Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers

Don’t Eat These Foods If You Have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

Certain foods make mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) worse. Even small amounts of these foods in your diet will cause problems.

There’s an enzyme called DAO that helps break down histamine. Certain foods inhibit DOA. Alcohol, tea, coffee, energy drinks, and pop have all been implicated in blocking the action of DOA.

Alcohol: Alcoholic beverages are not a good idea if you have any kind of immune dysfunction.

Cultured and fermented foods: Many people think fermented foods are good for your health under all circumstances. However, cultured and fermented foods can cause significant histamine problems. Foods like kombucha, yogurt, kefir, vinegar, and sauerkraut are best avoided for a while. The same holds for foods like pickles, mayonnaise, and olives.

Cured meats and fish: Bacon, salami, pepperoni, luncheon meat, smoked meat, and any other processed meat or fish should be avoided.

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Sour foods: Foods like buttermilk and sour cream can make MCAS worse.

Dried fruits: Dried fruits like figs, prunes, raisins, and dates are potent histamine stimulators.

Citrus foods: Other than maybe a little bit of lemon or lime in your diet, citrus fruits should be avoided.

Aged cheeses: Aged cheeses, including aged goat cheese, are off-limits with MCAS.

Nuts: Strictly avoid eating nuts like walnuts, cashews, pecans, and Brazil nuts. They are also powerful histamine stimulators.

Vegetables: Certain vegetables like eggplant, tomato, and spinach should not be included in your diet if you have MCAS.

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Questions & Answers

Anti-Inflammatory Diets: What You Should Be Eating

Diet is a vital part of addressing gut inflammation. Some of the best foods to combat inflammation in the digestive tract are the following:

Omega-3 fatty acids: These fatty acids are found in oily fish like salmon or herring. If you are vegan, you can eat walnut, chia seeds, or flax seed instead of fish. However, vegetable sources of omega-3 are not that great compared to fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are one of the most potent anti-inflammatory agents you can get through your diet. I recommend eating fatty fish or taking a fish oil supplement to help reduce inflammation throughout the body.

Leafy green vegetables: There are a lot of different options when it comes to leafy green vegetables. You can have broccoli, spinach, celery, or bok choy, to name just a few. There are many different anti-inflammatory compounds in leafy green vegetables.

Onions and garlic: Many of the allium family vegetables contain quercetin, which is a flavonoid with powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Garlic is even more potent than onion. Every day, try and have some onions, leeks, shallots, garlic, or chives in your diet.

Pineapple: Pineapple contains bromelain. Bromelain is a digestive enzyme and anti-inflammatory that is great for both gut and musculoskeletal inflammation.

Anthocyanins: Anthocyanins are a blue, red, or purple colored compound. Foods with blue, red, or purple coloration are anti-inflammatory. Blueberries would have to be one of the best and well-known of all the blue kind of foods to eat. Other good choices are red onion, blue plums, and black currants. Blueberries are in my list of the top five foods for digestive health.

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Beets: Beets contain incredible amounts of vitamins and minerals like folate, magnesium, and manganese. Beets also contain betaine, which reduces inflammation and the risk of certain chronic diseases.

Coconut oil: Coconut has terrific anti-inflammatory properties. I recommend cooking with coconut oil. Having up to a tablespoon of coconut oil per day is perfectly good for your health.

Cultured and fermented foods: Foods like kefir, sauerkraut, and yogurt can down-regulate inflammation in the gut. Just remember, go slow with kefir. Kefir can cause more problems if

your gut is quite imbalanced. I recommend waiting until your health has improved to include kefir in your diet.

Bone broth: Bone broth is fantastic because it provides substances that help to build up gut health, while at the same time reducing inflammation.

Spices: Turmeric and ginger are just two of the spices known for their anti-inflammatory actions. I particularly recommend adding fresh turmeric and ginger to your diet.

Cherries: Tart cherries have been shown to be even more anti-inflammatory than ibuprofen in some clinical trials.

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Questions & Answers

Foods That Contribute To Gut Inflammation

The following foods can increase the amount of inflammation in your body, including in your gut.

Sugar: Sugar is one of the key foods that’s involved with inflammatory processes. If you put white sugar in your mouth, literally within minutes, the activity of neutrophils, a time of white blood cell, is reduced. In other words, sugar immediately lowers immune function activity.

Sugar also ramps up the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines can be beneficial or harmful. The cytokines that are stimulated by eating sugar are the unhealthy cytokines that create inflammatory responses. Sugar also pushes up blood sugar levels. Higher blood sugar increases insulin, a pro-inflammatory hormone. Insulin should only be secreted and utilized when you’re having a meal. If you’re going to have snack foods, or junk foods, or drink soda drinks, or have other foods that stimulate significant insulin production, you’re going to be walking around constantly with low-grade inflammation.

White flour: Refined white flour and related products like white bagels and donuts also increase gut inflammation by increasing insulin levels.

Vegetable oils: Vegetable oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids. People today consume too many products high in omega-6 rather than consume omega-3 oil. An overly high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio results in a pro-inflammatory state.

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Deep-Fried Foods: Deep-fried foods are bad for the gut. The deep-frying process creates damaged fats known as advanced glycation end products. These products up-regulate your immune response, including your level of interleukin-6, an inflammatory cytokine.

Dairy products: It’s not a good idea to consume a lot of high-fat dairy products such as cheese or whole milk. The animal fat found in dairy products is pro-inflammatory. Yogurt, if it’s been properly cultured, is an exception. Yogurt made from organic milk that isn’t homogenized or pasteurized is a healthy food.

Artificial Sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners are pro-inflammatory. I’ve also discovered that artificial sweeteners reduce the production of beneficial bacteria called Bacteroides.

Red Meat: Beef and pork from industrial farms are not great foods to eat. This type of meat can increase the production of arachidonic acid, a very inflammatory compound. I would recommend eating fatty fish or lamb instead of beef or pork.

Alcohol: Alcohol is a big problem. Small amounts here or there help to reduce C-reactive protein levels, which is an inflammatory marker. But, if you have that second or third drink, you are at risk of increasing inflammation. Moderation of alcohol is essential. Red wine is better for your health than alcohol or hard liquor. You shouldn’t have any more than a glass of red wine a few times per week. More alcohol than that, and you are moving into a high inflammation state.

Trans fats: Trans fats are synthetic, man-made fats. Trans fats are hard at room temperature and are designed to prolong the shelf-life of processed foods. Trans fats increased the production of pro-inflammatory interleukin 6 and C-reactive proteins. Trans fats are linked to several health conditions, including heart disease and cancer. I recommend that you eliminate trans-fats from your diet.

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Questions & Answers

How To Manage An Inflamed Gut

There are several steps you can take to reduce gut inflammation.

Avoid the foods that trigger gut inflammation: Foods that can trigger inflammation in the digestive tract include those that contain trans fatty acids, artificial sweeteners, or artificial flavors. Alcohol can also trigger an inflammatory response. Avoid junk food or take-out food that isn’t healthy.

Include anti-inflammatory foods in your diet: I recommend you watch my video that covers this topic in greater depth. Some of the foods I recommend for gut inflammation are blueberries, fatty fish, and green leafy vegetables. I believe that diet is the foundation upon which you reduce inflammation of the gut. If you are eating the right diet, you’ve taken a big step in the right direction.

Don’t overeat: Reduce your food intake in general. Most people, in my opinion, eat too much food. They can easily do with 20, 30 percent less than they’re eating. Eating less reduces the load on the digestive system. It makes digestion more efficient, excretion more efficient, absorption more efficient, and it helps to reduce inflammation.

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Supplements: Supplements play a crucial role in reducing gut inflammation. I recommend you start with a high-quality Omega-3 fatty acid supplement. I tell my clients to take at least one or two tablets a day, although three is often ideal. Probiotics are another essential supplement for treating gut inflammation. Probiotics will balance the microbiota by reducing harmful bacteria and increasing beneficial bacteria. Probiotics also help reduce Candida and parasites found in the gut. I suggest taking a probiotic at least once, if not twice, a day.

CanXida Restore is a product I created that helps treat gut inflammation. CanXida restore contains both digestive enzymes and probiotics.

CanXida Restore works very well with CanXida Remove. CanXida Remove helps rid the gut of microorganisms that contribute to inflammation. Yeast, parasites, and harmful bacteria are all reduced by CanXida Remove.

It’s not that hard to reduce gut inflammation. It’s common sense. It might take you a few months to do, but the benefits are significant. You’ll be surprised at the reduction in symptoms that happens when gut inflammation is reduced. I’ve seen bloating, gas, brain fog, irritability, mood disorders, and skin rashes improve by lessening inflammation in the digestive tract.

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Questions & Answers, Yeast Infection Signs And Symptoms

How I Became A Candida Expert

I got Candida back in the ’80s. There wasn’t a lot of help around at that time. Doctors were hostile to the whole idea of a male having Candida, and many of them still are today.

When I had Candida, I had jock itch and Candida on my skin. I also had poor immune function and a bad chest infection. When I think back, it was probably Aspergillus.

I was working at a flour mill at the time and had been very sick and depressed. I lived in a crappy little home that was prone to flooding. There was black mold growing on the walls. Back in the 80’s, nobody paid any attention to black mold. I was sick continually, probably for about a good six months, until I started to seek help.

There was nobody that could help me apart from the odd naturopath, that had read some articles on Candida. It’s something I had to work through myself. It took about a year to recover.

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When I was sick with Candida, I certainly didn’t get any encouragement or hope from any healthcare professionals. I had to do all the research myself to find out how to get better. I began to ask myself, “How can I help other people?” I became a naturopath, and the rest is history. I wrote the book Candida Crusher in 2013, and I continue to work in the field to this day.

If you need a diagnosis and treatment plan, seek professional help from someone experienced in treating digestive disorders such as Candida, parasite, and irritable bowel syndrome. Going to a medical doctor isn’t going to give you any answers for most functional gut disorders. In many cases, you’ll get a prescription for an antibiotic, which will create more problems. Don’t go down that path. Look for a functional medicine doctor or a naturopathic doctor.

For diagnosis, I recommend getting a comprehensive stool analysis that includes parasitology and yeast culture. Get a professional to help you interpret the stool test results.

The treatment plan depends on the practitioner. If you follow the Candida Crusher treatment plan, you’re going to be using a method that tens of thousands of people have found helpful.

Check out the information on yeastinfection.org, including the quiz. Please have a look at the over thousand videos on my YouTube channel. I’ve created lots of information to educate people about gut health. The Candida Crusher book is also full of valuable information.

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