Fermented Foods To Avoid With Candida Overgrowth

Over many years of treating patients for Candida overgrowth, I’ve made a surprising observation. Many people were astonished to learn that eating fermented foods could make their condition worse. This reaction is understandable since a number of Candida treatment plans suggest adding fermented foods to your diet. This is to feed the good bacteria in your gut. 

While fermented foods do feed your gut’s population of beneficial probiotics, they also feed Candida. What’s more, some fermented foods already contain yeast. This can directly contribute to your gut’s overgrown population of Candida albicans. For this reason I recommend everyone dealing with Candida remove fermented foods from their diet.

Let’s discuss how you can overcome Candida overgrowth by eliminating fermented foods and restoring the friendly bacteria that keep Candida in check.

What Is Candida?

So, what exactly is Candida? Candida is a yeast—a simple fungus. It’s naturally present in your digestive tract. It helps you digest what you eat. It also assists in getting nutrients from food. 

Your body only needs a very small amount of Candida to perform these important functions. Normally, the “good” bacteria in your gut keep Candida levels from getting out of control. 

However, several common circumstances can easily lead to Candida overwhelming your “good” bacteria. These include:

• A high-carb and high-sugar diet, which can fuel the growth of Candida
• Excessive alcohol consumption, which weakens your immune system
• Antibiotics that kill your body’s good bacteria along with the bad
• Chronic stress, which impairs your immune system and negatively impacts your digestive system
• Immunosuppressant drugs used to treat autoimmune diseases 

First, Candida albicans overwhelm the “good” bacteria in your gut. Now, they can break down the walls of your intestine and enter your bloodstream. This is why Candida overgrowth can quickly become a full-body problem. It can lead to various health issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome, skin issues, fatigue, and mood swings.

How Fermentation Works

All yeasts — including Candida — need sugar to thrive. Your gut microflora naturally ferments the food you eat by breaking down sugar to use as fuel. There are two main types of fermentation: alcohol fermentation and lactic fermentation, in which the lactobacillus species of bacteria convert sugars into lactic acid. (1)

Fermentation creates nutrients, enzymes, and prebiotics. Prebiotics help feed the good bacteria in your gut. Since fermented foods are also rich in probiotics, eating them gives you extra probiotics. 

Fermented foods are also high in lactic acid, which helps slow the growth of “bad” bacteria. This is why fermented foods don’t spoil quickly. (2)

What Are Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are prepared using either alcohol or lacto-fermentation processes. In these processes, bacteria, yeast, and other microorganisms break down the sugar and starch in food and convert it into lactic acid. 

The problem is that this is hardly a clean and neat process. While good bacteria or probiotics are present, bad bacteria and yeast are also present during the fermentation process.

This means when you eat fermented foods, you’re adding to the population of bad bacteria in your gut. A diet full of fermented foods creates the perfect condition for Candida albicans to thrive and multiply. If you have Candida, I recommend eliminating fermented foods that feed Candida. You should replace them with whole, nutrient-dense foods.

Whether you have an active Candida overgrowth or are trying to prevent it, here are nine common fermented foods to avoid.

Fermented Foods List

You’re probably already aware that foods such as pickles, sauerkraut, and vinegar are fermented foods. Yet, did you know that wine, beer, champagne, and yogurt can also be fermented? 

Fermented foods are a large portion of many people’s diets. If you’re battling Candida overgrowth, it’s important to know which foods could be contributing to your condition.

Wine and Beer

Hopefully, you’re limiting alcohol already. However, it’s particularly important to cut out beer and wine while getting your yeast in check. Wine is not only fermented, it’s also high in sugar. In addition, beer, which is also fermented, contains gluten. All of these factors contribute to Candida.

Alcohol can also worsen leaky gut. This is one of the most dangerous impacts of yeast overgrowth. This is because it can lead to so many other symptoms and health problems. You see, once your gut is leaky, the Candida can leak into your bloodstream and colonize other parts of your body. 

Alcohol also weakens your immune system. A strong immune system is needed to fight off invaders in your body. You also need it to keep your yeast population under control.

Champagne

Everyone loves the joyful effervescence of champagne bubbles. But did you know those bubbles result from the second fermentation of white wine with added sugars and yeast? That’s three inflammatory foods all in one bottle!

Kefir

Kefir is usually made by fermenting cow’s milk. The microorganisms in kefir grains grow and ferment the sugars in the milk, turning it into drinkable kefir. While you can make dairy-free versions, kefir grains contain yeast and lactic acid. You don’t want either of these if you’re trying to treat or avoid Candida.

Kimchi

Kimchi is shredded cabbage and radishes fermented with garlic, salt, and spices. It’s rich in prebiotics that feed both the good and bad bacteria in your gut.

Kombucha

There is little regulation on commercially produced kombucha. Nothing specifically states how long it has to be fermented or whether or not it can be pasteurized. There aren’t rules on whether it can be carbonated after production or even run through a filter to stop any yeast strains from remaining. 

It’s basically a free-for-all! Therefore, when you drink kombucha, you introduce unknown amounts of bacteria to your body.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is made using a lacto-fermentation. This allows air-borne bacteria culture to grow on raw cabbage leaves. 

Lacto-fermentation uses salt to create an acidic environment that preserves the cabbage. While this process is what gives sauerkraut its distinctly tangy flavor, it’s also what adds to the population of bacteria in your gut.

Vinegar

Making vinegar is a two-step process of fermentation. It goes from a carbohydrate to an alcohol to an acetic acid. During this process, wild yeasts are added to help convert sugars into alcohol. Finished vinegar still contains those yeast cells, potentially adding to the overgrown population of yeast in your gut.

Yogurt

The main culture in yogurt is lactobacillus bulgaricus. It’s used to ferment milk sugar. This process produces lactic acid. This lowers your pH and helps stop fungal growth. 

What’s more, dairy is also a highly inflammatory food. Inflammation damages your gut lining, which is already leaky due to an overgrowth of Candida. This allows the yeast to escape into your bloodstream, along with toxins, microbes, and other particles.

Benefits of Fermented Foods

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, you might be turned off fermented foods. Not so fast! It’s important to remember that fermented foods are perfectly fine for those who have their yeast in check. 

In fact, fermented foods actually come with a range of health benefits. (3) While fermentation began as a way to preserve food, eating fermented foods can help your gut’s beneficial bacteria produce essential nutrients. Other benefits of eating fermented foods include:

• Support digestive function
• Reduce the risk of autoimmune disease
• Support immune function
• Impact allergy and eczema symptoms
• Support a healthy inflammatory response
• Impact cholesterol levels
• Balance your metabolism
• Support bone health
• Balance your hormones
• Boost your mood
• Relieve stress

Probiotics For Candida

You might think that probiotics worsen Candida by adding to the good and the bad bacteria in your gut. However, probiotics can actually help you maintain the correct balance of gut flora in your body.

Probiotics contain good bacteria. They support your microbiome by protecting the cells in your intestinal wall from invading germs. They act like a bouncer for your intestines by crowding out the bad guys and breaking them down. (4)

Probiotics also promote the repair of damaged tissue by supporting your immune system. They also aid the cells that create the extracellular matrix, which keeps your intestinal lining healthy. 

In addition to all this, they also prevent bad bacteria and Candida from overgrowing and causing problems. Many experts believe they do this by producing bacteriocin proteins. These kill harmful bacteria, including Candida. 

We do know that probiotics can crowd out harmful strains by multiplying and physically dominating the space. They make the environment unfriendly for bad bacteria. For these reasons and many more, I recommend anyone dealing with Candida overgrowth take a high-quality daily probiotic.

Who Should Avoid Fermented Foods?

The high concentration of prebiotics found in fermented foods feeds the good bacteria, bad bacteria, and yeast alike. So, if you are dealing with Candida overgrowth or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), eating fermented foods adds fuel to the fire. Not good!

That’s why, after working with thousands of patients at my clinic, I recommend avoiding fermented foods until after you have restored the healthy balance in your gut.

Many of my patients included high-quality fermented foods in their diet after their gut issues had cleared. This actually helped support the population of good bacteria in their gut. 

However, everyone is different. You know your own body best. If, after overcoming Candida overgrowth, you still find that you don’t tolerate fermented foods, there is no reason to add them in! You can easily maintain a healthy level of good gut bacteria by eating the foods below.

Foods That Fight Candida Overgrowth

By now, you’re probably wondering what you can eat while treating Candida overgrowth. Fortunately, there are a number of anti-Candida diet foods that fight yeast. 

If you’re looking for inspiration, I have a ton of diet-friendly recipes on my blog that contain anti-Candida foods, such as:

• coconut oil
• garlic
• apple cider vinegar
• cruciferous vegetables
• ginger
• olive oil
• cloves
• cinnamon
• wild salmon
• lemon juice

Eliminating Candida Overgrowth

Removing fermented foods from your diet is a great first step to help resolve Candida overgrowth. However, diet alone will only go so far as to treat your symptoms. To fully recover from Candida overgrowth, you’ll need to restore the “good” bacteria and repair your gut so that Candida cannot enter your bloodstream. 

There’s good news! You can take on Candida today by following my 30-day Candida Breakthrough® Program. Use this comprehensive program to find relief from chronic symptoms such as digestive issues, fatigue, brain fog, recurrent fungal infections, skin problems, mood swings, and more.

Follow its simple and proven three-action approach. The program includes all of the powerful, pharmaceutical-grade supplements you’ll need. What’s more, it has an easy-to-follow anti-Candida diet meal plan full of foods that kill Candida. Here are the three steps:

• Step 1. Starve the Candida by removing the foods that feed it from your diet. This means eliminating all sugar and alcohol, and restricting carbohydrates such as fruit, starchy vegetables, grains, and legumes. It also means ditching all fermented foods.
• Step 2. Attack the Candida by taking supplements that destroy Candida’s cell walls. I like to use Candifense® as well as Caprylic Acid. Both of these are excellent at breaking down the walls of Candida cells to destroy them.
• Step 3. Repopulate your gut with good bacteria by taking a high-potency probiotic that keeps Candida under control. While battling Candida, I recommend a probiotic supplement containing 100 billion colony-forming units (CFUs) to restore your gut’s healthy microbial balance.

For the highest level of support for dealing with stubborn, recurring Candida, start on my Candida Breakthrough® Program today.

The Final Word on Fermented Foods and Candida Overgrowth

We’ve covered a lot of ground regarding fermented foods and Candida overgrowth. Who knew those trendy fermented foods were causing problems for some of us? This is a bit of a plot twist — especially if you’ve been loading up on kombucha thinking it was a gut health champion!

If you’re dealing with Candida overgrowth, now you know which foods to avoid. But don’t worry! For the most part, it’s not forever. Once you’ve gotten your gut back in balance, you may be able to enjoy some of these foods again. 

The main takeaway? Listen to your body. What’s good for one person may not be for another. What’s more, if you’re struggling with Candida, don’t go it alone! My Candida Breakthrough® Program can guide you through the process.

So here’s to happy, healthy guts! Keep learning and experimenting — and most importantly, keep taking care of yourself!