Is It Okay To Eat Fermented Foods If I Have Candida Or A Leaky Gut?

by Eric Bakker N.D.

I think many people overdo this category of fermented and cultured foods. If you’re taking all these kinds of things like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, and sauerkraut, it’s overkill.

I’ve got a book from the 1950s on fermented and cultured foods, and it specifically states not to take kefir if you have digestive problems. Fifty years down the track and everyone is drinking kefir and recommending it to everyone else. Fifty years from now people will have the same amount of caution that they used to have about fermented foods. They’ll again realize how powerful these foods can be – sometimes too powerful for an ailing gut

The gut can’t handle this kind of microbial onslaught. When you are pummelling the body, with all these several acids like high dose lactic acid, and multiple types of yeast in these foods, it’s very hard on the body.

The first thing you may want to do is a stool test. Check to see what level of beneficial bacteria you have, what level of imbalanced flora you’ve got. Have you got parasites or yeast? Is there any inflammation in your gut? Is the immune system faulty?

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Fix these problems first and then introduce fermented foods, slowly but surely, to build up the microbial health of your gut. It can take three, six, or twelve months to do this. You need to be very careful with the microbial balance in the gut and make changes very, very slowly

Once you fix your gut problems and gradually introduce fermented foods, you can build your gut health up to a very high level. Working at the clinic has taught me that kefir is the wrong food if you’ve got a gut imbalance. Once you correct the gut imbalance, you may be able to tolerate a small amount of kefir every single day. For example, if you’ve not had kefir before, you may want to start with half a teaspoon of kefir per day because it is such a powerful food. Don’t forget, kefir is a fermented product, and it’s full of yeast. People don’t realize that you can get Candida strains from kefir. You need to be very careful with these kinds of foods

Eventually, you may even be able to tolerate kefir and yogurt in the same day. But to put kefir and yogurt into the diet at the same time is crazy to me. That’s literally like doing three hours of gym work a day and three hours of running. It’s going to cause some damage.

Yogurt is fine, but again, if you’ve got a very big problem with Candida, and a low number of beneficial bacteria, you need to go very slow with yogurt at first. You may also have a dairy allergy, so you need to be cautious. Always be cautious with yogurt. Start with a tablespoon per day. Many people can gradually build up to a small bowl of yogurt per day.

Sauerkraut is not a problem. But if you’ve got a leaky gut and a bad histamine problem, you may get itchy skin and a strong reaction to it.

The bottom line is this: proceed with caution when it comes to fermented foods. Yes, reap the benefits, but make sure you don’t overwhelm your gut with these powerful foods.

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About Eric Bakker N.D.

Eric Bakker ND has completed almost ten years of study and has almost almost 25 years of clinical experience in natural and integrative forms of medicine, and has pursued continuous post-graduate study in Australia, America, India as well as in New Zealand.

Eric is the past Vice President of the NZ Natural Medicine Association and is currently on their editorial advisory board.