your relationships from top spot of energy draw, and in their place, place food, without which you do none of these things anyway. I meant not to discomfort you with this soapbox (nor did I mean to soapbox!), but everyone here shares their successful ideas, and this one is mine. Make as important as your life
the living things you eat, and wonderful healing can come about on more levels than just one.
Food Allergies
Sue P: Early this year, I decided to go off sugar. Lo and behold, once I got off sugar, I realized other foods were making me feel rotten. They include all yeasts, molds, and fermented foods, but also others: milk, soy, citrus fruit. Anyway, I went to an allergist who did the traditional tests, and said I am allergic to molds. He refused to do the ALCAT testing for other allergies because he said it isn t science, even though my PPO will pay for it. And he said usually those tests tell people they can t eat anything. However, I want to take the tests for find out what I can eat. I need help with my food allergies and don t know where to turn. Polly: I took a blood test and was allergic to every food. The foods that I was most allergic to on the test were the foods that I had eaten that week. Things like barley and tangerine that I rarely eat showed up as highly allergenic just because I had rotated them into my food plan that week. Big deal! It didn t tell me anything. There was nothing done about it either. I was just told to avoid those foods. However, if you decide to do these tests, the best results are usually obtained after you have removed the main allergens or problem foods. Be aware that there will be foods that you should avoid that you are not allergic to. They will not show on the test. You need to be the detective. For those interested, there are many labs that will do an IgG food allergy blood testGreat Plains Lab, KS, 913 341 8949, Great Smokies Lab, NC, 800 522 4762, Immuno Laboratories, FL, 800 231 9197, Meridian Valley Lab, WA, 253 859 8700, and MetaMetrix, GA, 800 221 4640.
General Diet Considerations

There are many things that I feel could help you deal with the food allergies and reactions. 1) Keep a diary. Notice if a pattern develops with any one food. Look for emotional as well as physical reactions. Be aware that some reactions may not appear for 24 to 72 hours after ingestion of the offending food, or longer if you are constipated. Then there are more subtle reactions. It took me a couple of months to realize that avoiding potatoes was helpful. I wasn t allergic to them, but the yeast in my body liked them. Similarly, anyone with Clostridia bacteria should probably avoid wheat, oats and casein (a protein found in milk.) [1] Once in a while, you will be sensitive to certain combinations of food, so watch for that too. 2) Be particularly wary of any food that you crave or eat large quantities of; that is an indication of a possible problem with that food. The usual allergens are wheat, corn, eggs, chocolate, and/or milk products. 3) Nightshade plants seem to be a problem for some people with arthritis. Nightshade plants are bell peppers, chili, pimento, paprika, cayenne, eggplant, tobacco, and potatoes but not sweet potatoes and yams. 4) If you have yeast overgrowth, you are more likely than most to be sensitive to yeasts, mushrooms, vinegar, and cheeses. But you can eat these if you aren t sensitive to them. In particular, if vinegar doesn t bother you, you might consider using apple cider vinegar on you salads. Some people have found it helpful because vinegar, being an acid, kills yeast and bacteria, and can support the stomach acid levels. 5) Be careful about MSG, modified food starch, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein. You are more likely than most to react adversely to these.
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6) If you are mercury poisoned, you are more likely than most to be sensitive to foods with a high sulfur content, like eggs, milk, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, onions, garlic and coffee. 7) Some people are sensitive to certain colors in their vegetables. It isn t necessarily an allergy, but an inability of the liver to deal with certain colors. 8) If aged cheese (not cottage cheese or cream cheese), wine, Brewer s yeast, and chocolate give you a headache, then you might be reacting to the tyramine in these foods. 9) Be aware that you might react differently to vegetables and fruits that have been genetically altered. Organic fruits and vegetables are not supposed to be genetically modified. In Europe, genetically engineered food is labeled. However, if you live in the USA, it is hard to tell when you are eating genetically engineered food. There is no requirement to label it as such. See www.truefoodnow.org/index.html 10) Elimination diet. I ve not tried this, but others say that this is a good way to uncover food allergies. You go on a diet with foods that are generally considered non-allergenic and then, after a few weeks, you start adding in one food at a time and observe your reaction. 11) Rotation diet. This means eating a particular food no more than once every three or four days. You might try the rotation idea, but personally, I found it big hassle to keep track of the foods. With most meals, I was left with only one or two things to eat. Instead, I seemed better off when I ate as large a variety of foods as possible at each meal. If you mix vegetables and meat at each meal, then it will be more acid/alkaline balanced. When this happens, I believe you are less likely to have an allergic reaction.

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12) Cutting down on the gut inflammation will help get rid of the food reactions. This can be done by eating some roughage but not too much. A little fish oil and some emu oil might bring the inflammation down. Butter is soothing to the intestines. 13) Taking probiotics can lessen the food allergies. People recommend that you start the probiotics after you have gotten the bacteria or yeast down with diet. Then you gradually add higher doses of probiotics. 14) MSM and Seacure will improve the health of the gut. This may help with the allergies. For the money, MSM is the best to start with. Seacure costs about $40 retail for a month s supply. For $20 you can buy enough MSM for several months. Both are very good for improving the collagen of the intestines. Some people cannot tolerate the Seacure, possibly because it has a little rosemary in it. Some people cannot tolerate the MSM, especially those with heavy metal poisoning. 15) Vitamin A and the correct amount of zinc are very important for the health of the intestines. 16) The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) may help cut down the intestinal inflammation. It is worth trying. You will have to avoid all grains. However, there are some people who can go on a modified SCD diet, and eat brown rice or corn once in a while. 17) NAET (Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Techniques) is a rather strange way of getting rid of allergies. However, I spoke with a woman who finds it a godsend and uses it all the time to control her reactions to newly offending substances. After taking treatments from Dr. Nambudripad, eventually she learned to do it on her own. You wash your hands, then hold the offending substance or a glass vial containing the offending
substance. Then you tap various acupressure points and also use an electronic device to stimulate some acupuncture points. Then you wash your hands again. You must avoid the offending substance for the next 24 hours. When you first start this treatment sequence, there is a specific order of substances that you treat, usually starting with B vitamins. Dr. Devi Nambudripad has a book called Say Goodbye to Illness, and a website at www.NAET.com . 18) A drug called sodium cromoglycate (Intal and Nalcrom) helps prevent food allergies, inflammation and leaky gut. The drug keeps mast cells from emptying their serotonin and histamine when presented with antigens. 200 mg is taken 4 times daily, 15 to 20 minutes before meals. (Without consistency, you can get yourself into trouble.) The drug also helps prevent migraines caused by food allergies. I wouldn t rely solely on this. You have to implement other strategies too. (In the form of an over-the-counter nasal spray, Nasalcrom, this drug can be helpful in preventing airborne allergies and snoring. However, I tried it, and it didn t help me.) If all of the above fails to help, then you have to look at what might be causing your immune system to react adversely. Mercury or other heavy metals, toxins, Lyme or other infections can be the root cause of your problem. Even an injury to your spine could cause a paralyzed bowel syndrome, which could make it easier for yeast and bacteria to overgrow. Mary W: The sodium cromoglycate is also called cromolyn sodium (a.k.a. Gastro Chrom), which has been around for a long time. I know someone who is basically allergic to all food who swears by it. You have to take it faithfully for 3-4 weeks before it kicks in. Apparently the most

effective form is compounded which most MDs don t know (surprise, surprise). Mr. Generic: Get your doctor to order cromolyn sodium 400 mg by mouth, four times a day for 30 days, with two refills. It comes in a powder form. You mix 1/2 teaspoon (which contains 1600 mg) with a little hot water then dilute it with enough cold water to equal a quart. Then you drink a cup four times a day, 20 minutes before each meal. All the instruction will come with your order. It s totally easy to use, just like drinking plain water. It s tasteless and odorless. It s lumpy when you put it in cold water, but melts readily in hot water. Not all compounding pharmacies make it. Your doctor can order it from: Clark s Pharmacy 15615 Bel-Red Road Bellevue, WA. 98008 phone (425)881-0222 It will cost about $100 for a month if you purchase it from this pharmacy. Most insurance companies should pay for it if you submit a claim. However, check with them to get the procedures down correct, because some insurance companies are pretty picky about compounded substances. My naturopath says most people turn around in about 6 weeks. He is recommending a three-month course. Sue P: I guess I m wondering if you know of a good support group on the net for this kind of thing. Polly: Besides the forum, you might want to join the SCD diet list or the Paleolithic diet list, or both. Both of these diets are probably close to what you need. Here are two SCD lists: [email protected], and
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[email protected]. This is a Paleolithic website www.paleodiet.com. This site has more www.foodinformation on food allergies, allergy.org.
Soy Foods and the Impact on Your Thyroid

Mary Shomon: In researching my book, Living Well With Hypothyroidism: What Your Doctors Don t Tell You...That You Need to Know, from HarperCollins, I talked to Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, an environmental scientist and phytoestrogen researcher who has conducted in-depth studies on soy, particularly the use of soy formulas. Dr. Fitzpatrick makes it clear that soy products can have a detrimental affect on both adults and infants. In particular, he firmly believe that soy formula manufacturers should remove the isoflavonesthat part of the soy products that act as anti-thyroid agentsfrom their products. Researchers have identified that the isoflavones act as potent anti-thyroid agents, and are capable of suppressing thyroid function, and causing or worsening hypothyroidism. Soy is a phytoestrogen, and therefore acts in the body much like a hormone, so it s no surprise that it interacts with the delicate balance of the thyroid s hormonal systems. High consumption of soy products is also proven to cause goiter. [2] Isoflavones belong to the flavonoid or bioflavonoid family of chemicals, and are considered endocrine disruptersplants or other products that act as hormones, disrupting the endocrine system, and in some cases, this disruption involves acting as an anti-thyroid agent. (The grain millet, for example, contains high levels of flavonoids, and is commonly known as problematic for thyroid function). Flavonoids inhibit thyroid peroxidase (TPO), which disturbs proper thyroid function.

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A feature on soy in the March 1999 issue of Natural Health magazine quoted Daniel R. Doerge, PhD, a researcher at the Food and Drug Administration s National Center for Toxicological Research. Dr. Doerge has researched soy s anti-thyroid properties, and has said . . . I see substantial risks from taking soy supplements or eating huge amounts of soyfoods for their putative disease preventive value. There is definitely potential for interaction with the thyroid. One UK study of premenopausal women gave 60 grams of soy protein per day for one month. This was found to disrupt the menstrual cycle, with the effects of the isoflavones continuing for a full three months after stopping the soy in the diet. Isoflavones are also known to modify fertility and change sex hormone status. Isoflavones have been shown to have serious health effectsincluding infertility, thyroid disease or liver diseaseon a number of mammals.
Not much is being done in the U.S. to make parents aware of the thyroid-related dangers of soy formulas, or to alert the public that heavy soy consumption may be a danger to thyroid function. Other countries, however, are far ahead of the U.S. In July of 1996, the British Department of Health issued a warning that the phytoestrogens found in soy-based infant formulas could adversely affect infant health. The warning was clear, indicating that soy formula should only be given to babies on the advice of a health professional. They advised that babies who cannot be breastfed or who have allergies to other formulas be given alternatives to soy-based formulas. Polly: Those warnings apply to toddlers too. Soy based milk substitutes meant for adults aren t a good idea for children. Besides the isoflavones problem, they don t supply enough vitamin D to prevent rickets. Rice milk is a problem for toddlers too. It doesn t have enough protein in it to keep a child healthy. [4]
Infant Soy Formulas Particular Dangers

Mary Shomon: Since the late 1950 s, it has been known that soy formulas contain anti-thyroid agents. Infants on soy formula are particularly vulnerable to developing autoimmune thyroid disease when exposed to high exposure of isoflavones over time. [3] This study found that the frequency of feedings with soy-based milk formulas in early life was noticeably higher in children with autoimmune thyroid disease, and thyroid problems were almost triple in those soy formula-fed children compared to their siblings and healthy unrelated children. Dr. Fitzpatrick even believes that long-term feeding with soy formulas inhibits TPO to such an extent that long-term elevated TSH levels can also raise the risk of thyroid cancer.
Detoxify, But Dont Fast

Polly: This following article can be found at Dr. Lynda Wells website on natural healing. It is repeated with permission. Dr. Well s practice is in Rode Island, where she offers clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, Hatha Yoga, Reiki, craniosacral therapy, Japanese magnetic healing, and colon cleansing. http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~rjcha/wells/wells.htm Mr. Generic: What do think of fasting for detoxification? Do you recommend a water or juice fast and for how long? Lynda Wells, PhD: Toxins are excreted through our skin, in the urine, from the lungs, and via the liver and gallbladder into the feces. The excesses

are stored in the body especially in fatty tissue. As we age, unless we take care of ourselves, we are storing toxins produced by our own metabolism, and those produced in our unhealthy intestines by bacteria and yeast. In addition we are accumulating food additives like artificial coloring, preservatives, flavorings, conditioners as well as herbicides and pesticides, exhaust fumes, industrial wastes and so on. There are 1000 newly synthesized compounds introduced each year, according to the 1989 Kellogg Report; that is 3 new chemicals per day. When the body experiences an overload of toxic substances, the consequences can be headache, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, irritability, depression, mental confusion, gastrointestinal tract irregularities, cardiovascular irregularities, flu-like symptoms, or allergic reactions including hives, stuffy or runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. Toxic overload may also contribute to more serious conditions such as autoimmune disease including inflammatory and rheumatoid arthritis, and neurological disease such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons diseases. Unfortunately when we try to rid ourselves of these toxins by fasting (or even when we diet for weight loss), these toxins get released from fat and cause free radical damage to our DNA and proteins, ie cause accelerated aging. Besides toxin release, there is evidence of muscle wasting when fasting for an extended period. If someone is relatively young and healthy and has been on a good diet, I will recommend a one day fast every week, indefinitely. On that day, I recommend that they eat as much as they want of the same kind of fruit all day long, such as apples or grapes or oranges (if not allergic to citrus). I prefer whole fruits rather than juices both for their natural fiber content and because the sugars from whole fruits trickle into the bloodstream more slowly than sugars from juice. That means no steep rise in blood sugar and little
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hypoglycemic rebound. Drinking 8 glasses of water, and having a sauna on the fast day will promote excretion of toxins directly through the skin, which will help to make fasting less taxing on the body. (Here in Wakefield, we have a $1 sauna that a great group of woman go to. We bare our souls to each other as well as our bodies, therapists for each othersocial life as well as health benefits!) On the following day, a two quart cleansing enema is helpful. But if people are unhealthy and/or overweight, the current nutritional thinking (such as by Dr. Jeffrey Bland in his 1995 seminar New Essentials in Nutritional Medicine ) is, rather than fasting, go on a two to four week diet that: 1) Removes foods and beverages that are likely to contain toxins and/or food allergens. Some substances that everyone should avoid but especially sick people are tobacco, alcohol, excessive salt, caffeine, irritating spices, refined carbohydrates, processed, canned, refined, man-made or otherwise adulterated phoods , rancid foods, and hydrogenated fats and oils. 2) meets the basic daily nutritional needs of an individual, including adequate, highbiological-value protein content. What the person does eat depends on their unique genetic makeup, predisposition, illnesses, and diet intake history and on their total toxin load. Usually an adequate diet would include some fruit, vegetables, millet, rice, clean flesh foods or legumes, and yogurt if not allergic to any of the above. There is a high rice protein concentrate that I ve been finding extremely helpful for highly allergic or otherwise compromised people. 3) provides adequate flushing with clean water to promote the elimination of biotransformed toxins.

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4) provides increased amounts of the nutrients that are required in the enzymatic steps that occur in the transformation of toxins in the liver. Let me explain what the liver does. It has a complex system of biochemical pathways, called Phase I and Phase II detoxification reactions. These pathways serve to restructure undesirable chemicals so that they can be eliminated from the body. In most cases this involves modifying these chemicals in such a way that they go from being fat-soluble substances to water-soluble ones which can then be excreted, either to the gallbladder and thence to the stools, or to blood and thence to the urine. Those who are deficient in nutrients that support the liver s Phase I reactions (as determined by liver function tests), need more B vitamins, glutathione, branched-chain amino acids, flavonoids, phospholipids. Those that are deficient in the nutrients that support Phase II enzymes need added antioxidants and the amino acids, glycine, taurine and sulfur donors such as glutathione, N-acetyl cysteine, methionine, cystine and cysteine. To summarize, a water fast, being totally devoid of energy sources or supportive nutrients, may in fact cause much damage due to toxin release from fat tissue to blood and consequent free radical damage. A juice fast is better since it provides nutrients, but is still deficient in some of the rate-limiting vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that the liver needs to convert the toxins to excretory products. The latest nutritional thinking is to provide top notch clean nutrition for detoxification, so there is no muscle wasting and so the liver detoxifying enzymes work optimally, thereby preventing free radical damage. Polly: I would like to add that anyone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) needs to be careful in how quickly they detoxify. Detoxifying
too quickly could make their sensitivities worse. Dr. Cheney emphasizes that CFIDS and MCS patients bring up their glutathione levels before beginning any detoxification program.
Undenatured Whey
Polly: Undenatured whey is whey that has not been heated enough to ruin its healing properties. Heating destroys the immunoglobulins and breaks the peptides. Undenatured whey contains glutyl-cysteine (a peptide) rather than just cysteine. [5] Glutyl-cysteine and cystine are what the cells need to make glutathione. Undenatured whey will raise glutathione levels. This whey will also help resolve anemia. Those with AIDS and CFIDS have found it invaluable. However, there are some drawbacks to whey. Because of the high cysteine and cystine content, there is considerable debate over whether it is advisable for those who are mercury poisoned. Cysteine will move the mercury around. Too much cysteine will also suppress thyroid. Another problem with whey is that it contains a relatively high amount of tryptophan compared to milk or cheese. Too much tryptophan could be harmful. Undenatured whey is essentially raw whey, but legally they have to call it pasteurized in order to sell it. They use microfiltering to make sure there is no bacteria in it. The method by which they do the microfiltering is different for each company. Therefore you will get some differences in effectiveness between the products. The brand called Immunocal is excellent, but it is about twice the price of the other undenatured whey products. It is from a network marketing company, Immunotec, making it somewhat difficult to buy. You can t just call up and order some. You need to have a sponsor or become part of their sales force, at least in name only. Phone: (888) 917-7779 or (450) 424-9992

and website: www.immunotec.com or www.immunocal.com. The Immunocal product is approved for Medicaremeaning that under some circumstances (like AIDS or severe chronic fatigue), your insurance might pay for it, assuming you send them the correct forms. The people at Immunocal, Inc, can help you get the forms you need. IMUPlus is another undenatured whey product. It can be purchased through Allergy Research / Nutricology, phone (800) 782-4274 or or website www.nutricology.com. There is also ImmunePro undenatured whey. ImmunePro is available from N.E.E.D.S., phone (800) 6341380, website www.needs.com. For those few who have access to raw milk, and who are not so immunocompromised that they worry about the bacteria and viruses in raw milk, they can make their own undenatured whey. Whey is the liquid left over after making cottage cheese. The bacteria have eaten the lactose (milk sugar), so there shouldn t be much left in the whey. The whey will have very little casein in it too. The casein is left with the curds. (Casein is a milk protein that some people cannot tolerate.)
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St. Vincent s Hospital in Philadelphia by switching from pasteurized to raw certified milk. The commercial pasteurized milk often had a bacteria count of 200,000. The sister in charge of the hospital was very concerned about the high death among infants from gastroenteritis. She asked Dr. Cassidy for his advice, and he recommended a switch from pasteurized to raw certified milk. The pasteurized Chicken Littles predicted that there would be a catastrophic increase in infant deaths from using raw milk. The death rate from gastroenteritis quickly fell from a high of 89 in 1922 to less than five per year. [Annual Convention, Certified Milk Producers Association, Hotel Roosevelt, New York City, February 8, 1938.] Sally Fallon s book, Nourishing Traditions, contains an infant formula recipe that uses raw milk. However, just to be on the safe side, before giving raw milk to an infant or child, always drink enough of the milk yourself first, so you are sure it is fresh and clean. Some brands are consistently fresher tasting than others are. Douglass s book makes many wonderful arguments for using raw certified milk. People can t argue with the fact that the minerals and other nutrients in raw milk are more available to the body; but it is hard to change people s attitude towards all that live bacteria that is present in the milk. Yet, did you know that the government allows much more bacteria in pasteurized milk than it does in raw certified milk? I m not claiming that any milk is 100% safe, and I believe you must be careful with any type of milk. Never drink any milk if it smells or tastes bad. Yet, I believe that when you balance the benefits versus risks, most of us are much better off with fresh raw milk from grass-fed animals where the milk has been carefully collected and properly inspected.
Raw Milk
Polly: Only in California and Florida are USA citizens allowed to buy certified raw milk. Citizens of other states can get raw cheese, and sometimes they can get raw goat milk, but that is all. Why should anyone with dysbiosis be concerned about this? Because fresh raw milk seems to be better for the intestinal track than pasteurized milk. This quote is from The Milk of Human Kindness is not Pasteurized or Homogenized, by William Campbell Douglass, MD. Dr. Paul Cassidy reported before a dairy convention the phenomenal results he had had at

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Even though raw milk is generally not available, I ve occasionally seen some milk that is pasteurized but not homogenized. At least this is one step in the right direction. Why should our milk be homogenized? Homogenization does nothing good for you except keep the cream from separating from the milk. It doesn t kill bacteria and it isn t harmless. Homogenization increases the absorption of XO, Xanthene Oxidase, from the milk, which contributes to hardening of the arteries. With raw milk, it is best to drink whole milk. With homogenized milk, because of the XO, I don t know if we should be using this product or not. Yet I do know that often the 1% and 2% milk have added milk solids . This is just another name for powdered milk. Unfortunately you don t know how long this powdered milk has been in storage, and whether or not it has had time to go rancid. Fortunately, they usually don t put the powdered milk in the whole milk or the skim milk. Therefore, if you want 1% or 2% milk, buy some whole milk and skim milk and mix them half-and-half. Or if you can find some unhomogenized cream, add that to the skim milk. At least this way you avoid the powdered milk and the homogenization. For more information, see www.rawmilk.org ww.karlloren.com/aajonus/p15.htm William Campbell Douglass, MD, has retitled his book on milk and has made it available as an affordable paperback. His book is now called The Milk Book/How Science is Destroying Nature s Nearly Perfect Food. The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation carries William Campbell s book, phone (800) 3663748, or website www.price-pottenger.org. It is also available from from Radiant Life (888) 5938333
Dr. William Campbell Douglass also has a very entertaining monthly newsletter called Real Health, where he exposes many of the health myths of our time. phone call 800-851-7100. http://www.realhealthnews.com/index.html
Yogurt
Momatpop: Hi Polly, thank you for your response to my message about loosening up the diet. You suggested 2-4 weeks of yogurt with added acidophilus. About the yogurt, is goat milk preferable to cow? Have you tried the 48-hour yogurt? Or do you just buy good quality yogurt? Thanks so much for your help. Polly: Goat milk might be less allergenic. Making your own yogurt is ideal. In Elaine Gottschall s book Breaking the Vicious Cycle (SCD diet), she goes into detail on how to make your own yogurt, and states: While this yoghurt may not be as thick as commercial yoghurt, it will be a true yoghurt since virtually all of the lactose has been digested by the bacterial culture and further lactose digestion will not be required by intestinal cells. Personally, I don t want to spend the time making yogurt, and I don t really need to now. I can easily tolerate milk sugar. I like Brown Cow and Mountain High brands because they aren t full of weird additives. However, yogurt products usually contain the bacteria S. thermophilus. In large quantities, this bacteria will push your body more towards the Th2 side. [6] Read the labels. Some manufacturers have the audacity to kill the good bacteria after the yogurt has formed. These dead yogurts have labels stating they contain pasteurized cultured milk instead of cultured pasteurized milk. There is a milk-culture product called Bio-K, which is carried in some vitamin shops. It tastes

a bit like sour cream and yogurt. If your vitamin shop doesn t carry it, you can probably call the company and ask where to purchase it. (800) 593-2465 It contains fresh live cultures of L. acidophilus and L. casei, with a minimum guarantee of 50 billion live active cells per serving. (It doesn t contain S. thermophilus, and yet it tastes good.) Getting your probiotics in such a medium helps keep the probiotics alive. It sounds better than taking a capsule of probiotics. The Bio-K company suggests that you start with smaller quantities and gradually increase the dose to avoid any adverse GI symptoms. Results may appear after 15 to 30 days. The catch? It isn t cheap. $4.00 per serving. One minor caution. If you are rich (sure you are), and could afford to eat a ton of this product, it wouldn t be a good idea to go overboard, at least not at first, because of the high potency. You could make yourself sick. I don t know how it would turn out trying to use this as a starter culture. However, I wouldn t reuse any homemade product as a culture for extended periods. There is the potential for eventually growing a strain that is not good for you. I d purchase the starter culture from a reputable company every so often. Here is another option. Custom probiotics is now offering yogurt starter cultures with the bacteria of your choice. Website: www.customprobiotics.com, phone (818) 2483529. Lynn of Virginia: Go to the health food store and buy yogurt. You can make your own from that...no need to buy a starter. Four tablespoons to a gallon is what you use. There is a lot of info on the net about making yogurt. Do a search! Once you make your own, you will never want store bought again. I just bought a cookbook from Amazon.com, Recipes for Yogurt Cheese. I had originally checked it out from the library and liked it so much that I bought it.
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MM: I make my own yogurt and kefir. Storebought stuff is not cultured for long enough, and so, has TOO much remaining lactose. Cultured veggies may work also, but storebought cabbage has spent too much time in transit and in stores, and so does NOT have sufficient LIVE lactobacillus remaining to produce a good culture process. In other words, I ve made sauerkraut with home-raised cabbage and it WORKS, but it doesn t work well with store-bought cabbage. I tried several batches with cabbage bought at different stores, and the result was always the sameMOLDY, spoiled cabbage. One batch, I finally spiked by adding some of my probiotics. This batch, and this batch only fermented correctly. Dhyan: May I add another perspective on dairy? In Chinese medicine, diary is moistening or mucus-promoting. In mucus, many yeasts can find safe sanctuary, since by its nature (mucus), things can stick to it (as it sticks in you). Consider dairy from its damp and mucusforming properties, and whether you are compatible with that day-by-day, season-byseason or not. As one young woman indicated, yogurt is not working for her right now, and this would be true of the late summer humidity in which I presently find myself. Yogurt is an obviously beneficial way to reintroduce friendly bacteria, but consider your particular situationwhether you are eating enough drying foods to compensate, whether the weather is too damp for more interior moisture. There are other ways to ingest probiotics if it is not a good day for dampness. Polly: Dhyan, What are some of the drying foods? Or where is there a good list of damp versus dry foods?

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Dhyan: Dampness is caused by acid-forming foods such as meats, oil-bearing nuts, rancidity in food, poor food-combining and eating late at night, or eating too muchanything which slows down digestion. (Many people here are meateaters, so I do not wish to offend the use of meat as protein source.) Drying foods are: rye, amaranth, corn (drying, but one must remember its sweetness), aduki beans (and other small legumessplit peas, lentils, mung), asparagus, apple cider vinegar, celery, lettuce, pumpkin, scallion, alfalfa, turnip, kohlrabi, white pepper, and all bitter herbs such as chamomile, chaparral, micro-algae. The reference is Paul Pitchford s book, Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition. Pitchford claims that contrary to most modern candida-control diets, a larger variety of grains are possible, such as millet, kasha, rye, oats, barley, amaranth, quinoa. These are valuable for their lignins and other factors that inhibit anaerobic growth. In order to tune into the nature of food in this way, one must realize that a stalk of celery, though watery and sweet, actually produces a drying effect on the body. Once one s intuition is able to take over from all the facts and figures, you will be able to tell yourself which food is making endemic conditions for you (fluid, mucus), and which foods are not. It is also important to understand the dampness of things around you so that you can adjust with nature in its constant flux. Baths are actually drying! Many of us remember what happened when we drank a cold milkshake. The throat becomes coated with mucus! Cold produces a defending mucus. The yin/yang, damp/dry, excess/deficiency, heat/cold conditions are configured individually in everyone. This is why building intuition is important to this approach and why everyone responds differently to things. There is far more
to this method of understanding than I can possible do justice to here. In terms of the probiotics discussion, Pitchford recommends spore-based products such as L. sporogenes and B. laterosporus as more effective than L. acidophilus for their transient as opposed to resident effect on the digestive tract. These spores are supposed to not only kill candida albicans, but also to help eat some of the waste left behind. I only felt ready to begin doing this in the past two days and can say only that die-off reactions again occur. Pitchford s book was the only thing to put me all back togethergive me back to myself for healing. I understand this condition from a more intuitive level, now. I can flex with its manifestations daily without thinking so hard or consulting resources. I can look at food and know whether it s the right thing at the right time. I can live more naturally, as it were, believing in my own ability to claim this yeast that s in my body as mine and negotiate its taming. Finally, I have begun healing from the ground up, with more die-off and more headway, returned energy, and the tears and happiness of full-cleansing than I have with any other approach. When there are setbacks, I know exactly why. I wish for everyone also an intuitive approach to each of their individual conditions, whether it s through this book or not. It s like Plato and the huge beast: if you can only see one foot or leg of it because of its sheer magnitude and size, then you know not the nature of the whole beast. In candida and fear of it, it becomes too large and too frightful to see and thus needs brought back inside where it can be witnessed whole.
Fruit Kefir
MM: SR, you mentioned that kefir was beneficial for you. Do you have kefir grains? If so, I KNOW that you can make fruit

kefir made from fruit juice and kefir grains. I would suspect that you also could make carrot kefir using kefir grains and carrot juice. Have you ever tried these?? It may provide the kefir benefits to you without the dairy allergy problems that you face. SR: I NEVER thought of fruit kefir. What a fantastic idea! I have no Kefir spores left. I tried to freeze them but they died anyway. I got mine from a Dr. friend, years ago, and he is out of practice. Do you have a recommendation as to where I might be able to order them? MM: You can order actual kefir grains from: Betty Stechmeyer & Gordon Mcbride Gem Cultures 30301 Sherwood Road, Fort Bragg, CA 95437 Phone (707) 964 2922. Gem Cultures was VERY prompt, when I ordered from them. Kefir grains for starting 2 cups of milk were $20 including shipping. They sell other products in addition to kefir grains. www.gemcultures.com SR: Thank you so much for the Kefir spores information. My kefir spores use to be just like yours, gelatinous and big. Is that the way the ones are from Gem Cultures? My doctor got the ones he gave to me from a foreign country as a gift to him for helping out some nomadic people in 1961. At my peak of kefiring I had about 3 to 4 pounds of them in the freezer. I would experiment with them as to how long to allow them to do their thing and sometimes it would get so thick it was like soft cheese. I actually got a big kick out it. It doesn t take much to make me happy. My family thought I was nuts when I brought my spores on vacation. They would call them my pets! haha Anyway thanks again. Mrs. Generic: How do you use the Kefir grains?
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MM: Kefir grains are gelatinous-like things that contain the kefir culture organisms. My kefir grains range in size from specks to some that are the size of a quarter. Some think that they look like bits of cauliflower. If you buy REAL kefir grains, you put them into a specified amount of milk (2 cups for the original source that I had mentioned), and let them do their culturing thing. I let mine culture for about 2 days. Then, I strain out the kefir grains (rinse in NON-chlorinated water and then reuse these). The liquid is kefir. I let my kefir liquid sit for a few more days to ensure that the lactose has been digested. As you continue to reuse the kefir grains, they will multiply. I got my grains in the end of May and, at this time, I have enough grains to make 1 gallon of kefir at a time. Kefir tastes like mild blue cheese, to me. Some like to add stevia and/or fruit to it, but that s up to you and your candida! You can buy packets of freeze-dried kefir starter from some companies. You don t reuse these, because they don t contain the actual grains. Before learning about the difference, I had bought some of the powdered starter from Lifeways, but I never used it. Instead, I got real kefir grains. Polly: Cultured kefir fruit should contain much less fructose (a type of sugar) than fresh fruit. The kefir bacteria and yeast would use up the fructose. With less fructose, fruit should be tolerated much better. About 40% of people with IBS experience gas and bloating after eating fructose. An even higher percentage (80%) shows evidence of hydrogen or methane in their breath after ingesting fructose. [7]

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Why Cant We Drink Milk?

C: Why can t we drink milk? If we are not lactose intolerant, how does it affect the yeast? Barbara: According to John Parks Trowbridge, MD in The Yeast Syndrome, milk from cows encourages the growth of yeast because it is unfavorable to L. acidophilus, man s friendly bacteria that keeps yeast in check. RB: The other problem with most milk is that the cows are fed grain with pesticides and fungicides and given antibiotics, cortisone and hormones to prevent illness. This causes an increase in yeast and problems for the immune system. The only kind even half way safe is organic but the sugar in the milk will still promote yeast growth. Polly: Trowbridge must have been referring to something other than the direct effect of the milk on the Lactobacillus. According to Natasha Natren s book on probiotics, The prefix lactofrom the Latin for milk indicates that these bacteria prefer a milk-based growing medium. The intolerance could stem from the allergies caused by a failure to break food proteins into peptides, or the intolerance could stem from the inability to digest lactose or milk sugar. (About 30% of people with IBS are lactose intolerant. [8]) If people can t digest the lactose, that just leaves more food for the yeast or unwanted bacteria to eat. But once the lactobacillus population is reestablished, the lactobacilli will produce lactase to help you digest the lactose, and a person might be able to tolerate milk again. Harold: According to Dr. Peter J. D Adamo in his books, Eat Right for(4) Your Type and Live Right for (4) Your Type, dairy foods are not good
for type O s, A s and B s and most people of African descent. Type AB can tolerate dairy products very well. Taylor: Harold, I scanned this book at Wal-Mart recently, having heard the theories mentioned in passing on this forum and a list service. I didn t buy the book, so I haven t felt I could add much to this discussion when folks have brought this theory up. However, this part you mention about dairy being good for AB types has gotten my fingers wiggling nearly out of control to get to the keys. Some of the things people have related about this theory have made me squirm. Here: I am AB, and dairy is my fiercest gut enemy! Also, I worry when I read about someone avoiding goldenseal because it isn t in line with their blood type, when goldenseal could help that person avoid antibiotics and kill candida at the same time. I don t know what to make of the total picture; this is as far as I can go in defining what makes me uneasy about this theory. But my fingers think it is worth galloping across the board to add this small bit. I wonder what other folks think about whether the theory holds up? Harold: Taylor, ALL the info in this book, Eat Right 4 Your Type, is there for people who are basically OK and not enjoying the benefits of this scourge, candida. This info has to be crossreferenced with the candida diet, which means all the baddies have to be eliminated. This is what I have done, using some ideas from The Zone book and some from Breaking the Vicious Cycle book too. I still firmly believe in this theory. For the first time in years I am almost on the verge of thinking I am cured of this candida monster. I don t believe you can be 100% cured, only about 90%.

Franca: OK, while we re disputing poor Harold, here s my 2 cents worth: I m both O blood type, *and* of African decent, and I am perfectly fine with milk. Many, many, many of my Asian cohorts (and I live in Asia, so I think I can comment with a great deal of experience behind me) are extremely lactose intolerant. It may come down to whether people were weaned off it entirely as children. Polly: I would think that anyone with dysbiosis could have a problem with lactose digestion. As observed here, you can be type AB and still have this problem. Personally, I would take the suggestions in Dr. D Adamo s book as just general suggestions, and not as hard and fast rulessomething to think about as you observe your own reactions to foods. His work is based on how the lectins in food will cause the blood to clump together, depending on the blood type. However, lectins can also affect a person s intestines and other organs differently than the blood. Dr. D Adamo even talks about people having some characteristics of more than one blood type group. I have blood type A, and when I came down with yeast overgrowth, I could not tolerate milk, but I could tolerate butter. Now that the yeast problem is gone, I drink a lot of milk, and also orange juice. No problem. What your body can tolerate and what it requires will change as you get better. Many people cannot tolerate the casein in milk. However, butter and whey contain very little casein, so they might be tolerated even if other milk products are not. Casien seems to be a particular problem for those who have been poisoned by lead, mercury or pesticides. These poisons interfere with enzymes that digest the casein in milk and the gluten in grains. One of these enzymes, DPP IV, is important to the immune system and appears to have a lot to do
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with depression. So you don t want to overtax this enzyme by eating a lot of milk and wheat. Some of the autistic have made considerable strides by eliminating casein and gluten from their diet and taking supplements of the DPP IV enzyme. (See the section on milk and wheat in book 5.)
Salt and IodineWill eat Seaweed for Thyroid

Kippy: I was reading in Prescription for Nutritional Healing (a book I highly recommend) that kelp (a form of seaweed) is essential for anyone with an under-active thyroid. If I m already taking 1/2 grain Armour thyroid, should I add kelp to the mix? Marilyn in Seattle: I am on Armour and I still take kelp. This was recommended because I was so low on iodine. Each kelp tab contains 225mcgs of iodine and I am taking 2 a day. I also use sea salt instead of iodized salt. In fact, I just got some Celtic Sea Salt and plan on using it for the trace minerals. I avoid mined salt because it is unbalanced in sodium to potassium ratios. And also because the processing methods use a lot of chemicals. Sea salt tastes great. The sea salt that I buy is by the pound at the health food store. I have used sea salt for yearsbut actually you know, I am not sure what the iodine content of sea salt is. I am sure there must be some but I don t know what amounts. I could quote. Edgar Cayce said iodine is used throughout the body, not just by the thyroid. He encouraged the consumption of salt-water fish and kelp, but not to overdo it. Polly: Not to overdo it is right. Yes, you need iodine to make thyroid. In fact, T3 thyroid means three iodine atoms and T4 thyroid means 4 iodine atoms. But if you get too much iodine, this

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suppresses the thyroid. More iodine might also pose a problem if you have autoimmune thyroiditis. Raymond Peat, PhD, warns that iodine will combine with unsaturated oils to form substances that inhibit the thyroid. So you must be careful not to get too much iodine. Yet you want to get enough iodine. Not only is iodine important for the thyroid hormone, but iodine kills yeast in the body. See this example: www.mrbean.net.au/~wlast/candida.htm How do you know if you have too little iodine? There is a simple test that might help. (No tests are perfect, but this will at least give you something to go on.) Rub a drop of Lugol s iodine tincture (5% iodine) on your skin in a one or two inch square patch, and observe how long it takes to get absorbed. If it takes 24 hours or more to absorb, then you have plenty of iodine in your body already. If it quickly disappears, then you need more iodine. This isn t an exact test, it is just an indicator; so watch your reactions to iodine carefully, and/or get a urine iodine test. (Use a solution of at least 2% sodium iodide, not potassium iodide, for this patch test, or else the coloration may not be adequate.) One way to increase your iodine stores is to ingest 4 or 5 drops of Lugol s iodine solution in a glass of water once or twice each day. Just be careful, because some people have lifethreatening allergic reactions to iodine. If you don t know if you are allergic to iodine or not, try only one drop when someone else is with you. However, the iodine drops don t taste that great. Another approach is to just keep painting patches until the iodine isn t absorbed quickly. This way, you don t have to taste it. Lugol s iodine solution can be obtained from a chemist or on the Internet. It is also called Aqueous Iodine Oral Solution B.P. Don t substitute another product if it contains isopropyl alcohol or some other noxious ingredient. The Edgar Cayce store (Heritage Store) carries a
product called Atomidine. This product has been electrofied and will not be suitable for the patch test. www.caycecures.com. phone 757428-0100 or 800-862-2923. Cayce said to slowly build up the number of drops taken to allow the body time to adjust. One drop per day would be a cautious start. Here is an article by Ryan Drum, PhD, www.planetherbs.com/articles/thyroid.html. Dr. Drum suggests that iodine deficiency is more widespread than many assume. We are not getting iodized salt in our processed food because it is too hard for the mass produces of this food to properly mix the iodine with the salt in large batches. So they just leave it out. We are also losing iodine when we are exposed to fluorine, chlorine, and bromine. These chemicals displace iodine and cause its excretion. Bromine is in pesticides, dough conditioners, and in disinfectants for water in hot tubs and spas. On the other hand, large amounts of iodate are often added to dough conditioners. Therefore, it is hard to say whether any given person has been exposed to too much or too little iodine. Shelley: Marilyn, this intrigues me. I have been pronounced allergic to iodine since I reacted badly to an iodine-based see what s inside you kind of test in the hospital years ago. So I avoid iodized salt. But kelp seems fine with me. I love kelp. I also now am hypothyroid and take Armour so I ve had my eyes on this post because I ve had the same question as Kippy about kelp and Armour. My question to you is why do you avoid iodized salt but then take it in as kelp? Why avoid the iodized salt? Processing? Not a synergistic mix with other minerals as in kelp? Have I answered my own question? Polly: I ve seen iodized sea salt in the market, but I haven t tried it. I love the way certain brands of sea salt tastes. The good sea salt is

much less bitter than regular salt. Perhaps the taste difference is due to the mineral mix, or perhaps it is due to the lack of processing. Regular salt is processed with aluminum to keep it from caking. Irma Rombauer, in her classic book Joy of Cooking, warns you not to put too much salt in your bread, because the bread will not rise very well. Perhaps it dehydrates the yeast? As salt also inhibits yeast growth, never use salted water for dissolving yeast. And it (salt) must be used cautiously in bread-making, as too much inhibits the growth of yeast and adversely affects gluten formation. Harold: You must have salt as you lose it every day, your skin is one of the big means of it leaving the body. I use a half-salt product. It is 1/2 salt and 1/2 potassium chloride. These two are in a very delicate balance in the body and if you cut down on salt your potassium goes up and the reverse is true if you eat too much salt. The consumption of vegetables, particularly raw, ie broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, tomato, depletes the body of salt, this is why wild animals will go for miles to a salt lick. I have found that if I am in doubt about putting salt on my food, I sprinkle a bit on my hand and taste it, if it tastes good, then OK. If it doesn t taste good, then I don t use it. Another thing that kind of gripes me is that most salt on the market has sugar in it, but if you look you can find it without. I haven t been able to get the half salt without sugar yet, but it is still worth it. I know the adrenal glands, like every gland in the body, is very dependent on the proper salt balance. Polly: Joe Wallach suggests a heaping teaspoon of salt each day is good for us. [9] However, everyone isn t the same. For instance, the amount of salt needed depends on the amount of insulin
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in our body. Insulin causes the retention of salt. Those of us who have recently started a low carbohyrate diet may have lowered our average insulin levels and thus we may need a little more salt in our diet. I do know that under certain circumstances, a higher salt intake can be quite helpful. Case in point: My husband was tested by the Broda Barne s Foundation. They said his adrenal function was low, and that he had extremely low salt levels, perhaps the lowest they had seen. He tried taking small doses of a mixed cortisol and he didn t notice anything. Then he started increasing his salt intake and this made him feel much better. He ended up adding about a tablespoon of Pacific Sea Salt per day to his diet for a year. After that he cut the amount in half. (He likes the effects of this brand of salt better than other brands.) That is a lot of salt, but he also eats a lot of acidic meat, and very little carbohydrates. Here is an excellent article on the benefits of salt by Ted Spence, DDS, ND, PhD. www.mercola.com/1999/dec/26/truth_about_salt.ht m. Avandish: All sea salt contains toxic minerals and studies show that it usually has negative effects on blood chemistry, causing imbalances in potassium, magnesium, sodium, and other electrolytes, and many hormones. I use regular Morton salt with iodine and this is what was recommended to help normalize the chemistry. I feel better on regular salt over sea salt from a symptom standpoint. Mary G. Are you familiar with Pure Inland Sea Water? It s a naturally concentrated sea water product from Utah s Inland Sea and contains sodium and numerous trace minerals. Do you know if this product is contaminated also?

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Avandish: Unless it is specifically purified, it will contain whatever was in the seabedgood or bad. Usually these salt beds have both good and not so good minerals. It doesn t make sense to me that so many people try so hard to remove toxic metals and use products which are likely to contain the same items they take chelating agents to remove. I too made this mistake for too long, not thinking that it could be a problem. When the miners of sea salt process this stuff, they just grind it up into a fine powder and package it. It s cheaper to make than regular salt, which is purified, but they sell it for more. Lynn of Virginia: I have used Biosalt from the Heritage Store for years. It has plain salt and a blend of minerals in it. www.heritagestore.com or www.caycecures.com 757-428-0100 or 800862-2923) This site has a lot of other useful products in it, also. The Heritage Store here in Virginia Beach caters to the Edgar Cayce believers and many of their products are excellent. The site is interesting too.
At the same time as I started splitting the dose in two, I began taking multivitamins and drinking Diet Coke/Pepsi. So these are other variables that may account for the extreme arthritis reaction that I am going through. By the way, I skipped this morning s half-dose and plan to go back to taking all 100mg at once, since this seemed less painful. Anybody have any thoughts? Thanks in advance. Sally: On the coffee issuerough on the kidneys and you need them working good to detoxify. Also creates an acid bodynot good. Also is loaded with molds, which candida people seem to tend to be allergic to. I have no experience with Diflucan, but maybe someone else can help you with that. I didn t realize how much the coffee was affecting me until I eliminated it for two weeks and added it back. Helpful hint: make only one change at a time so you can observe the effect of each change as everyone is different. Ed: Cool! I just found a web site saying that aspartame, which is in the NutraSweet which is presumably in the diet drinks, is a toxin. That s what I suspected! And I do remember seeing some posts here about aspartame, but they didn t register since I didn t know what aspartame was. Ahh! Sally: You are right, aspartame is a toxin. There is a lot of info available on this subject if you look for it. The best thing you can drink is bottled or filtered water to flush out the toxins released by the candidalots of it. I hate to admit it, but smoking is the one thing I m still struggling with. I ve beat the yeast and have made many radical changes in my life style that I plan to continue, but I m still smokingits one of the most powerful addictions there is. Tobacco is a nightshade along with potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers; all of which are notorious for causing
Smoking, Coffee?
Ed: Hi all. I ve been taking Diflucan, 100mg per day, for about 10 days now. About 3 days ago I started feeling a lot better, with much reduced die-off symptoms of joint stiffness or swelling and head-fog. So then I switched from taking the 100mg all at once to taking 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night. Bang! My knuckles and toes became EXTREMELY arthritic. I think this was due to splitting the dose, but I m not sure. Other possible factors that I am wondering about are the effects on the yeast of: 1) Smoking 2) Coffee (black of course) 3) Multivitamins 4) Diet Cola drinks (ie no sugar)

arthritis-like symptoms in sensitive individuals. Also tobacco is sprayed with toxic insecticides that are not permitted on food products by the FDA, and we smoke them. I m still quitting and trying to bite the bullet but feel really stupid every time I light up. Harold: My mother is Swedish and boy, do they ever love coffee and we grew up with it. I can pat myself on the back because I have cut down from about six mugs a day to TWO CUPS, and that is going some. This so-called coffee today is an abomination when you know what it used to be like many years ago. About ten years ago I quit all coffee, tea, wine and whiskey for five years and I can t say it made that much difference in my yeast and H-pylori problems. At my age, there are few little luxuries left in which we can indulge, so, I can only say, Take my wife but leave my coffee alone! (tongue in cheek). Polly: Coffee is a godsend for my husband. It is the only thing that he can tolerate that will keep him regular. In his case, the coffee is definitely worth any risk that might come with it. Whether or not coffee is a blessing or a bane will depend on the person. Coffee does have some good health properties that shouldn t be ignored. As Sally mentioned, coffee will make you more acidic, which according to most popular books today is bad. But sometimes people need to push their body more acidic. Some people point to coffee s ability to raise blood sugar as being bad for anyone with candidiasis. Yet sometimes you want to raise the blood sugar. This reduces your reaction to allergens. Coffee helps you remove iron. Lots of people would be healthier with less iron. Coffee stimulates the production of hydrochloric stomach acid. Many of us need more. According to the article that Marilyn mentioned from the Seattle Times (June 09, 1999),
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caffeine and some as-yet-to-be identified compound in the brew confers a protective effect on the gallbladder. Coffee also inhibits the formation of gallstones. At Dr. Lowe s site, he has a long list of benefits attributable to caffeine, like mood and intellectual performance enhancement. He states for caffeine to be of benefit, you must find what for you is an effective and non-overstimulating dosage. http://members.aol.com/jlowe55555/prev2.htm, However, on the bad side, some people are sensitive to the mold, food dyes or the sulfur in the coffee. Lynn, at our forum, found that organic coffee was not a problem, but ordinary coffee made her asthma act up. She suspects the food dyes in the ordinary coffee. However, I understand that a lot of the coffee on the market has a high level of pesticides, which might contribute to her problem. Like so many things, with coffee, there is no pat answer. If you decide to quit smoking, you might want to use the nicotine patches or the nicotine gum for a while. However, nicotine gum isn t a great idea if you have amalgams. All that extra gum chewing could release more mercury. Also, be careful with hot coffee if you have amalgam fillings. Hot liquids will release more mercury from fillings.
MSG
Polly: People with yeast overgrowth are more likely than most to have an adverse reaction to MSG or monosodium glutamate. [10] I think the reason may be a lack of coenzyme B6 due to the acetylaldehyde that people with yeast overgrowth are exposed to. People with low B6 are much more likely to be sensitive to MSG due to inactivation of a B6 dependent enzyme, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase. A B6 supplement will

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often eliminate this sensitivity to MSG. [11] The more common reactions to MSG include: rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), depression, migraine headaches, nausea and vomiting, hives, rashes, asthma, and seizures. Yet, there are numerous possible reactions like panic attacks, vision problems, rapid changes in blood pressure, partial paralysis, extreme dryness of the mouth, loss of balance, joint pain, swelling of prostate, frequent urination, bedwetting, hyperactivity, behavioral problems in children, Attention Deficit Disorders, lethargy, sleepiness, insomnia, and many more. MSG is commonly added as a flavor enhancer to processed food. It is also often added to mixed spices because it is a great filler, being much cheaper than spice. It used to be in a lot of the baby food. Not that babies need it(It causes brain abnormalities in baby lab rats)but because it tastes better to the parent buying the product. Thankfully, due to the efforts of private citizens suing the FDA for better labeling of MSG in food, many of the food manufactures have become aware of the public outrage and have stopped its blatant use in many foods. Unfortunately, food processors aren t to be trusted. Some food manufacturers merely substituted modified food starch for the MSG in their baby food. Unfortunately, modified food starch has similar properties to MSG, even though it usually doesn t make people as sick. They also substitute hydrolyzed protein, which contains some MSG. MSG can be hidden in processed food with names like natural flavors, broth, bouillon, hydrolyzed protein, sodium and calcium caseinate, yeast extract and autolyzed yeast. Sometimes manufacturers will rename hydrolyzed protein to something less obvious, such as whey protein, corn protein, or pea protein, etc. MSG can also be in naturally fermented foods such as soy sauce. They are
even starting to spray MSG on some fruits and vegetables as a fungicide/plant growth regulator. Avoiding the former list of substances will be enough for most. Yet, if you are very sensitive you will need a list of the 40 or more foods that contain small amounts. You can get this information from the Truth in Labeling Campaign, phone 858/481-9333, website www.truthinlabeling.org, and address Truth in Labeling Campaign PO Box w532 Darien, IL 60561 If requesting information, enclose a selfaddressed envelope with two stamps. Donations appreciated. They have a big battle to fight, and deserve our help. Here is a book on the subject: In Bad TasteThe MSG Symptom Complex, by George R. Schwartz, MD. Here is an article: The Ubiquitous, Toxic Flavor-Enhancer, Monosodium glutamate (MSG) in the August, 2000 issue of the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. Personally, when I had yeast overgrowth, I could not tolerate MSG, modified food starch, or hydrolyzed protein. I would get very ill exactly one hour after ingestion. (Some people take up to 48 hours to become ill.) It likely had something to do with the yeast, because now I easily tolerate modified food starch and hydrolyzed protein. I haven t since dared try the MSG, at least not knowingly. Twenty years ago, I did try taking B6 to try and stop my reactions to MSG, but I was not able to tolerate the B6. Unfortunately, coenzyme B6 was not available at that time, or I would have tried that. Franca: How weird that you would bring this up today... I was going to mention MSG myself! My fianc has just finished a book on excitotoxins, which talks about the effects of substances like

MSG on the body. The book is Excitotoxins, subtitled, The Taste that Kills. It is by neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, MD (see www.dorway.com ). I haven t read a word of it yet, but my fianc thinks there s a lot of good info in it. By coincidence, I also recently discovered that MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid... found in mushrooms, seaweed and (get ready for this one!) wheat gluten ! Yes, wheat gluten strikes again! Also, the same article says that the largest concentration of glutamic acid is in nervous tissue. No wonder we all develop so many nervous system problems... Polly: There is a difference between naturally occurring MSG and MSG made by fermentation or food processing. One is Lglutamic and the other contains both L-glutamic and D-glutamic acid. The fermented or processed product with the D-glutamic acid is the one that causes the bad reactions. The naturally occurring glutamic acid in raw food is usually not a problem. So for some people, raw mushrooms may not be the same problem as cooked. See www.truthinlabeling.org/manufac.htm Franca: I have a MSG question for you: In my case, I didn t think about MSG while doing the diet, because I ve had horrible reactions from it for a long time and was already avoiding it. I wonder, though, whether avoiding MSG should be part of the candida diet. What do you think? Polly: Yes. I think anyone who has a yeast overgrowth should become aware that it is a potential problem. I don t think it acts as a food for yeast. In fact, one way to manufacture it is to use yeast. Yet I wouldn t wish MSG on anyone especially some baby that can t tell you. Boy, did MSG ever make me sick!
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PS: Please be very careful about what you feed your baby. Just because the bottle says baby food doesn t mean it is good. Check labels! Don t trust additives like sea algae or carrageenan (found in some types of seaweed). Sea algae contains a fatty acid called DHA. Many consider DHA important for brain development, but DHA should not be used in excess and it should be balanced with EPA, and other fatty acids. Carrageenan is used to induce irritable bowel syndrome in lab rats and is a known carcinogen. Besides in baby foods, you will also find carrageenan used as a thickener in soups, whipping cream, condensed milk, nondairy creamers, and some icecreams.
Raw Broccoli Can Make You Fat!

Kippy: This comes from my new book ($3.99 for a 607 page hardbound volume you can t make it for that price!) New Foods for Healing by Selene Yeager and the Editors of Prevention Health Books. (Some of the following information I have interpreted on my own.) If you re hypothyroid, you should avoid raw foods in the brassica family such as broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens, turnips, soybeans, peanuts, millet and spinach. These foods contain goitrogens. Goitrogens are chemicals that block the thyroid s ability to use iodine. With less iodine, the gland produces less thyroid hormone. Who would ve thought that raw broccoli could make you a fat slug? Cooking these vegetables, however, may deactivate the goitrogens. So if you re hypothyroid cook your brassicas (no, that s not similar to burning your brassieres) and if you re hyperthyroid eat em raw or juice them. The book also recommends that those who have hyperthyroid conditions should eat plenty of protein and fat to prevent their overactive thyroid

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from burning away needed fat and muscle. (Of course, if you re a supermodel, you should just stop eating, right now and forever). Polly: I love broccoli sprouts in my sandwiches. At least they don t have as many phytoestrogens in them as alfalfa sprouts. They last longer in the refrigerator too. A few raw vegetables from the brassica family shouldn t be a problem. Like so many things, it is just when it is overdone that it is a problem. Besides the foods you mentioned, Raymond Peat suggests that an excess of beans, lentils, nuts, carotene, polyunsaturated fats, and cysteine can also suppress thyroid.
much fiber too fast can make you constipated, just the opposite of what you want. Assuming you are well enough to tolerate a raw carrot, then you might want to grate it and add it to your salad. If you use a little warmed coconut oil in the dressing, then the carrot will carry the coconut oil to the lower intestine. The carrot salad with a coconut oil, vinegar, and salt dressing idea comes from Raymond Peat, PhD. He states that this salad can often help to normalize progesterone, apparently by protecting against intestinal absorption of bacterial endotoxin, and by helping to reduce the reabsorption of estrogen which has been excreted in the bile. PS: If you try coconut oil, start very slowly with perhaps a teaspoon per day until your body gets used to it. Therapeutic doses are three and a half tablespoons per day according to Mary Enig, PhD. www.karlloren.com/Diabetes/diet/p89.htm
But Carrots Can Keep You Trim!

Polly: If you eat one carrot per day, as suggested by my favorite author, Raymond Peat, this will provide bulk and keep you regular. If the food moves through you at the proper speed, then there is less time for your body to reabsorb the estrogen that has been dumped in the intestines for disposal. (The liver places conjugated estrogens in the bile to be dumped in the intestines for disposal with the intestinal waste.) Stopping excessive recirculation of estrogen takes a load off the liver and your thyroid. However, I don t suggest that you eat lots of raw carrots or other roughage. Too much could aggravate your leaky gut. According to Leo Galland, MD, some soluble fiber will reduce symptoms of leaky gut, but too much will make it worse. (Soluble fiber bulks up by absorbing water. eg. psyllium husks.) Yet, he claims that you can ingest a high or low level of insoluble fiber, like cellulose, and it will only improve the leaky gut problem. (See www.mdheal.org/parasites.htm.) Another word to the wise: when changing your diet by adding fiber, make the change slowly and drink plenty of fluid. Give your body a chance to adjust. Too
Raw Foods
Paul: Hi Folks, one little recognized possible reason, among many, for some people not getting results they want over the long term, or hitting a standstill on candida diets, may be a lack of rawfood nutrients and enzymes. Studies have shown that cooking of foods above 118 F can cause an elevated white blood cell counts within minutes of ingestion of the food. This is akin to the body s reaction to a poison. It sounds crazy, but based on the improvements I ve had when eliminating cooked vegetables, and discovering that I react to cooked vegetables as well as all breads (but not raw sprouted wheatberries), it makes sense. So a big reason I was able to overcome candidiasis was by eating more and more raw food; also thanks to people on this list suggesting large doses of

probiotics. Raw foods with adequate protein also normalized my low thyroid and I no longer need pills for it. Meat is usually essential on a candida diet, but if the meat is lightly cooked and nearly raw inside it may not pose as much problem. But it is a dilemma since meat does tend to contain parasites. However on the list below we have had many people eating lots of raw meat for years and do very well with it; the biggest drawback actually, I believe, is the social acceptability issue. A side benefit to not destroying and altering nutrients through cooking of food is less need for supplements. In fact, I now take no vitamin or mineral supplements at all anymore (just some herbs and supplement-type foods like spirulina and dulse). In any case you certainly can follow a mostly raw-food diet with little or no fruit, or even all-raw if you get used to the idea of raw meat. So basically, I m in opposition to Truss opinion that most or all food should be cooked (even light steaming causes problems for me). It is worth noting too that most of the great natural healers of this century (Bragg, Jensen, Christopher, Gerson) recognized the special value of raw foods, for good reason.
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diet. Yet, there are times when a person is so fargone that they have to start with all cooked food. I am an example. I would react with migraines to raw vegetables. I had to cook them. Cooking might be important for some people because the sugars in cooked vegetables are easier to digest, as explained in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. Aajonus Vondeplanitz, in his book We Want To Live, suggests that people with yeast overgrowth include in their diet some cooked starches, plenty of raw fat, lots of raw vegetables (especially green ones), and some raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. This will alkalinize the body and flush out toxins. He implies that toxins are the cause of the yeast overgrowth. Rare meat and raw eggs don t bother me, but I can t eat raw meat without usually getting very sick from it. Maybe my stomach acid is too low? Perhaps if I would try just the raw organic meat, or freeze the meat for 14 days to kill the parasites, then it might be okay for me? I don t know. However, for now, I m not willing to experiment again. I grant you that many people eat raw meat, and that raw organic meat probably has a lot of health benefits. I ve also heard that a high percentage of people on the caveman diet are eating raw meat and fish, and they are finding Raw Food List FAQ: it very helpful for many ailments. In fact, I have www.math.jussieu.fr/~tu/raw-food/faq.html an Internet friend who couldn t get her autistic Health and Disease Page: child off antifungals until she finally started feeding her child raw organic game meat. http://people.ne.mediaone.net/preynolds/had_1.ht I know a lot of you are fans of Dr. Mercola. m He is an advocate of using raw egg yolks in the diet. However, he is not a big fan of raw egg Polly: Cooking destroys protein and enzymes, whites. Raw egg whites interfere with the but light cooking will sometimes enhance the absorption of biotin. With our intestinal availability of vitamins and minerals. Of difficulties, we are probably very low on biotin particular note, the cellulase enzyme in raw foods already. Yet, for whatever reason, my doctor had will help digest yeast. That would be one benefit me use the whole raw egg. He had me mix the of raw food. Raw foods do have their place in the raw egg in orange juice. (I wonder if the acid in

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the organe juice helps kill off some of the bacteria?) He also wanted me to find very fresh organic eggs and not refrigerate them. I was not to use them if I had any question about their freshness. (They must smell and look right. Also, no cracked shells. The yolks should be firm.) Aajonus Vonderplanitz is probably the leading advocate of raw meat, fish, eggs and fat. In his book, he gives examples of some miraculous cures using these foods. One of my doctors suggests that you start with raw salmon from the deeper parts of ocean where there is less mercury. He also told me that you should first have your stomach acid levels correct and you should not have a leaky gut when you try this. You can get food poisoning if you aren t ready for it. Sally Falon and Dr. Mary Enig suggest that you marinate raw fish in an acidic medium. (More information on raw protein and raw fat diets can be found at www.odomnet.com/livefood/faq.htm.) Paul: I agree that for many people, it is best to start with some cooked food rather than going from the typical diet directly to mostly raw food. Too much raw food too fast usually will often cause or increase problems like excess gas and abdominal pain, but over time the body adjusts. Using waterless cookware or thermoscookware can lessen nutrient loss and oxidative damage (a catalog available at www.juicing.com offers these products). Another option is liquefied raw vegetables, especially for those with dental problems, but this type of preparation is not too appetizing. references
1. Baker, Sidney, MD, A Clinician s Perspective on the Interventions that Work Best plus Listening to Parents , Lecture at the Dan 2000 conference.
2.
Divi RL; Chang HC; Doerge DR, Anti-thyroid isoflavones from soybean: isolation, characterization, and mechanisms of action, National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, AR 72079, USA, Biochem Pharmacol, 1997 Nov, 54:10, 1087-96 Fort P; Moses N; Fasano M; Goldberg T; Lifshitz F Department of Pediatrics, Breast and soy-formula feedings in early infancy and the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disease in children. J Am Coll Nutr, 1990 Apr, 9:2, 164-7 Carvalho NF, Kenney RD, Carrington PH, Hall DE., Severe nutritional deficiencies in toddlers resulting from health food milk alternatives. Pediatrics. 2001 Apr;107(4):E46. Somersall, AC, PhD, MD, Breakthrough in CellDefense, GOLDENeight Publishers, Smyrna, GA, phone (800) 501-8516 Marin ML, Tejada-Simon MV, Lee JH, Murtha J, Ustunol Z, Pestka JJ., Stimulation of cytokine production in clonal macrophage and T-cell models by Streptococcus thermophilus: comparison with Bifidobacterium sp. and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, J Food Prot. 1998 Jul;61(7):859-64 mentioned in a keep hope alive article at www.execpc.com/~keephope/report18.html Paul, S, PhD, Take a Hint From Those With Lactose Intolerances Limite Problem Foods From Your Diet Townsend Letter, August/September 2002 Paul, S, PhD, Take a Hint From Those With Lactose Intolerances Limit Problem Foods From Your Diet Townsend Letter, August/September 2002 Wallach, J, Live www.drjwallach.com Doctors Do Lie! tape
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4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Truss O. Metabolic abnormalities in patients with chronic candidiasis: the acetaldehyde hypothesis. J Orthomolecular Psychiatry 13:66-93, vol. 13, no. 2, 1984 11. Folkers K, Shizukuishi S, Willis R, Scudder SL, Takemura K, Longenecker JB, The biochemistry of vitamin B6 is basic to the cause of the Chinese restaurant syndrome, Hoppe Seylers Z Physiol Chem 1984 Mar;365(3):405-14 and Ebadi M, Gessert CF, Al-Sayegh A, Drug-pyridoxal phosphate interactions, Q Rev Drug Metab Drug Interact 1982;4(4):289-331
Carbohydrates
Dana: I have been sick for a very long time and I can tell you that living on just vegetables and meat is no solution. Carbohydrates do boost serotonin and I m not talking about just the carbohydrates in vegetables. Starches and grains, even if they feed the yeast, have boosted my mood. Yes, I get tired after I eat them, but I get tired after anything I eat. Yes, I m probably allergic to them, as I am to gluten now. People need to be careful with the diet. I was so weak and so thin my blood pressure bottomed out, and that is not healthy either. I have just found that I m worse without the carbohydrates. So carbohydrates in moderation, not elimination, unless you re not that sick. Food for thought. Been there, done that. Although wish there was a solution to this beast! Mark S: I feel better eating about 200-300 gm carbohydrates per day for some reason. I tried keeping it below 50 gm and felt horrible. Now I eat lots of brown rice, apples, carrots, and popcorn. It s all good. Polly: Dana, as you imply, carbohydrates will increase the amount of tryptophan that crosses the blood-brain-barrier, and this should increase serotonin in the brain. However, in your case, I suspect that this isn t the reason for the change in mood. Serotonin may modify your response to something that is causing depression, but in and of itself, serotonin does not improve mood. In fact, sometimes giving anti-serotonin drugs will improve mood. [1] Researchers don t know why SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant drugs work. The anti-depressant effect may be due to increased serotonin effectiveness in the brain, or it could just as easily be due to down-regulation of serotonin effectiveness. [2] It may also be due to the changes in the immune system effected by these drugs. The fact that it takes weeks before these drugs releive depression suggests that much more is going on than the increased presence of serotonin. Several people here at the forum have mentioned symptoms of depression when they go overboard and eliminate too many carbohydrates. I m not sure why this should be so, but one reason may have to do with thyroid. Reducing carbohydrates down to 50 gm, like Mark tried, will interfere with the liver s conversion of T4 thyroid into its active T3 form. (The T3 form is very important to mood.) Only a small amount of additional carbohydrates are required to restore liver function. In fact, to help support the liver s

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conversion of T4 to T3, Raymond Peat, PhD, suggests sipping a little orange juice throughout the day. Some sugar throughout the day is very good for you. It reduces stress on the body. Generally, fruit sugar is able to reduce stress more than other sources of carbohydrates. It is a balancing act. Your body needs some sugar. You just don t want to the yeast to get to it. There is another problem to watch out for when you go on a very low carbohydrate diet. If you lower your carbohydrates, make sure you increase your fat intake. You will make yourself ill if all you eat is protein. Mary Lou: I read in my yeast packet that German doctors are saying the restricted diet isn t too good in the fact that the yeast become clever and as they starve for food go deeper into the tissues. They don t recommend just a yeast free diet for that reason as they believe you need to eat somewhat normal to avoid that happening, and you should take antifungals too. They highly recommend sourdough bread, the old fashioned stuff with no sugar (and the original yeast culture with no added yeast). My daughter found some for me at the bakery near her. She went in and asked. The diet also said only to avoid yeast products because it stressed your immune system, not because it makes you get more yeast. Anyway I have happily added in sourdough bread. I was drinking milk since that is only bad if you are allergic to it, which I found out through testing that I am. I do drink decaffeinated coffee but still miss the old days of eating. Take care, I hope this helps cheer you up. Hallie: I had severe reactions of fatigue, gas and bloating at the beginning of the diet. I was doing all of the sweet potatoes, rice cakes, quinoa cereal, and blah blah. Big mistake! It was only after I cut out all carbohydrates (on the advice of my nutritionist), that I began (after four days of
more fatigue) to feel so incredibly better as if a great cloud of fog had been lifted. This is just my experience, and I don t know what is ahead, but at this time I cannot process those carbohydrates. I wanted to pass this on to you. Everyone will tell you that the diet is such a key, and unique to each individual.
Breaking the Vicious Cycle The SCD Diet

Polly: Magaly, you stated that your doctor thinks you have an inflamed small intestine. I think the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) might help you. It allows you to eat carbohydrates from things like squash and specially prepared beans. However, you have to eliminate carbohydrates from grains and potatoes. Also, you cannot have milk sugar. Magaly: Can you tell me specifically what foods are carbohydrates? I tried cream of wheat this morning, and I feel extremely fatigued. Jennifer: Carbohydrates are starches and sugars. Carbohydrates are in any food that is not pure fat or pure protein. All grain products (wheat, oats, rice, barley, buckwheat, rye, spelt, etc.) are high in carbohydrates. Any product that is made with such grains contains carbohydrates. Also, any type of sugar product is a simple carbohydrate. This means that as soon as you eat them, they are immediately passed into the blood, elevating your blood sugar and feeding the yeast. It is obvious that you cannot tolerate any of these items, ie they make you weak. Vegetables are considered by some to be carbohydrates. Yet, the types of carbohydrates found in most vegetables are not a problem. What you might do is try to eat on a trial and error basis: keep a diary and start off with some lightly steamed veggies, broccoli for instance.
Carbohydrates
Eat the broccoli and note how it makes you feel. If it is good...eat it. Then slowly, one by one, add other vegetables noting how each one makes you feel. After that, slowly introduce the beans, then the meats. This will be hard, but you ve got to know what you can tolerate and what you can t at this point, or you ll never get off square one. Then once you have established a base group of foods you know you can eat safely, introduce a carbohydrate that is gluten-free. Not wheat, but amaranth, quinoa, and brown rice are good choices at this point. Note how it makes you feel. If it s bad...don t eat it. Continue with the antifungals, probiotics, etc and just take it one day at a time. Look at this process like a big science experiment. Magaly: Thanks Jennifer *smile* I will try to introduce foods through trial and error. It is hard, but through experiments, I can find the way out of the dark hole. What kinds of things can we eat for breakfast? I used to love oatmeal, and cereal, but since I have to cut them out, are there any ideas you would know? Thanks for your comments. Jennifer: Well, you ll have to get a little creative for breakfast. There for a while, I was eating steamed veggies for breakfast. I guess you just have to get past the way we were all brought up to think you can only eat breakfast food for breakfast. If you think about it, most all of those foods are full of sugar a no-no for us. Just take breakfast as an opportunity to nourish your body...nothing more, nothing less. Don t dwell on the fact that you can t have your Wheaties, instead focus on your goal of wellness. What I do these days is first thing in the morning, I brew a cup of milk thistle and dandelion tea (celestial seasonings makes a great tasting one) sip on it, take my antifungals, and then decide what to eat. I have read in several places that after a long
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night of rest, what your body actually craves in the morning is not food, but water. So maybe drink a tall glass, affirm that you intend to get well, and then eat. Just a suggestion. Polly: You can eat eggs, fish, and meat. You can also probably eat farmer s cheese (a very dry cottage cheese) if you aren t allergic to milk. If the diet is too hard, try using a little rice. There is a good chance you can tolerate it. Use butter or a little coconut oil on the rice to help fill you up. Start experimenting with all the different types of squashes. The book Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall, BA, MSc, explains the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It is a very important book for anyone with an inflamed bowel. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet will allow your intestines to heal and at the same time will inhibit the growth of unwanted yeast AND bacteria. Her advice is based on the different types of sugars in your diet, and how these are digested. The book explains why you may be able to tolerate certain foods but not others. You may be able to tolerate raw honey better than pasteurized honey. Cooked fruits are tolerated better than raw fruits. The book tells you how you must prepare your legumes to make it easier on your body. Half the book is recipes. The retail price of the book is $16.95. If you order it from Willner s Chemists , the price is $13.50 plus $4.50 shipping. (800)633-1106 (Thanks MM for telling me about this book!) There is also a website: www.inform.dk/djembe/scd/ and a few lists http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ElainesChildren / http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCDietkids/ [email protected], or [email protected]

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Kippy: Okay, so I read the book. I may need to re-read to pick up on pertinent points; however, I felt that this program should not be used until candida is out of one s system. Even then, I thought the author missed some important points. She does not claim the diet is for candida sufferers, nor does she address leaky gut. So it s not as though the book is misleadingI just don t know how appropriate it is for addressing candida-related issues. 1. The program allows things that should be avoided by candida sufferers such as mushrooms, vinegar, alcohol honey, cheese, peanuts. (The alcohol makes no sense to me. Why is it that you can t eat potatoes or sugar and yet you can drink vodka, which is made of both substances? This is never explained), 2. The program is silent regarding organic meats. Candida sufferers should only eat organic meats because of the antibiotics/steroids in regular meat. 3. The program makes very interesting observations regarding carbohydrate digestion; however, it never addresses fermentation or mold issues. Both of these issues are important for candida sufferers, and I would imagine they are important for others with dysbiosis. 4. The program does not discuss rotating foods or the possibility of building allergies through food repetition, although the author makes very interesting observations about mucus buildup and food intolerances. 5. The information about supplements was very basic and not terribly thorough. Overall, I thought the book was well written and very scientific without being boring, but I think this is a book for people, such as Mona or MM, who have gotten rid of the candida and are now on the road to recovery. I don t think it s
appropriate for those of us in the beginning phases of candida. Nevertheless, the author makes some very good points about grains, corn, and potatoes, which are very valuable for those of us with candida. Bottom line it can t hurt to buy the book, but I wouldn t follow the diet (except for the avoidance of grains, rice, potatoes, corn, lactose) until you have no more candida. Polly: Hi Kippy. Good point. There are a lot of things that are not addressed in her book. It is by no means a complete treatise on diet. As you state, the book is not specifically directed at anyone with candidiasis. It only addresses those things on which she is an expert, which are sugars and carbohydrates. You have to do your own combining of this information with other things that you know. So no one should buy the book thinking they won t have to buy other books too. But I do disagree with your conclusion that the book is only for people such as Mona or MM who have gotten rid of their yeast overgrowth. I think a modified form of her diet can be very helpful. If I interpret her book correctly, most of the yeast or bacterial overgrowth is usually in the lower track. The stomach and upper intestinal track is less susceptible because of the acidic pH. (However, some people are so bad off that even the upper track is affected.) The idea is to ingest only those sugars/carbohydrates that are easily digested and assimilated by our body. That way, when the food residue reaches the lower intestines, where most of the yeast/bacterial resides, there will be nothing left to feed the little beasts. I think this should be of particular help for anyone with fibromyalgia, because usually they have a bacterial overgrowth in the last part of their small intestine. Yes, a person with intestinal problems needs to eliminate grains, potatoes, corn, and lactose.
Carbohydrates
But there are several subtleties that can also make a big difference. For example, your legumes must be prepared properly or else they will contain too much of the hard-to-digest sugars. Cooked ripe fruit will contain less of the hard-to-digest sugars than raw fruit. Raw honey can be tolerated better than cooked honey. (Her book fits in well with Harold s postings on Active Manuka honey.) Products like vodka are okay because the sugar/carbohydrates of the original food has been changed into a different form by the fermentation process. These points are addressed only in a sentence or two scattered throughout the technical talk. Sometimes it is only inferred. In that sense, although well written, the book can be difficult reading. So if anyone has brain fog, I suggest you read the book with marker in hand, and see what else I ve missed. Carole R: As for the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet), the book recommends you start with only certain cooked low-starch vegetables and meat (lots of chicken soup), then after the diarrhea/gas has stopped, gradually add other foods to see how you react. Raw nuts should not be eaten at the beginning either, only nut butters and nut flours used for baking, no other flours or grains allowed at all. I will try eating more avocados as suggested, also olive oil. (See www.inform.dk/djembe/scd/) I have been on this diet (SCD) for four months now. The initial reason I started it was that I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, and I was advised to get a bread maker and make breads with alternative grains. Yet whenever I ate this bread, I would still have diarrhea. Then I came across this book. My bowel movements are more normal now, although I m still waiting to gain some weight. However, since I also have candida, it may be necessary to get rid of it first. I do feel better overall, although I have been experiencing die-off since starting on Lamisil.
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Also I m taking MSM and C. This is my first post here, I live near Toronto, Canada. Hi all! Linda in Virginia: I just got the book myself and I am going to try the diet. I feel it would help heal my gut. Most of the no-no foods mentioned are ones that I have never been able to eat/tolerate. Sophie: I m confused! I have read that one should follow the body ecology diet; then I read that the eat right for your blood type is the way to go; now I hear the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is the latest fad! Which one should I follow? Mary J: My dietary philosophy is to try to combine all the good points of every diet book you read. I don t have any dietary gurus , because each one could leave something out. I say read them all and combine the good points into your own personal philosophy of what works best for you. Polly: The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) described in Breaking the Vicious Cycle, is a way of preparing and selecting carbohydrates that will give your gut a chance to heal. Her diet can be modified by other considerations. You can turn it into a high or low carbohydrate diet if you want. It can be vegetarian or not. She gives a lot of recipes, but notes that if you have yeast overgrowth, cut back on the amount of honey in the recipe. You might have to start with no fruit and limited vegetables too. MM: Watch out for the NUTS in the SCD. If you have leaky gut, you may eventually become QUITE unhappy on the SCD. Nut proteins are highly allergenic. Frankly, I am thoroughly disgusted that SO many healing diets, including typical candida diets emphasize nuts so much. I ll say again, nuts are HIGHLY allergenic, and this

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has NOTHING to do with supposed molds on nuts. Polly: There is also a lot of polyunsaturated oil in nuts. For this reason, I think the quantity of nuts should be limited. Purchasing nuts in the shell should help with the freshness of the oil present. There is a lot of polyunsaturated oil in avocado too. So it should not be overdone. At least it is fresh oil. Also, there are a high number of lectins in peanuts. If you are sensitive to this type of lectin, this could pose a problem. Mr. Generic: I ve just ordered the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. What should I do in the meantime with my diet? Polly: Have you ever heard of the expression the horse is off its feed ? If you change a horse s diet too quickly, they get sick. Same with any animal. You are no different. Start to modify your diet slowly. First and foremost eliminate table sugar and prepackaged junk food. If you have a local farmer s market, pay them a visit. Their fruit and vegetables are usually fresher and riper. You might even be able to find some organic produce at a reasonable price. Start by adding a few homemade soups or stews to your diet. (See if you can tolerate a broth made from boiling the bones and cartilage for 7 hours.) Also start paying attention to how different foods affect you. You may be able to spot a few food allergies. Start reducing the amount of wheat and potatoes in your diet, and start substituting squash and other cooked vegetables. Some people disagree with Elaine Gottshall on the corn and rice. They claim limited amounts of brown rice and corn can be eaten if you are not allergic to them. That is something you will have to check for yourself. The reasoning is that rice and corn do not contain gluten and hence are easier
on your digestion than the other grains. Interesting aside note: Raymond Peat, PhD claims that mixing lime in with corn, as done in traditional Mexican cooking, makes the starch in the corn much easier on your body. There is disagreement on the advisability of using beans in your diet. Although the SCD diet allows them, the Paleolithic diet does not. One problem with beans is their high lectin content. When mice are fed a diet high in lectins, it strips the intestinal mucous coating in the small intestine, and encourages the overgrowth of abnormal bacteria and protozoa. [3] Thus lectins may be a contributing factor to our dysbiosis/yeast syndrome. (Lectins are also implicated in rheumatoid arthritis and insulin dependent diabetes.) Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins present in most plants, but especially in seeds and tubers like cereals, potatoes, and beans. (Even soybean oil contains high amounts of lectins.) Cooking will destroy many, but not all, of the lectins. Presoaking beans and throwing out the water will help remove most of the lectins too. If you are sensitive to a particular lectin, it can cause intestinal inflammation, alter permeability, and contribute to your dysbiosis. Viral infections can make you more sensitive to the lectins too. IgA (found in egg yolks, raw milk and undenatured whey) will protect your intestines from the lectins. Certain oligosaccharides (sugars) or glycoproteins can be used to block some of these lectins too. For instance, N-acetyl-glucosamine, a popular supplement for those with leaky gut or arthritis, blocks the lectins in wheat. Here is a very interesting and well-written article, The Lectin Report by Krispin Sullivan, CN at this webaddress, www.krispin.com/lectin.html. He suggests that one of the reasons that the SCD diet helps those with dysbiosis is that it eliminates many of the lectins in food. (While at his
Carbohydrates
website, check out the information on his new book about the importance of sunlight to your health.) In the SCD diet, you can use navy, white beans, kidney beans and occasionally black beans if they are prepared properly. To prepare them, soak the beans in a lot of water for at least 12 hours. According to Elaine Gottschall, the water the beans are soaked in will contain a type of carbohydrate that is hard-to- digest. Therefore you should throw out that water and add fresh before cooking them. Traditional preparation includes replacing the water repeatedly. I suggest that you use a lot of water to soak the beans in. This will make it more likely that the unwanted carbohydrate will stay in the soaking water rather than being reabsorbed. (This procedure will help remove the lectins as well as the offending carbohydrates.) My mom told me to add in a whole carrot with the beans when they are cooking. Then throw out the carrot. Be sure not to eat the carrot. The carrot will absorb a lot of the gas producing substance in the beans. But again, beans are something I suggest you experiment with and see how it affects you. The author of the SCD diet suggests that beans are something that you leave until later in the SCD diet, after you are on the road to recovery.
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because it has a much higher rating of this antimicrobial factor. It is highly recommended for ridding the body of H-Pylori, the stomach bacteria that cause 90% of stomach ulcers. This is their website: www.manukahoney.co.nz. I have found there are differing qualities and strengths of honey. The finest and strongest Manuka honey (very dark in color and thick) comes directly from New Zealand. I order it from Summer Glow Apiaries, phone +64-7-8297641, website www.manukahoney.co.nz I have also used a couple other brands of Manuka honey from health food stores. One of the brands is ComVita. It is good, and it is cheaper than the Summer Glow Apiaries brand, but I don t find it as effective as the Summer Glow brand. The ComVita brand has a medium brown color, and it is thick too. If your store doesn t carry it, the ComVita company address is: ComVita New Zealand, Ltd Old Coach Road, Bay of Plenty, 3071 New Zealand The ComVita brand claims high medicinal properties, although they do not have a UMF rating. UMF (Unknown Manuka Factor) is a measure of the honey s non-peroxide antibacterial property. In order to get a UMF rating, the honey is analyzed and tested for its antibacterial and anti-microbial properties by the University of Waikato of New Zealand. This UMF is the seal and trademark of the ACTIVE MANUKA HONEY INDUSTRY. If the honey has a rating of less than 10 UMF, the honey label is not allowed to have UMF on it. All the Manuka honey that I have been getting from the SummerGlow Apiaries has been rated at 16 UMF. The ComVita, although good, does not have UMF on the label.
Raw Honey
Harold: Honey is a simple sugar that is digested quickly and never gets down to feed the yeast and other bacteria, which reside mainly in the lower tract. Honey also has hydrogen peroxide, which is beneficial in controlling/ killing the bad bugs. There are other unidentifiable qualities that are beneficial. Honey has been found in some of the ancient Pharaohs tombs when they were opened and it was still good after thousands of years. I use a lot of honey, but I get it from New Zealand. It is called Active Manuka honey

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Another brand of Manuka honey that I got from the health food store was much weaker (very pale and half the price) and I didn t get the same results. Prices: Active Manuka, approximately $20.00 + delivery in USA money shipped from New Zealand. ComVita is approximately $8.00 USA in a health food store. The cheapie was approximately $6.00 USA at a health food store. These prices are for a 500 gram size, approximately 1.1 lb. Polly: This company also sells Active Manuka honey www.abeeco.co.nz Active means that it has a rating of above 10 on the UMF scale that describes its antibacterial properties. So if you are using the honey to treat H-Pylori, you might want to stick with a brand with a high activity rating. To treat H-Pylori, they suggest that you put the honey on bread so that it stays in the stomach for a while. Another use for raw honey is in wound healing, and in fungal infections of the skin. You simply wrap an infected nail in a raw honey dressing and leave it on overnight. A lot of companies that sell raw honey aren t telling the whole truth. The honey isn t really raw. The honey may not have been heated high enough to pasteurize it, but it has been heated enough to make it flow better and heating over 93 degrees F destroys the enzymes. Manuka raw honey and other truly raw honeys are so thick that you can turn the jar upside down and the honey will not run out. Besides Manuka raw honey, here are some other places to get real raw honey: Volcano Island Honey Co. phone 808-775-0806, and Y. S. Organic Bee Farms, phone 800-654-4593 or 815496-9416 and the Really Raw Honey Co, phone 800-REAL-RAW, and website www.reallyrawhoney.com. Mrs. Generic: Why does Elaine Gottschall s books on the SCD diet say that some raw honey
is okay? (She suggests limiting the amount for those with a yeast problem.) Polly: Raw honey has enzymes that help your body digest it. The cooked honey does not. Mary W: Actually the SCD people seem to have backed off from that and say any honey is fine. They prefer it be pasteurized. MM: Yes, and their reason is that unpasteurized honey can contain Clostridium spores and other bacterial contaminants. This potential contamination is why you are not supposed to feed honey to babies.
Caveman or Paleolithic Diet

Mr. Generic: What is the caveman diet? Polly: Foods that can be hunted or gathered like lean meats, fish, eggs, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. No grains, dairy, or beans. See www.paleodiet.com. Also, the PaleoFood Recipe Collection is at www.PaleoFood.com. Here is a book: Neanderthin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body by Ray V. Audette. The Paleolithic diet got rid of that author s rheumatoid arthritis, and helped him loose weight. Here is another book that should be available at libraries, but is out of print: Dr. Walter L. Voegtlin s Stone Age Diet. Franca: I couldn t resist commenting that Paleolithic recipes sound kind of funny. Here s what came to my mind: 1) Kill wooly mammoth 2) Drag home to wife 3) Slice up with a crude tool 4) Wait for lightening to start fire nearby 5) Heat over fire until brown...
Carbohydrates
Sorry! I m sure the recipes are great (and more modern than this), but at 7:33am, I guess I m feeling a bit silly! Cheers! Polly: You left out: 6) Prehistoric children whine because dinner isn t ready yet. 7) Kids snack on raw fat and blood, without washing their hands first. 8) Cave children aren t hungry once dinner is finally cooked. Don: The diet I now believe in and follow is a Paleolithic diet. This is what our ancestors ate for more than two million years, leading up to the major diet change of the Neolithic era (the era of farming). This was only some 5,000 or so years ago, depending on where your ancestors are from, and even less if Scotland, Northern Ireland/or Scandinavia. I feel this diet will be preventative against civilizatory, or Western Diseases. There is no carbohydrate counting or portion control. Foods are either in or out. Our ancestors ate: vegetables (esp. green leafy ones), meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, berries, fruit, and roots. They also ate insects, which are high in vitamins and proteins. They did not eat food chemicals (eg MSG, aspartame, colorings, and preservatives), grains, dairy, most beans, vegetable seed oils (olive is a fruit oil), refined sugar, vinegar, peanuts, added salt, and foods that require technology to make them edible. Polly: There may have been some low gluten grains in our ancestor s diets, but certainly not the large quantity that we find with civilization. Everything I ve read indicates that grains are very hard on the body, and that if you are going to eat some, you should sprout and ferment them. Sally Fallon suggests that they be soaked before
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cooking. Some people suggest soaking them for a long time, and then eating without cooking. Ros in Australia: Soaking increases the content and availability of vitamins in the grains as well as activating the enzyme phytase, which breaks down the phytic acid. Fermenting has a similar effect. The grains need to be soaked/fermented for at least 12 hours (per Sally Fallon) and preferably 24 hours. If soaking only, the water needs to be changed repeatedly during this time (indigenous groups change the water about 6 times). I know of no historic report of any huntergatherer group that ate grains raw in normal circumstances. Jason: I just wanted to let everyone know the success that I ve been having with the cave man type diet. I know we all here know the benefits of low carbohydrate diets as far as yeast is concerned, but I never really appreciated how helpful it can be when you REALLY follow it closely. I ve switched to pretty much eating meat and vegetables and some fruit. NO grains. NO dairy. I haven t changed any other aspect of what I ve been doing. (still taking Nystatin and all my regular supplements) But in two weeks I ve had complete cessation of brain fog and went from being bed ridden with fatigue to being able to get around and do things. I m certainly not suggesting this is the answer for everyone but I just thought I d let everyone know how much it has seemed to help me. Here is a webpage with a lot of excellent links to other pages about low carbohydrate diets (Paleo Diets), www.panix.com/~paleodiet. As far as the health aspect of diets of this type goes, the information is very convincing. I hope everyone is getting better.

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Celiac Disease
Polly: People with celiac disease cannot tolerate the gluten in wheat, rye, barley, and oats. (Acceptable, non-gluten grains are rice, corn, millet, buckwheat, amaranth and quinoa. Technically, these are not classified as grains.) I get the distinct impression that the symptoms of celiac can be very similar to yeast overgrowth. Is this true? Don: Yes. Have you seen this comparison I once did? www.panix.com/~candida/cccomp.shtml JDB: I would strongly suggest that anyone who has significant weight loss, especially if accompanied by malabsorption of fats (dry skin and hair are a main symptom), and most especially if accompanied by itching blisters, read the information on celiac disease and get the appropriate blood antibody tests (BEFORE even considering a biopsy, which may well be unnecessary) if indicated. Physicians in the USA are generally grossly incompetent at diagnosing this disorder (screenings have consistently shown that over 90% are UNdiagnosed). DON T just leave it up to your doctor, inform yourself! If you discover that you DO have this condition, close blood relatives (parents, siblings and children) with symptoms should be screened for it (it is genetic). More often than not, doctors in the USA ignore the need for screening relatives. Many cases of celiac disease are MISdiagnosed as anorexia nervosa . (Anorexia nervosa is also a real condition, but if you are diagnosed with it and you do NOT fit the psychological profile, QUESTION the diagnosis. It could save your life. I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa three times by three separate physicians (or what passes for them in the USA)
in spite of the fact that NONE of the psychological signs were present. EVERY doctor I saw in New Zealand said that I did not at all fit the anorexia nervosa pattern and was a classic presentation of celiac disease. Search the celiac disease archives at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/celiac.html and look at: www.sfu.ca/~jfremont/celiac.html www.fastlane.net/homepages/thodge/archive.htm www.wwwebguides.com/nutrition/diets/glutenfre e/index.html Scott Adam s page is a good starting place, at www.celiac.com. Polly: Don, can you tell me when a person should be tested for celiac? Don: When? Well, it has to be when the person is consuming gluten. The best file on testing is: www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/diag-tst.html Polly: So, there are plenty of different tests, but they won t be valid if you have already gone on a gluten free diet. I assume you think the Paleolithic diet is probably the best diet for celiac. Is this correct? Don: Not really. If someone just has celiac disease they should be okay just going glutenfree. There are some that do need to remove other grains. And some do have a problem with dairy. Polly: There is a huge amount of information on gluten intolerance on the Internet. There is a lot more than one can sift through in one sitting.
Carbohydrates
Don, can you point me towards a few basic articles on the subject of celiac? Don: These are the best articles, and were written by gastroenterologists: www.aafp.org/afp/980301ap/pruessn.html http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/gi/celiac.html Polly: Thanks for your help, Don. I just read your article and all the ones you pointed out. One in three hundred will have this disease. The insidious part of celiac is that it can occur without warning at any time in one s life, and is often undiagnosed. Sometimes emotional stress, physical trauma, a virus, or pregnancy will trigger it. You can be misdiagnosed so easily. Only half the people with celiac have the characteristic diarrhea, and only one-fourth have the fatty stools. The other symptoms are very diverse because they are caused by malabsorption of nutrients. Symptoms include recurring abdominal bloating and pain, nausea, anemia, gas, tingling numbness in the legs, sores inside the mouth, painful skin rash on elbows, knees, and buttocks, cramping, hives, joint/muscle pains and aches, diarrhea, and constipation. I really don t see how one can tell the yeast syndrome apart from celiac without testing. There are a lot of other possible diagnoses that people get before finding out that they really
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have celiac. Here are some: anemia, fatigue, stress, nerves, imagination, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), parasites, colitis, diarrhea, spastic colon, ulcers, diabetes, allergies, gallbladder disease, weight loss, thyroid disease or cancer. One of the articles stated that celiac often manifests at 2 years of age. Since symptoms of autism often occur at this age, one wonders what the actual role of gluten intolerance might play with the onset of this disease or with other problems, like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or hyperactivity. (More about the relationship between gluten and autism and attention deficit is in book 5.) references
1. 2. Gershon, Michael, MD, The Second Brain, Harper Perennial, 1998, page 223 Peat, R, Phd, Postpartum, premenstrual, and seasonal serotonin soaks: Hints about aging, insomnia and diabetes , Ray Peat s Newsletter, November 2001 Banwell JG, Howard R, Kabir I, Costerton JW. Bacterial overgrowth by indigenous microflora in the PHA.fed rat. Can J Microbiol 1988;34:1009.13. as mentioned in this article: Freed, David L J (Allergist), Do dietary lectins cause disease? The evidence is suggestive and raises interesting possibilities for treatment. BMJ volume 318 17 April 1999 www.bmj.com
3.
Protein
Polly: If you have yeast overgrowth, does that mean you have to eat meat? Are the hormones, antibiotics, fungal toxins and pesticides found in meat fat so detrimental that you are better off being a vegetarian? Or does need for protein outweigh the risks? Why can t some people tolerate high protein foods? Sorry, we don t have all the answers, but we do have some thoughts to share with you. organs (which may do their detoxification work mostly at night). Several allergy tests didn t show allergic reactions against protein molecules from meat, egg, fish, dairy products and nuts. The only thing I can do now is to leave out all protein rich products. Does anyone have a physiological explanation for this problem? Thanks! Polly: I think you are probably right in that the protein isn t being digested properly. If bacteria are feeding on protein, this could lead to ammonia and other toxins being produced that may interfere with your sleep. Ammonia is produced when your body digests protein or when bacteria like Proteus, Klebsiella and Bacteroides act upon protein. Here are some possibilities: 1) Sleep problems can be induced by increased ammonia levels. When ammonia is present, more tryptophan will enter the brain. [1] Tryptophan can be turned into serotonin. The most often suggested explanation for ammonia induced sleep disturbances is increased serotonin turnover in the brain. [2] 2) In particular, look for an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. Bacteria that are residing in the small intestine get to your food before you are able to fully digest and
Protein Intolerance
Kareem: After several antibiotic therapies, my intestinal flora got mixed up. I had dysbiosis (eg no bifidus bacteria, no E. Coli bacteria, a few pathogenic bacteria etc). One of the problems caused by the dysbiosis is protein mal-digestion. The symptoms go like this: when I eat (any) meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, nuts, the coming night I wake up around 2.30, sweating and feeling bad. I cannot sleep anymore and at daytime I feel like tortured. The second night I sleep until about 3:30, the third night about 5:00 and then it works itself to the normal rhythm (7:00). My thesis is that for some reason the protein molecules are not broken down to amino acids and therefore several whole protein molecules reach intestinal areas which they should not reach. There they are absorbed into the bloodstream and in the end overload several
Protein
absorb it. It may be the problem. However, the type of bacteria in the small intestine might not be picked up by a stool test. A urine test would be more likely to find the problem. (Even yeast in the small intestine aren t always picked up in a stool test, even though they have pictures of the yeast inside the cells of the small intestine.) 3) In particular, suspect an overgrowth of gramnegative anaerobes, clostridia, enterobacteria, and Bacillus species because these bacteria produce relatively large amounts of ammonia. Increased ammonia is probably not due to yeast, because yeasts form very little ammonia. [3] (However, don t forget that yeast will change which bacteria grow, so they could be a secondary problem.) 4) The lack of Bifidus bacteria may be increasing your absorption of ammonia. Bifidus keeps the lower intestine acidic. When the chyme in the large intestine is acidic, less ammonia is absorbed. FOS will increase the Bifidus population, but sometimes there are problems using FOS. Inulin is another option for increasing the Bifidus population. (See the probiotics chapter in book 2 for more information on FOS and inulin.) 5) Lactulose is often recommended to reduce ammonia in the body. It may help increase Bifidus, and it may also lower the amount of ammonia produced by bacteria. However, it may increase the growth of other bacteria and therefore, lactulose might not be tolerated by everyone. 6) Calcium/magnesium butyrate may be useful in reducing ammonia in the body, according to Dr. Patricia Kane s observations. Threonine (beta-hydroxy-butyric) is another option for helping the body to remove ammonia.
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7) To process the ammonia, your body needs carbon dioxide, CO2. You can support your CO2 levels by making sure you have enough thyroid hormone. Also, you can learn breathing techniques designed to increase CO2 retention. These breathing techniques acidify the blood, while helping the cells take in oxygen. (See the chapter on Acid And Alkaline Balance.) Another method for increasing CO2 is ingesting mineral carbonates. Patricia Kane, PhD has seen a lot of protein intolerance in autistic children. Usually these children are too acidic and have low bicarbonate levels in their blood. She suggests that they take mineral carbonates one hour after their meal. This will increase CO2 levels and at the same time reduce the blood s acidity. (For general purposes, you can get some carbonated minerals from buffered vitamin C.) However, there are a few precautions to take when using these mineral carbonates. A) Mineral carbonates may lower the acidity of your blood. This is often good. Yet, you can t go too far down this path. You need to get some acidic protein to the mineral carbonates. Also a mixture of different minerals is probably best. For instance, a balance between sodium and potassium is important. B) Don t take the mineral carbonates with your meal. This will lower your stomach acid level and interfere with digestion. Add the mineral carbonates inbetween meals, preferably at about the time that the pancreas naturally secretes carbonates. The stomach usually empties about 90 minutes after a meal. However, it will take longer if there is inadequate stomach acid and/or if you have ingested a lot of meat and fat.

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8) According to Braverman, in his book The Healing Nutrients Within, the protein intolerance could be due to a lack of coenzyme B6 (also known as P5P). You may want to read page 338 in his book, and possibly get an amino acid profile. His treatment suggestion would include a low protein diet, B6, magnesium, and sometimes alpha-ketoglutaric acid. (Magnesium, B2, and alpha-ketoglutaric acid are needed to convert B6 into its active coenzyme form..) Manganese and zinc are also needed to handle protein foods. Certain amino acids, like alpha-ketoglutaric acid, help you remove ammonia. You might want to have your doctor do an amino acid assay. (See the chapter on amino acids in book 6.) Have your doctor check your stomach pH and your pancreatic enzyme levels, your CO2, your blood and urine pH, and check your urine indican level. (Indican is a measure of protein putrefaction in the gut.)
and start to feel better but guilty for not doing what they tell me is medically sound? It s a very waffly place because I didn t understand the mechanism UNTIL NOW. It s that liver again! Dear Liver, I m sorry for all the estrogen! Please have as much protein as you need! Love, Shelley Suzanne: Shelley, too much protein could lead to other problems. I am a vegetarian, and I get more than enough protein a day from my diet of soytofu, seitan etc, nuts & seeds, rice and beans and a balanced diet of many types of vegetables, and Bragg s liquid Aminos . It is non-fermented soy and I use it as soy sauce . Not to start a debate, just present a different view on the subject. The average adult only needs .3 grams of protein per lb of body weight per DAY (ie 150 lb = 2 ounces of protein) Not very much. Most Americans eat more than double the amount of protein they need in one day. Excess amounts of protein in your diet depletes calcium from your body potentially leading to osteoporosis and puts an extra burden on your kidney potentially leading to renal failure. There have even been studies showing that high-protein diets have shorter average life expectancies than people who follow low-protein diets. And just think of all the other things that your body gets from lots of meat like artery clogging fat and cholesterol, and pesticides, steroids and antibiotics; unless you only eat organic meat, eggs, dairy and never eat out at most restaurants. I certainly don t want to tell anyone how to eat as I believe that you should eat whichever protein source that seems to work best for you (since some people are allergic to soy, rice etc),
Vegetarian or Omnivore?
Mary J: Hi Polly, what do you think meat does for the liver? I m a vegetarian and enjoy it, but I look at everything. Polly: Protein improves liver health. The liver needs protein to get rid of estrogen. [4] Shelley: Polly, you have just answered a major piece of my puzzle and I thank you. Every doctor that I have had that has believed in the yeast syndrome has told me not to eat meat. When I am not on antifungals I cannot tell what I am allergic to, because I react to everything and only want to eat carbohydrates and sugar. When I am on antifungals then I only want to eat meatit s this craving almost like the sugar craving. Do I try not to eat meat and get sicker; or do I eat meat
Protein
however, eat everything in moderation not too little, not too much. As a side note, I started to get candida symptoms when I wasn t a vegetarian. I still ate lots seafood, eggs and didn t care if things had chicken or beef stock. So I personally don t believe it CAUSES candida. I attribute the cause of my candida to birth control pills and antibiotics and eating too much of the typical American diet of processed and junk food, sugar, and stress. Most of the facts about protein/meat that I quoted came from the book Renewal: The Anti-aging Revolution written by Timothy Smith MD (who is vegan) and treats candida. I heard him speak at an Earthsave meeting. Shelley: Thanks for your response, Suzanne. I too have been a vegetarian for many years, but not in the last few. I think my lifelong candida problem opened the door to this other pressing health problem I now have, CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I think it is a little like the chicken and the egg thing, although the metaphor doesn t actually apply. I know I had Candida Related Complex (CRC) before the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). I don t know if the CRC directly caused the CFS. And I don t know if controlling the candida will clear the CFS. My gut feeling is that since it has always been a root problem, and because so much of what is said on this forum is sooo valuable to me for both conditions, that I might be on the right track. And controlling the candida (dare I say eliminating???) has to make a healthier body. Because of the lifelong candida problem, I have also had a leaky gut and developed allergies to almost everything. To my dismay, even soy and rice. But not meat and eggs and other flesh (yuck) stuff because I never ate it. So I am going with the liver needs help theory and eating mostly meat (organic as I can) AND lowish
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carbohydrate vegetables. Lately that has been things like asparagus. I can get organic asparagus even in the supermarket (even on the East Coast!) The whole thing is complicated and I would rather be vegetarian but I think I need to perform this experiment. As counter-intuitive as it is to my mind, my body likes it. I welcome any thoughts on this, folks. Good we re talking about it. Mary J: I too am sure I had candida long before I became a vegetarian. I think my dad had a good case of it having been on antibiotics since WWII. I think yeast can be a familial situation. People wash clothes in cold water, etc, etc. Postnasal drip is supposed to be a biggie with yeast. People breathe what others sneeze, etc. I think even animals can have yeast, since they have yeast in their urine (I saw a picture on the Internet). SR: As far as amino acids go, I do not believe it is possible for many people to digest and absorb enough amino acids (protein components) from vegetarian diets. It is NOT that the aminos are not in the vegetarian diet, they of course ARE there. BUT a person must be lucky in 2 ways.... Lucky enough to combine the right foods throughout the day (they do not even need to be combined at the same meal but can be spaced several hours apart apparently). Second, a person must have a healthy genetic metabolism to do it. It s just that many people have tried to go vegetarian and it just does not work for most people for whatever reasonincluding me. I was vegetarian for 3 years and it nearly killed me. Now, if someone is 100% healthy and they want to become vegetarian, it may work for them because they have no candida or mercury or parasites or fungus or bacteria or viruses or leaky gut or poor digestion etc. Well then it may work for them. Or it may even work for some who are trying to get well. There are always exceptions to

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the rule. However the rule I have mostly seen is that it just does not work for most people and they look like crap and are generally weak and tired and frail NO MATTER what the magazines say. Once again, I am so glad you are the exception to the rule. I TRULY WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN ALSO AND CONTINUED ON IT, but for right now NO WAY !! I just do not want to see others suffer needlessly, trying to go vegetarian with TOFU AND SOY, as most of it is allergy causing and genetically altered or hybridized in some way shape or form, as are most of our vegetable today!! Whether they are organic or not. MM: I have to agree with you, SR. I too went veggie for several yearseven avoided eggs and dairy productsand instead, ate LOTS and LOTS of beans and homemade whole grain bread. It took me the usual several years to deplete my nutrient stores on this dietcalcium, magnesium, others, and probably most importantly for my liver, vitamin B-12. Since that time (I crashed in 1994), I ve been a wreck. Candida, food allergies, overloaded liver, etc. I ve made very notable progress since I again began to eat meat in December 1997. I m not cured, but I feel better, and also feel that I m beginning to get a handle on the food allergy thing. Going veggie is definitely NOT something to be done casually! It is VERY easy to slowly become deficient in key nutrients when on a veggie diet! And, once unbalanced, it has been VERY difficult for me (anyway) to again regain balance, and to give my body what it needs to repair and restock. Mrs. Generic: Perhaps you ate too many breads and beans instead of nuts and vegetables.
MM: Oh, don t get me wrong, I ate lots of veggies too. Also nuts. In fact, I ALWAYS ate LOTS of veggies. I love stir-fry. Problem is that when the candida came, and it did (not because of bread over-consumption), I then got food allergies to things including NUTS. Of course, this made it ever so much more difficult to be a GOOD vegetarian. Despite all of this, I never had adequate dietary sources of vitamin B-12. Of course, I only now realize this. What I was trying to point out is that it is NOT EASY to be a GOOD vegetarian. Polly: I use to eat almost all protein. I had to. I couldn t tolerate much else. But last year when I had my amino acids tested, I was low on almost all of them. This means there was something wrong with my absorption or utilization of protein. There are probably many possibilities, however, I ve only run across a few possible explanations in my case. My deficiency of an amino acid called valine made it harder to absorb and use the other proteins. (That was mentioned in the result packet of my amino acid assay.) I was low on coenzyme B6, and a lack of coenzyme B6 limits absorption and use of protein. Thyroid is necessary to assimilate protein too. My thyroid was low. I think when you have an illness like candida, there may be extenuating circumstances that make it imperative that you get more protein in your diet than normal. For instance, a high protein diet, if tolerated, can protect one from some of the effects of mercury poisoning. Mary J: One thing I might bring up from the Broda Barnes thyroid book I just read is that high protein diets require more thyroid hormone. I don t see anything wrong with including meat in your diet if you want it and think you need it. Everything in moderation and all that. A person
Protein
who does eat meat opens themselves up to more parasite possibilities I think. Polly: The cysteine in muscle meat suppresses the thyroid. (The heart does not contain a lot of cysteine though.) According to Raymond Peat, this is one reason that people starting a vegetarian diet might feel better at first. However, if they continue the vegetarian diet for a few years and don t get enough protein, then they feel worse. [5] I think part of the problem is the type of meat available to the USA public. I feel healthier since switching to beef from New Zealand. The cattle are truly grass-fed. The meat is very lean. It is much leaner than any other meat I ve tried. I think animals raised this way should have less estrogen, antibiotics, and pesticides in their fat than the grain-fed animals. Pesticides act like estrogens, and as we all know, estrogen increases yeast growth. So, I feel that meat from truly grass-fed animals is best. However, please be careful about which grass-fed products you buy. I use to see high-priced meat in the health food store that was labeled grass-fed , but it was a misnomer. The cattle were only partially grassfed. The animals were sent to feed lots to fatten them on grains before slaughter. My husband doesn t like the taste of the grass-fed beef, so we tried a different meat. Switching from beef to emu meat made a big difference in his health. His migraines diminished significantly. Emu meat is very lean. We also experimented with grass-fed buffalo meat, but it seemed to be bad for both of us. The buffalo burger we tried was very fatty. Shelley: Please anyone reading this regard it as the musings of a seeker and not the gospel. I am lost often and found once in a while. Polly, tell me if I am lost? There is something here that is not quite making sense to me. I will try to lay it out.
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1) Candida deposits bad stuff in ones bowels like estrogen, which the liver has to process, and this exhausts the liver. 2) Protein is needed to help the liver detox estrogen. 3) Thyroid also helps the liver detox estrogen. Yet thyroid activity is suppressed by the cysteine in meat. 4) Thyroid clears cortisol from the blood. Would not higher levels of thyroid put a strain on the adrenals? 5) Eating meat also creates nitric oxide, which makes a person feel terrible which would bring on all kinds of things...like allergies. (an aside: aspirin is a nitric oxide inhibitor and one of the only things that makes me feel like a human being)... So what s my point? Is it don t take thyroid and eat vegetarian or eat meat, take thyroid and add supplements to try to eliminate excess estrogen ? OK, I am lost. Going to look into Raymond Peat and not speak until then! Polly: If our meat were pesticide free, antibiotic free, and grass-fed, I don t think people would have much of a nutritional argument against eating some meat. However, even here you have to be careful. Raymond Peat suggests that it is better to get your protein from milk, cheese, eggs and gelatin. Milk and cheese have less cysteine in them. This makes it more thyroid friendly. The heart muscle contains very little cysteine and would also fit into this thyroid friendly category of protein. Raymond Peat also talks about the problem with excess tryptophan in muscle meat. He suggests that if you eat a steak or hamburger, that you balance its amino acids by eating gelatin at approximately the same time. (Perhaps a packet of unflavored Knox gelatine.) Gelatin is low in cysteine and tryptophan, whereas the meat,

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especially the more expensive tender cuts, is high in cysteine and tryptophan. The gelatin is also good because it contains collagen, chondroitan sulfate and the protective amino acid glycine. (All of these are great for joints.) One-third of the protein in gelatin consists of the protective amino acid glycine. It does not contain tryptophan. The glycine helps you control sugar cravings. When I first started adding a gelatin to my diet, there was a big change in how hungry I felt. I was no longer hungry all day long and I felt full much sooner when eating. Of course, it may be something more than just the glycine in the gelatin that is doing that. You can make your own gelatin by boiling skin, cartilage and bones and making soup stock. Or if you are lazy like me, sometimes you may just want to add some unflavored gelatin to your soup or casserole. (The one pound can of gelatine for food service use is half the price of the packets.) If we are going to eat animal protein, we need protein from the whole animal, not just the muscles. Otherwise we are creating an imbalance in the types of protein we are eating. Imbalances in protein intake translate into more protein being destroyed by the liver and more ammonia being produced. The ammonia is hard on the body. If all you eat is muscle meat, then among other things, you will be getting a disproportionate amount of tryptophan. Excess tryptophan is not good for you. Tryptophan will suppress thyroid and increase serotonin production. Too much serotonin is dangerous, especially if it is combined with polyunsaturated oils and a stressful lifestyle. The combination of polyunsaturated oils and stress releases the serotonin from the cells and sets a person up for many illnesses. It will interfere with energy production and will activate the HPA axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) and will
suppress the thyroid hormone levels in the blood. [6] It will make you more susceptible to fibromyalgia, depression and the yeast syndrome. That is why it is important to try and balance your protein intake. As an adult, you can afford to eliminate a lot of tryptophan from your diet. You need very little. However, growing children need more tryptophan than adults. As for your other questions, if your adrenals aren t too weak, a little added thyroid will actually spur the adrenals on to work better. Assuming your stomach acid is adequate enough to break down the meat and release the B12, then the nitric oxide shouldn t be too much of a problem. The vitamin B12 in the meat is a nitric oxide scavenger, and thus will help protect you from the extra nitric oxide. [7] Shelley: Thanks Polly. I will look into better meat, hormone-free and grass-fed. I have the Amish community that comes to the area in a market to research what they say about their meat and also I am thinking to look into the kosher meat markets in Philadelphia. Polly: The Eatwild Grassfarmers Directory has a list of farmers in each USA state and each Canadian province that raise grass-fed animals. See website www.eatwild.com/suppliers.html. Their prices are often better than at the local health-food store. For those without computer access, Lasater Grasslands Beef in Colorado is one of the largest pasture-intensive farms in the United States, phone (719) 541-2855 or (719) 541-2888 (fax). The New Zealand Company s meat website is www.outlands.co.nz. Presently, their products are carried in most Southern California Whole Foods Markets. These New Zealand grass-fed cattle are NOT raised with the use of hormones, steroids, or antibiotics.
Protein
Here is a source of game animals, website www.brokenarrowranch.com or phone 1-800962-4263. This is a list of animal products where the animals were at least partially grass-fed. www.mercola.com/article/resources/sources_org anic_food.htm Kippy: For a long time I thought my candida problem resulted from my vegetarian diet. I stopped eating meat 12 years ago. The more I ve thought about it though, the more I think I developed candida from stress, bad air quality, and liver damage from drinkingespecially in college. Although, there is also the theory of eating right for your blood type (Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr. Peter J. D Adamo) which states that lectins (toxins) are produced when you eat foods that interact poorly with your blood type. I m a blood type O, which is a type that s supposed to eat meat. Interestingly enough, I m also sensitive to a lot of the foods discouraged by the ER4YT book, such as soy, rice, pork, wheat, gluten, yeast, barley, etc. I found the coincidence somewhat intriguing. Anyway, I agree with you Maryeverything in moderation. Also, I ve read on Dr. Richard Schulze s website and Dr. Rona s website that meats contain tons of bacteria and parasites. I don t remember the actual figure, but it was astounding. What s fascinating is that people with low stomach acid (blood type A s) are more susceptible to parasites. Coincidentally, the Eat Right 4 Your Type book specifies that blood type A s should not eat meat. Huh! Shelley: I too am blood type O, and that was another positive for me to try this meat thing. I will check the websites you mention, Kippy but I m afraid it s going to be quite a shock.
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Polly: You need to get enough protein on a regular basis to keep your cell mediated immunity working. [8] When that falters, you are susceptible to yeast overgrowth.
Irradiation Of Meat
Polly: Is there a downside to the new irradiation of meat? This is an excerpt from one of Raymond Peat s Newsletters [9] The amount of irradiation needed to extend the shelf life of food is around 100,000 rads to 300,000 rads or even more, and even that intensity can t overcome the problem of dirty production facilities. This amount of radiation produces a large amount of ammonia in food. Dogs fed meat that had been irradiated were found to have severely depressed essential amino acids, and a low level of magnesium, protein, and creatinine in the blood. Vitamin A and other nutrients were depleted. There are abstracts in medline that paint an even bleaker picture. [10] Dr. Gary Gibbs has written a book, The Food That Would Last Forever: Understanding The Dangers Of Food Irradiation. In an interview with Dr. Jonathan Wright, he stated At the University of Illinois, the Department of Medicine fed radiated food to mice. Seventeen percent had to be killed or died because of respiratory problems so severe they couldn'even t move around their cages. They did autopsies. The hearts of the mice had enlarged to twice to three times normal, and in some cases had burst. This is so often seen in animal feeding studies with radiated food that it' commonly referred to as s the hemorrhagic syndrome. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia fed rats irradiated beef. All the male rats died of hemorrhagic syndrome within 34 days.

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The problem with irradiation isn t limited to meat. There are many warning signs with other irradiated foods too. Fortunately, the new irradiated meat in the market will be labeled with a green radiation flower. Unfortunately, any of the meat or food you are served in a restaurant will not be marked. Convenience foods will not be marked. Any food that has been processed in any other way or has been mixed with other ingredients will not be marked. Eg. A radiated tomato will be marked, but catsup made from radiated tomatoes will not be marked. Look for a green flower symbol on your food. It is called the "radura." The radura is a green circle (broken into four segments at the top of the circle), enclosing a flower image represented by a large green dot with two petals below the dot. Also watch out for consumer friendly names, like cold pasteurized or electronic pasteurized which might hide the fact that the food has been irradiated. references
1. Braverman, Eric R., MD, The Healing Nutrients Within; Facts, Findings and New Research on Amino Acids, Keats Publishing, Inc. 27 Pine Street (Box 876), New Canaan, Connecticut 06840-0876, date 1999 He states that Ammonia will increase the ratio of aromatic to branch chain amino acids that enter the brain. Bergeron M, Swain MS, Reader TA, Grondin L, Butterworth RF, Effect of ammonia on brain serotonin metabolism in relation to function in the portacaval shunted rat. J Neurochem. 1990 Jul;55(1):222-9 and Szerb JC, Butterworth RF, Effect of ammonium ions on synaptic transmission in the mammalian central nervous system. Prog Neurobiol 1992 Aug;39(2):135-53 Vince AJ, Burridge SM, Ammonia production by intestinal bacteria: the effects of lactose, lactulose and glucose. J Med Microbiol. 1980 May;13(2):177-91 Lipschutz, Alexander, Steroid Hormones and Tumors, Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1950. As referenced in Raymond Peats book on page 6,
Progesterone in Orthomolecular Medicine Also the work of Biskinds in the 1940s. 5. Peat, Raymond, PhD, Endocrine System and the Candida Patient , 1985 lecture tape from the Candida and Dysbiosis Information Foundation Jorgensen H, Knigge U, Kjaer A, Moller M, Warberg J, Serotonergic Stimulation of CorticotropinReleasing Hormone and Pro-Opiomelanocortin Gene Expression. J Neuroendocrinol. 2002 Oct;14(10):788-795 and Wang J, Dunn AJ Brizzi G, Carella C, Foglia MC, Frigino M Thyroid hormone plasmatic levels in rats treated with serotonin in acute and chronic way. J Physiol Paris 1997 Pall ML. Cobalamin used in chronic fatigue syndrome therapy is a nitric oxide scavenger. Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in press, and also in Raymond Peat s April 1999 newsletter. Lotfy OA, Saleh WA, el-Barbari M. A study of some changes of cell-mediated immunity in protein energy malnutrition. J Egypt Soc Parasitol. 1998 Aug;28(2):413-28 Peat, Raymond, PhD, Estrogen, Aging, Radiation, Migraine and Energy, Ray Peat s Newsletter, October 2000
6.
7.
8.
9.
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10. Smid K, Dvorak J, Hrusovsky J, [The effect of feeds treated with ionizing irradiation on biochemical indicators of the nutritional value of energy nutrients]. [Article in Czech] Vet Med (Praha) 1985 Sep;30(9):531-41 and Dvorak J, Smid K, Hrusovsky J [The effect of ionizing radiation on structural changes in the energy nutrients in animal feed]. [Article in Czech] Vet Med (Praha) 1985 Oct;30(10):629-36 and Smid K, Dvorak J, Hrusovsky J [The effect of ionizing irradiation on sensory changes in feed in relation to their utilization by dogs]. [Article in Czech] Vet Med (Praha) 1985 Dec;30(12):739-48 11. Romano C, Biondi R, Quarto N, Galdiero F, (Article in Italian. Changes of the intestinal mucosa-bacterial flora ecosystem in rats fed various diets) Boll Ist Sieroter Milan 1978 Mar 31;57(1):12-9
3.
4.
Fats And Oils

Polly: At the urging of our medical establishment, the USA public has greatly cut back on saturated fats. We substituted oils from corn, cottonseed, soy, safflower, and canola. In my opinion, the shift from saturated fat to seed oils in our diet has greatly contributed to the yeast syndrome epidemic. The high omega-6 essential fatty acid content of the seed oils suppresses the Th1 immune system. [1] The Th1 immune system needs to be functioning properly to keep yeast, viruses, and protozoa under control. The high omega-6 fatty acid content of the seed oils also suppresses IgA. [2] IgA is the most predominant type of antibody that is found covering the gut mucosa. IgA keeps toxins and bacteria from binding to the cells that line the intestines. Without enough IgA, the intestines become inflamed, and the lymphoid tissue in the gut swells. If you want to get well and stay well, avoid the polyunsaturated seed oils, and substitute butter, olive oil, and coconut oil. Also consider a little fish liver oil or emu oil to help sooth a damaged intestine. Some of you are thinking, This flies in the face of everything I ve been taught. I ll just avoid all the fats, and not have to worry about who is right. Sorry, that won t work. It is the balance between the different fats and oils in your diet that controls how your body responds. According to Raymond Peat, PhD, the polyunsaturated seed oils in the diet are much more harmful if you aren t eating enough saturated fats to counterbalance them. For those of you who still think that only the unsaturated essential fatty acids are important in your diet, listen to what Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon point out, Saturated fats in the diet improve the body s utilization of essential fatty acids, and protect them from becoming rancid. [3]
Excessive Omega-6 Oils In The Diet

Polly: Usually, people from the United States eat way too much polyunsaturated omega-6 oils from the seed oils. Pizza, French fries, donuts, and fried chicken from fast food restaurants are all soaked with this type oil. This is quite harmful. Just balancing the polyunsaturated omega-6 oils (eg corn, safflower, soy, and cottonseed) with added polyunsaturated omega-3 oils (flax and fish) does not fix the problem. This balances the polyunsaturated dietary oils, but it still leaves a person with too much polyunsaturated oils in the diet. The best tactic is to eliminate the vast majority of the seed oils from the diet. As motivation for restricting these oils in the diet,

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read this list of harmful consequences caused by eating too much polyunsaturated oils. [4] 1. cancer 2. respiratory inefficiency (loss of energy producing capacity) It suppresses respiratory production of carbon dioxide and it blocks the entry of glucose (a sugar) into cells 3. inhibition of desaturase enzymes (fat modifying enzymes) 4. increased tendency to produce peroxide free radicals 5. intolerance of stress 6. edema through the interaction of the polyunsaturates with nitric oxide 7. increased inflammatory response to an immunological challenge 8. inactivation of the proteolytic enzymes that dissolve blood clots 9. accumulation of age pigment 10. lethargic healing of wounds Leo Galland, MD adds another very important reason to avoid excess polyunsaturated oils. He warns that polyunsaturated oils increase the free radical content of the bile, and these free radicals damage both the gut and pancreas. See www.healthy.net/library/articles/galland/Leakygut.htm We are doing a mass experiement on ourselves by switching over from traditional fats to modern polyunsaturated fats. The traditional diets of our ancestors derived only about 4% of their calories from polyunsaturated oils, whereas our modern diet derives from 10% to 30% of its calories from polyunsaturated oils. [5] From 1930 to 1985, there was a 127% increase in polyunsaturated fat in the diet of people from the United States. [6] Are we headed in the right direction? Heart disease and cancer have risen in our USA society, just about as fast as we have added the polyunsaturated seed oils
and eliminated the animal fats. [7] Maybe we have made a mistake.
The Warm Body Argument

Polly: In one of Dr. Raymond Peat s lectures, he explained the warm body argument. This is a common-sense argument that explains why humans need to eat more saturated fat and less polyunsaturated fat. I modified this argument a little and have related it here. When reading this warm body argument, keep in mind these two facts. A. The more saturated a fat is, the less likely it is to oxidize or go rancid at warm temperatures. B. The more unsaturated an oil is, the lower the temperature at which it will remain liquid. Eg, some highly unsaturated oils will remain liquid in your freezer. (The length of the fatty acids will cause some variation in this rule. Shorter chain fatty acids like found in coconut oil will liquefy more readily than the longer chain fatty acids like found in animal fat.) The Warm Body Argument: Why do fish have lots of polyunsaturated oil in their body? Also why is it that the colder the water, the more unsaturated the fish oil is? Could it be that fish are cold blooded and need oil that stays liquid in their cold environment? The colder their bodies are, the less protection they require against oxidation, too. Why would coconut oil contain mainly saturated oil, olive oil contain mainly monounsaturated oil, and most grains contain mainly polyunsaturated oil? Could it be that coconuts and olives are native to a warm climate, and that grains are adapted to colder climates? Why do mammals have a high proportion of saturated fat in their body? Perhaps we need fat that doesn t oxidize, produce free radicals, and go rancid in our warm bodies? Why are cows and
Fats And Oils

other ruminants adapted to eating just grass with its high polyunsaturated oil content and yet they stay healthy? Could it be due to their ability to convert the unsaturates to saturates? (They have a type of bacteria in their stomachs that saturate the oils.) Hence, it is logical that warm-blooded animals need a higher percentage of saturated fat.
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polyunsaturated oils, stick to the meat from grass-fed cows and sheep.
Heating Unsaturated Oils Create Transfatty Acids

Polly: Everyone agrees that transfatty acids are harmful. Most people know they are present in margarine and hydrogenated oils. Yet few are aware that transfatty acids are formed anytime you cook with polyunsaturated oils, especially the highly unsaturated oils. The weak chains of the polyunsaturated oils form transfatty acids very easily when heated. Highly saturated fats are a different story. Much fewer transfatty acids will form when you heat them. Hence, use coconut oil or other highly saturated oils for cooking. Don t use corn oil, soy, canola, flax, safflower, or cottonseed oils in your cooking.
Animal Fats
Polly: Advertisers describe their meat as coming from corn-fed animals, and they make it sound like this is something wonderful. It is not! The extra fat on these animals makes the meat tender, but it is an unbalanced unnatural fat, with a high proportion of omega-6 polyunsaturated oils in it from the corn and little omega-3. Grain-fed animals are also exposed to the pesticides on the grains, which they incorporate into their fat. They are also exposed to fungal mycotoxins and mold on their grains, which end up in the fat. Because of the way the animals are raised and fed, they are also more likely to be exposed to antibiotics. Just the fact that they are fat, makes their body produce more estrogen. The antibiotics, estrogen, pesticides, micotoxins and excess omega-6 polyunsaturated oils in the fat are making us sick. It is not the saturated fat content. The only way to get around this problem is to find a source of truly grass-fed animalsones that have been raised on grass and not sent to a feedlot before slaughter. The meat will be a lot leaner, and taste different, but it will be the type of meat and fat that nature intended us to have. One caveat: Pigs are not ruminants. They need a variety of food, not just grass and grain. Their fat content will be affected greatly by the type of food that they eat. For this reason, the fat content of grass or grain fed pigs tends to be much more unsaturated than that of cows and sheep. (Usually pigs are fattened on soy and corn.) If you are trying to eliminate the
Pizza Poem
Mona: For a pizza company s 40 year anniversary they are having a contest where they will be giving away 40,000 free pizza s, 40 free pizza s per person for the best poems, I am going to enter and I just wanted to share my poem with you. Everyone knows how I have been craving pizza. I have been fighting a disease called Candida, The whole time I could have NO yeast, No bread, No cheeza, my cravings were more than I could bear, I would dream of this special pizza and wish I could be there. now that I am well, 40 pizzas I will share with my loved ones who waited, until I could be there.

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The thick crust, the paste, the garlic taste, not even the crust will go to waste. It felt like a lifetime I had to wait, to have this date with my mate, we will share a pepperoni or two, maybe a salad a breadstix will do, well that s the end Yahoo..... Polly: Do not tempt fate, for lying in wait, within that scrumptious crust, hides a villain intent on piercing heart, and calling forth the beast yeast. If you love yourself and family, make your pizza Italian, for only olive oil will fend for you, and protect you from that beast. I don t want to put a damper on your celebration, but I d feel bad if I didn t warn you about the oil in commercial pizzas, especially 40 of them. I think one of the reasons I got into trouble in the first place was pizzathe wrong type of pizza. Have you noticed how oily some of the crusts are? That way they don t have to put much cheese on top or artificial cheese as the case may be. In almost all cases, they use oils like cottonseed, safflower and other seed oils, which contain a lot of polyunsaturated oils. These polyunsaturated oils form transfatty acids when heated. Eating a pizza made with polyunsaturated oil is just like eating a cube of margarine. I know when I have eaten too much of one of those cheaply made pizzas, I feel sick. You aren t going to find a good pizza crust from a major chain. I am fortunate to have a small Italian pizza parlor a few blocks from my house where they only use a little olive oil in
their crust. Costco just started carrying a pizza by Kirkman, which has only olive oil in the crust. There is also a fairly dry ready-made crust at the grocery store that contains some olive oil along with the harmful oils. It is called Boboli. If you purchase this, it is real easy to make your own pizza. Sometimes it comes with a package of pizza sauce. All you need to do is add some grated cheese and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. Mona: Thanks...we have that brand here. The tofu mozzarella cheese I put on my chicken lasagna was GOOD. They also had a cheddar flavor one. I will check more into this. We could add olives too. Yummy!
Canola Oil or Olive Oil?

Polly: We refer to olive oil as a monounsaturated oil, flax oil as an omega-3 polyunsaturated oil, corn oil as omega-6 polyunsaturated oil, and coconut oil as a saturated oil. Yet each of these oils is actually a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated oils. Usually we just refer to the dominant type of oil in the product. This can be misleading. For instance, many of us have been sold canola oil on the basis that it is high in the monounsaturated oleic fatty acids, just like the more expensive olive oil. However, a significant portion (10%) of canola oil is omega-3 polyunsaturated oil, which is very easily ruined by processing or by heat. Because of processing, omega-3 content of canola oil is likely ruined before it even hits the grocery shelf. Since olive oil only contains about 1% of the omega-3 polyunsaturated oil, it is much more stable. This is one reason that olive oil is a much better choice than canola oil. Canola oil also has an abundance of very long chain fatty acids, which are a problem for some
Fats And Oils

people. Here are some articles on the problems with canola oil.
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The Virtues of Coconut Oil
Polly: There are many benefits to including www.garynull.com/Documents/spectrum/be_care coconut oil in the diet. ful_of_canola.htm 1. Coconut oil is an excellent source of clean www.karinya.com/canola.htm saturated fats. It is easy to purchase organic coconut oil, and you don t have to worry www.mercola.com/2002/aug/17/con_ola2.htm about the estrogens, antibiotics and pesticides In the latter article, Mary Enig and Sally Fallon that are in most of the animal fats. state: 2. Coconut oil contains caprylic acid, which is These studies all point in the same direction -an antifungal. that canola oil is definitely not healthy for the cardiovascular system. Like rapeseed oil, its 3. According to Mary Enig, coconut oil improves the immune system s antipredecessor, canola oil is associated with fibrotic inflammatory response, and protects against lesions of the heart. It also causes vitamin E alcoholic damage to the liver. [8] deficiency, undesirable changes in the blood platelets and shortened life-span in stroke-prone rats when it was the only oil in the animals diet. Furthermore, it seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of canola oil in infant formula. The dark extra virgin olive oil is probably better for you because it is higher in anti-oxidants than the olive oil from the latter pressings. Yet the latter pressings will have a milder taste, and you may want this for certain dishes. If you want to know the percent of saturated, monosaturated and polyunsaturated fat in a particular dietary fat, a good resource is Dr. Mary Enig s book, Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol. If you still aren t sure if polyunsaturated oils are bad or not, then read Saturated Fat May Save Your Life by Bruce Fife, ND. It is extremely well-written. Although parts of it are technical, the book isn t going to put you to sleep. 4. Coconut oil is a source of lauric acid, which converts in the intestines to an anti-viral substance called monolaurin. Monolaurin disrupts the lipid (fat) membranes of envelope viruses like measles, Rubeola, HIV, Herpes and Cytomegalovirus (CMV). The parents of the autistic are particularly interested in this anti-viral property. The same goes for the people who are trying to defeat AIDS. Those involved with the war against AIDS have some anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness. In particular, read Positive Health News, report 14, at www.keephope.net/report14.html Also, see the results of a small trial of coconut oil and AIDS patients at www.lauric.org 5. Coconut oil contains an abundance of short and medium chain triglycerides. (Triglycerides are groupings of fatty acids. You may have already heard about the medium chain triglycerides or MCTs that are sold to athletes and dieters.) With some of the autistic, there appears to be a danger of long chain fatty acids build-up. Therefore, the short and medium chain fatty acids of

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coconut oil seem particularly appropriate. Indeed, many of the parents of the autistic are starting to employ coconut oil. Willis: As you say, many mothers of autistic children are beginning to use coconut oil, largely for the monolaurin that kills viruses, I believe. One mother s son tested zero on lauric acid. When she gave monolaurin, he began to speak in complex sentences for the first time in his 18year life! Polly: If you try coconut oil, start very slowly to give your body a chance to adjust, perhaps one teaspoon per day. Also, you want to be careful because you might be allergic to it. Mary Enig, PhD says that three tablespoons is a therapeutic amount for adults. Also be aware that your metabolic rate might increase and you may need more B6 and other nutrients. See Raymond Peat s article on coconut oil at his website, www.efn.org/~raypeat/index.html. Organic coconut oil can be purchased mail order from Omega Nutrition at 1-800-511-2660. You can also ask in most health food stores if they will order either the Spectrum or the JarrowOmega Nutrition organic coconut oil. Presently, the Spectrum brand of expeller-pressed organic coconut oil costs less. Spectrum also carries a coconut oil product labeled as a skin conditioner. It is not organic or expeller-pressed, but it is edible. This site sells a virgin coconut oil that has been processed using a minimum of heat. www.coconut-info.com, phone 218-220-0762. The site also has links to many articles on the benefits of coconut oil. The virgin coconut oil that they sell is extracted using a traditional fermentation process instead of boiling. (Be aware that some companies also call their product virgin coconut oil, but they cold-press the oil and then purify it by boiling.)
The fermented virgin coconut oil smells and tastes more like coconut than the other coconut oil products. However, it is not sweet like the juice/oil you can extract by shredding the coconut yourself (eg using the Green Life Juicer). Yet, my body seems to react just as favorably to the fermented virgin coconut oil as to the oil that I make myself using the Green Life Juicer. (The coconut oil products purified by boiling make me very sleepy. The homemade coconut juice/oil or the fermented product just makes me feel good.) If you would like a book on the subject of coconut oil, try The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil by Bruce Fife.
Doesnt Coconut Oil Cause Heart Disease?

Polly: People first started blaming saturated fat for heart disease because studies showed that it raised cholesterol. This isn t whole picture. For instance, coconut oil is mainly saturated fat. Yet, raw coconut oil raises low cholesterol and lowers high cholesterol. However, if you do your studies only with hydrogenated coconut oil, the cholesterol lowering property is not seen. Dr. Enig feels that the problem is the elimination of the essential fatty acids (EFA) and the presence of transfatty acids when the coconut oil is hydrogenated. Transfatty acids are known to raise cholesterol. This cholesterol normalizing property of raw coconut oil was mentioned in one of the Keep Hope Alive quarterly newsletters (number 14). [9] These newsletters are devoted to finding a cure for AIDS and other related diseases like our yeast syndrome. The newsletter includes reports from various AIDS victims who are using coconut and olive oils. They think very highly of both of these oils. Their website is www.keephope.net
Fats And Oils

Shelley: By the way, the Keep Hope Alive Site is awesome awesome awesome. Mark Konlee is awesome IMHO. (IMHO is an abbreviation for in my humble opinion. ) Polly: I agree. They are light years ahead of the rest of us. Shelley: Because the people with AIDS have to be. Puts it all in perspective. They have my vote. They may even have my check....sure do deserve it. Polly: Instead of blaming saturated fats for heart disease, we should be worried about polyunsaturated fats. An excess of the seed oils, like corn, safflower, soy, and canola, is probably a major contributor to arteriosclerosis, not saturated fats. Stephen Byrnes, ND, writes: Most people think that saturated fat clogs arteries, but studies have shown that the fatty acids in artery clogs are about 75% unsaturated of which about 40% are polyunsaturated![10] Polyunsaturated oils and the free radicals that they promote contribute to oxidization of cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol is the type of cholesterol suspected of causing arteriosclerosis. Saturated fats don t promote oxidative stress. If anything, the saturated fats should be protective by reducing the free radical activity in the body. In my opinion, a more saturated balance of fats is the best way to protect the heart. Opinions are beginning to change. The National Cholesterol Education Program used to recommend that Americans consume polyunsaturated vegetable oils instead of saturated fat. Now they recommend that polyunsaturated oils should be no more than 10% of the calories from the diet. [11] Here is an article by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD: www.westonaprice.org/know_your_fats/oiling.ht
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ml It gives a history of how some scientists looked at only a narrow set of facts and wrongfully concluded that saturated fats were bad for the heart. [12] Or read The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol cause Heart Disease by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD. Or here is an excellent book: Saturated Fats May Save Your Life by Bruce Fife, ND. Here is an article by Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Falon on this same subject. http://mercola.com/2002/aug/17/saturated_fat1.htm High cholesterol may be a marker for changes in the body conducive to heart disease, but it does not cause heart disease. We must not be so narrowly focused on cholesterol that we forget what is happening in the body. Why a substance reduces cholesterol readings is important. For instance, polyunsaturated fats are toxic to the liver and will initially reduce cholesterol. Yet the proper amount of thyroid will lower cholesterol by promoting the conversion of cholesterol into hormones that the body needs. Which substance would you rather take?
Emu Oil
Polly: It may turn out that emu oil will help many of us with our intestinal problems. Taylor pointed out a website hosted by Carmen Spence. Carmen had Crohns disease for over 30 years. Drinking emu oil put her in remission. The brand she used was Inner Relief. Aboriginal people traditionally rubbed on the liquid emu fat to facilitate wound healing and to alleviate pain and disability from various musculo-skeletal disorders. However, there are no modern scientific human studies at this pointonly animal studies that indicate rubbing the emu oil into the skin is effective against arthritis and that ingesting the oil guards against intestinal damage. It works better than evening

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primrose oil (EPO), flax and fish oils in reducing arthritis symptoms. [13] They don t know why emu oil is so effective. Surprisingly, the anti-inflammatory properties have nothing to do with the omega-3 essential fatty acid content of the oil. The fat can be heated in the rendering process to 90 degrees Celsius, but not higher, and still retain this antiinflammatory property. The efficacy does depend on where the fat comes from on the animalthe yellow fat taken from near the intestines has the most anti-inflammatory properties. It will loose some efficacy if it sits on the shelf too long. As can be expected, the breed of bird, a natural diet, and how the oil is processed and cared for is very important. There is a huge difference in efficacy between different brands. So be careful about your purchases. Perhaps look for free-range birds. The Inner Relief brand of emu oil, which Carmen used, presently costs $127 USA for a liter, or $51 USA for 200 gelatin capsules of 1000mg oil each. The price includes shipping. In general, you will need to ingest the whole liter to see results. This is their website and address: http://www.crohns-colitis.com/pages/p-aust-nathealth-prod.html Australian Natural Health Products M/S 1092 Goombungee Qld 4534 Australia Telephone: +61 7 4696 5121 Email: [email protected] Personally, I don t like the taste of the oil. It tastes like chicken fat to me. Yet, I can tolerate it if I let it sit in lemon juice for a while. Ros in Australia: The claims of medicinal use by Aboriginal people are certainly true. They
swear by it. As far as I could ascertain, there are the only 4 suppliers in Australia on the Internet. All 4 farms are in areas that are considered environmentally superior (ie not degraded). www.australis.com.au/hazelwood (Phone (+61) 03 5122 3300 or Fax (+61) 03 5122 3051), www.fastrac.net.au/~emushop/index.htm (phone 02-44478505 or fax 02-44478887), www.cbl.com.au/aei (phone +61-3-5332-7085, Fax +61-3-5334-4150), http://corp.universal.net.au/~bridgi01/index.htm (phone 61-7-5443 5991 fax 61-7-5443 3918) At the last site, go to testimonials and then to Emu Resource Centre (bottom of page), which takes you to research. A quick flick through suggests reputable doctors. There is a considerable range in prices. Emus naturally eat grains, but I would guess that the grains they are fed when farmed are not their natural diet. The first site listed seems fairly reputable and gives more details about feeding and processing than the others. They stipulate that their emus are freerange. Polly: Very interesting. The Hazelwood site (the first one you listed) not only claims the animals are free-range, but that their emu oil product is pesticide free, antibiotic-free, and processed at 40 degrees Celcius (96 degrees Fahrenheit). This relatively low temperature processing seems very unusual and highly desirable. They even have encapsulated the oil. 100 capsules of 750mg of emu oil cost $25 plus shipping. I inquired if during the encapsulation process the oil was heated above this temperature. The company said no. The oil is never heated above 40 degrees Celsius. This is their address:
Fats And Oils

Hazelwood Sales PO Box 16 Churchill Victoria Australia 3842 The testimonials at the last site were only on external use of Emu oil for burns, scars, carpal tunnel syndrome and insect bites. I didn t see any testimonials on intestinal problems at that site. LaterPolly: I tried some of the Emu oil from Hazelwood farms. I rubbed a little on two scars that I d acquired a few months ago. I used it once a day. The first day there was a noticeable change. Within a week, about half of the scar tissue was gone. I d already tried MSM cream, progesterone, micellized vitamin E with no noticeable difference. Emu oil is rather amazing stuff. It will even work better on scars if mixed with vitamin E. [14]
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Mead And Intrinsic Oils

Polly: Mead oil (eicosatrienoic acid or EtrA) is an omega-9 polyunsaturated oil. It is part of the body s intrinsic sequence of fatty acids or oils. The body can create intrinsic oils from carbohydrates and protein an initial dietary oil is not needed. Raymond Peat, PhD, suggests that this group of intrinsic oils is much more suited to the body s needs than are oils not found in this sequence. The intrinsic oils provide health and stress resistance. The non-intrinsic oils are essentially toxic because they block the body s enzymes. By blocking enzymes, the non-intrinsic oils (omega-3 and omega-6 oils) interfere with many bodily functions including the creation of the intrinsic oils. When Mead oil is found in the blood, it should be taken as a sign that the enzymes of the body are working. [15] Are the omega-3 and omega-6 oils necessary in our diet if we can produce enough intrinsic oils? Perhaps the omega-3 and omega-6 oils
aren t as essential as we currently think. For example, the omega-9 Mead oil can act as a substitute for the essential fatty acid derivative oils called EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid, an omega-3 oil) and AA (arachidonic acid, an omega-6 oil). Or if you want to look at it from another perspective, AA and EPA are usually present in the body because of our diet, and these fatty acids take over the job of the intrinsic Mead oil. What is the proper balance of oils in the body? Compared to adults, babies have relatively high levels of Mead oil in their body. Would it be beneficial to supplement Mead oil to bring us closer to this youthful state? Mead oil has some remarkable protective properties, many of which are very important to those of us with dysbiosis. Here is one example of what happened when rats were given a diet that allowed their body to create Mead oil. One group of rats was put on an essential fatty acid (EFA) deficient diet. (Their bodies created Mead oil.) When exposed to toxins created by gut bacteria, these rats survived the onslaught with less liver, stomach, and small intestinal damage than rats given EFA oils. There was also less hypoglycemia, less intestinal permeability and a very significant drop in the number of deaths. [16] In other experiments, rats deficient in EFA oils were exposed to various other toxins. They had less lung, kidney, pancreas, and colon damage than rats given EFA oils. [17] What follows is some other interesting experimental findings for you to contemplate. In the following, when it is stated that the animals are EFA (essential fatty acid) deficient, this implies the animals are producing Mead oil and very little EPA and AA. 1. Rats deficient in essential fatty acids are protected from developing diabetes. [18]

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2. Kidneys, from animals deprived of EFAs, survived and functioned when transplanted even though the recipient was not immunosupressed. [19] 3. EFA deficiency dramatically reduces arthritic swelling in rats (87% reduction in swelling). [20] 4. Healthy young cartilage has high levels of Mead oil in it and very little omega-6 oils in it. [21] 5. Mead oil is more saturated than EPA and AA, and therefore it is less likely to oxidize and cause peroxidation damage in our warm bodies. [22] 6. Humans made deficient in EFAs by putting them on totally fat-free sustenance had lowered inflammatory prostaglandins (PgI2) and lowered internal eye pressure. [23] 7. Mead oil has better anti-inflammatory properties than the omega-3 fatty acid called EPA. [24] (Rats made EFA deficient had less inflammation than those given enough omega-3 oil to create EPA. Neither group of rats was given omega-6 oils, and so neither group created the inflammatory AA.) Reflect on our current usage of language for a moment. If you cause more inflammation by feeding omega-3 oils than by not feeding them, then why do we refer to omega-3 oils as anti-inflammatory? Isn t the omega-3 EPA merely less inflammatory than the other dietary oils that compete with it? Mead oil is more deserving of the name antiinflammatory. 8. Supplemental Mead oil has anti-inflammatory properties even when the rats are not made EFA deficient. [25] 9. Large quantities of Mead oil in the diet of rats (20% of fatty acid intake) appear harmless, at
least in the short term. Long term effects were not examined. [26] The above studies are intriguing. Yet there are still many questions to be answered. I wonder: 1. Olive oil does not appear to interfere with the production of Mead oil. Are there other dietary oils that will do the same? 2. What are the downsides to supplementing Mead oil? Although Mead oil is more stable than AA and EPA, Mead oil is still a polyunsaturated oil, and too much could cause oxidative stress. 3. Restricting the omega-3 and omega-6 EFAs is part of the key to having our body create and use Mead oil, but which nutrients are needed to allow the body to create enough of its own Mead oil? Nutrients that are known to support the desaturase enzymes are important. There have been times when animals showing the dry skin symptom of EFA deficiency recovered when given B6. Therefore, this nutrient may be of particular importance, but what else is critical? 4. If someone has symptoms of an essential fatty acid deficiency, and if Mead oil were supplemented, which essential fatty acid deficiency symptoms would be mitigated? Or would Mead oil worsen some symptoms by increasing the body s metabolism and increasing the need for B vitamins? 5. If we supplement Mead oil, what quantity of omega-3 and omega-6 oils can be in the diet without substantially interfering with the benefits of the added Mead oil? (If we take in too much of the omega-3 and omega-6 oils, they will compete for the enzymes required to convert Mead oil into protective substances.)
Fats And Oils

Eventually Mead oil may be offered for sale at your local health store, but for now, the only way to get Mead oil is to have your body create it for you. If you want to have your body create Mead oil, then you must limit the omega-3 and the omega-6 oils in your diet. Also, you must get your enzymes working properly or it can t be created. When Mead oil becomes available at your local store, you must still use it with a diet low in the omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated oils. If you don t eliminate most of those oils from your diet, the body will not convert Mead oil into the protective substances that you need. Since Mead oil is made in the lab using a mold, the product purity (no mold spores) would be an important consideration in choosing a brand.
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Fish Oil
Polly: Fish oil is often suggested for use because it is known to reduce the inflammation in the intestines. People usually attribute this property to the polyunsaturated EPA content of fish oil. In some cases this may be true, because the EPA will compete with a more inflammatory fatty acid called AA. However, whenever you consider a dietary oil, you must realize that there is more to it than just its fatty acid content. Oils contain many impurities that include hormone-like substances, and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K). All of these fat-soluble vitamins (even vitamin K) have anti-inflammatory properties. [27] Thus it is hard to say exactly why fish oil reduces inflammation. However, instead of plain fish oil, I d suggest trying a little fish liver oil because it is particularly rich in the anti-inflammatory vitamins A, D, and K, and it has a fair amount of vitamin E. Eating fish seems to produce better results than just fish oil, too. Of the different types of fish oil, shark liver oil has the best reputation for improving the immune system. The immune enhancement
properties are attributed to the alkylglycerols in the oil. Shark liver oil has shown promise in the treatment of allergies, asthma, cancer, colds / flu, eczema / psoriasis, fatigue, heavy metal and pesticide toxicity, and AIDS. [28] It also helps with skin hyperkeratinization (skin bumps, which parents of the autistic have aptly named chicken skin). The oil has bacteriostatic and anti-viral effects, and an inhibitory effect on fungi. Because excessive use of shark liver oil can stimulate overproduction of platelets, a 10-day rest period between 30-day cycles is recommended. There are several brands of shark liver oil on the market. I don t know which is best. However, a product called Alkyrol has been around for a long time. It is purified shark liver oil and only a few small pills of this each day can make a difference. Alkyrol can be purchased from many different sources. Here is one place, website www.naturesdistributors.com, or phone 1-800-624-7114. It would be best if you can find a brand of shark liver oil that has been tested for pesticides and heavy metal contamination. However, so far, I ve not found a brand that tests and reports the results. Nordic Natural carries fish oil supplements that have been molecularly distilled to remove the mercury and PCBs. (phone 800-662-2544) The fish oil products from Kirkman Labs have a good reputation too. www.kirkmanlabs.com (phone 1-888-kirkman) Oil from smaller fish will have less mercury. Farm fish may have a different fatty acid composition because of the food fed to the fish and this might have a bearing on its inflammatory or anti-inflammatory properties. Never use a fish oil product that stinks. This is an indication that it has gone rancid. The oil should be encapsulated under nitrogen to preserve its freshness. Since fish oil is polyunsaturated, it oxidizes easily. Therefore, everyone suggests that vitamin E and other anti-

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oxidants should be taken when using fish oil. I have another suggestion. Make sure you have enough saturated fat to balance the polyunsaturated fish oil. Coconut oil would be a good choice in my opinion. I would take coconut or olive oil at the same time as the fish oil to help stabilize the fish oil. Also, I wouldn t overdo fish oil. It is too unsaturated.
regulation. I notice no estrogenic effects from the whole seeds, but I don t think one digests them and the oil is not released or at least not much. However, a tiny bit must get extracted because my skin feels good. Flaxseed oil did wonderful things for my skin, it just made me into a PMS monster...so does walnut oil...but I can tolerate small amounts of hemp oil. This is probably a very individual thing. Mary J: The flax oil has too strong an effect with me. It makes me get something like an adrenal surge and then the opposite effect. I haven t tried the seed to see whether it has a similar effect. Diana: I feel WONDERFUL without any migraines since I stopped taking that flaxseed oil a month ago. Is it my imagination or could I really be over this nightmare? I had absolutely no confidence it would work, so I doubt there was a placebo effect. DAMN I am so excited to not have had a headache. OK so I get carried away but if you got rid of these things you would be too!!!! Polly: It could be the effect the flaxseed had on your hormones or prostaglandins. Or more likely, it could be just that any large quantity of unsaturated oil is going to free serotonin from cells. When a lot of serotonin is quickly released from cells, this constricts blood vessels and initiates a migraine. Harold: The oils I can tolerate well are olive (extra virgin) and grape seed. Flax does not agree with me. RB: My fatty acid of choice is evening primrose. It is expensive but seems to be the easiest on my digestion and helps with hormonal balance also.
Flax, Primrose, Or Borage Oil Anyone?

Polly: About the only thing I ve done to keep the yeast from coming back is to avoid polyunsaturated and hydrogenated oils in my diet. I m quite leery of ingesting any polyunsaturated oil, even though there might be some benefit derived by balancing the types of polyunsaturated oils in the diet. At one point, curiosity got the best of me. Each day for almost a week, I tried a tablespoon of flaxseed oil mixed in cottage cheese. (Dr. Johanna Budwig says that the flaxseed oil needs to be mixed with a sulfur rich food like cottage cheese to stabilize it. However, I think that her success with this mixture might be due, not to the flax oil itself, but perhaps to the ability of the flax oil mixture to deliver sulfur to cells.) Anyway, I didn t notice any changes that week or in subsequent weeks with this brief experiment. With other oils, I could tell a difference in a very short time. Perhaps the difference wasn t there because I was fairly healthy at that point in time. Does flax oil help anyone here? In what way? Does it reduce your allergies? Make you feel better? Marilyn in Seattle: I found out years ago that flaxseed oil gives me PMS from hell. I know I can t take flax seed oil but then I braved taking the whole seedsI just swallow them with water and find they really are a big help in bowel
Fats And Oils

Shelley: I am really really sensitive to evening primrose oil, flax seed oil, borage oil, and fish oilsall things that are supposed to be beneficial. Weird. Something is off, just don t know what yet. Polly: All of the oils that you mentioned are highly polyunsaturated. Perhaps these oils present too strong an oxidative stress on your body at this time. Your sensitivity might have something to do with the fact that you are mercury poisoned. Heavy metals (including excess iron) cause oxidation of the unsaturated oils. Vitamin E will help keep the oils from oxidizing. Kippy: What does borage oil do? Do you know if, like evening primrose oil, it contains phytoestrogens? Sophie: Borage oil is supposed to provide the same benefits as evening primrose oil. However, it has more GLA (gamma linolenic acid) than evening primrose oil so it is supposed to be better. I am not sure whether it contains phytoestrogens. I have found that it has really helped me with hair loss in particular and with my skin as well. I don t know if it has helped with PMS because I have always had very severe PMS symptoms due to hormonal imbalance and endometriosis. Marilyn in Seattle: I found that borage oil did nothing for my PMS, a marked difference as compared to evening primrose oil, which I found really helpful for the mood swings of PMS. There is a David Horrobin, an MD PhD, from Magdalen College, Oxford. He founded a medical journal called Medical Hypotheses and founded EFAMOL Research Institute. He says that the benefit of GLA is only realized after it has been converted to prostaglandin E1. He has
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studied borage oil and says that even though it is higher in gamma linolenic acid than evening primrose oil, very little of the GLA in borage oil gets converted to prostaglandin E1, whereas most of the GLA in evening primrose oil is converted. The Native American Indians used Evening Primrose as a treatment for PMS! Anyway, this man s work seemed to fit with my experience. Borage (Barlean s) did nothing for me. Evening primrose oil I have positive reactions to. Yet, evening primrose oil helps me AFTER ovulation and gives me PMS symptoms prior to ovulation. Orla: I have been using organic butter and have noticed a big improvement. I have been on a no grains/wholefood diet but my stomach and intestines still were inflamed. Since using the butter (I can t tolerate grains so I am just eating spoonfuls of butter Yuck!), my inflammation and bloating has reduced significantly (visible to the eye in profile). I actually did not realize the intestines were as inflamed, as they must have been, until I noticed the difference! P.S. My four year old told me today after staring at me for five minutes that I didn t look fat anymoregot to be good, right? Polly: I found that raw butter was very beneficial for me. I was eating about a pound of it each week because it seemed to help. Paul Pitchford, in his book Healing with Whole Foods, states, Clarified butter promotes the healing of injuries and gastro-intestinal inflammations such as ulcers and colitis. To make clarified butter, you warm the butter and scoop off the milk solids that rise to the top. The clear liquid that is left is the ghee or clarified butter. People with milk allergies are often able to tolerate ghee. The ghee is better for cooking too. It doesn t burn as easily. Some health food

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stores carry ghee. Yet, if you can tolerate regular butter, I d use it instead. When I had the yeast overgrowth, I also found that eating fatty fish a few times a week helped a little with my food allergies and migraines. After about 6 months of doing this, I noticed that fish no longer provided any additional benefit, and so I stopped this practice. Now I only eat fish occasionally, and I use a butter sauce with it. When I first started out on this journey, I even tried margarine (believe it or not), but it made me sick. Beef and chicken fat seemed neutral. I didn t try coconut oil until after the yeast growth was long gone. So I can t tell you from personal experience what its relevance to the yeast syndrome is. When I finally did try coconut oil, I noticed a slight increase in energy. According to one of my doctors, raw coconut oil is very important for cell regeneration, but all fats are good for you so long as they are in the right proportions and are truly raw. Lisa in Minnesota: I think coconut oil would be a great addition to the diet of anyone who has candida since it improves the body s use of thyroid, and it helps kill off infections. I know that I just started eating coconut oil everyday since I read about it and I actually have energy now. I helped lift my brain fog also. Joe: Polly, I talked with Jan Johnson, and she said that if I keep taking 3 tablespoons of coconut oil daily I will create a fatty acid imbalance. I should be taking some omega oils. Yet, my facial eczema is better since upping the coconut oil dose. The mood improvement I was seeing was better than it' been in over 12 years. So, I' s m thinking twice about taking any polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6 oils) again. I' tired of spending lots of money of m supplements. I thought I could keep taking 3 tablespoons of coconut oil daily for the rest of
my life. Will I create an imbalance? I was planning on getting Omega 3 from regular fish eating, and Omega 6 from other whole foods. Is this enough EFAs? Polly: Broda Barnes, MD, felt that you could get all the EFAs that you need just from eating things like butter. The amount of EFAs needed is usually quite small. Personally, most of my dietary fat is from butter, cream and whole milk. I also use a little coconut and olive oil. Presently, I eat fish maybe once every couple of months. I ve heard that people have better benefits from the whole fish rather than just the oil. So your plan to get your EFAs from whole foods and occasional fish seems like a good plan to me. Yes, you can get too much coconut oil. Coconut oil creates a need for more B vitamins. Therefore, you might become deficient in B vitamins if you get too much coconut oil. There may be other problems with taking too much coconut oil, but I don t know what they are. You will just have to pay attention to how your body is responding. For now, it seems like your body is telling you that this much coconut oil is helpful. There are many natives that eat a lot more coconut than you do each day. (They also have fish as a regular part of their diet.) So, it is possible that you may be able to eat these three tablespoons of coconut oil each day for the rest of your life. Karen: My daughter has autism. I did try flax/borage oil once, and I noticed a nasty regression that lasted a full week. I think it triggered a seizure or some seizure activity. It was awful. We also tried cod liver oil, and her thyroid symptoms became worse until I discontinued the stuff. Polly: I m sorry that your daughter is having problems with these oils. You are not alone in
Fats And Oils

your experience. Although many people claim that the highly polyunsaturated oils are helpful, it seems that just as many people find them a problem, especially with seizures. Too much primrose oil or borage oil is known to lower seizure thresholds. [29] I ve heard that too much fish oil can do the same. There are quite a few possible mechanisms by which these unsaturated oils could contribute to seizure activity. 1) Increased intestinal irritation from lectins and free radicals 2) Interference with the production of energy by the mitochondria. 3) Liberation of serotonin from cells (Since many of those with autism have high serotonin levels, this may be a key problem.) 4) Phytoestrogens from oils like flax or primrose. Diluting these highly unsaturated oils with saturated and monounsaturated oils might make them more tolerable. Also, a few moms have reported that fish oil is tolerated if it is mixed with a digestive product called No-Fenol by Houston Nutraceuticals. Even though these unsaturated oils have some problems, this doesn t mean that you can t ever use these oils. They can be beneficial for some people. For instance, fish oil usually reduces intestinal irritation, which may help reduce seizure activity. So, a little fish oil might be helpful for some people, but a lot would be harmful. You said that the cod liver oil seemed to worsen her thyroid symptoms. Polyunsaturated oils can interfere with the transport and use of thyroid. However, since it was such an obvious and immediate response to the fish oil, it sounds like it is some other problem with the fish oil. Perhaps the liver was overtaxed by the addition of the fish oil to the diet.
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Usually with autism, they suggest starting out with primrose oil, and later try adding in some cod liver oil. To get rid of the chicken skin that is so common with autism, they suggest trying the shorter chain flax oil as opposed to the longer chain fish oil. However, it doesn t mean that these oils will be tolerated. Even when an individual s blood fatty acid profile is measured and studied, the subsequent recommendations aren t always tolerated. (Part of the problem with the blood fatty acid profiles is that the blood fat profile does not mimic the intestinal fat profile. [30]) Avandish: Maybe part of the problem associated with cod liver oil is oxidation of the polyunsaturated oil because of shelf storage at room temperature and poor processing techniques. Oxidized oils are a definite no-no for a stressed liver, and would probably account for some liver area pain and other symptoms from this product. Linda in Virginia: I went to a Chinese acupuncturist and he said my constitution was such that I should not eat any fats (oils, nuts) or meats. He said I should eat fish and green vegetables. The funny thing is that that is what my diet has become, but not by choice. I became allergic to all meats. The only thing my body seems to tolerate is fish and green vegetables. I do add some olive or coconut oil to my vegetables sometimes. When I followed his diet strictly I got weak, so I needed a little more fat. The bottom line is that you have to find what works right for your body. You will have ups and downs. Since I am eating healthier I can really hear what my body is saying/wanting now. Polly: Instead of flaxseed oil, many people use the whole seed because the seed s mucilage can sooth a damaged intestinal mucosa. Yet, I just

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dietary oils to try. (They may also provide additional information, like which minerals are low.) The recommended dietary oils will contain some of the fatty acids that measured relatively low in your assay. I ve heard of coconut or olive oil being recommended, but if you look at the Metametrix website, they mainly talk about the highly polyunsaturated oils fish, flax, primrose, current or borage oil. I ve heard from people on the Internet who purchased these profiles and were quite pleased with the results, but others have found the suggested protocol totally intolerable. Why is it Marilyn in Seattle: I have had a hell of a time sometimes intolerable? Possibly the body s own tolerating fats, they make my hormones/ mechanism for creating and maintaining a proper emotions go whacko... Flaxseed oil makes me fatty acid profile is too weak. It is also possible NUTS. I yell like a banshee at the slightest that the disturbed profile is only indicative of provocation. I just tried wheat germ oil, same some deeper underlying problem that cannot be thing I get angry over nothing. However, I am fixed by adding in oils that the body wouldn t finding that I tolerate emu oil and that it helps make on its own. The body naturally will be very with both my gut and spinal inflammation. I tried sensitive when you short circuit (go around) the two brands, one from the US that is heated to 400 body s own regulatory system. degrees F and one from Australia that is If there is a situation, like mercury poisoning, subjected to very little heat. I prefer the where the antioxidant levels in the body are very Australian Hazelwood brand. However, if I take low, then the polyunsaturated oils in the body are more than 8 capsules a day, I get angry the going to oxidize quickly. Since added same kind of anger I get on l-carnitine. I don' polyunsaturated oils are just going to oxidize in t know what that' about. s the body, an intensive-feeding program of these oils just seems wrong. A minimal amount of these oils may be helpful and perhaps necessary, Correcting the Fatty Acid Profile but the best solution is to increase anti-oxidants Polly: There are two ways to correct the fatty and to remove the mercury from the body. Then acid profile. the fatty acid profile should revert to a more 1. Measure the profile and add in specific oils, normal one on its own. Here are some of the factors that could be 2. or correct the reason for the imbalance. contributing to the poor fatty acid profile and use. Your doctor can send in a blood sample to labs like Metametrix (www.metametrix.com) or 1. Oxidation of the oils from A. mercury poisoning consulting groups like BodyBio Corporation B. yeast and bacteria toxins (phone 888-320-8338). They will measure all the C. low antioxidants fatty acids in your blood s red cells and send your doctor a profile along with some suggested
heard something disturbing. Andrew Stoll, MD, said that the toxins in the flaxseeds were more thyroid disrupting than just the oil in them. More than three tablespoons of flaxseeds per day has been known to cause goiter. [31] Flaxseeds contain a lot of ligans that convert to phytoestrogens in the intestines, which in excess can be harmful. One wonders what else we need to know about all of these oils besides just their fatty acid makeup. (Cactus is a good source of mucilage, and would be much better for a person than flaxseeds.)
Fats And Oils

2. Poorly functioning desaturase enzymes. Desaturase enzymes remove hydrogen from fatty acids, making them more unsaturated. For example, desaturase enzymes convert the omega-6 essential fatty acid, called linoleic acid, into GLA. The desaturase enzymes can be hampered by: A. nutrient deficiencies/imbalances B. low thyroid hormone levels C. transfatty acids D. excess polyunsaturated oils E. viruses 3. An inability to properly use oils can be caused by: A. Nutrient deficiencies/imbalances B. toxins 4. Inability to digest and absorb oils can be caused by poor liver, pancreas and intestinal function. In particular, watch out for vitamin deficiencies of A, E, B6, niacin, B12, or biotin, and mineral deficiencies of selenium, magnesium, manganese, sulfur, or zinc. Protein is important here too. A deficiency of any of these can cause an imbalance or an inability to use the oils properly. [32] Hypothyroidism interferes with the delta-6 desaturase enzyme. [33] So do viruses. [34] In particular, parents of the autistic should take note of these facts because often the delta-6 desaturase enzyme is not working properly in those with autism. If you could eliminate the imbalanced flora, the gut inflammation, the hypothyroidism, the poor digestion, the poor diet, the toxins, the viruses, the disturbed circadian rhythm, the disturbed pH, the poor metabolism, etc, then a direct manipulation of the fatty acid profile would not be needed. Obviously, this is a difficult task, but it is much more desirable than continually adding in more polyunsatuarted oils. references
1.
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Sammon, AM Dietary linoleic acid, immune inhibition and disease. Postgrad Med J 1999 Mar;75(881):129-32 Yamada K, Hung P, Yoshimura K Taniguchi S, Lim BO, Suguano M Effect of unsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants on immunoglobulin production by mesenteric lymph node lymphocytes of Sprague-Dawley rats. Biochem (Tokyo) 1996, 120: 138-144 as referred to in an article by Plummer N, The Neonatal Immune System and Risk of Allergy: A Delicate Balancing Act, Positively Influenced by Probiotics and Fatty Acids, Townsend Letter, February/March 2002 Sally Fallon, M.A. and Mary G. Enig, PhD, Tripping Lightly Down the Prostaglandin Pathways www.price-pottenger.org/Articles/Prostaglandin.html, Garg, M L et al, FASEB Journal 1988 2:4:A852 Peat, Raymond, PhD, Edema, estrogen, and aging: A universal problem, and better therapies, Ray Peat s Newsletter, January 2000 Peat, Raymond, PhD, Aging, fats and euphoria, Ray Peat s Newsletter, 1998 Peat, Raymond, PhD, Progesterone, not estrogen, is the coronary protection factor of women, Ray Peat s Newsletter, February, 2000 Fallon, Sally, with Connolly, Pat, and Enig, Mary, PhD, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, ProMotion Publishing, San Diego, CA 92122, phone (800) 231-1776, year 1995, page 9. I find this book very entertaining and enlightening. It is excellent in every way. Enig, Mary G., PhD, Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, Silver Spring, MD 20904-1689, www.bethesdapress.com, 2000 page 93 If you want to get rid of the confusion, and finally understand fats and oils, this book has a very clear presentation. Martin, Wayne, Reducing Deaths from Heart Attacks and Cancer, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, January 1998, Enig, Mary G., PhD, F.A.C. N., Coconut: In support of Good Health in the 21st Century, www.apcc.org.sg/special.htm Address to the 36th session of the Asian Pacific Coconut Community.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

The Health ForumBook3 9. This fact is also mentioned on page 126 of Udo Erasmus s book, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill.
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10. Stephen Byrnes, ND, RNCP, Facing the facts about saturated fats, heart disease, and cancer Published in Health Naturally (Canada); Explore! (USA), at various times. Found on the Internet at www.coconut-info.com 11. Ravnskov, U, MD, PhD, The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol cause Heart Disease page 225-226 also see Rose GA, e.t al. Corn oil in treatment of ischemic heart disease, Br Med J 1965 ;1:1531-1533 12. The article, Oiling America, is also published in Nexus Magazine,Volume 6, Number 1, December 1998 January 1999). PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. [email protected] Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381 Sally Fallon is associated with the Price-Pottenger Foundation and she wrote Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook with lots of nutritional information. Mary Enig, PhD is a highly respected professor of biochemistry at the University of Maryland. She is both an authority on coconut oil and a proponent of it. 13. Whitehouse, M.W. Turner A.G., Davis, C. K. C., and Roberts M.S., Emu Oil(s): A Source of Non-toxic Transdermal anti-inflammatory agents in Aboriginal Medicine, Infammaopharmacology 1998: 6: 1-8 Correspondence: M.W. Whitehouse, Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland 4102 14. Politis MJ, Dmytrowich A, Promotion of second intention wound healing by emu oil lotion: comparative results with furasin, polysporin, and cortisone, Department of Medical Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. PMID: 9858176, UI: 99073887 15. Peat, Raymond PhD, Aging, fats, and euphoria Ray Peat s Newsletter, 1998 16. Cook JA, Wise WC, Knapp DR, Halushka PV. Essential fatty acid deficient rats: a new model for evaluating arachidonate metabolism in shock. Adv Shock Res 1981;6:93-105; and Li EJ, Cook JA, Spicer KM, Wise WC, Rokach J, Halushka PV Resistance of essential fatty acid-deficient rats to endotoxininduced increases in vascular permeability. Circ Shock 1990 Jun;31(2):159-170; and Autore G, Cicala C, Cirino G, Maiello FM, Mascolo N, Capasso F,
Essential fatty acid-deficient diet modifies PAF levels in stomach and duodenum of endotoxin-treated rats. J Lipid Mediat Cell Signal 1994 Mar;9(2):145-53 17. Ball HA, Cook JA, Spicer KM, Wise WC, Halushka PV, Essential fatty acid-deficient rats are resistant to oleic acid-induced pulmonary injury. J Appl Physiol 1989 Aug;67(2):811-6; and Morganroth ML, Schoeneich SO, Till GO, Pickett W, Ward PA, Lung injury caused by cobra venom factor is reduced in rats raised on an essential fatty acid-deficient diet. Am J Physiol 1989 Oct;257(4 Pt 2):H1192-9; and Diamond JR, Pesek I, Ruggieri S, Karnovsky MJ, Essential fatty acid deficiency during acute puromycin nephrosis ameliorates late renal injury. Am J Physiol 1989 Nov;257(5 Pt 2):F798-807; and Harris KP, Lefkowith JB, Klahr S, Schreiner GF, Essential fatty acid deficiency ameliorates acute renal dysfunction in the rat after the administration of the aminonucleoside of puromycin. J Clin Invest 1990 Oct;86(4):1115-23; and Takahashi K, Kato T, Schreiner GF, Ebert J, Badr KF, Essential fatty acid deficiency normalizes function and histology in rat nephrotoxic nephritis. , Kidney Int 1992 May;41(5):1245-53; and Urrutia RA, Rivolta CM, Valentich MA, Monis B A Feulgen microspectrophotometric study of the DNA content of essential fatty acid-deficient rat pancreas treated with nitrosomethylurea. Cell Mol Biol 1990;36(5):547-55; and Mascolo N, Izzo AA, Autore G, Maiello FM, Di Carlo G, Capasso F, Acetic acid-induced colitis in normal and essential fatty acid deficient rats. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1995 Jan;272(1):469-75 18. Benhamou PY, Mullen Y, Clare-Salzler M, Sangkharat A, Benhamou C, Shevlin L, Go VL, Essential fatty acid deficiency prevents autoimmune diabetes in nonobese diabetic mice through a positive impact on antigen-presenting cells and Th2 lymphocytes. Pancreas 1995 Jul;11(1):26-37; and Essential fatty acid deficiency prevents multiple low-dose streptozotocin-induced diabetes in naive and cyclosporin-treated low-responder murine strains. Wright JR Jr, Fraser RB, Kapoor S, Cook HW Acta Diabetol 1995 Jun;32(2):125-30 19. Schreiner GF, Flye W, Brunt E, Korber K, Lefkowith JB, Essential fatty acid depletion of renal allografts and prevention of rejection. Science 1988 May 20;240(4855):1032-3
Fats And Oils

20. Chinn KS, Welsch DJ, Salsgiver WJ, Mehta A, Raz A, Obukowicz MG, Modulation of adjuvant-induced arthritis by dietary arachidonic acid in essential fatty acid-deficient rats. Lipids. 1997 Sep;32(9):979-88. 21. Adkisson HD 4th, Risener FS Jr, Zarrinkar PP, Walla MD, Christie WW, Wuthier RE, Unique fatty acid composition of normal cartilage: discovery of high levels of n-9 eicosatrienoic acid and low levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. FASEB J 1991 Mar 1;5(3):344-53 22. Wey HE, Pyron L, Woolery M, Essential fatty acid deficiency in cultured human keratinocytes attenuates toxicity due to lipid peroxidation. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 1993 May;120(1):72-9 23. Naveh-Floman N, Belkin M Prostaglandin metabolism and intraocular pressure. Br J Ophthalmol 1987 Apr;71(4):254-6 24. Lefkowith JB, Morrison A, Lee V, Rogers M, Manipulation of the acute inflammatory response by dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid modulation. J Immunol 1990 Sep 1;145(5):1523-9 25. James MJ, Gibson RA, Neumann MA, Cleland LG, Effect of dietary supplementation with n-9 eicosatrienoic acid on leukotriene B4 synthesis in rats: a novel approach to inhibition of eicosanoid synthesis. J Exp Med 1993 Dec 1;178(6):2261-5 26. Cleland LG, Neumann MA, Gibson RA, Hamazaki T, Akimoto K, James MJ, Effect of dietary n-9 eicosatrienoic acid on the fatty acid composition of plasma lipid fractions and tissue phospholipids. Lipids 1996 Aug;31(8):829-37 27. Gorog P, Kovacs IB, Szporny, L, Fekete G, Antiinflammatory and antianaphylactic action of vitamins K1 and K3, Arzneimittelforschung 1968 Feb;18(2):227-30 28. Pugliese P, MD, Devour Disease With Shark Liver Oil: Breakthrough Discovery Can Help Boost Your Immune System, IMPAKT Communications, Inc. 1999 29. Miller, L. G., Herbal medicinals: selected clinical considerations focusing on known or potential drug-
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herb interactions Arch Intern Med 1998 Nov 9;158(20):2200-11 30. Korotkova M, Strandvik B. Essential fatty acid deficiency affects the fatty acid composition of the rat small intestinal and colonic mucosa differently. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2000 Sep 27;1487(2-3):319-25. 31. Stoll, Andrew, MD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Autism and Related Disorders, Tape is available from Insta-Tapes phone (800) 669-8273 or (208) 667-0226. The seed husks of flaxseeds (also lima and cassava beans) contain cyanogen, which is converted thiocyanate. Thocyanate inhibits iodine uptake by thyroid. Flaxseed oil is free of cyanogen. (Simopoulos A, 1999.) 32. Eramus, Udo, Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, Alive Books, Curnaby BC, Canada, 1993, page 51, and 57 and this excellent article by Sally Fallon, M.A. and Mary G. Enig, PhD, Tripping Lightly Down the Prostaglandin Pathways which can be found at http://www.pricewhich pottenger.org/Articles/Prostaglandin.html, referred to this publication Horrobin, David F, The regulation of prostaglandin biosynthesis by manipulation of essential fatty acid metabolism , Reviews in Pure and Applied Pharmacological Sciences, Vol 4, pp 339-383, Freund Publishing House, 1983 33. van Doormaal JJ, Muskiet FA, Martini IA, Doorenbos H, Changes in fatty acid profiles of plasma, erythrocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes in induced hypothyroidism in man: indirect evidence for altered delta 6 desaturase activity, Clin Chim Acta 1986 May 15;156(3):299-313 34. Reid GM, Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS): Tcell immunodeficiency--Part 1. Med Hypotheses. 2001 Feb;56(2):256-8 and Das UN, Auto-immunity and prostaglandins, Int J Tissue React. 1981 Jun;3(2):89-94. Review
Acid & Alkaline

Polly: The current fad is to eat lots of fruit and green vegetables and to avoid meat and grains in an attempt to alkalize the body. This is supposed to help the body get rid of toxins. Yet everyone doesn t need to become more alkaline. In fact, such a mind set could get some people into trouble. I d like to start this chapter out with a quote from Jan Johnson. This lady was extremely environmentally sensitive due to formaldehyde poisoning. By learning how food affected her acid/alkaline balance, she was able to regain her health. It is extremely important to emphasize the individuality of this approach at this point because so many people are self-diagnosing and self-prescribing according to what they read or what was best for someone else. If anabolic green magma made their mother-in-law feel fabulous and got rid of her arthritis, they will take it too, and feel ill every day. But because the book said that they should keep themselves alkaline, they ll continue to take it regardless of how they feel. The fact is that people are different. Any program that fails to take this into account is not going to be optimal. [1] Food, exercise, breathing, hormones and supplements will all change your pH (pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity). You must use some common sense in how you employ these. For example, you don t want to change your pH by adding estrogen, because estrogen will encourage yeast growth. The correct way to control your pH is with thyroid, carbon dioxide, bicarbonates, salt, other minerals (especially magnesium and potassium), adequate protein, vegetables and fruit.
The Benefits Of Controlling pH

Joyce in Pennsylvania: My gynecologist consulted with another physician in immunology during my visit. Then he told me that one way improvement in candidiasis patients occurs is through pH monitoring. I m thankful to have this type of a doctor one who is willing to go that extra mile for his patients. His openness to learn more about this syndrome gives me hope that the traditional medical community will eventually play a positive role in eliminating this Candida Related Complex. He and his wife are in practice together (Partners in Women s Health Care). Polly: There are extra special doctors in all fields. Wish we could tell each one how much they are appreciated. Sally: I started a web search on pH and acid / alkaline and found more than I could possibly read on some of the most fascinating health info
Acid & Alkaline Balance

I ve come across in a long time. I ll include some of what I discovered here. The pH is a measure of how acid or how alkaline a substance is. The pH scale is in exponential incrementsthat means that a one point difference on the scale is a multiple of ten. So a small change measured on the scale is in actuality a huge change in acidity/alkalinity. (pH literally means the potential of hydrogen in water. The pH scale reads from 0 to 14. The larger the number, the more alkaline a substance is, and the smaller the number, the more acidic a substance is.) Just about every body system and function is affected by pH. We would die if we strayed either way outside the very narrow margin that is considered normal pH. The foods we eat have a great effect on our pH. Other things that change pH are exercise, sunlight, temperature, and slow deep breathing. This made me understand why yoga can be so beneficial. I found way too much to post, but would really encourage others to search the web and learn about this topic. Franca: Hi Sally. A few months ago this was a hot topic here. It seemed to be agreed that pH levels do affect your general health. The pH levels do have an effect on fungal infections because different fungi/bacteria thrive at different pH levels. So if your pH level is off, you may create the right setting for the wrong bacteria/fungus to grow. Polly: If you can keep your body from shifting pH outside of its comfort zone, this will cut down on the misery and the food reactions. To keep the pH from shifting outside of your personal comfort zone, you need to learn how different foods affect your pH. Fruit and vegetables are usually alkaline. Coconut oil, butter, and salt are also classified as alkaline. Meat and grains are usually classified as acidic. If you aren t too bad off, then you can just generally note if you feel
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better with acid foods in the morning and alkaline foods at night, or vice versa. However, if you are quite ill, you will want to keep a food and urine pH diary. Write down what you eat and the time that you ate it. Check your urine pH each morning, and three or four more times throughout the day. Plot the results on a graph piece of paper. Also make a notation next to each point on the graph about how you feel. From this, you will eventually learn which pH at which time of day makes you feel the best. You will also learn how different foods affect your pH. Then you pick and choose foods so that you don t become too acid or too alkaline at the wrong time of day. The procedure is explained more fully in Jan Johnson s workbook. Information on her workbook is at her website, www.randomrat.com/index.html Random Rat, Inc. P.O. Box 61407, Santa Barbara, California 93160 USA, phone (805) 692-8577 Here is an example of this procedure. An individual might notice that so long as he keeps his urine pH readings between 5.5 and 6.5 in the morning, he doesn t get a headache. Maybe in the afternoon he feels fine if he keeps his urine pH between 5.0 and 6.0. But he falls asleep if the pH goes above 6.0 in the afternoon. He then notices that coconut oil moves his body very alkaline shortly after ingestion. And he notes that unsalted popcorn and bread makes him more acidic. So if his morning pH is too acidic, he eats a little coconut oil to bring it more alkaline. Later, in the afternoon, he starts to get sleepy and notices his pH is more alkaline than he likes. So he eats a little bread or some unsalted popcorn that tends to bring his pH more acidic. Each person has to determine the range of pH values that makes him or her feel the best during

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a given part of the day. For ill people, they may have to control the pH cycling so that it doesn t vary too much during the day. Also, according to Jan Johnson, it is best that you notice when you are headed towards your pH limits and make a correction well before you cross those limits. You can use food and supplements to pull yourself back into your comfort zone, but it is much easier to make corrections before you fall out of your pH comfort zone. Although I listened to Jan Johnson s tape and I have her workbook on how to do this, I never got up the energy to implement this technique. I just noted that I did better if I combined acid and alkaline foods at each meal. Perhaps this way the shift in pH was not as great. Harold: Go to this site for a good overview of the acid/alkaline condition of the body. www.pricepottenger.org/Articles/Acid_alk_bal.htm Polly: Harold, that is an exceptional article by Virginia Worthington, ScD. Thank you so much for posting it. The article is ever so much better than everything else I ve seen on the Internet or in most books for that matter. Did you notice that she said the bacteria in the mouth could throw off a pH saliva reading? Maybe saliva isn t such a good pH test to go by. Urine may be better. Shelley: How do you test pH? I ordered some strips but they aren t right. I ve asked the pharmacist but he says he can t get a pH strip test. He said to use a pool testing kit??? Mary in Pennsylvania: My pH paper was obtained from my local health food store. Pretty pricey I thought $12.50 for a roll by:
Micro Essential Lab. Inc 4224 Ave. H. Brooklyn NY 11210 On the box they say write for their complete catalog. You can also obtain pH paper from N.E.E.D.S. (a vitamin discount store, phone 800634-1380, website www.needs.com). They even have a doctor there who would be glad to answer any questions you may have. I think they quoted a price of $10.00 but then you have to pay the $5.00 shipping and handling. Polly: Sedna Quality Health Products carries pH paper at a similar price. They also carry a lot of other products suitable for people with yeast overgrowth. (800) 223-0858 or (828) 321-2240 www.sednaproducts.com/default.asp Anthony: Paper test strips are not very accurate. A better method would be to use a freshwater pH test kit from an aquarium/pet store. Mrs. Generic: What should my pH be? Polly: Don t fall into the trap of thinking the goal is to alter the urine or saliva pH to an ideal number. That does not create health. These pH readings are only a tool to monitor your body. As mentioned previously, the saliva pH can vary depending on what microbes are present in the mouth. Therefore you can t possibly rely on this reading absolutely. Urine pH is a little more reliable. However, the best urine pH will be different for each person and will vary throughout the day. There is no perfect answer that applies to everyone all the time. Many books imply that if the urine is acidic then the blood, tissue, cells and saliva are acidic. However it doesn t work this way. You can t use the urine pH as an absolute gage of what is going

on in the rest of the body. The urine pH reflects what material the body is getting rid of. It doesn t tell you what the cells, tissue and blood are at. For example, if you have very low energy, some of the cells may be expelling lactic acid into the blood and surrounding tissue. This may cause metabolic acidosis. The cells that are producing the lactic acid are becoming more alkaline as this acidic material leaves the cells. They may need to be acidified with more carbon dioxide before they stop producing the lactic acid. Salt can also reduce the production of lactic acid and therefore may turn the urine more alkaline. So it isn t simply pH, but how you get to that pH. Fortunately, we don t have to know everything that is going on inside our body to monitor pH and learn from it. Just keep track of which urine pH values make you feel the best at the present time. Learn how to keep your pH near these values. According to Jan Johnson, an ill person usually has very little buffering capability and thus must strive to keep the urine pH from varying too much. Later, as the person heals, they will be able to tolerate a wider range of urine pH values. For your reference, here are what the pH values usually look like. Blood pH varies very little. It is usually very close to 7.4, but it can be as low as 7.35 or as high as 7.45, and the pH will still be considered within normal range. Tissue or cell pH is closer to 7.0, and it will vary somewhat from organ to organ. According to Jan Johnson, a healthy person s urine will cycle between a pH of 5 and 7 over a 24 hour period. Usually in the early morning hours it will be close to 7 and in the early evening, the urine pH will be close to 5 (acidic). The average urine pH is close to 6. This pattern is reversed in some people with the morning readings more acidic than the evening readings. In other cases, people are stuck on either the alkaline end or the acidic end. Each person is different.
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Yet, there is also another explanation that makes sense to me. At the Biomedx website, they suggest that it is very important to have enough minerals so that your body can use these to buffer your pH (keep your pH pretty steady). They suggest that a healthy person with a lot of buffering capability will be able to keep their urine pH fairly steady, near 6.4 in the morning. See http://biomedx.com/pH/page2.html 1-847299-0236 There are other explanations that don t make any sense to me. These say one shoe size fits all and it doesn t matter how you get your foot into that shoe.
Bicarbonates And Food Reactions

Mr. Generic: Alka Seltzer really helps with my food reactions and die-off. Why is this so? Polly: Be sure to use Alka Seltzer Gold, not regular Alka Seltzer. I m not sure why it is helping with the die-off, but it is known to help with food reactions. There are several different carbonate and bicarbonate products that will help you with your food reactions. Alka Seltzer Gold is perhaps the best known. It is sodium and potassium bicarbonates with citric acid. You can also use a tablespoon or two of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and get almost the same effect. Buffered C products will work too. The buffered vitamin C from Allergy Research / Nutricology contains calcium, magnesium and potassium carbonates. A mixture made specifically for such allergic-like reactions is tri-salts from BioTech Pharmacal. It is a mixture of calcium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and potassium bicarbonate, phone, 800-345-1199 or 501-443-9148, and website, www.bio-tech-pharm.com. Even if you don t need to use the carbonates to get rid of allergic reactions, their use can be of

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benefit to your health. The bicarbonates increase carbon dioxide in the body. The increased carbon dioxide improves the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your tissue. This reduces lactic acid production, and increases energy production. It helps the cells create more of their own carbon dioxide, and it also helps the body get rid of ammonia. Thus bicarbonate supplements do more than just alkalinize you. They can help normalize your blood, urine and tissue pH by restoring proper bodily functions. The best time to take bicarbonates is inbetween meals. Unless you are having a bad reaction and need to take the bicarbonates, don t take them with a meal or shortly afterwards. Their alkalinity will counteract some of the stomach acid and thus interfere with digestion. You will have to experiment with how much to use and the timing. The stomach usually empties in about an hour and a half after a low fat meal, and up to three or four hours after a high fat meal. [2] Some bicarbonates taken a little while after meals are one of Patricia Kane s standard suggestions for most autistics. Besides bicarbonates, you can use breathing techniques to increase your carbon dioxide. Another option is the drug acetazolamide (Diamox), which increases carbon dioxide retention. See
must very gradually increase their use of salt for this reason.
Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, And Breathing

Polly: According to Raymond Peat, PhD, carbon dioxide, CO2, has many beneficial properties. It improves oxygen delivery to the tissue, it is needed to detoxify ammonia, it limits the formation of lactic acid, it tends to decrease intracellular calcium, and it tends to decrease brain excitability. It also regulates water, proteins, oxygen and minerals. To avoid losing so much CO2, we can learn to slow down our breathing, relax, and use our diaphragms. (eg Learn Yoga breathing or learn some of Dr. Buteyko s breathing techniques, like practicing a pause before your next breath.) Mrs. Generic: I ve heard that quick shallow breathing loses carbon dioxide, but so does deep breathing. How can they both be true?
Polly: Confusing, isn t it? Hyperventilating (quick shallow breathing) gets rid of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is blown out before it has a chance to accumulate. Deep breathing can cause the same phenomena if you don t adjust your breathing rate. If you keep the same www.siumed.edu/neuro/epilepsy/QNA/QNAfram rate of breathing in and out, but just increase the es/diamoxjs.html volume by breathing in deeper, then this is A few precautions. Most of these essentially a type of hyperventilating. Think of it bicarbonates contain a high proportion of as taking in two breaths at a time. If you breathe sodium, which is a very alkalinizing mineral. in deeply, you need to slow down your breathing You need enough inorganic acids from protein to to compensate and get approximately same balance this. Also, a mixture of minerals is exchange rate. Slow it down even further, and probably best if you are going to use this you will start to retain the carbon dioxide. The treatment on a long-term basis. In particular, you relative speed is very important. Fast shallow or want to keep a balance between sodium and fast deep breathing gets rid of carbon dioxide. potassium. Sodium will initially cause the body Slow breathing keeps it. The speed is the key. to retain more fluid. Those with a heart condition
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Dr. Cheneys Oxygen With Carbon Dioxide Treatment

Polly: Dr. Cheney goes beyond ordinary breathing techniques, and suggests that his CFIDS patients be given a combination of CO2 and oxygen. He uses oxygen delivery devices that require the patient to rebreathe some of the CO2 that they exhale. The combination of CO2 and oxygen allows the blood cells to deliver more oxygen to the cells. When the cells get more oxygen, they produce less lactic acid. Often, his patients have alkaline blood and acidic urine. Giving them the CO2 corrects this by acidifying the blood and by reducing the amount of lactic acid formed by the cells and excreted in the urine. Carol Sieverling posted an excellent explanation of Dr. Cheney s use of oxygen and carbon dioxide for his CFIDS patients. With her permission it is repeated here. Carol: This article is intentionally technical so that those who wish to try this treatment can share it with their doctor. It is based a recorded visit with Dr. Cheney and is shared with his permission. Dr. Cheney recently began prescribing oxygen for patients with alkaline venous blood. Up to an hour of oxygen in the morning can provide half a day of significant improvement and numerous benefits. He has been seeing alkaline blood results in patients for years, but dismissed it as insignificant, based on what he was taught in medical school. His growing suspicion that it was actually very significant was confirmed when a speaker at an international conference on fatigue in London began a presentation by announcing Ladies and gentlemen, I m here to tell you that CFS patients are alkalotic. Blood alkalosis inhibits the transport of oxygen to tissues and/organs, constricts the blood
vessels, and lowers overall circulating blood volume. The putative cause of the alkalosis is the glutathione deficiency that is pervasive in CFIDS. Low glutathione causes an elevation in citrate, which in turn lowers a substance (2,3 DPG) that controls the release of oxygen from the hemoglobin. Our blood could be full of oxygen, but without enough of this substance it cannot break free of the hemoglobin and get into the cells. This causes oxygen deprivation in the tissues (hypoxia), which makes the body switch over to anaerobic metabolism, which can be painful. This blood alkalosis is unusual in that Cheney usually sees venus blood pH values over 7.4 and urine pH values under 6.0. When both blood alkalosis and urine acidosis are seen, it s a metabolic problemnot a psychogenic reaction to a needle stick. A blood pH above 7.4 shows impairment, and above 7.5 there is significant impairmentalmost no oxygen transport at all. A urine organic acid test will also reveal this problem: elevated citrate and/or low 2-oxoglutaric are markers. The really terrible thing is the presence of a vicious cycle: the blood alkalosis further lowers the levels of 2,3 DPG (inhibiting the release of oxygen), causing tissue hypoxia, which then causes blood alkalosis, which lowers 2,3 DPG even further. And around and around we go. The ultimate treatment for this situation is Immunocal or IMUPlus, the undenatured whey protein supplements that helps restore glutathione. But some patients cannot afford them, and they do not work on all patients. An immediate solution to the oxygen transport problem is to use a partial rebreather mask set at 35 to 40% FIO2 (Fraction of Inspired Oxygen), which requires a flow rate of about 10 liters per minute. Try to do an hour a day, broken into one, two, or three sessions. You can do more than one hour a day, but do not do more than one hour at

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a time. Do not breathe heavily breathe normally. Most CFS patients have headaches, and this can help those headaches. If the prescription is written for headaches, insurance may cover it. One hour of oxygen a day can run $75 to $100 a month. Oxygen through nasal prongs will not work. Oxygen alone in a mask will not work. It has to be a partial rebreather mask, which has a bag attached. This allows you to rebreathe your expired carbon dioxide along with the oxygen that is flowing into the mask. It is important to the function of the rebreather that the bag contracts and expands with the breathing cycle. It s not working properly otherwise. Breathing increased levels of both carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) at the same time is essential. The CO2 breaks the cycle. It corrects the alkalosis and frees the O2 in your blood to move into your cells. With proper functioning, vessels dilate and you start perfusing your brain and tissues, bringing out the toxins and bringing in the nutrients. Raising oxygen levels will also help kill off yeast and other pathogens. Lack of oxygen allows them to multiply. The speaker at the London fatigue conference sends his patients to breathing experts like Teresa Hale, who wrote Breathing Free. Most patients are walking around over breathing and thus becoming more alkaline. Learning to under breathe properly can help increase oxygen perfusion and transport. Two problems can be seen in some patients on a rebreather mask. (1) Rapidly correcting blood alkalosis or overcorrecting (ie. acidosis) can provoke vasodilation. If there is significant blood volume contraction some patients will become hypotensive and feel dizzy or faint. This problem can be prevented by taking oxygen lying down and by expanding blood volume with an isotonic electrolyte drink
such as Gookinaid ERG (ERG means Electrolyte Replacement with Glucose) http://members.aol.com/Gookinaid, or phone 1-800-283-6505. You can also address this problem by reducing the time spent on the mask rebreather. (2) Patients with a history of migraine may provoke a migraine in the moments just after going off the rebreather. Again, expanding blood volume and reducing the time of the rebreather can help this side effect. Later Carol: A year ago, Dr. Cheney was prescribing oxygen (with a partial rebreather mask) to increase oxygen transport from the blood into the cells. The benefits were many, but most people found it expensive and difficult to arrange. He now recommends that his patients practice this breathing technique: Inhale through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds; then exhale through tightly pursed lips, creating back pressure, for eight seconds. Do this eight times, twice a day, everyday. You must do this regularly for it to work, and it takes weeks for the body to adjust the 2,3 DPG levels. But your oxygen transport will get better and better over time.
Yeast And Acidity

Gloria: Polly, I d like to pick up on a problem we ve already been through without solving. You say: Yeast prefer an alkaline environment. Acid will kill them. I disagree. I have been told that in the intestines yeast thrives on an acid environment. So I have been eating a lot of alkaline foods and feel great! Especially since I stopped meat, tea, coffee, all carbonated drinks, fats and oils, nuts. All of these things are acid producing. There are no clear scientific findings on thisor do you know of some? I can only go by trial and error and since I discovered that MY

yeast diminishes when I stick to alkaline foods (most vegetables, milk productsI am not allergic to dairy) I feel great, my digestion is good and I have no symptoms. Polly: Acid in the intestines inhibits yeast growth. If the pH of the chyme in your colon is slightly acidic, this is good. It helps kill the yeast, and helps keep the good bacteria healthy. An acidic pH in the colon also helps keep you healthy by reducing the amount of ammonia absorbed from the intestines. However, to create an acidic environment in the colon, you don t necessarily eat so-called acid foods. Usually when a person is talking about an acid food, they are referring to its effect on the blood or urine once it has been metabolized. They are not referring to its effect on the chyme inside the intestines. In fact, meat, which is a so-called acid food, might turn the chyme alkaline. And complex carbohydrates, might turn the chyme acidic. It depends on how well the food is digested, and which bacteria are present. For instance, milk is considered an alkaline food, but it feeds the bacteria called L. acidophilus which makes the intestinal environment more acidic. Your body s pH shift from a particular food will not necessarily be the same as another person s pH shift, especially if you are allergic to a particular food. That is why you keep a diary/chart, and learn how each food affects you.
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Is This Food Acid Or Alkaline?

Polly: Food is the most talked about method of controlling your acid/alkaline balance. Yet it can be pretty confusing, especially since no one seems to agree on the lists of acid and alkaline foods. Generally, you see fruit and vegetables classified as alkaline, and meat classified as acidic. (The sulfur amino acids in particular shift your body more acid.) Usually grains are
considered acidic. Yams and potatoes are usually classified alkaline. Salt is very alkaline. Green vegetables are very alkaline. The exceptions to these rules vary from source to source. For instance, sometimes an author will place dark meat in one class and light meat in another. Some authors place a few of the vegetables and fruits in with the acidic foods. Some say all fats are acidic. Others say coconut and butter are alkaline. This classification problem is partly due to the fact there are degrees of acidity or alkalinity. On page 110 of Dr. Patrick Quilllin s book, Beating Cancer With Nutrition, he has a nice chart that gives you an idea of the spread between the acidity and alkalinity of different foods. It is the way the body processes and reacts to a food that determines whether or not it is alkaline or acidic. Meat has a neutral pH, but when the body processes it, the result is usually a shift towards acidity. Yet, you might be pushed more alkaline by the meat if you are not producing enough stomach acid and are not digesting your meat properly. There are general rules (vegetables are alkaline, meat is acidic), but they are not hard and fast rules. Each individual s metabolism and ability to utilize food is a little different. That is why it is important to keep notes on how each food affects you. What about refined sugar? Most people call it acidic. Yet, according to Jan Johnson, simple sugars first turns the body more acidic and then later the body becomes more alkaline than before. Refined sugar is sort of like a cocaine high followed by a crash. It energizes you, and then it makes you tired. Anyone who has tendencies towards hypoglycemia knows the feeling well. She claims that caffeine and salt are in this same category of first pushing you more acidic, and then later more alkaline. Oh, in Jan Johnsons opinion, the acid state is good. You want to be in the catabolic state (acidic) for the

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majority of the day. This is the mode that gives you energy. You don t want to be in the anabolic (alkaline) state all day. You would keep falling asleep in the middle of the day. Joe: Polly, do you think that coconut oil is extremely alkaline forming? I bet that' why I' s ve had alkaline problems lately. I' been helped by ve virgin coconut oil, so I think I will keep taking 3 tablespoons of coconut oil daily. I should try to balance my diet / pH by eating less of the other alkalinizing foods. I found a pH foods list and learned that carrots, celery, and greens are a few of the most alkaline forming foods there are, so I' going to not eat too much of that. I guess I' m ve got a pH sensitive body. Polly: I suspect that coconut oil is pretty alkalinizing. Most of the time coconut oil is listed as being alkalinizing. Also, the regular coconut oil puts me almost immediately to sleep, which is associated with an alkaline shift. However, it could be just an adverse reaction to the heated oil. The unheated virgin coconut oil does not do that to me. Jan Johnson would caution that each person s pH reaction to a food could be different, so you will just have to pay attention to your own reaction.
Many Factors Influence pH

Polly: Besides food, there are many other factors that affect your pH. For example, exercise and rest change your pH. According to Jan Johnson, vigorous exercise will pull the acid out of the tissue and turn the urine acidic. Yoga, meditation, and sleep will push your urine more alkaline. Your environment makes a difference. The electro-magnetic radiation you receive from sitting in front of your computer moves the urine more alkaline. A reaction to an inhalant will alter your pH. Any stress will alter your pH. Sunlight
makes you more acidic, and so some people will want to emphasize alkaline fruits and vegetables during the summer. Hormones will affect the pH. Some women feel better eating more acidic during the first two weeks of their cycle and eating more alkaline during the last two weeks, or vice versa. There can be some seasonal variation too. The state of your gastrointestinal system will affect your pH. If you have diarrhea, the loss of water and electrolytes will tend to make you more acidic. If you up-chuck, this pushes you more alkaline. [3] Fermentation of sugar by excess bacteria in the small intestine can produce organic acids, which in excess could interfere with cellular respiration. There is also a temporary change in your blood and urine pH due to the secretion of gastric juices. Whenever your stomach puts out acid, then alkaline material is dumped into the blood. Similarly, whenever bicarbonates are released by your pancreas and by your gut mucosa, then acidic material is dumped into the blood sort of a balancing act. Supplements change your pH. Antifungals, pancreatic enzymes, and L. acidophilus tend to push the urine more acidic; and aspirin and insulin will push the urine more alkaline. According to Jan Johnson, vitamin A, C, D, B12, B6, and coenzyme Q10 are generally acidifying. (Yet, the people at BioMedex suggest that vitamin D is alkalinizing.) Bioflavonoids, vitamin E, chlorophyll, vitamin K, buffered vitamin C, and the other B vitamins are alkalinizing. However, if you get an overdose of a vitamin, it can give you a different effect. Different amino acids have different acid/alkaline properties too. Minerals are a mixed bag. Some will push you more alkaline, and others will push you more acidic. It also depends on the form the minerals are in. For instance, a mineral carbonate may start out by pushing your more alkaline because

of the carbonate. Then later, the general effect of the mineral might be to make you more acidic. According to Revici s work, magnesium is experientially catabolic (acidic). However, you will find many others classifying magnesium as alkalinizing. Sulfur and sulfur containing amino acids, by their conversion to sulfate, will tend to make you more acidic. Sodium and potassium are the important alkalizers of the body. The acid/alkaline effects of all of the minerals are not known. However, theoretically, a good guess can be made using Revici s classification system. According to Revici s classification system, the alkalinizing elements are sodium, potassium, zinc, iron, bismuth, molybdenum, chromium, iodine, lithium, nickel, fluoride, chloride, and mercury. The acidifying elements are sulfur, magnesium, calcium, selenium, manganese, copper, silicon, germanium, aluminum, and lead. Linda in Virginia: I found this of interest since many of us are concerned with balancing out pH and getting enough magnesium. Jacques de Langre, PhD, writes as follows about the importance of magnesium in maintaining proper body pH, in the 1992, Volume XVL, number 1 issue of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal: The human organism functions at its peak only when the balance between acid and alkaline is maintained. All substances that nourish the body are either acid or alkaline. Magnesium possesses the remarkable ability to maintain the acid/alkaline balance within the organism. It also intervenes in the oxido-reduction mechanism. We know, for instance, that the human body is oxidized by the action of oxygen and becomes alkaline. Oppositely, an organism, under the action of hydrogen, is in reduction and becomes acid. This back and forth fluctuation passing
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from acid to alkaline and back again from basic to acid is a chemical phenomenon absolutely needed for keeping the body alive. This is where magnesium shines brightly. Polly: The author of the above quote, Jacques de Langre, PhD, wrote the book Seasalt s Hidden Powers. He was associated with the Grain and Salt Society, a mail order company that sells Celtic Sea Salt, and many other products, www.celtic-seasalt.com, phone 1-800-867-7258. You will find some interesting articles about different kinds of salt at their website.
Should We Alkalinize The Body?

Sally: My candida is gone and I ve been on various stages of the macrobiotic diet for over a year transition, strict healing, and modified. One of my few remaining symptoms is deep skin lesions that periodically ulcerate and poor wound healing. I have had several biopsies reporting: acanthotic, hypercarototic, psoriaform lesions, with no clue as to cause. (I suspect the skin lesions are a deep fungal infection.) Although these symptoms have improved they have never cleared in 8 years. Within 48 hours of the introduction of one umeboshi plum per day, I experienced a vast improvement. The inflammation is gone and the lesions seem to be healing. Mrs. Generic: What are umeboshi plums? Sally: The umeboshi plums are tiny Oriental plums that are fermented in a salt brine. You can buy them in health food stores, they are a condiment typically used in the macrobiotic diet. They are super-salty. I ve been using one a day (about a half teaspoon of the paste) in any recipe that I would use salt in. They have a mild slightly sour, but not unpleasant, flavor. I tried a recipe

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with umeboshi plums about a year ago and didn t like it. Recently I introduced them into some of my own recipes with good results. They are touted to be great body alkalizers, which is one of the main goals of eating macrobiotic. Franca: Eating alkaline ash leaving foods is the best way to restore the body s ideal pH level. Raw fruits and vegetables seem to be the best for this, with freshly cut lemon being tops on the list. So, I drink freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed with distilled water sometimes. Polly: It isn t just the mineral or alkaline ash content of fruit that alkalinizes the body. Fruit, especially lemons, contains citric acid. (Citric acid causes the sour taste of lemons.) Normally, citric acid will increase bicarbonate formation. This is alkaline. Vinegar is also considered alkalinizing because it combines with oxaloacetic acid in the body and becomes citric acid. Of course, you can overdo just about anything, including citric acid. When you get too much of a substance, your pH shift may be the opposite of what you expect. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to monitor your total body reaction to a substance not just the pH. Too much or too little of a substance will interfere with energy production. Gloria from Germany: From my experience, in order to combat candida, you need to keep your system alkaline. It helped me get over candida and in my opinion is the key to long-lasting health. Unfortunately I like acid-type foods too much to give them all up at once (especially since I am over my candida, or at least have no symptoms whatsoever), but if I ever had a serious disease, this is the first thing that I would radically change. For example, I like a cup of coffee a day, but I d stop that immediately. I can only suggest to others to try this. I know that
there are books out on the subject too. Green foods keep the body alkaline. Polly: You can t just say everyone needs to alkalinize. It just isn t true. In fact, I worry that some people will push themselves too alkaline. Cells are always more acidic than the blood. The cells need this acid to create a battery/voltage; this voltage is required to create energy and carry on the process of life. If the cells ever got as alkaline as the blood, there would be no battery, and there would be no life. Some people can get better by pushing themselves more alkaline, but others must do the exact opposite. Still others must walk a tightrope of eating more alkaline during part of the day and more acidic during the other part of the day. Once they get things figured out, acid/alkaline balancing may greatly help with their symptoms and health. Eventually their needs will change though, and they will find themselves needing to eat differently. It is important that people realize this and they don t stay stuck on their original diet. In the book, Wellness Against All Odds, Dr. Sherry Rodgers talks about a cancer patient who went into remission when she went on the Macrobiotic diet, which is a fairly lowprotein/alkaline diet. Later the cancer returned, and this time a diet high in protein put the cancer in remission. According to Dr. Revici s work with cancer patients, usually if the patient was young and healthy looking, the cancer was more likely to be anabolic (alkaline). If the patient was old and feeble, the cancer was more likely to be catabolic (acidic). Children who were small for their age, tended to be catabolic (acidic), and large children tended to be anabolic (alkaline). A long-term predominance of either anabolic or catabolic activity would lead to abnormality and disease. (Emanual Revici, MD was a highly sought-after cancer doctor. Amazingly, he

continued his research and even made house calls at the age of 100. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 101.) Jan Johnson mentioned that one of her clients felt ill when she went too anabolic, but later, after a major stress, the client felt ill when she would go too catabolic. So one always must be on the lookout for changes. Alkaline foods aren t the answer to every problem.
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Let The Body Cycle

Polly: In a healthy body, the pH cycles between alkaline and acidic each day. Usually in the morning the pH is more alkaline, and usually in the afternoon, the pH is more acidic. Why does the body do this? According to Jan Johnson, this pH cycling is the key to good health. The changing of the pH is like the turning on and off of a light switch. A given pH will turn on certain enzymes, which in turn will allow certain biological processes to take place change the pH, and other biological processes will take place. At night there is usually an alkaline pH. At this pH, the body grows, repairs itself, and prepares for the more intense activities of the coming day. During the daytime, there is usually a more acidic pH. At this pH, the body burns more fuel, breaks down the structure prepared earlier, and releases more energy. You want to have this relatively acidic state turned on during the day, or else you won t be able to keep awake. Okay, here is a silly analogy. You can make fun of it if you wish. You live on a farm and use an old-fashion wood stove. You have lots of kids, say 10, and since it is haying time, you have another 6 thrashers to feed. You are very busy in the kitchen and the stove is hot all day long. When are you going remove the ashes from the stove? In the mist of your cooking chores while the stove is still hot? No. Probably after the cooking is done or very early the next morning, when the ashes are cold. What happens if you
neglect to do this? Eventually the stove is filled with ashes and the stove does not work. This is analogous to what is happening in your body. Filling the stove with wood and lighting the fire is analogous to making the cells acidic and producing energy. Removing the ashes is analogous to removing the acidic waste and preparing the body for the next day. If you don t remove the waste, then eventually you will clog up the mechanism. If you never light the fire and allow the cells to become acidic, then you aren t going to have any energy. For those who have eaten very little fresh fruit and vegetables, it is perhaps time to change those eating habits. For those who are vegetarian and are now sick, it is rather obvious, that more acidic protein should be at least tried. By the way, proteins do much more than just shift the body towards the acidic state. Protein is required to create enzymes. Without enzymes, you will not be able to maintain the proper pH, be it acidic or alkaline. Designing a diet that allows the body to cycle its pH each day should allow you to both repair and cleanse when you are alkaline and produce more energy when you are acidic. In one of Sidney Baker, MD s books, The Circadian Prescription, he talks about using the timing of your food selections to help the body to produce energy in the day and to repair at night. His suggestion is to emphasize protein during the day, and to reserve most of your carbohydrate allotment for the evening meal. Your liver needs the carbohydrates at night for cleansing. During the day, you need the protein to help stabilize blood sugar. It sounds like something worth trying, but again remember that each person may need a different program.
Biological Terrain
Polly: Recently, I attended a lecture by Hans Gruenn, MD, on Biological Terrain Assessment.

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In his practice, Hans Gruenn, MD measures his patient s urine, blood, and saliva pH in the morning before they have eaten. This pH testing is part of the Biological Terrain Assessment method that he and some alternative doctors employ. Taking the measurements at any other time of the day can be confusing. For instance, after you have eaten, your urine and saliva will be influenced by what you have eaten. Also, in general, your blood, urine and saliva pH will temporarily become more alkaline just after a meal. (This is because in the process of making acid for the stomach, alkaline products are dumped into the blood.) Dr. Gruenn stated that the best pH readings in the morning are slightly acidic relative to the norms. This means that the cells are producing energy and acidic waste, and that they are dumping this waste in the blood stream. Since the cells produce acidic waste as a by-product of energy production, you want them to be producing this waste. Normal respiration of healthy cells produces acidic waste. Patients often come in to him saying they are finally alkaline, but they feel so much worse. So be careful. Don t push yourself too alkaline or too acidic. You will make yourself sick. If you would like to find a practitioner who employs Biological Terrain Assessment (BTA), you can probably ask one of the companies that makes the testing devices. Biomeridian is one such company. This is their website, www.biomeridian.com, and phone (801)-5017517. Or here is another company, Biomedx. http://biomedx.com/pH/page2.html (847) 2990236 Beware of any doctor that just blindly uses these measurements to design a program for you. Some common sense and detective work must be
employed. For instance, if your urine is acidic, then why might it be acidic? Is it because there is a bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine? Is it because your cells are producing too much lactic acid? Or is it both? Is it because you have diarrhea? Are you dehydrated? Is your thyroid low? Are you producing enough carbon dioxide? Are you eating a lot of meat and very little vegetables? Or is it because you have accumulated a lot of toxins? Or all of the above? references
1. Johnson, Jan, Metabolic Balancing: Organizational Workbook , and her lecture tape Metabolic Balancing, Acid-Alkaline, from the Candida and Dysbiosis Information Foundation Symposium, May 1990. The most recent version of her workbook is found at her website. www.groupprofessionals.com/News/rat Also there is an article available from another organization. Steven Wm. Fowkes, Interview with Jan Johnson (applying the concepts of pH comfort range, acid and alkaline momentum, and pH balance to aging, addiction, allergy, immune dysfunction, digestion, exercise, headaches, PMS, and/orgasms) JMS Vol. 3, No. 5, Issue #13, September 1987 Available from the MegaHealth Society, c/o CERI, P.O. Box 4029, Menlo Park, California, 94026-4029 USA http://www.ceri.com/ff.htm $3.50 plus tax, plus $2.00 shipping charge. phone 650-321-CERI Broda O.Barnes, MD Research Foundation, Inc., Thyroid Therapy II with Broda O. Barnes, MD, PhD. Abelow, Benjamin, MD, Understanding Acid-Base, Williams and Wilkins, 1998 Peat, Raymond, PhD., Homeostasis and Aging, Thyroid mysteries and minerals: Cramps, excitotoxicity, dementia, and CO2 , Ray Peat s Newsletter, December 1999
2.
3. 4.
Index
A AA (arachidonic acid) 65 acid, alkaline and pH 13, 27, 29, 34, 38, 47, 48, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86 acidophilus 20, 22, 23 adrenal 27, 51, 52, 66 AIDS See HIV and AIDS allergies 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 24, 26, 28, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 60, 66, 67, 68, 69 Allergy Research/Nutricology 19 alpha-ketoglutaric acid 48 aluminum 26, 83 amino acids 18, 46, 48, 49, 50, 53 ammonia 46, 47, 48, 53 antibiotics 24, 38, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 57, 59, 62 antifungals 33, 37 Armour 25, 26 arthritis 13, 17, 28, 40, 42, 61, 64, 74 asthma 29, 65 attention deficit 30, 45 autism 25, 33, 45, 47, 59, 60, 65, 68, 69, 71 B bacteria overgrowth 86 Baker, Sidney, MD 34 Bifidus 47 bile 32, 56 bioflavonoids 82 bioflavonoids and flavonoids 15, 18 Bio-K 20 birth control pills 49 Broda Barnes, MD 50 bulgaricus 34 butter 75, 81 C calcium 30, 48, 50, 77, 78, 83 Campbell Douglass, MD 19 Candida and Dysbiosis Information Foundation 54, 86 caprylic 59 carbohydrates 11, 17, 3545, 48, 81, 85 carbon dioxide 47 carrageenan 31 casein 13, 19, 25 celiac 39, 44, 45 cellulase 33 CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) 18, 49, 54, 79 chronic fatigue See CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) Clostridium and Clostridia 47 Clostridium or Clostridia 13, 42, 47 coenzyme Q10 82 coffee 13, 28, 29, 36, 80, 84 colitis 45, 67, 72 colon cleansing 16 constipation 13, 32, 45 copper 83 cortisol 27, 51 craniosacral therapy 16 Crohns 61 cysteine 18, 32, 51 D D' Adamo, Peter J., MD 24, 25, 53 depression 17, 29, 35 DHA 31 diabetes 40, 45, 63, 72 diarrhea 39, 45, 82, 86 Diflucan 28 digestion 20, 21, 25, 38, 40, 46, 47, 49, 66, 71

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E eczema 65 Edgar Cayce 25, 26, 28 EFA (essential fatty acids) 60, 65 endometriosis 67 Enig, Mary, PhD 32, 34, 55, 59, 60, 61, 71, 72, 73 environmental 15 enzymes 18, 32, 33, 42, 56, 71 EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) 31, 65 estrogen 32, 48, 51, 57, 71, 74 F Fallon, Sally 19, 43, 55, 61, 71, 72, 73 fasting 16, 17 fats and oils 11, 17, 32, 43, 44, 55-72 borage 67, 68, 69, 70 butter 25, 37, 55, 67 coconut 32, 37, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 68, 69, 72 emu 14, 55, 61, 62, 72 fish 14, 55, 65, 69 flaxseed 66, 69 olive 39, 55, 56, 58, 70 primrose 62, 66, 67 fiber 17, 32 fibromyalgia 38 fluoride 83 food allergies 14 FOS (fructooligosaccharides) 47 fruit kefir 22, 23
G garlic 13, 58 ghee 67 GLA (gamma linolenic acid) 67, 71 glutathione, 18 gluten 25, 27, 31, 35, 37, 40, 44, 45, 53 glutyl-cysteine 18 glycine 18, 52 Great Smokies Laboratory 12 H histamine 14 HIV and AIDS 18, 60, 61 honey 37, 38, 39, 41, 42 hyperthyroid 31 hypothyroid 26, 31 I IgA 40 IgG 12 immune system 14, 20, 24, 25, 36, 55, 59 ImmunePro (undenatured whey) 19 Immunocal (undenatured whey) 18, 79 IMUPlus (undenatured whey) 19 inflammation 14, 40, 65, 67, 70, 71 iodine 25, 26, 27, 31, 83 iron 29, 67, 83 isoflavones, also see phytoestrogens 15, 16, 34
J Jarrow 60 Johnson, Jan 74, 75, 77, 81, 82, 85, 86 K Kefir 22, 23 L Lamisil 39 leaky gut 14, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 49 lectins 25, 40, 41, 45, 53 Leo Galland 32, 56 liver 13, 16, 18, 32, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 59, 68, 69, 85 Lyme 14 M macrobiotic 83 magnesium 27, 48, 50, 53, 71, 74, 77, 83 manganese 71, 83 Manuka honey 39, 41, 42 Mead oil 63 mercury 13, 18, 25, 29, 34, 49, 50, 65, 67, 70, 71, 83 methionine 18 migraines 14, 29, 33, 68 milk 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 36, 37, 40, 51, 67 molds 12, 28, 29, 38, 40 MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) 13, 29, 30, 31, 43
Index
MSM (Methyl-SulfonylMethane) 14, 39, 63 N N.E.E.D.S. 19, 76 NAET 14 Natren 24 nightshade plants 13 Nystatin 43 O organic 13, 24, 33, 38, 40, 48, 49, 50, 53, 60, 67, 79, 82 P pancreas and pancreatic enzymes 48, 82 parasites 51 Peat, Raymond, PhD 32, 36, 40, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 60, 71, 78, 86 pesticides 17, 24, 25, 26, 29, 46, 48, 51, 57, 59 phytoestrogen 15 potassium 25, 27 probiotics 14, 21, 22, 24, 32, 37, 47 progesterone 32, 63 prostaglandins 65, 67, 71, 73 R Rogers, Sherry, MD 73 S salt 17, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 43 SCD See Specific Carbohydrate Diet seizures and epilepsy 29, 68 selenium 71, 83 serotonin 35 sodium cromoglycate 14 soy 12, 15, 16, 30, 48, 49, 53, 55, 57, 61 Specific Carbohydrate Diet 14, 15, 20, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41 stomach acid 13, 29, 34, 47, 53, 78, 81 T taurine 18 Ted H Spence, DDS, ND, PhD 27 Th1 and Th2 20, 55 thyroid 15, 16, 25, 26, 31, 32, 34, 35, 45, 47, 50, 51, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 86 Trowbridge, John, MD 23, 24 Truss, O., MD 33, 34 tryptophan 35 tyramine 13 V
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vinegar 13, 22, 32, 33, 38, 43 vitamin A 65, 71, 82 vitamin B12 52, 71, 82 vitamin B2 48 vitamin B6 29, 30, 34, 48, 50, 60, 64, 71, 82 vitamin C 82 vitamin D 65, 82 vitamin E 63, 65, 67, 71, 82 vitamin K 65, 82 Vonderplanitz, Aajonus 33 W whey 18, 19, 25, 30, 40, 79 Y Yoga 16, 75, 78, 82 Z zinc 14, 48, 71, 83
More Health Forum books can be found at www.dysbiosis.com

Book 1: Candida s Impact on your Health Book 2: Candidiasis and Dysbiosis Abatement Techniques Book 3: Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health Book 4: Hormones, Dysbiosis and Candidiasis Book 5: Hope for Autism through Nutrition Book 6: Cleansing the Body of Mercury Book 7: Fibromyalgia Treatment Options
About Polly Hattemer, PhD editor of The Health Forum Polly Hattemer s formal education is a doctorate in System Science Engineering from UCLA. She has spent over 20 years working in the aerospace industry. Specifically, she analyzed and helped to design missile guidance systems, satellite sensors, and radar waveforms. This background perhaps explains the way she looks at health. Because of her systems engineering background, she is always looking for the interactions between different systems in the body. However, her perspective is just one of many that will be found in the Health Forum books. Polly Hattemer used to have intestinal yeast overgrowth with the accompanying symptoms of migraines, food sensitivities, fatigue, brain-fog, and of course, intestinal upsets. Over many years, she accumulated information on how to get rid of these ailments and how to heal the damage left in its wake. Several years ago, she started chatting with others on the Internet about this problem. She discovered that the Internet was a vast resource of technical information and an interesting source of personal experiences. With the permission of her Internet friends, she recorded their personal experiences and organized them into the Health Forum books. She also added references to tutorial and technical articles.

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The Health Forum

The Health Forum

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Edited and Compiled by Polly Hattemer

More Health Forum books can be found at www.dysbiosis.com

About The Health Forum Books

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

The Internet Forum

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Soy Foods and the Impact on Your Thyroid

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Infant Soy Formulas Particular Dangers

Detoxify, But Dont Fast

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Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Why Cant We Drink Milk?

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Salt and IodineWill eat Seaweed for Thyroid

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

General Diet Considerations

Raw Broccoli Can Make You Fat!

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

But Carrots Can Keep You Trim!

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Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Breaking the Vicious Cycle The SCD Diet

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Caveman or Paleolithic Diet

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Fats And Oils

Excessive Omega-6 Oils In The Diet

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The Warm Body Argument

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Heating Unsaturated Oils Create Transfatty Acids

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health

Canola Oil or Olive Oil?

Fats And Oils

The Virtues of Coconut Oil

Diets for Immune Support and Gut Health