25 Yeast Reactions
25 Yeast Reactions
What could produce a metabolic slowdown hazardous to your weight loss program? What could require you to temporarily drop cheese, mushrooms, vinegar and other fermented foods from Atkins? The answer to both questions is a one-cell fungus called yeast.
Candida albicans, the culprit ' s medical name, is one of four hundred species of indigenous organisms residing in the human intestinal tract. In other words, Candida is a normal part of us, and, in healthy competition with our other intestinal flora, it serves us well. Candida, however, is an opportunistic organism and at the first sign of stress it has a tendency to spread inappropriately. When it does, you have a yeast overgrowth-and, very often, yeast sensitivity. The symptoms are extremely common: One in three people may be subject to them.
This might seem far from the subject of this book, but since you ' re preparing a lifetime eating plan, yeast reactions will affect the foods you can eat. When people with a predisposition to yeast and mold problems show characteristic symptoms doing Atkins, it ' s very often because they have started eating cheese again after denying themselves this pleasure while on a low-fat diet. Thus I can ' t ignore this topic.
A Wild World of Symptoms
Nor would I want to ignore it. Many physicians treat yeast only in the form of oral thrush or vaginitis. But it can be a far more extensive problem. People with yeast can suffer from a long list of complaints( see " Yeast Symptoms " below). I ' ve seen thousands of people who exhibited many of these symptoms and eventually found out that the large majority were affected by overgrowth of yeast.
===================================================================== Yeast Symptoms
• Do you suffer from gas, bloating, heartburn, constipation, diarrhea or abdominal cramps?
• Do you suffer from sinus headaches or nasal congestion?
• Do you have a runny nose or post-nasal drip?
• Do you often feel " spaced out " or " foggy "?
• Are you bothered by odors such as perfume or chemical fumes?
• Do you feel worse on damp, humid days?
• Are you often depressed, low or irritable?
• Do you crave sweets and certain other foods?
• Do you retain water or get puffy?
• Is your energy low, even when you get enough sleep?
• Do you get skin eruptions, hives, rashes and such?
• Do you get rectal or vaginal itching?
206