566 thoughts on “Fungal infections and food”

1. I’ve always found it important to honour how I feel related to food and the symptoms I feel in my body. I find this ever changing as sometimes a food can be right for me and then I get a clear message this is not right anymore, this happened for example with vinegar, so I changed to lemon juice for salad dressings.

2. A beautiful demonstration of cause and effect.

3. This is great to have a very practical and real approach to symptoms we can go through when the body is clearly trying to communicate something to us. Get the medical support but also take a moment to stop and assess how we are eating and what we are eating can all have an impact.

4. It is always a great starting point to look at the food we are eating and work out if there is any correlation between what we are eating and the effects it has on our body.

5. Our body is a great marker, and when we suffer illness and disease our food is a good place to look at and discern if what we are eating is truly supporting us or not.

6. An inspiring and factual blog Carmel. I love the understanding and awareness you now have about your body and choosing to live in a respectful and responsible way with it.

7. I love your last paragraph. Our choices are simply a reflection of our value.

8. It’s amazing how the truth works, if people don’t know about it they assume it might not be correct, and if many people think a certain way it can be assumed as a truth even if it’s not. The body is a beautiful thing reflecting back the truth always.

9. When you put it like this who wouldn’t want to take the first option! ‘Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!’ Reading this I can feel where I need to change and re-imprint my diet more. Thanks for the simple to the point information.

10. Carmel, great you are talking so openly here about these thrushes, as it is a very taboo subject for most of the people. When we start to talk about it openly and not only looking for diet changes but what a thrush is telling you energetically, people will become more honest and humble towards their body.

11. ” Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge! ”
    It sounds like it is worth it and I am guessing ones digestion would improve as well because of the balance of gut flora, thank you for sharing.

12. We use food for many reasons and nutrition is a very small part of it these days. Sugar in particular has come to be used for reward and yet it is incredibly damaging to our bodies.

13. It makes sense that if our bodies are reacting in a certain way, then it may be some food products that are contributing towards the health issue.

14. Carmel what stood out for me in this was self responsibility, how you took responsibility over changing your diet, stopped drinking alcohol and decreased your stress, rather than just looking for a medical treatment to fix the problem.

15. It makes sense that the food and drink we put in our mouth has an effect on our whole body.

16. Going on a health regime to remove the candida, that I know now was all through my regularly un-well body, was one the most self-loving decisions I have ever made. It was quite a challenging time as the toxins died off but any discomfort was absolutely worth the results; a body that was much healthier, much more vital and a whole lot lighter – now that was the bonus, not the goal.

17. Wow. Our shops are filled with what makes us unwell, as well as what would remove the symptom but not cure completely. It seems that this world needs us to be unwell as its foundation. That is pretty sick.

18. Feeling somewhat stressed recently I started eating almonds like there’s no tomorrow. Now almonds are healthy but not in the quantities I was eating them. I was also eating fruit, a lot of fruit. What stopped me was realising I’d got addicted because every time I went to the supermarket I’d ‘treat’ myself to a small bag of dried papaya and lime. Very yummy and I couldn’t feel any adverse effects… except that I put on around 10 kilos. Seeing as how I was so proud of myself for losing 48Kgs it didn’t make sense to put it all back on again. One day I simply stopped. No almonds, no fruit. The resulting stillness in my body is amazing and I can feel so much more.

19. Our behaviour around food is so worth studying, it can tell us a lot about ourselves and if we are willing can lead us to an ever increasingly healthier and lighter life.

20. How simple it truly is! Just listen to the body.

21. That’s awesome Carmel. Such simple choices with such profound effects!!

22. We can underestimate the effect that stress has on our body, and the way we live. That is why it is important to not only consider diet but looking at the quality of energy that we live our lives in.

23. Does eating sugar plus us being emotional make us susceptible to fungal infections?

24. Observing what and the way we eat is so simple and immensely powerful in bringing balance to the body and it’s natural way.

25. I am reminded by your blog Carmel that anything normal in abnormal numbers potentially becomes a pathogen for our body – its food for thought really.

26. It’s all fairly common sense really. Sugar feeds fungus so if you want to be free of fungal diseases look at what you are doing that feeds it. The problem is that many people don’t want to give up sugar or alcohol and so spend a lot of time looking for another solution.

    1. Being emotional may be another component.

       1. It is definitely not only food that supports fungus in your body. Actually only going for the food factor can be also a distraction away from the true reason, why your body is clearing that way.

27. We all want instant relief and if the medicine works, then we don’t usually look at what we are eating in a serious way, because we have patterns of eating certain food, and trying to change or give up a pattern can be difficult, although it is much easier to look at it as a way of making more loving choices that you know deep down will pay you back ten times over.

28. In all my visits to the doctor for thrush, I was never asked to consider what I was eating and the impact this had. I had to find this out myself through books etc. Serge Benhayon then topped this completely by presenting that emotions cause illness and disease and thrush has an underlying unresolved emotion.

29. The reactions from a body forced to ingest food it does not want to process is quite extraordinary and clearly severely loud and unpleasant when it wants to get your attention. It is crazy we override the messages we are given for the small satisfaction we get from indulging our taste buds… for to live free of discomfort is completely under our control should we choose to listen and honour what the body does or doesn’t like.

30. It’s so crazy, if you go to any Pharmacist or Doctor with this issue, you are told the variety of creams and pills to use and that is it. You are never asked what your lifestyle or diet is like. It is time we marry – Natural Medicine’s Holistic approach with Mainstream and Esoteric Medicine and then we may find we start to heal some of these things rather than just bandaid them.

    1. I agree Sarah. I had an episode of ringworm I picked up in Vietnam. Realised I was eating too much fruit. But doctor just prescribed me an antifungal cream — no mention of food connection. Since cutting down on fruit – and nuts – it is clearing. Getting to the root cause is so important, not just using band-aid quick fixes, as you say. Otherwise no wonder folk get recurrent symptoms……

31. Relief is well sought after in the medical system, while true healing seems to come in second best. True healing comes with responsibility on our part, while relief gives us a place to point our finger.

32. It is mind blowing that when we go to seek medical advice that the food we ingest is not part of the healing. It’s a massive missing link in our health system.

33. What you offer here is common sense Carmel, that our food affects our health, of course, and our medical system is not set up to take this into account. While many doctors would not consider diet, those who do and have been saying so are being vilified and in some cases disciplined by medical authorities for example saying that sugar might affect their patients; take Dr. Gary Fekkes in Australia who has been disciplined and asked not to advise his patients to not eat sugar, as he is not considered qualified as a surgeon to do so … http://foodmed.net/2016/11/14/why-australian-doctors-so-keen-to-silence-dr-gary-fettke/ … so we have a system set up to not work for either doctors or patients and in fact to silence those who challenge the agreed status quo. There’s an underlying corruption here and until this is addressed the advice we get from our doctors will not change, and of course the second part of this is the advice we demand, often we’d prefer that pill or potion to fix us rather than take responsibility for how we are with our own bodies and diets.

34. Yes the question becomes – are we more focused on our bodies or the taste of things. We can certainly think that it is OK to put things in our bodies that aren’t supportive, but there are consequences to this which are simply signs that something may not support us anymore.

35. When the link between diet and fungal infections is so well known in the fields of nutrition and naturopathy it is incredible that mainstream doctors a) are not widely aware or believe in the link and b) if they do and recommend a sugar-free diet to a patient to help with their healing, they run the risk of being disciplined and even struck off by the medical governing bodies who prefer to stay in the arrogance of believing that medical science has all the answers and anything that falls outside of this (narrow) knowledge base is quackery and dangerous.

    1. It makes sense to me that the body is an environment and this can easily go out of balance with things like sugars. We eat such an unnatural diet nowadays with so many processed and packaged foods that contain taste and calories but no nutrition, no wonder we have escalating rates of illness and disease. Diet to me is obviously a huge factor in our health and wellbeing.

36. ‘Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!’ It is as simple as this, isn’t it? Although it is, I sometimes find myself continuing eating a food that does not support my body in a way it did before but there always comes a time when I say, now it’s enough and then it is easy to let it go. What I do know is that it is crucial to feel for yourself what supports your body and what doesn’t.

37. When we are willing to being open and honest about food, why we eat what we eat, how it really makes us feel, we then will realise, as is becoming more and more evident, that food is medicine, as is life and the lifestyle choices we make. We all need to eat food to sustain our bodies, but it is the quality of food we eat that is the point. The fact is we already use food to medicate ourselves with, seeking to reward ourselves or comfort the tensions we feel in life. We know what food will deliver the desired result. Yet imagine if this degree of precision was applied to our well-being, to being aware of our choices and addressing our hurts and unease. Food then would be approached as true medicine, to support us to bring greater level of awareness and connection to our bodies and being so that we live in a way that empowers us to be our own practitioners of medicine. And this absolutely includes calling on and working together with the expertise of other practitioners of medicine, conventional and esoteric modalities, to supports us to truly heal and live more and more with the well-being we naturally are born to live.

38. Interestingly, as soon as I started to honour what I felt, my body relaxed and I didn’t feel drawn to eat more fruit. I’m still eating the almonds though! So there is more for me to explore here.

39. While almonds and fruit may seem a healthy option for some, eating too much of them or eating them when they don’t support the body is abusing the body. I too have been eating too many almonds and bananas especially at a certain time of the day – early evening. My feeling is that I overeat to simply not feel what is truly going on, because put simply I don’t want to see what is going on because I have a responsibility and am responsible for what is going on and around me in the world. It’s not that I think I am responsible for the whole of the world, this is not the case but my part in it… this I can feel in my body which I am stubbornly choosing not to feel.

40. The gulf between western medicine and true nutrition is vast. I can’t help but think the food pyramid is responsible for much of this. An essentially government-sponsored, medically derived model, it seems lodged firmly in most medicos minds as the only benchmark for nutrition. And sadly, it still promotes a world where gluten, dairy, fruits and even sugar and alcohol – all irritants or toxins to the body – are considered a part of a healthy diet. In time this will need to change because the costs of it not doing so will be too high.

    1. Interesting, isn’t it, how we give our power away to any authority that is able to produce a ‘scientifically proven’ method, instead of using our own bodies to guide us, which is a far more relevant science than any outside methods.

       1. This is what happens when you have a test for gluten sensitivity and it comes back negative and yet all the indications of the body say it doesn’t agree with you – no one goes on to say maybe the test isn’t sensitive enough or needs to be revised, because clearly people are not doing well on gluten, dairy or alcohol.

       2. In reply to Julie’s comment – yes, I know one lady who twice underwent the tests for Coeliac Disease in which she was told to eat whatever she wanted including gluten for six weeks. So she did and felt very unwell but the test still came back negative, that she was not allergic to gluten. Some doctors are accepting that there is an ‘intolerance’ and there is even a tablet you can take that, allegedly, helps you to eat wheat – that’s rather like taking a pill for diabetes just so as you can carry on eating sugar! If the body says No then it means ‘No’ and we need to pay attention if we want to stay healthy.

       3. I had a test for gluten sensitivity many years ago and was told I wasn’t. I did as they said, followed the diet that was recommended including wheat and gluten products but within a few days my body showed me loud and clear with many symptoms this was not the truth and I was gluten sensitive so I stopped all gluten anyway and listened to my body.

       4. I have also repeatedly been tested for Coeliac and it comes back negative but my body experiences such horrid symptoms there is no way I will ever eat gluten again. I have improved remarkably as a result of honouring my body’s messages and not waiting for science or medicine to confirm what I know and experience. I also know of a gentleman that was bedridden for many years with chronic exhaustion and it cleared very quickly once he removed gluten from his diet, for him it was a miracle recovery after years of not being able to physically function. To me in these cases gluten was not a food but a harmful poison to the body.

41. Symptom relief is great, but for restoration of true health and wellbeing it requires us to arrest the root cause of the issue and eliminate whatever also is feeding it – and changing your diet when you have a fungal infection is an ideal example of this.

42. ‘Is it worth it?’ – A great question Carmel, and it comes down to what we value more – living an ‘easier-in-the-moment’ comfortable life, where we can eat and do what we like, or a life where our body feels vital and amazing in the long term and this assists us to do what we need to do as a career and in general…. sadly the latter lifestyle is what we generally ridicule and compare or judge in this day and age.

    1. A very simple and graphic article and it seems so so simple and yet it’s not? There has to be something more going on than just the practical decision, otherwise from what’s presented here you would just not do it. While I don’t have any problems like the ones described here, I can watch myself do things that I have already seen don’t work for me. I also remember when I drank alcohol the many and varied hangovers that were the final time I was drinking only to repeat the same process again a few weeks later. So there are things that even though they hurt and I need time to clear them out of my system that makes me feel awful, I will still go back and choose the same thing again, it doesn’t make sense. There has to be something else at play well before the decision or choice to eat or drink something that doesn’t agree with us. As I said you already have an experience or experiences where what ever it is hasn’t worked and yet you find yourself in craving land or walking back into the same part of the pantry on the hunt, so what is going on?

       Could it be possible there is more to deal with prior to the decision to eat or not to eat, before the weigh up of if this is good for us or not. Is it possible that more care is needed? Not with the decision but with how we are prior to that decision. If you are still at a point where you could put something in yourself that has harmed you prior, then the level of care you have for yourself or level of respect you hold for everything you are hasn’t deepened from the last point. It’s not merely a case of ‘I am never doing that again’ at the final point it would be true to say that ‘I am never moving that way again that would have me arrive at a point where I would even entertain the thought to have that or not.’ If there is pressure or cravings and then you cave in, then you are cutting short or allowing your awareness to be cut short on what is truly going on. We never truly just arrive at a point, there are many steps to it and so we will need to take more care, a deeper care with everything to not arrive back asleep again at the door of the pantry.

       1. Beautifully put, Ray, yes, we do need to explore how we were before the craving led to the action that we later regret – for example, recently I’ve been eating lots of fruit and almonds. Whilst both are healthy foods in themselves, the amount I was eating was not healthy – it was purely a numbing device. When I look back on why I was wanting to numb, I need to allow myself to feel the feelings that I was avoiding. One big area was in not honouring my body by expressing what I felt, feelings ever so subtle that it was easy to override them. I’m in a new relationship and there is an unwillingness on my part to create ripples of disturbance in what is a beautiful feeling of being loved. But my non-expression is what is causing the ripples, because it is effectively being dishonest, and honesty is a critical part of any true relationship if we are to build trust. Tensions will always exist in any relationship and I need to make sure my body is clear enough to feel what is going on so I can read situations and have a greater understanding and be more true in my responses. If I get food cravings, that is an indication that I have more I need to express, and more that I am reading but perhaps not wanting to know about. So it is very helpful to observe, as you say, what was going on in the hours, days even, before we lose it.

43. I find it so strange also that doctors aren’t aware, or rather don’t want to behold the information around how food affects our health. By virtue of being a doctor, or choosing to work in the medical profession, does one not want to know all the possible reasons a person is not well in order to help them?

    1. My cynical response is that there’s more money in pharmaceuticals than food, apart from the addictive foods like sugar and alcohol, which are also bad for us.

44. What you offer about stress contributing to the environment of the body, that can then allow infections is important as we look to eliminate this type of issue from our lives.

45. This has inspired me to go on a detox! Yep it is crazy that many gp’s and health care professionals still do not link our diet with dis-ease and illness and how this affects the body.

46. Without a holistic approach to physical/medical issues and diet we will never break the cycle of ill health and disease that is currently blighting so many people’s lives. Relatively small changes can have a massive impact but these need to be shared so people have the option to introduce changes to their diets along with support to maintain these adjustments in the long-term. Prevention is better than picking up the pieces afterwards.

47. Sticking to the Candida diet for just a couple of weeks, that a lady in my local health food shop had shared with me, cleared up my on-going problems with thrush many years ago. However it has taken continuing refinements to address the Athlete’s Foot between my little toes, it clears up but returns whenever I am feeling stressed and over-tired and not taking as good care of my diet. I am learning to welcome the attention to detail that is required to support my body to heal and feel much more empowered than when I was regularly going to the GP to get pessaries to deal with thrush and feeling a victim of how my body was letting me down again. The more open we are to our body’s messages the more that is communicated to us.

    1. Hi Helen, I also had Candida off and on for years prior to giving up sugar, and the athlete’s foot cleared up also. Then a couple of months ago I re-introduced some fruit which I had previously found too sweet and back came the athlete’s foot. It just goes to show how sensitive our bodies are to foods and the result of our decisions show in the size, shape and health, our bodies develop into.

48. I recently went to the doctors with what I was certain was oral thrush – a blood test eventually proved it was not candida, but by this point I had begun making other changes to my diet such as removing acidic, spicy and salty foods (I have already cut out sugar/fruit). Take it from me, the brain (spirit) does all it can for you to choose what you know is not supportive. Eventually, my tongue returned to normal, so back I went with spice, acidic and salty foods…and my sore tongue returned. My stubborn mind did this twice more before a healthy tongue returned. Point I’m making is that it can be difficult to change your dietary habits, but that choice becomes easier when the body speaks so loudly to let you know what is going on.

    1. This is so true, eventually when the irritation or the symptoms get to the point where it is not worth it, the food product has to go – I have a similar mouth issue where I develop several mouth ulcers if I eat things that are too salty.

49. ‘I find it strange that such a simple solution is not known about or promoted by the medical profession – could it be that they don’t want to tell patients to stop drinking alcohol or eating sugar?’ It is fascinating how the body shows us signs that it really can’t eat certain foods, if we are prepared to listen and be pro active, we can heal some of our ailments simply by eliminating those foods from our diet.

50. Our diet can have a great impact on our physical bodies. So much so that even the smell of certain foods alters how my body feels. But what I have also learnt is how the way I live is the precursor to my food choices. So if I eat something my body doesn’t like I can never find the answer before the fridge door, it’s often a series of choices that led me to the fridge door. Understanding this is very empowering and there’s no space to be a victim of food.

51. I’m blown away by the level of honesty and intimate details about your body you are willing to share to support people. We often don’t talk about things like this, it’s hush hush, as people are often embarrassed. So not only have you offered support to people with these illnesses – you are also opening the door for much more honest and real conversations about our body.

52. It certainly is amazing how the body responds to the changing of our diets fairly swiftly when we stop eating the offending foods, and start listening to the messages of our body.
    The medical profession would certainly see a huge improvement in their patients if we were taught the importance of listening to our bodies from a young age.

53. From this article, I just took a moment to fathom a possibility that I am sure many would not like spoken. But, here goes, these ‘simple’, ‘common’, ‘accepted as just is’ fungal infections cause our bodies to produce a cancer causing chemical in our bodies. Does this not ring some alarm bells, does this not indicate just how responsible we are for our health, or lack of it?

54. This makes me think of the food that is served in hospital. It could be so much more nurturing and nourishing.

55. I am all for medication when its needed, but it surprises me that doctors do not also recommend a change in diet. It will certainly save on the medication bills for the NHS. It was interesting to learn about the toxins that are released by Candida albicans. When things get out of balance the whole body is affected.

56. It is interesting how we deal with medical issues these days looking for solutions, lotions and ointments that alleviated the pain and remove any sight of the issues, yet the underlying factor still remains in how did we get to this stage in the first place. The root cause is often not delved into and we are confused to why the condition returns time and time again. This blog like many on this website takes us back to the relationship between western medicine and esoteric medicine.

57. Great blog Carmel supporting us to take responsibility for our illnesses and our choices. It really is simple when we consider your question, ‘is it worth it’; yes it is; so what gets in the way? Another key question to ponder.

58. It certainly sounds like making the effort to really listen to our bodies and to tune up our eating pays off with extraordinary dividends… Thank you for writing, Carmel

59. Thanks Carmel. Your concluding choice made me smile: to abuse or not to abuse the body?

60. If there were a storm outside, we would close the doors and windows so no damage would come to our home or us. Yet this common sense logic seems to disappear when food is involved in the sense that we flood our bodies with substances that, while they may tantalise the tastebuds, offer no true support to the body which is our home. Thus we leave the door wide open for disease and once it hits, often seek quick fixes that will alleviate the symptoms but do not seal the door through which such a storm has entered.

61. In her comment above, Liane refers to foods that are superficial fillers, so that means we are not eating to nourish our physical bodies, but eating to satisfy some other craving. This reminds me of of a story called A Warm Fuzzy Tale by Dr. Claude Steiner, in which someone was giving out genuine warm fuzzies, which made everybody smile and feel good but the people were afraid there wouldn’t be enough and someone started peddling false ones, but they were hard and cold and prickly and eventually everybody suffered from the lack of love. This is what is happening in industry, where great taste sells food more than nutrition value and corporations are making vast profits while people are becoming ill from consuming those same products. It doesn’t make sense.

    1. We crave connection yet we eat to support the withdrawal from life we have chosen. This sets up an incredible tension in the body because essentially we are love but we are eating foods that inhibit our expression of this love because they leave us in an altered state. We need to understand why we are doing this…why do we crave connection yet seek that which ensures we cannot feel who we truly are? Through the wisdom Serge Benhayon has been sharing with us all, it is clear to see that the simple truth is we are eating to dull our awareness. This in effect means we are saying no to our evolution, which is to return to a full expression of the great love that we are. Thus the foods we eat either accelerate our evolution or delay it. This exposes the game of the human spirit that is active in us all and that tries to thwart the expression of the Soul’s light here on Earth.

62. plain and simple! I too find it completely mind boggling that so many doctors refuse to acknowledge food as a being a huge contributor to illness and disease. It feels so blindingly obvious.

63. I love what Liane shares in her comment above, this so needs to be understood by the many who have continual on going fungal infections, ‘These microorganisms thrive in a damp environment and this dampness is fed by our lack of connection to ourselves and the universe we are a part of. In this separated state we crave anything and everything that will fill the ‘hole’ we have created by not living true to who we innately are.’ Which brings it back to the importance of connection, a truly important comment Liane.

64. Brilliant blog Carmel and what you have shared aligns perfectly with this quote by Hippocrates “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

65. I love your last paragraph and question Carmel – Is it worth it? A few moments pleasure in the mouth followed by ongoing discomfort for days if not weeks. Once we can feel from our bodies how harmful certain substances are to us, it makes no sense to keep taking them.

66. These microorganisms thrive in a damp environment and this dampness is fed by our lack of connection to ourselves and the universe we are a part of. In this separated state we crave anything and everything that will fill the ‘hole’ we have created by not living true to who we innately are. These superficial fillers, such as sugar, alcohol, gluten, dairy, caffeine, yeast, vinegar etc. are not true foods but in-truth poisons that wreak havoc in a system that is primarily there to support ultimate vitality so that we can live the fullness of our true selves, our Soul, in our physical bodies. Addressing this dampness at the temporal level by way of lifestyle and dietary changes is fundamental in getting to the root cause of our separation from the fiery spark that lives within us all. If you have ever tried to light a fire with damp sticks, you will know that no amount of persistence or will power can ignite the flame and thus warmth that you seek. So we look for it elsewhere under the chosen illusion it is found outside of us, and thus the desperate quest is set up to seek relief from the cold that we feel. By truly loving, honouring and taking care of the body we are in, we find our way back home to the fiery love within our hearts.

67. I loved the ending Carmel and this is the exact stance I take when people treat me with sympathy because they believe I am suffering without eating chocolate for example. 5 seconds of mouth pleasure for a day of gut cramps, diarrhoea and nervous system disturbance, 3 days of sinus issues and the rest OR no chocolate. For me the choice is simple when I listen to my body.

68. When I first got thrush, I was one of those patients who just wanted it gone. I was told that it was related to going on the pill for some women so I looked no further. It was not until it went on for a long time that I started to explore what else it could be. This was when I found the Candida diet. I found this quite intense to stick to, having loved my breads and carbs, but it was worth it after a while. I felt so much more energetic and healthier. It was only when I met Serge Benhayon quite a few years later that I considered there was an emotional component and how much the emotional love and drama I was in with my relationship had affected the balance of my internal flora.

69. I’ve been down exactly the same road Carmel and have had great results with changes to my diet. Yet I did find my thrush persisted for quite a while (years), long after I’d eliminated all the things you mentioned – albeit in a milder form. This told me there was more to the condition than physical irritants, as critical as they were in addressing the problem. The conclusion I reached was that there were energetic poisons to clear from my body as a result of the ill-sexual energy I’d allowed in in my life, rather than the honouring I now know is possible. Addressing diet and lifestyle choice is critical and a wonderful and necessary thing to do but my experience is there always more than meets the eye when it comes to the health issues we manifest.

70. Your writing is so accessible Carmel and you pose questions that whilst challenging for those who are not yet ready to look at the links between diet and, in this case, fungal infections can support others to improve their own health and wellbeing and in doing so save our beleaguered health systems a lot of money.

71. Thankyou for this informative blog Carmel. lt is great to read such detail and understand how it relates directly to foods we ingest. l prefer to change my diet rather than take more pills that just mask the symptoms but don’t deal with the cause.

72. We can look at it as giving up foods or we can learn to love our bodies in a way that we naturally want to eat only what is nourishing. I still crave sugary foods and recently discovered the natural bars that contain dates and nuts and was addicted to them for a few weeks – addiction for me means I eat more than one a day. Part of me ‘knows’ they are not what I need but if I am exhausted that’s what I crave. So part of loving my body is to look at why it is exhausted and taking more care to re-vitalise it (good sleep, nourishing food, less tension) and then the craving simply isn’t there. I’ve been discovering recently a deeper level of hardness in how I move about and am developing an appreciation of the absolute delicacy and fragility of my body, and treating it with greater preciousness than before. Unnecessary tension in my muscles is what has been exhausting me!

73. Food and nature provide us with everything that is needed. It is amazing how if we strip things back to the essentials of food, then it can be very healing – such as your experience Carmel. It all comes down to a choice – do we indulge in the manufactured life – pills and processed food – or do we listen to our bodies, experiment with them and then be open to clocking the difference.

74. I love how this article shows that changing our diet is not a ‘one off’ thing and is something that needs to be constantly addressed as we are forever evolving, so what we put in our bodies has an effect on whether we delay or support this process. Thank you Carmel.

75. As someone who suffered the effects of Candida for many, many years I can easily relate to what you have written Carmel. It is a timely reminder on how far I have come from those days when I ate without considering the effects on my body, to today where everything I eat and drink is chosen to provide healthy sustenance for my body and not just for a moment of pleasure in my mouth; a most amazing turn around in my life over the last 15 years, which has been absolutely worth every loving choice I have made to stop abusing my body with food, and to begin to treat it with the care and respect that it deserves, after all it supports me every day of my life, so now it’s my commitment to support it in return.

76. Great comments so far, thank you – yes, it is true, why would we go back to something once we have discovered the effect it has on our bodies? Someone told me with pride the other day that you can get treatments that enable you to eat certain foods that you have an intolerance for – surely that is going directly against your body’s natural signalling system? It seems crazy to me but it’s easy to let our taste buds rule us, or to want to eat things previously considered as treats, like chocolate and ice cream or anything with sugar.

    1. In regards to why we return to foods we know that our body doesn’t like. For me it’s because I am avoiding and don’t want to feel something. Years without bacon (something I used to live on everyday) were dismissed as I entered a new job where my stress levels rose and it was the only thing around at the time. Sometimes that drive to avoid being aware of our feelings can have us falling back onto certain foods. However this time my body was very loud in showing me the effect of salt!

77. ‘Ok, time to change my diet again’. is such a telling comment and how your doctor reacted is not surprising as modern medicine has learned and is about pharmacological or surgical (both often needed) but does not always consider other things like food, and indeed many doctors have little or no knowledge of nutrition. What stands out clearly in your words is your willingness to take responsibility and see how your life and choices impact your body.

78. ha ha, well when you put it like that it doesn’t seem like much of a choice!! You have given us much food for thought here.

79. I can remember experiencing some of these symptoms when I was younger and also had a diet that had multiple forms of sugar. It reminds me to appreciate all the changes that we make with our diet and how our very delicately balanced bodily systems respond relatively quickly to our daily habits.

80. There is definitely a connection between sugar, yeast and fungal infections – but we are not that great at taking heed and prefer to resort to superficial and topical fixes rather than look a bit deeper at what might be causing it all. Wouldn’t it make sense to want to change or give up what is causing the problem?

81. Our body is very clear in giving us feed back, but we seldom take a moment to consider what it is communicating. The medical professions look at the symptoms and the physical causes, but our body is energy and it is relaying a message of disharmony long before we become ill. We are not taught to read the signs or feel our reactions, so that we can be responsible and honest with the consequences of how we live.

82. Over the last few months I have been changing my diet to heal something called leaky gut which can be caused by Candida. Through this time what I am getting to feel is how even though I haven’t had alcohol, bread, yeast and refined sugar for several years the consequences of how I used to live (alcohol, caffeine, bread, sugar, dairy, smoking…..) are still within my body and have not been completely addressed. It is great I am getting the opportunity to finally clear this at a deeper level. I read the other day we have about 4lbs of bacteria in our gut!!!!!!!! I would rather that be friendly than unfriendly! So yes although medicines can help with this nothing can be truly changed or healed until we look at our whole life, including our past, and how we have lived and then change this. Forever inspired by Serge Benhayon, the Benhayon family, Universal Medicine and students of the Way of the Livingness.

83. I love your parting line Carmel, “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!” When put like this it makes the choice very simple.

84. what I find perplexing is that if we have success from giving up certain foods, and the symptoms go away why would we start eating them again? When I found I had food intolerances it wasn’t a matter of cutting it out for a while and seeing the symptoms go away so I could have whatever I want again it was about embracing a new lifestyle and the values were body honesty, vitality and true health.

85. We sometimes just treat symptoms and never consider what is causing the disharmony or misbalance to begin with. So Fungal and yeast infections are a great example of how we can overload our bodies with sugar and cause these infections.Thanks Carmel for the investigative insight.

86. This certainly proves how detrimental sugars are, in all their forms to our bodies. Thank you Carmel for a very informative sharing.

87. I too had a severe bout of candida over twenty years ago and was placed on a very strict diet to eradicate all sugar which also included removing onion and quite a few other vegetables which also have a sugar content in addition to the more obvious fruits, yeasts and other culprits. It can be quite a nasty conditions to have and if left unattended can have quite a serious impact on the body. It’s very empowering to understand that we can have a huge impact on our own health and wellbeing simply through the choice of what to consume.

88. This is great to examine, I often advise women to consider if sugar is contributing to their thrush symptoms. They always report to me that getting rid of sugar gets rid of their thrush symptoms very quickly. I have heard and seen this so many times now I know it to be true.

89. It is amazing how our bodies can tell us exactly what is wrong with our food choices, especially when we are prepared to listen and then take action. For years I would get itching in-between my little toes and I used to use the spray medication but it would always come back, until that is I cut out sugar completely – then it miraculously cleared up and very quickly. Now if I eat anything that contains sugar (even fruit) my body will initially react with a headache and if I persist in eating the item then the signs will show in-between the toes.

90. Cause and effect in the body as a result of our eating, have not been given any attention, particularly by the medical body. I have a friend just been diagnosed with early onset dementia and the doctors have said he can still drink alcohol, and no recommendations as to supportive foods. ‘We are what we eat’ and I would consider it a starting point when diagnosing illness and disease.

91. Carmel, your blog shows the importance of not just addressing the symptom but also discerning what the underlying cause might be. In your case you linked it to certain foods but why was it that you chose those types of foods? You give us a clue when you say: “I have taken care to develop a less stressful lifestyle”. We get addicted to sugar to give us a false energy to keep us going and this often projects us on a momentum which is beyond where the body is really able to go, so we get exhausted and then the cycle sets in of having to feed the exhaustion with stimulating foods.

92. Carmel a great example of how our lifestyle choices directly affect our bodies and how we feel. It’s interesting how it’s widely known sugar affects us, yet we choose to ignore that; when we don’t ignore what is known and make different choices, our health improves. I do wonder at what point will the health system start to make lifestyle choices a mandatory factor to treatment.

93. It is shocking how many diet related diseases there are and how many conditions we could significantly reduce if we would support each other in eating more healthy. But we do not even know anymore what a healthy diet is, people think if they have a yoghurt a day or an apple that they have covered their ‘healthy food item’ for the day. Or an even more common myth is that if we buy everything organic, that will do, so we have organic wine and organic sugar and organic milk… it begs the question do we really want to know what is causing all the discomfort or do we just want a quick fix?

94. Thank you Carmel for the detailed description of these two very uncomfortable conditions that are very wide spread. I suffered from thrush all through my twenties and can confirm that the moment I reduced and eventually stopped all sugary, starchy foods it disappeared.
    It was very well known amongst naturopaths already back then that a sugar free diet is definitely a very highly contributing factor to these conditions, however it was very hard for me to stop eating sweets and only when I brought more love and care into my life was I able to let those go. This is really the key, only when we are able to reduce stress and the need to fulfill and stimulate ourselves from the outside and find back to the richness inside are we even able to make more supportive food choices.

95. It’s very simple what you are speaking about here Carmel, and the correlation between what we ingest and what ‘comes out’ of our bodies makes a lot of sense; but why is it that this isn’t commonly taught or educated in our medical systems? Are the doctors or educators themselves perhaps not wanting to let go of their chosen food choices and thus find it difficult to suggest such a change to a patient? There is much to be said and further explored when it comes to practitioners living in a way that is responsible of themselves and their own bodies plus life style choices; and hence educating others from a then lived way that can truly educate others.

96. Carmel, I agree, I too find it intriguing that there is not more information about how we can support our own bodies with what not to eat when we get sick, and then more importantly, how we can take care of ourselves with what we eat once we recover. There is so much we can do to take responsibility for our health when it comes to food, and this is definitely one area that seems to be lacking true guidance.

97. Thank you Carmel, it’s a simple article really about something so common that we could just ignore… And yet is it together with everything else that we are “ putting up with” in our bodies and we have much more clear picture of what is actually going on with society, our bodies, our health, and our relationship with food.

98. In the end, our health and wellbeing is our own responsibility. It depends upon us taking responsibility to live in such a way that truly and fully honours our bodies.

99. It is worth exploring the effect that stress has on fungal infections and I would love to read another blog on this. I know that stress is draining on our energy, so we are more likely to reach for alcohol and sweet foods. Stress in itself is an imbalance in our physiology, which then provides a perfect environment for the flora to become imbalanced. It feels important for us to not get into dramas, to take on other people’s emotions or get caught up in our own emotional reactions, to retain our body’s natural internal balance.

100. I recall that at the time when I had recurrent candida, I used to crave a lot of sweet and bakery products. I picture all those fungi cells hungrily awaiting their next dose of sugar or yeast! It felt like the imbalance of all these little mouths to feed, created a vicious cycle of having to eat more of the things that further fed the infection. It is amazing how these apparent cravings leave when you stop feeding them.

101. I loved reading the information about the harmful substances released by the fungus. We can dismiss the effect of an infection as just affecting the toes or vagina, especially when we can treat them topically. But we underestimate the whole body effect the fungal imbalance has on us. To have waste products like uric acid and a neurotoxin circulating throughout our body (especially in chronic conditions) can’t be a good thing.

102. I have also tried the candida diet, which at the time seemed like hell. I was on an eat and drink whatever I like diet prior to this so cutting out all my treats felt quite severe. It did help with the candida but it came back again after that time. Diet is very important but I found that becoming more steady in myself, not being in harmful relationships and not being so emotional was the best support for this internal imbalance.

103. If everyone looked at their diets and the foods they consume on a daily basis and made some simple modifications the results to our overall health would be staggering, not to mention relieve some of the pressure on our health care system. What you have described here Carmel is simple and down to earth, good old fashioned advice.

104. Candida is often overlooked especially if the symptoms are not presenting externally on the body. And really as life continues as it is with a lot of stress and ill eating behaviours will only increase and for some they will not realise what is physically at the root of their health issues. Hence this blog is well needed as it is straight forward in asking us to not only consider what we are eating as many nutritionists would recommend but to also look at why we are choosing these foods and the quality of our everyday lives that lead to these choices. Awesome Carmel, thank you.

105. Our bodies are so sensitive and the slightest imbalance in its flora and chemistry can cause a great deal of distress and discomfort. However this works two ways. It can take us into illness, or it can take us back to health and well being when we make simple modifications to our lifestyle. It can therefore be seen as a curse or a blessing and I for one do not want to keep chasing health, cursing ill health belieiving myself to be a victim, when the alternative is a harmonious balance and flow to life through the choices we make.

106. “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!”…classic comment and this – and the rest of your blog – gives the reader much to consider. We are much more in charge of our body and subsequent ailments that we can ourselves credit (or take responsibility) for.

107. With all the modern medicine that is available to us now, we have a great excuse to just look for a cure rather than go deeper and look at why we have gotten the illness in the first place. When we look at why we have an illness there are layers that we have to peel back and examine just as you have done here Carmel. A simple fungal infection is in actual fact revealing a lot about us about the way that we are living and it is the same with every other illness, irrespective of how big or small the illness is perceived to be.

108. It seems to me that when we allow an imbalance to take over the flora of our intestines, then we are saying yes to an imbalance to life in its entirety – such as in our relationships, in our approach to work, rest, and creativity. Food perhaps is just a reflection of the settlement or the lack of it that we feel.

     1. As with everything in life, it is all related. No matter which area we choose to look at, it all ties in, reflecting perfectly, our choices, and the impacts these choices have. Food is a great place to start looking because there’s no denying what we are eating, we just have to go deeper to examine why and at what cost?

109. I went overseas to Europe last year in Summer and did lots of walking. I had blistered patches/ cracked skin on my feet, which I put down to walking a lot and the change in the climate from our Winter to Summer. When I came back and saw my podiatrist he diagnosed tinea and said it was probably due to using hotel showers barefoot.
     But food as a possible cause was not mentioned. And my diet did consist of more sugary fruits, gluten free desserts with sugar or honey and foods with yeast e.g. GF pizza. When I commenced using anti fungal cream with sugarer, yeast free diet my feet cleared up, and I have not had any reoccurrence.

110. Our bodies are the most incredibly intelligent wondrous things that work in the most intricate detail and yet they also work in a very simple way. Our bodies reflect back to us our choices, they don’t change anything, make it fancy or dress it up, they simply say “here are your choices presented back to you”. Oh and they have no investment whatsoever with what we do with what they present, they simply present the facts.

111. Carmel the way that you have explained the link between food and physical symptoms seems so clear and simple but I know from my own experience that it’s not. I know that our beliefs around foods can be so blinding that we are literally unable to see the truth. I believed so fervently that salad and juice were good for me that I was totally perplexed as to why my stomach was bloating after consuming them. I even went and had an x-ray to see what the matter could be, all the while oblivious to the fact that it was the copious amounts of salad and juice I was ingesting. It took a ridiculous amount of time before the penny dropped!

112. It is amazing how much our food choices can impact on our health and well-being. It is something we often take for granted or simply choose to ignore. Obviously to our detriment as this blog clearly shows.

113. Choosing connection and communication with our body is key to knowing what foods support our bodies. Until I learnt to love and respect myself I didn’t value my health and wellbeing, I now know I am worth more that the issues I was trying to burry with comfort and numbing foods.

114. I realised on reading this blog that I have not suffered any of the symptoms described in this blog for many years, and this coincides with a change in my diet. I stopped eating yeasty foods because they affected my digestion, and the improved gut flora was a side-effect. I find that my doctor is open to seeing the connection between diet and minor conditions that might arise, but will not initiate the conversation. Could this be because most people only want the ‘magic fix’ rather than to take responsibility for lifestyle factors?

115. I was surprised that some fruits have the same effect as regular sugar in my body, yet the more research I do into the body and how it handles sugar, the more I realise that actually we don’t need that much stimulation. The more I honour that, the more my body says ‘thank you, can we stop eating x y or z now because I am only coping with it to keep you going!’. The moment I listen, I feel a little more tired, rest more and then once it has cleared from my body I feel so much more energised. The more I talk to others about this, the more people I find who feel the same. It is now part of my medicine cabinet!

116. Thanks Carmel, I didn’t know half of that! I have always had a niggling feeling that my body didn’t like things heavy in yeast though and looking back there was often a reaction to it so it is very logical to put the two together and eliminate them from my diet.

117. Our concept of what is considered normal eating is completely out of kilter to what our body actually needs. These two ends of the spectrum, so called normal eating, and eating for true health and vitality are so far apart that no diet book on the planet will help. Each of us is different, and needs food that is just right for what our body needs right now.

118. It’s wonderful our bodies don’t hold back in communicating what isn’t supportive of them and wonderful to listen to them before they become so loud you can’t but listen.

     How soon I listen to my body is a real indicator of how much I value myself and staying true to myself, trusting I am enough and can handle any situation, feelings that I may have tried to bury with food that doesn’t agree with me/over eating or other disruptive life style choices.

119. That is really interesting information about “Candida albicans” potentially 79 different byproducts released into our bodies it has ability to cause quite a lot of chaos.

120. Hello Carmel and this is a gross blog to read I must say, but a worthy read none the less. I remember a few work colleagues having gout and they stopped drinking alcohol as recommended by their doctor and the gout cleared up. Until I read your blog I had always linked gout to alcohol consumption because of this experience.

     I see more and more people looking at what they eat and the way they eat it as being the way to support with physical conditions, and I also see that once the physical condition has passed or healed they tend to go back to eating the same way again. I am still like this in a more refined way, I will eat something and not feel great but then at some point pick it up again and do the same thing, strange isn’t it?

     I have found there is a difference between when I actually let go of a food or when I just stop eating something. The difference is: one I choose because of how it made me feel and the other I was told to stop eating it because it was ‘bad’ for me. In other words the only true way to let go of something is to feel it yourself and make the choice because of how you felt.

121. I can totally relate to what you have written here Carmel, having suffered with many health problems in the past which miraculously cleared up when I looked at sugar, yeast, bread, milk products and alcohol. I had been to the doctor to see if I had a sensitivity to either gluten or milk and the tests came back negative, but when I cut out those foods my health improved beyond anything I could have wished for.

122. I was given similar advice in my twenties from a dietician due to suffering from chronic fatigue and a low immune system. I was put on a 3 month yeast and sugar free diet and the change in my health was remarkable – much more energy and vitality and my immune system recovered. This dietician even took blood samples and showed me the difference in my blood cells before and after the diet – there was a definite difference and improvement. This convinced me to start looking more carefully at my diet and become more aware of how food was affecting my body. I reckon it is a powerful way to prevent many of the common illnesses that we visit our GPs for every year and for me has meant a lot less medication has been needed to offset symptoms.

123. Thanks Carmel for this insightful blog. We are only beginning to really discover how much our diet affects our health on many levels.

124. Changing my diet over the past twenty years has been a choice that has greatly supported my body. Being diagnosed with candida myself and cutting out the foods that were contributing to the candida while eating foods that supported my body helped enormously in getting rid of it. I don’t think we realise how supportive it is to refine our diet and eat the foods that support us as to where we are at.

125. I find it interesting how we instantly go for finding something that is a solution to a problem or issue instead of stopping, addressing what is going on and looking for the root cause. If we don’t make changes at the root cause then sure, we may have temporary relief, but eventually the issue comes back or sometimes even worse and then we are forced to look at the root cause. It is always down to us if we are going to make changes that supports a change or not. This is where we are responsible for ourselves and our bodies and everything that is going on with them. Serge Benhayon had been exposing root causes since 1999 and it is phenomenal how empowering this is and to have his support on this level. Taking it to the next level of where we need to be in healing our health and wellbeing problems.

126. This is a great, straighforward blog Carmel. It really goes to show how far we will go to avoid taking responsibility for ourselves by continuing to indulge in behaviours and or food rather than pay close attention to what is going on in our bodies. Until of course something goes wrong and then we want to take a magic pill so the symptoms go away. But of course it’s not that simple, and until we are willing to take a closer and much more honest look at how we are living, the symptoms will persist or even become more complicated. It is only by addressing the daily choices that we make that we can truly turn our health around, and this blog gives some excellent tips on where to begin, and ultimately that is with self responsibility.

127. Carmel, great blog in describing these types of illnesses that can change as a result from changing our eating habits. That we can take control (in a good way) of our own health and be more responsible for what impacts our bodies. It is interesting to note that doctors rarely prescribe a diet change, ie. to eliminate sugar, yeast, bread, sweets from ones diet. This doesn’t make sense when it is the source of such proliferation of candida in the body. We do need to take back responsibility for our role in our own health.

128. If we do not care for the wellbeing of our bodies, why is that?

129. We are responsible for our wellbeing by the choices we make in how we take care of ourselves.

130. We all have a body and how we take care of it affects the state of our body. We have a responsibility to us in how we care for our bodies. if we don’t and choose to dismiss our body will get sick in so many different ways which is actually a signal something is not right in how we are living. It can be from feeling tired, lethargic, to headaches, fungal disease to a sprained ankle. We can live in a body that is healthy and vital which supports us to live our day in a quality where life can actually be enjoyed and not so hard.

131. Carmel this is a very practical and simply life changing blog. You show that ‘disease’ in this case fungal infections can be dealt with by lifestyle change, changing food diet and decreasing stress in your life. It shows how our choices are related directly to how we affect our bodies. There can be a comfort in the way we live that is actually harming us, and because we can simply take medication as a solution we can ignore what is going on. Therefore often having the symptom a reoccurring situation when we stop taking the medication or it only works for so long.

132. Carmel you wrote: “Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!” I know exactly what you mean as I healed my asthma with the best medicine ever – with the choice to listen to my body. I stopped eating dairy and gluten products and my asthma disappeared. This choice was not only good for my body – it was also good for our health system, as it cost nothing for them to heal me.

133. It is interesting how as a society when we experience illness or disease we like to look for a quick fix or someone else to do it for us so we can continue with our indulgences and not take responsibility of the lifestyle choices we are making. Connection with our bodies is the key as we have access to the wisdom within us that knows exactly what our bodies require at any given time.

134. Carmel this is a great blog to read. It is great confirmation of how simple changes to what is chosen to go into the mouth along with a change in lifestyle has made such a difference to your health and wellbeing. How empowering!

135. It all comes down to how much we feel we are worth. Are we worth more than the issues we are trying to hide by comfort eating

     1. Great comment Luke, and one that puts it right in my face. Knowingly I comfort eat sometimes, I am very clear about what the issue is and what I need to dull the pain of it. Yet even though I may feel instant relief, it never makes the issue go away, and undoubtedly I will have pigged out on something and not felt good about it afterwards – sometimes, not always. But the key here is that I didn’t actually need it in the first place, at all. So where is the self worth in that, in truly honouring my body and knowing what it does or doesn’t need to support it and me?

        1. And the fact about the intensity of how much we have to check out and over indulge also highlights how much tension we are feeling and the distance we are living from our real potential.

136. What we eat has such a big impact on our health but what we choose to eat is the end result of the way we’ve been living so it helps not to look just at the food but also at how our whole lifestyle is, as you did with the stress Carmel.

137. Thank you Carmen for sharing.

138. I love how the simplicity of choices can have a great impact and can allow and bring great wisdom. It all comes down to how responsible we want to be with our choices, knowing and understanding when we choose to self-care and self-love for ourselves, miracles can happen.

139. Thrush and athletes foot can certainly be classified as conditions of ‘damp’ and interestingly there are foods that will trigger these reactions more strongly in certain people. It also shows a lowered immunity which can be there for a range of reasons such as once again poor foods, a lack of true nutrition, but also from stressors.

     Stress has a major impact on the immune system as well as our ability to absorb nutrients so needed for our body to function and thrive optimally. Stress comes from the way we perceive and handle situations – and the reality is that the vast majority of the stresses people experience come from work situations, stressing about being late to appointments, stressing about unharmonious relationships etc etc. Of course there is the stress and trauma of violence and accidents etc, but most people still stress even if you were to takes
     the violence and accidents out of the equation.

     So really what it seems to boil down to is that we need to start looking at how we perceive other things in life as stressors and are allowing that to drain us on all levels. How is it that we are living that contributes to such levels of stress so that our digestive and immune systems are essentially under attack?

140. Thank you Carmel, you have reminded me to look at what I am eating and be totally honest with myself about what I am putting in my body and therefore the outcome of that.

141. It is an interesting point Carmel, something I have found it is not so much what doctors know but what they do not know! They can only advise us to the best of their abilities and training and for most this strangely lack proper nutritional training. I was privileged to sit in on a couple of days of GP appointments when I was studying in Australia and that was what I came to see 1st hand. If a patient asked a nutritional or diet related question the doctors only had a basic response because they only had a little bit of training on food. And say you have diabetes you are given a suggested weekly food guide / meal plan and this includes having puddings! So it encourages so called ‘healthy’ sugar – it makes no sense as no sugar is healthy for the better. It also negates any responsibility for the illness in the 1st place and this is where Universal Medicine works amazingly as it joins the dots and completes the picture for doctors and for all of us. Combine the 2 and you have solution to the current dilemmas of the medical system.

142. Carmel again I get blown away by the simplicity of how we can take care of our bodies, how we know what is or is not right and how the medical profession have more awareness but dare not speak all of what they know. For instance when you say “could it be that they don’t want to tell patients to stop drinking alcohol or eating sugar?” the simple answer from my experience is the doctors really don’t like telling you you have to change your lifestyle and people don’t like to hear that, they try the medication first and foremost.

143. It is a great point you raise Carmel. I have witnessed several hundred people refine their lifestyle choices including foods and live a more vital healthy and joyful lives. Why would the medical field not run with such widespread evidence? Especially if it could be beneficial for their patients?

144. There are so many reactions that happen in our body that get dismissed as insignificant or irritating and that can get brushed aside. When really our body is telling us in many different ways it is going into overwhelm. What if thrush was the early warning sign that there is sugar imbalance in your diet? 280 Australians develop diabetes every day, that is 1 in 5, it doesn’t just pop up over night. What are the other warning signs that we are ignoring that are telling us we are off track?

145. For the simple lifestyle changes noted here not to be commonly recommended responses to a diagnosis of candida speaks of the prevailing attitude in which we hold our bodies. A large portion of society prefers the over the counter quick fix because they are not interested in changing their relationship with their body from one where the body is just brought along for the ride on the path the person chooses to one where the body is deeply cared for on each and every step. With this second option, it is in fact the body that makes our decisions and steers us through life – and the body is much smarter and infinitely wiser than the head alone can ever be.

146. Having known several people who have had candida and having suffered from it myself, I know how persistent it can be if you do not make the choices related to diet and only try to treat it topically. It is really a lifestyle-challenging illness, the healing of which requires a deep look and self-honesty about our attachments to the way we live and what we eat.

147. I know that Candida can sit in our body waiting for sugar to give it life to expand. It can find sugar in so many different foods, not only from the obvious sugary foods and fruit, but also in carbohydrates that turn to sugar when digested and even things like nuts. If Candida is looking for sugar it will find it anywhere. I know I feel 100% better when I cut out all forms of sugar and choose to eat a very simple diet of fish, vegetables and salad. My energy levels go through the roof.

148. The power of changing your diet, awesome change to occur “Amazingly the symptoms disappeared within 2 weeks.” And true why don’t we all know about this and make it part our every day medicine. Food is so often only used for comfort and reward, where as what we eat and how we eat it can offer a huge healing.

149. I have found that the body is very sensitive to sugars of any description and can even react to a bit of fruit with cracks between the toes; as Carmel mentions, this is the moment when it is “time to change the diet again”.

150. We often see these conditions as not being that serious but they can be very painful and restrict our lives, and lead onto other health conditions. It seems that because we can get over the counter medication now it is all so easy to just use a pessary and some cream and be supposedly cured until it flares up again, without looking at why we are getting it or changing our diets – I know as I did this for many years.

151. Very educational little article, it’s a shame that pharmacists and doctors never seem to have this quality of conversation around this common medical conditions. What is offered seems to be a bandaid solution.

152. I agree Henrietta, I haven’t had vaginal thrush now for years, but I have had a severe leaky gut and chronic inflammation now for over 30 years, and it is extremely hard to fully heal.

153. Candida thrives in a damp environment, and it is important to mention that not only the food we eat contributes to damp, but also how we live. Connection to ourselves and other people is vital if we do not wish to add damp to our bodies.

     1. An excellent point, Lorraine, every manifestation in the body from candida to pimples, speaks to us not only of our food choices but specific elements of our way of being in life.

154. Because of having a very weak immune system and living permanently on antibiotics as a young child for some years, my gut flora have been seriously damaged, and so I am very susceptible to candida and other pathogens. As such I have to be really strict with my diet, to the extent that carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates, and even eating too much are a definite no no, along with what Carmel mentioned.

155. When you say about why many Doctors aren’t prescribing the deletion of certain foodstuffs like alcohol or dairy because of their effects upon the human body, it’s very true. By virtue of what they do, doctors are amazing and responsible when it comes to saving lives, treating conditions etc. and yet they are also human and subject to the same things/lifestyles as those they treat. So unless lifestyle living itself and its quality becomes a mainstay and prerequisite of a doctors formal education, the advice applied to patients i.e. members of humanity will continue and contribute in the same bodily-disharmony vein as currently is the case today. This does not excuse the patient from looking at their lifestyle pre doctor’s advice, but the issue is, is their doctoring profession as healers/carers, they do have another level of responsibility given their advanced training and medical knowledge of the body itself, and the preciousness of its intricate design.

156. Very interesting Carmel, the simple connection between foods we eat and the effects on the body.. and equally the often more serious conditions later on if left untreated, and by this i mean very importantly, the way life is being lived – being in direct correlation the the illness/disease we have. I remember once having unbearable itchy toes following from drinking pure fruit juice in the morning for breakfast, and the moment i stopped this, and with the understanding of why i was drinking fruit sugar, the symptoms never returned and additionally i no longer felt the need to drink fruit juice having understood for myself why i had been wanting the extra energy lift.

157. Though vagina thrush can seem to be fairly harmless, over a prolonged period of time, this constant or chronic inflammation in the delicate tissues of the vagina and cervix as well as the toxins released from the candida can also lead to cell changes as a precursor for cancer. In addition to this, candida is never just found in the vagina alone as it is a reflection of a general imbalance of the bacteria in our digestive tract too – and with intestinal candida if not addressed properly can lead to a condition known as leaky gut which is often seen as a precursor for autoimmune conditions. So now that we have the heads up on that, don’t delay in making the needed simple changes in diet and lifestyle, as this can really prevent many complications in the future! Thanks Carmel for opening up this well needed conversation!

158. Carmel – I love your straightforwardness and simplicity in this blog/article! Thank you for presenting the fact and the simple are real correlations between candida and athlete’s foot as well as diet!

159. When patients are offered simple information like the connection between certain foods and conditions they actually very often can relate to it as they already know it somehow either by having heard about it before or their bodies showing it to them by producing symptoms after consuming such foods. Then it is for them to decide how much responsibility they are willing to take. The Bottom line is, often we choose to be ill.

160. I mean how would doctors be able to support their patients when they all would be willing and actively participating in the healing process like you by choosing to diet? The medicinal world would be a very different science and so would be the way people living their lives with self-responsibility.

161. I guess that as ‘patient’, ie. someone with a condition that requires some form of treatment or intervention, we still bargain with how much we can hold on to comfortable habits and pleasures without suffering too much of the ailment like having some sugary foods and not too intense thrush. We say we wanna be healthy but actually don´t want to do everything in our power to support our health when it comes to reducing or letting go of the little pleasures and indulgences.

162. I recognise that doctors often know about things like certain foods contributing to certain conditions but seem to not recommend it to their patients necessarily. May it be that they either consider the medication doing the job and thus no need for complementary self-care tips or that they don´t expect the patient following a self-responsible activity like dieting?

163. Taking responsibility for our health – what we eat for starters – (pun intended) would save the health systems throughout the world so much money – that could then be used for serious issues. True nutritional information should be available to us all, but especially to those in the health professions, who could then see its value. After recent surgery I enquired whether I should adjust my diet, but was told ;there is no evidence’!

164. Carmel when I was younger I got oral thrush a couple of times, it was something I accepted and whilst I didn’t like it, it was the least of the problems in my life at the time. For various health reasons I re-visited my diet, looking at different foods and found that as I cut out things like lots of yeast or even gluten and fermenting foods that these fungal infections never came back. It’s quite simple, what we eat impacts us. Yet the first thing the doctor said was try this medication, not adjust your diet. I am sure most of our health issues are not really issues at all, simply the result of the choice of how we live including what we eat. The thing is all this information, this education, is far simpler than trying to understand quadratic equations – yet we don’t place any importance on it. Well not until we start to realise everything else is not working.

165. Sugar is a main ingredient in many people’s diet, so after reading this I wonder what other health issues would drop away if this food is dropped from our diet, as once there is a Candida overgrowth in the body it starts interfering with the many other systems throughout the body, that initially it may be difficult to tell that an overuse of sugar, due to not addressing our issues, is the culprit.

166. The pressure we put on the medical industry is phenomenal and yet simply taking a little responsibility with our food intake and general health would ease the pressure both on our general well-being and the world’s health systems.

167. I find it fascinating that we are not sent home from the doctors with a fresh food, alcohol , sugar, gluten & dairy free dietary program. It’s like food has nothing to do with our health. And yet we all know the saying ‘we are what we eat’.

168. Body and food are inevitably interwoven. We can find so the illness’s origin and the remedy at the same point.

169. You share some great points Carmel, one being that the byproducts of Candida are very harmful, especially acetaldehyde, a powerful neurotoxin. Acetaldehyde is a product of alcohol metabolism that is more toxic than alcohol itself, it significantly compromises brain function and is a possible carcinogen. Knowing this, then how important is it that we eat foods that support our health.

170. It is so obvious that much illness and disease is originated by consuming the wrong foods. Over years we accumulate over time in the body by constantly bombarding it with toxic substances which we consume ‘in moderation’, pretending that anything in moderation is ok. So we basically provide the perfect ground for anything to grow. We all stopped when cows got cow disease from eating the wrong food, but we keep on going although humans are contaminated with “human diseases” that originate from eating substances that are not made for the human body.

171. How we like ‘quick fix’ solutions like applying a cream or popping the odd pill to relieve us of these irritating symptoms that show up on our skin – fungal infections being a very common one. Surfacing in all manner of places and at varying degrees of irritation/sensitivities. In truth to be offered a choice (which we know that we have now) of healing from the inside out and checking out our diets, lifestyles etc., would be the magic missing ingredient but, first our amazing honest bodies have to let us know we are not quite getting the balance right – just yet. I feel sure there would be a protest or two, but a ban on sugar would be awesome.

172. It’s fascinating how the body responds to food. Yes we need food in order to survive, but we only need food that is required by the body to do this. Anything that is not needed then becomes a problem. The body then expresses this in a number of ways, whether it be excess weight, spots, bloating, IBS, heartburn, hangovers, vomitting, or thrush, to name a few. What an amazing body of expression we have which shows us our mistakes so clearly and guides us back to true health.

173. From my experience there seems to be readily available information these days about the connection between sugars and yeast in relation to fungal infections and even a possible relation between sugars and cancer, yet most doctors will still prescribe medication rather than taking a more natural, and perhaps less harmful, strategy, such as changing one’s eating habits.

174. I love your direct and super simple approach Carmel. It does seem incredible that something as simple as removing yeast and sugar from your diet can dramatically reduce, even prevent a fungal infection from returning, that this is not widely considered by the medical profession. It begs the question, what other simple steps could we do to prevent or at least lessen symptoms by taking a closer look at what we eat and why do we have such strong cravings for certain foods.

175. While Medicine is great, it seems sometimes that its practice and education is too powerfully informed by drug companies – who it appears sometimes to have a greater interest in profits and shareholder dividends than what may be truly beneficial to the full health and well-being of the patients. Combine this with the pressure and overwork of doctors, we may be missing out on a greater picture of health and well-being that may be possible, if we were to truly examine and become aware of our choices and how they affect us.

176. Unfortunate that such simple practical truly scientific observation and enquiry is not more supported by general medicine.

177. Our bodies either thrive, or suffer from what we put in them. And we still refuse to take responsibility for this simple truth.

178. Carmel it makes so much sense that when we have an issue with our body, we do what is needed by the body to assist our body clear those symptoms. Unfortunately however we mostly don’t live this way and expect a pill or a potion to manage on uncomfortable symptoms, so we can forget that out body had that issue. Sugar unfortunately is still viewed as this harmless food that is not really seen to contribute to ill health, unless someone is diabetic. Fortunately now this is changing, but really it’s still not mainstream.

179. The link between sugars and yeast, and fungal infections is very interesting. I think it’s so important the truth being exposed on the harm of certain foods

180. What and how we eat has a big effect on our body and state of wellbeing; there is so much information out there about what is and isn’t good for us but the best marker of all will always be our own body and developing an awareness of what truly supports it.

181. What a difference can be felt when we are open about our health. So much can be learnt through us openly sharing our experiences with our own health and our realisations of the choices that we have made that take us there. Thank you Carmel for your willingness to be open and start the conversations on health matters like this.

182. Thanks heavens that our bodies produce these symptoms that make us uncomfortable, otherwise we would carry on harming ourselves to no end. Every infection, virus or tumour is a clear communication that there is something in the way we are living that needs to change.

183. It is interesting to ponder on the effect stress has in our body, especially our digestive system. Anxious thoughts, inability to cope with challenging situations, concerns, emotions, our mental health all directly affect our physical health, and where it affects our digestive system, our ability to take valuable nutrients we need from our food diminishes, which creates further ill health, which creates more stress. It’s a vicious circle.

184. The body is made up in a way that has such a beautiful harmonious relationship with all its parts. If anything is introduced that disturbs this balance such as stress, sugar, alcohol, stimulants food or other that encourages an imbalance the effects are instantly felt in the body and this has an accumulative effect.

185. Thank God for our bodies and the way they truly operate as without this we would be getting away with murder.

186. The way we are with our bodies is often disturbing especially when food is concerned. It is crazy really that we would ever harm ourselves at all.

187. I’ve often fallen for the saying “It’s worth the pain” and realised that a few minutes of tasteful bliss can leave me out of whack for a number of days. Leaving a rippling effect on all areas of my work and home life.

188. In some ways it is amazing that when we eat foods that numb us like sugar, our body eventually indicates that something is wrong. If it wouldn’t, we could go on harming ourselves forever.

189. I have often found that Doctors are not able to recommend or consider what they don’t live themselves – so if their diet includes certain things, they won’t consider to ask a patient to think about removing this from the diet (though this is not in all cases).

190. As we return to a truer way of being in deep connection, harmony and love for our bodies, we give our bodies a chance to do what they do best and were designed to do, which is that they are always working to restore harmony, balance, health and vitality. Every step we take to support this natural order, gives our body the space to expand back to true vitality. With a body that is vital and healthy we can serve our fellow brothers and sisters and restore love and harmony on this planet for all.

191. I love what you said about indulging one’s taste buds for a moment eating foods that clearly do not support one’s body, as that’s what we do, we love the taste or crunchy texture of a certain food that we know is harming our health, or we eat too much as we enjoy the taste, but then live with the consequences and effects that has on our bodies and bad health.

192. The super important balance of our gut and digestive bacteria and our internal balance, harmony and order, play an extremely vital and important role in our health and vitality. Should we not then place the same level of importance on our outer environment, the way we interact with other people, how caring and tender are we in all that we do, say and even think? This has an impact on our bodies and inner environment, in essence the inner and outer, are one and the same and cannot be separated.

193. Serge Benhayon is the only person who truly made sense and offered the whole picture as far as health, vitality and the effects of food and energy have on one’s body. I had spent years searching from naturopaths to homeopaths and other holistic health care practitioners, many of them great and certainly helped to a degree. But what was missing was my part of the equation, I hadn’t connected to my own body nor dealt with my past hurts and issues that were impacting on my health and life, and in that disconnection wasn’t allowing myself to feel the negative impact on my body of eating certain foods. By allowing myself to connect and feel my body, is the best self prescribed diet plan one could ever have, as our bodies never lie as to the effect and impact our diet, stress, and other emotions have on it.

194. “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!”
     When you present it like this Carmel it makes absolute logical sense to eat in a way that supports our bodies, yet most people I know struggle on some degree with sometimes eating the wrong foods or overeating. Our patterns seem very ingrained, we also eat for many reasons other than hunger, such as not wanting to feel an emotion or even when we feel so amazing it’s too much, and then eat lots to dull or desensitize our selves. For me it’s a daily work in progress and the way I eat becomes more and more refined and the vitality and well-being I experience is well worth the changes I implement.

195. It makes a lot of sense to change our diets to one that better supports our health and vitality, but from what I have experienced and seen in others is that this can be very difficult and never lasts and we go back to our bad habits with food. With the introduction of self love and care through Serge Benhayon, it has become much easier to let go of certain foods that do not support and nourish my body, this has come from feeling the connection to my body and allowing the wisdom of my body to guide me as to what it needs, rather than an outer idea or image of what is healthy.

196. What I found fascinating in your article Carmel, is how stress can affect the balance of flora in one’s gut and have a very detrimental effect on our bodies. It was good to understand how when we choose stress in our lives, how it directly impacts on our bodies, and it goes in a cycle, as the less vital and well our bodies are, the more stressful life can be.

197. Thank you Carmel for your article, I loved the practical simple way you explained the effects food and alcohol have on our body. It makes absolute sense that the doctors and medical professionals should have this critical and important information and pass it on to patients, so at least they could have a choice to change their diet and make long lasting beneficial changes to their health and vitality, at the same time as being offered medication.

198. I have just been diagnosed with an illness that requires food to be my medicine; I eat a refined diet already and am now in the process of refining it more. I’m feeling how delicate and sensitive our bodies are when it comes to the food we choose to put in them, along with the thoughts I allow to run. Medicine is in the all we do, eat, think, move, love, I don’t believe we can fully heal anything without the all being involved.

199. I have recently been in hospital regarding gut problems; it astounded me that after 3 weeks of seeing doctors, not one suggested I cut any food groups out. I stayed in the hospital for two nights and was offered heavy sugary food that I chose not to eat. It was a big eye opener that even in hospitals we are still not classing food as part of our daily medicine.

200. Everything we eat has an effect on our bodies, there is no getting away with eating foods that are harmful to us. Eventually we will have to stop and listen to the messages our bodies are offering us, as they will become more and more obvious as they progress from discomfort to illness and dis-ease.

201. There’s such a definite and profound relationship between food and our wellbeing. Since changing my diet by one by one cutting out dairy, sugar, gluten, sweety vegetables, fruit, etc. I’ve not gained much more energy, but is also went naturally from more than 100 kilo’s to around 73 kilo’s. Quite extra-ordinary considering that losing weight has never been a purpose or drive but occured naturally when I started to take care of my body. Fantastic, isn’t it. Our body is such a clear communicator if we only but listen to it (her). After all, there’s only one who can take care of his body… Me!

202. It’s quite incredible that we are prepared to live with such discomfort and irritations in our bodies for the sake of satisfying our cravings for certain foods. Cutting certain food out of our diet works wonders on our health and wellbeing.

203. What if our bodies are not as ‘solid’ or fixed as we like to see on the surface? Your words here Carmel remind me how biologically they are more like dense Petri dishes of bacteria and cells, constantly changing, mutating and growing anew. Perhaps the reason we don’t remember this ‘micro’ level exists is because these millions of cells are all constantly responding to our choices? And so life is not set in stone the way we might like to think, but is totally open to change and growth – the rest depends on you.

204. If we are open and active in our own medical process it offers the doctor an oportunity to look outside the box. I have experienced this several times myself, the key is to not give up just because some doctors resist or even fight it.

205. Yes great question : “I find it strange that such a simple solution is not known about or promoted by the medical profession – could it be that they don’t want to tell patients to stop drinking alcohol or eating sugar?” One wonders doesn’t one…

206. Very eye-opening writing Carmel, this can make such a difference to so many people, thank you for sharing it all.

207. Making those changes – Is it worth it? Great question. From what you share Carmel, it was most clearly worth it! Sometimes it seems too hard to do before we start but it’s really worth holding your story as inspiration to begin with and knowing that once the fungus is under control, the cravings will die away.

208. I really love how you talk so honestly about candida Carmel. When I was in my 20s I had recurring thrush and felt a lot of shame around it and didn’t really talk to anyone about it (I had no physical discomfort with it) but didn’t really connect it with my diet. It never really occurred to me to go to the doctor, even so had I gone the real root cause would not have been resolved as you point out. Because these things are not widely talked about many I feel suffer the symptoms with a similar approach that I used … hope that it all goes away by itself!

209. Great information here Carmel. Changing your food choices not only reduces the symptoms and fungal infection, but you also makes you feel better, with more vitality. Whereas medication will remove symptoms alone. I know which I would prefer.

210. It makes sense that what we put into our body is going to affect our body. Why is it that the medical profession is so resistant to looking at this or offering advice based on diet and lifestyle? It is the most simple thing that can make such a huge difference to health. Eating yeast and sugar creates fungus in the body. Simple. Why do we need a medication when we can reduce our intake of yeast and sugar?

211. I find it fascinating how from an over build up of Candida albicans, there can be an array of diseases, this shows to me how disease is related to a persons specific lifestyle choices, because no two conditions are the same as each one of us ultimately makes our own living choices and the bodies that we have are all reflecting back to us those choices all of the time, so even though we may all share the same kind of flora in our digestive tracts, the way that those flora change in to disease is particular to us all and is a direct reflection of the choices that we have made.

212. Having been an absolute sugar-holic, I know well the challenge we face changing our diet – sugary foods seems to be the hardest. For me it was easy to let go of alcohol and caffeine, I never truly liked them anyway, but going gluten free and dairy free took me a number of years and sugar was always my fallback. I understood about low GI foods and stopped having refined sugar (mostly) but would binge on fruit and carbohydrates instead. It was only recently, after gradually refining my diet, that I truly noticed the stillness in me when I hadn’t eaten any sugar or fruit for a month. It felt so amazing, I wanted more. I still go into raciness driven by my thoughts, so am working on that, but the sugar thing is definitely out for good. It wasn’t willpower, it was just that the stillness felt greater than the sweet taste, and now I can look at something sweet without craving it. Giving myself time to feel and appreciate my body is what did it, not thinking I must or must not do something.

213. Some years ago I was at a camp ground and noticed shortly after that I had picked up athletes foot. The next time I went to check on it to decide what to do about it, it had miraculously gone after only a day and with no treatment whatsoever. Then maybe a few days after that I drank a can of coke and it returned almost instantly. How can we possibly think that the two, diet and life style are not directly involved in what ever happens to our bodies.

214. Thank you Carmel, your article highlights that true intelligence comes from our bodies, not necessarily our minds as we may think. The body speaks very loud and clear and when we listen we can truly support ourselves.

215. Thank you Carmel for sharing this. I am aware that I override what my body is telling me sometimes, but that in so doing I am simply creating more of a build up in it, meaning it has to go that bit further to show me the harm I am doing.

216. It is empowering to realise that the choices we make with the lifestyle we choose to live is what in fact determines the quality of our health and well-being, which at any moment we have the power to change, through again, our choices. Living in connection with our bodies (a choice) gives us awareness of the choices we are making and how these choices truly affect us and our well-being.

217. Carmel, I can absolutely relate to this article as I suffered with Candida albicans in my intestinal tract for years. The candida diet did work wonders and I witnessed then how powerful our bodies are in returning to their natural vitality with the support of diet alone and replenishing supplements. My symptoms of major fogginess, bloating and discomfort, re-flux, low energy upon waking up and moodiness all occurring in my early 20’s, all disappeared completely in a month and I was suddenly living with a vitality and clarity I had forgotten was possible. I am still discovering, and loving it, that there is so much more that our bodies are capable of than we often realise. When we chose to explore this by connecting to our bodies and treating ourselves with the love, care and support that they always call for, we experience how vitality and well-being is our natural way, and that illness and dis-ease simply offers us the opportunity to heal, in order to return to living who we are more harmoniously.

218. When I was learning about vaginal thrush whilst doing my diploma in herbal medicine, we learnt about the fact that the yeast infection can also live in the penis sheath and can be spread during sex. This can be frustrating if you are trying to address the issue but it keeps on reoccurring. There are some simple washes and soaks that you can use to address the situation but because some men do not have any symptoms they may not realize that this is actually happening.

219. On re reading your blog, I thought of all the times that I too suffered from various fungal infections and how I spent lots of money on different strains and fancy types of gut flora enhancing products, yet they only helped temporarily, as the issue would soon come back because of the underlying cause and for me that was the food I was eating, and the amount of sugar in my diet, which would then feed the bad bacteria. I was literally feeding the bad bacteria large amounts of sugar, so no wonder they were having a party in my gut!

220. Thank you Carmel for highlighting a very important subject – the fact that every choice we make affects us, whether it is food related, sleeping patterns or how we care for ourselves in our day to day living. Our bodies speak loud and clear, the question is do we listen? To take active part in our health and wellbeing is a responsible thing to do and that way we can work together with the doctors and not be at the mercy of what they decide is best for us.

221. It is great that you raise this point, why don’t we want to change our diet, as it has such a prominent effect on our bodies. I feel it is very important to be aware of what I eat. But I see that the thought of stopping eating foods like sugar and stop drinking alcohol is a big leap to take for many, as it has been for me. But I can feel what a grand effect it has on my health and wellbeing, caring for ourself isn’t truly choosing the quick fix, but taking measures that truly cure the problem and support to live a more healthy life.

222. Like you, Carmel, I have changed my diet, which no longer contains foods I used to eat, and my health, both physically and emotionally, has greatly improved. Instead of saying I have given up such and such too, I say I am choosing feeling better and having greater vitality.

223. What we put into our bodies affects what comes out of our bodies on all levels; this fact is unavoidable.

224. Many years ago in my thirties I was severely affected by Candida, having grown up and continued on huge amounts of sugar and bread. I was so ill but the medical profession had no suggestions at that time for the many symptoms that pervaded my whole body, and the doctor had no suggestions and even denied the existence of Candida. So I turned to alternative therapies and refined my diet, and took massive doses of vitamins and minerals. Gradually the symptoms subsided, and I learned to listen to my body and take care of myself and take charge of my health. Since then I have learned that when I choose to create stress, or go into some comfort food, my wonderful body starts to tell me to pause and take stock and reflect on what I have been eating. I can no longer eat what I want, my body won’t allow it, so instant are the messages now. So much has to do with the way I am living overall, in every aspect of my life. Thank you Carmel, for giving us such a clear picture of what is at play here.

225. Great blog Carmel, I have also had a similar experience when visiting the doctor for an issue and have them not even look at my diet or lifestyle choices as something that may be contributing to the particular issue. I can feel how perhaps just offering relief may be a more comfortable option as many patients they see would not want to take responsibility for how they are treating their own body.

226. Our bodies are such intelligent communicators! Reading your blog here Carmel, I am appreciating how my body responds to the way I treat myself and as its tenant, I have a responsibility to love and care for it!

227. Thank you Carmel – you present such a simple, practical common-sense approach to health and well-being. If A + B = C and C harms us, then why not make a super simple choice and change the equation?

228. If we try and rely on medication alone then we miss out on looking at what caused the imbalance in the first place; being willing to look at our lifestyle choices, all of them, supports us to truly heal and helps medication, where needed, to do its job.

229. Our medical systems, just like our education systems operate in a pocket, they are basically narrow corridors of information that we are discouraged to stray from. Yet if we desire true wellbeing we must never dismiss our own role in the health we create, the choices we can make, as Doctors for sure don’t know it all, and vital as their support is, they are only part of the answer. It would be foolish of us to believe that there is not influence in the advice or prescriptions we are given, from those who profit from medications that we may use.

230. Your last paragraph is so powerful in its simplicity. And it really is that simple. A few seconds of pleasure vs. a body that doesn’t work properly. I feel that this question or equation is everywhere in our lives, is at every choice, junction, moment. It’s a brilliant question because the answer is obvious – but if we don’t continually ask it of ourselves, if we aren’t committed to that level of simple truth then we will continue to take the path of a few seconds of pleasure. It’s a brilliant question Carmel, that I will carry with me – fungus or no fungus!

231. Wow Carmel you show through your blog the power we have over our own health. By making choices to make changes we can support ourselves no end. We seem to stubbornly hold onto our ways of being at the expense of our health and chose to stay in denial that what we eat, drink and consume is harmful for our bodies. In one fell swoop you have exposed this way of thinking!

232. When I was 8 years old I started to get migraines and had several in one week. Thankfully my GP talked about stopping eating cheese and whilst it didn’t stop the migraines completely, it helped a lot. Over the years I have come to a decision to stop eating dairy products completely and feel this has had a very positive effect on my wellbeing. To me, eating what is loving for our bodies is an important choice in life, but it is equally important to understand why we choose to eat that which pleases our taste buds but not our digestive system, or other bodily systems. I felt that eating dairy was about comfort, but it was very clear that my body was anything but comfortable with my choice. Our bodies are sources of great wisdom if we choose to listen to them and respond to their ‘feedback’.

233. I’m no doctor, but if we were to look at some of the obvious factors that impact on the state of our bodies, surely what we put into them is one of the main ones. We know the importance of food, for without it we would ‘waste away and die’ and it is common sense to look at the quality of that fuel and how it acts within us. We know what happens if we put the wrong fuel in our cars and this offers us a clear reflection of what happens if we do so with our bodies too. Has our medical system become so complex that we have forgotten the most simple factors like the quality of our nutrition?

234. Yes, we could take millions off the National Health debts by taking a bit more care with a Life is Medicine approach. We cannot sustain this level of abusing our bodies and it’s not fair for us to expect Doctors and Nurses to fix us when the solution lies so simply in our own hands and what we put into our mouths.

235. Great article Carmel, there is always a reason why our bodies get ill, imagine if ‘why?’ was the first question in response to symptoms. Constantly fighting off symptoms with harsh medication (usually with ‘side effects’) allows our body to become sicker and sicker. But it is possible to become more and more healthy and vital…

236. I love this part of your article Carmel ‘Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!’ I have been amazed as how these symptoms no longer affect me either, now I no longer eat these foods, but more importantly how vital and well I have felt since not having them.

237. In addition to diet and stress there are other known factors contributing as well, antibiotic use, contraceptive pill and other hormones as well as anxiety that affects the health of the digestive system.

238. Yes a clear choice thanks Carmel, very informative. Candida overgrowth has been a significant health issue for many years and is something I learned about in my early Naturopathic training days. It often goes undiagnosed and treated, causing low grade but debilitating symptoms. A change of diet does wonders, and for many, additional treatment is needed too in eradicating the yeast from the gut walls.

239. Much research has proven the direct effect of food on our health and wellbeing. How come we are not really doing much about discovering this truth for ourselves?

240. Is it worth it, great question Carmel one in which we will all have our individual response. I can unequivocally say yes it is worth it; it seems a no brainer to me when I weigh up a quick sensational taste pleasure to the harmony one feels in the body when free of itching, smells and discharges.

241. I know which one I choose! When I was eating sugar and yeasty foods plus being in a state of anxiety I had many infections regularly. Then once I cut these down and many things out, it has been years and years since I’ve had thrush. Our bodies are so amazing what they continually show us, my body shows me straight away when I’ve had too much fruit sugars. This is truly medicine and so so simple if we reconnected to and learnt to listen to our bodies and the signs they show us. Wouldn’t this be a much needed weight lifted off our already overburdened medical system?

242. I really love your closing sentence, Carmel, …do I want itchy skin, smell or discharge? Well, for many many that would be a “yes”.

     1. And there are many that would not choose the medication and just put up with the symptoms.

243. When put so simply like this Carmel it seems crazy that we give our power away to the doctor to say ‘fix me’ when such a simple solution of simply changing your lifestyle can actually be one of the key elements of ‘fixing’ the issue. We really do know how to live in a way that truly honours a body. It is just a question of whether we can be dedicated enough to live such responsibility that asks for

244. A very practical article about something that is incredibly common to the point that it has become normal to live with the symptoms daily rather than make the changes necessary to live a life without irritation.

245. On a deeper level this article shows to me how amazing the body is actually constantly communicating with us. It communicates very clearly to us. It is we that have lost the connection with this language. It made me wonder (ponder) that if the body is able to communicate the ‘negative’ effect, as so clearly displayed in this article, could it be that our body could actually also communicate (and lead) the way forward – forward meaning a more loving way. To me, this is a completely different way of approaching the working together. The first being the ‘body’ following the ‘mind’ and the body calling out when we went to far and the second being the ‘mind’ following (or impulsed by) the ‘body’. A completely different way of being with me and life. Interesting enough for me to further explore.

246. It is profoundly healing and it empowers to not accept lll-health conditions passively, but enter into a relationship with them to find the root cause. This is preventative medicine. I imagine the emotional downward spiral of not getting to the heart of the candida, yeast or other ill-health condition that leads to feelings of frustration and affects mental well-being.
     A recent survey by the King’s Fund revealed in that in England: ‘More than 60 per cent of the population have a negative or fatalistic attitude towards their own health, particularly in more disadvantaged groups.'(i)
     This situation must change and requires a transformation of the way we view our own health and relationship with it. With self-care and love lived daily, we learn to support the body and respond to ill-health, when it presents, responsibly.

     (i) Kings Fund ‘Health Behaviours’

247. In a way we use food as a medication – it makes us feel better but that is very short term, because we are simply not feeling what is truly there – our hurts. And then there are secondary complications because of the food we’ve eaten and we eat more to numb that – it’s rather a crazy way to live, but many of us have lived that way. Looking at the deeper underlying issues and letting them go makes a huge and permanent difference to our outlook on life, our vitality and our general health.

     1. Very true Carmel, we use food to medicate rather than using it as true medicine to support our bodies first and foremost.

248. Thanks Carmel for sharing this – in my experience many people don’t realise the link between yeast or fungus containing foods/ drinks and these kind of conditions (as well as many others) so it’s really helpful to raise awareness around this so people have a clearer understanding of what they can do to support themselves.

249. You have been free of fungal infection symptoms for 10 years now Carmel and what I find interesting is that you give your number one reason as being ‘taking care to develop a less stressful lifestyle’. I can completely understand how this is fundamental, as without the stress there is not the need to cope with it, a go-to coping mechanism is invariably food which likely will be sugary to keep us buzzy enough to keep going. Whether that’s in the wine at the end of the day or the chocolate bars during it! I knew that pattern well but now as you, enjoy the changes I brought to my own diet and lifestyle that support a healthy body and overall wellbeing.

250. I guess that society just takes for granted that food that is sold is real food. I read the back of food packets to check ingredients and the amount of non-food ingredients are astounding, yet if it looks good and tastes good it is never questioned.

251. Many so called ‘foods’ that are sold are just the byproducts of an industry wanting to keep their wheels turning. Last week a local milk company was giving away their flavoured milks for free, especially to the kids.

252. Sugar and yeast can and do play havoc with the body. The problem, however, is that this is not taken seriously by the medical world. Isn’t it time to break down the false barriers that have been created by and between the medical fraternity and nutritionists and instead seek to support the patient/client with the best information available?

253. Thank you Carmel for your common sense, no nonsense approach to explaining yeast infections and what foods encourage these conditions to take hold. It does have me wondering though how many people really suffer with these conditions and have yet to associate how sugar and yeast contribute – the pharmaceutical companies must be making a fortune.

254. When you put it like this, Carmel, it makes absolute common sense to avoid yeast and sugary foods etc. However what I feel you are really revealing is the absurdity of how we ignore the obvious cause and effect indicators in favour of our comforts and stimulations, ignoring what the body is screaming at us all the while.

     1. It really is absurd Janet! I wonder when we will start to favour the body over our comforts and pleasures?

255. This was a very informative blog Carmel. We don’t realise the power we have to heal ourselves when we make simple self-loving choices like changing our diet. I find it strange that doctors still don’t recommend a change in diet for the symptoms of thrush. We have become so accustomed to getting a medicine to fix us. The problem with that is the symptoms are managed for a while but will often reoccur.

256. In a way it is shocking for me to realise that it is not our normal way of thought Carmel, that when we are faced with fungal infections we do not relate that back to what we eat but prefer to opt for the medical solution instead. And the truth is that we all know that what you share is true but mostly find to hard to go there. We tend to come with excuses for why we cannot adhere to that way of adjusting our diet and in a way we say that we just need that food, but do we ever consider for what means as it is not serving our bodies?

257. Candida infections can feel intractable, using one ointment after another. They take away the symptoms but for some people the symptoms keep coming back. It is amazing that a sugar-free diet isn’t part of conventional medicine.

258. Last year my husband and I went to Greece and Italy visiting relatives. We stayed with them all and also spent time on our own in various hotel accommodation. On my return home I went and saw my podiatrist who diagnosed that I had a fungal foot infection – tinea – I had cracked skin between my toes and on the inside of my foot. He said it was common from sharing showers, especially hotel showers. No mention of food. But looking back, despite eating gluten free, I still ate foods which contained yeast and sugar – gluten free pizza, lots of fruit, gluten free desserts. Also I was under emotional stress – ensuring my 2 month itinerary went to plan.

259. Excellent Carmel – this all makes perfect sense and I can speak from personal experience too that sugar (of any form) was a huge culprit in the imbalance of flora in my guts. I lived with it for years and now after changing what I eat and the emotions or stress I live, I am now completely symptom free and there is no recurrence of any imbalance.

260. When the balance is lost the bacteria grows and spreads .. a micro version of the macro of what is going on in the world. The balance (harmony) has instead been replaced by growing dis-eases and dis-orders. The more we as individuals restore the balance within, the more it can be held for others to do the same, so we can eventually restore true harmony. As you share, diet is the first place we can practically do this.

261. Thank you Carmel, I have not experienced any of these symptoms, so it is very interesting to read about them. It highlights how much these symptoms are often related to how we live and our food choices. By treating the symptoms with ointments, often works to only to cover the problem but the cause of it is not resolved. From what you’ve shared Carmel, our lifestyle choices and how we choose to care for our body has an impact on how our body functions and our vitality. To truly heal our body, it asks us to heal on many levels, not just on the surface.

262. Sometimes it seems we simply don’t want the answer to be simple if it is confronting of our own choices – a beautiful example here of the results when we do go there and are open to all possibilities.

     1. Exactly Michael, I can feel how it’s not just the doctors that don’t want to go down the self responsibility path, but I would assume that a lot of their patients are equally comfortable with this.

263. I most enjoyed your article Carmel, a clear-cut example of how we should not give away our power when faced with physical problems. There is much we can do to allow healing to occur and taking a good look at our diet and stress level is a big one.

264. “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!” Love it – It really is this simple Carmel… we can indulge in momentary pleasures, or we can choose to live in a way that is honouring and nurturing of ourselves all day, every day – it’s a no brainer really! And how we make that choice is purely a decision to be responsible for ourselves and our health, or not.

265. I used to practise as a medical herbalist and know the candida diet very well, and these issues are so common, they are considered normal for some.
     It is amazing how much can be healed with diet alone yet so many are not willing to really give up the yeast and sugar that feeds the candida, but like you say, what is worse – the giving up of a few foods that feed it, or having the actual issue in the first place.

     1. Great point Rosie. I have observed that it is easier for some people to give up these food but not so for others. Why is that? I would have found it difficult to give up yeast and sugar a few years ago, because I didn’t understand the importance of looking after and valuing my body. But once I started to embrace self-love and self-care, I gave up these food without trying, it was just a commitment I made to be more loving and things that didn’t support me simply dropped away effortlessly.

266. Thank you for this informative article, a way of looking at illness and disease that brings us understanding about our body that empowers us to make changes that truly help us.

267. This makes absolute sense, thank you Carmel, and I agree the answers to our problems are often far simpler than we make them to be, but the simpler choice is the one that asks us to be responsible and that is something not many of us are willing to take.

268. It occurs to me that as long as we are ill and being prescribed medicine then we are keeping a huge industry going and supporting the economy. I wonder if it suits governments that doctors prescribe medicines rather than give simple and free alternatives that involve taking responsibility. Even in a down turn we continue to buy essentials like food, fuel and drugs and if self responsibility was prescribed then wouldn’t we all have to look at the choices we are making?

269. It is about time that the medical profession encouraged us to be more self responsible with our choices in life rather than just dishing out a superficial treatment that will only temporarily fix the problem. This self responsibility would save us an awful lot of money and maybe the health system would not go bust. Being responsible for our choices and lifestyle not only saves money but supports us to be more self loving with a greater awareness of our bodies and what they are communicating with us.

     1. I feel the same Anne, and that the emphasis from doctors should have self responsibility at the forefront of whatever treatment is being administered. There is always more room for supporting ourselves and our bodies in any illness or disease.

270. It is amazing how our food choices affect the wellbeing of our body. You prove here that life is really medicine. The moment you developed a less stressful lifestyle and by cutting out yeast, the quality of your life changed a lot. Thanks Carmen, your sharing is very inspiring to read.

271. It surprises me greatly Carmel that doctors have yet to make the connection between fungal infections and the foods we consume.

272. Carmel, you are a wonderful woman. I love the way that you bring such common sense to life and how to live it – as you say we always have choices about whether we continue to suffer or to let go of the attachments we so often have around food.

273. Our bacteria in our guts are hugely important. At the very least they let us get 30% more energy out of our food than we would otherwise do and people who are obese have a different gut bacteria than slim people. Overloading our guts with sugar and emotions makes it difficult to keep a balance.

274. As you have shown Carmel, the changes needed to make a marked difference to one’s own health are often very simple.. “I find it strange that such a simple solution is not known about or promoted by the medical profession”. Yes may be it’s not known (though there’s a huge lack in GP training if they’re not), but also could it be an unhealthy relationship between the drug companies and the front-line GP services? – One that encourages the ignorance.

275. I feel that having an itch or discharge is seen as normal for most people, as in something we just have to put up with. But in fact it is not normal. It just shows how much comfort we still get from food and drinking and how much comfort we need. I know for myself that living in comfort is a way to avoid taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for living life in full and doing what is needed.

276. Indulging our taste buds is never worth the few moments of pleasure that we get for the clearing our body has to go through to eliminate things we put into our system that the body can not handle. Our body is a delicate instrument that needs support, and food is an area that we still like to indulge in. I agree with you Carmel something as simple as changing our diet can have a profound effect on illness and disease, yet we don’t like the thought that food is the cause of many of these ailments.

277. I love the fact that our bodies tell us so much. I know that when I have had thrush in the past it has shown me very clearly that I am eating too much sugar or yeast. When I have lowered my intake of these foods the thrush always goes away. I don’t need a diagnosis, this is the science of my own body simply giving me a message. I don’t need medication because if I listen and respond then the symptom goes away. My body is always giving me signals that guide me back to health and harmony.

278. Our bodies respond to what we put in them, be that food and also the energy we align too. When we stop to consider this and reassess what we are choosing to live with and what food we are eating, then we can start to honestly nurture ourselves. They are our bodies and we are the ones that need to be responsible for them.

279. Life is in fact full of simple choices, but by choosing to identify with what we do and with individualism in general, we get attracted by complications. So much money and effort is put into finding the answers outside of us, that is in the meantime quite confronting if someone reflects something else. But there are more and more living proofs of people who show a different way does not just work, but makes life really beautiful and joyful. To claim our power back and take responsibility about our choices is a service for all …and very simple.

280. I am continually amazed at just how much the food we eat, the things we consider to be a “normal healthy diet” are actually contributing to many of our common diseases. I had not realised until I stopped consuming them just what a marked effect they had on my energy levels and bodily functions. I now know that there is no such thing as ‘everything in moderation’, if a food or beverage hurts our bodies, it doesn’t matter how much or how little you have of it, it still hurts our bodies and our immune system and liver struggle to cope with it. As Sandra Vicary says in her comment, there are many foods and drinks we refuse to consume as children but learn to override this dislike as we get older. Our body communicates to us every step of the way, encouraging ourselves to listen and respect its wisdom is sound advice. Imagine how healthy we would be if we maintained that innocent relationship with food we had as children i.e. if it doesn’t taste great (which in my world applies to coffee, alcohol, most cheeses, mushrooms, sugar and cocoa to name but a few) don’t consume it.

281. Carmel, I find this strange too: ‘I find it strange that such a simple solution is not known about or promoted by the medical profession’, cutting out a certain food or drink that could be causing an adverse reaction in our bodies can have such huge health benefits and can be a very simple solution, yet it is rare for doctors to make the link between certain foods and drinks and ill health, more and more people seem to be taking charge of their own health and experimenting with eliminating foods that their bodies react adversely to such as gluten, dairy and sugar. it feels important that common reactions to certain foods be a part of medical training.

282. A really interesting fact that it is known that certain foods cause dampness in the body and can lead to the conditions you talk of and yet the medical profession don’t counsel on this, preferring instead to treat the symptom rather than the cause. Is this because many doctors are exhausted themselves and resort to sugar, caffeine and alcohol to keep them going as well? How many of them suffer the conditions you talk of and how successful are they at treating themselves? What you present here is full of common sense, so why are we so keen to keep eating foods that harm us or not talk more widely about it?

283. Could it be that we have set the tone of what we expect from our GP, maybe a quick fix to our illnesses without having to take responsibility for how we have got ourselves in that state of health in the first place.

284. It is fascinating how we can change the way we feel and let go of illnesses just by listening to our bodies and changing our diets.

285. One of the serious flaws in the training provided to medical professionals is that they do not get much nutritional training. This is something that needs to change. The way that we live is medicine and it can be good medicine or bad medicine. If we live by our taste buds and do not discern what foods feel right for us and support us, then we are in fact harming ourselves and inviting illness and disease.

286. Thanks Carmel, this has been an education for me, as I do remember suffering with something like this years ago, and while it is all a bit of a blur, I can say that my diet at the time was full of sugar and yeast, so it all makes perfect sense to me.

287. Thank you Carmel for your open and honest sharing. I myself find it interesting that doctors mostly do not know anything about how certain foods can affect health. This is perhaps because there are so many specialisations like doctors in various fields, people who have studied nutrition etc. Actually the example above shows that there is a lack of communication between the different fields.

288. ‘‘could it be that they don’t want to tell patients to stop drinking alcohol or eating sugar?’ A good question Carmel and takes us back to how doctors are trained and the content of the curriculum. It could be that doctors themselves lack true awareness of the damaging effects of food on the body, or of self care and are themselves dependent on drink, nicotine, caffeine, and sugar. The education and wisdom we have gained through Universal Medicine should be a fundamental part of training doctors.

289. Our body is amazing how it informs us about what we put in it when it has a detrimental effect on our natural way of being. What else do we do to ourselves that is not so immediately observable that can take years to present itself like dementia and cancer for two examples. Could it be that if we numb our selves to the small signals, it just gives a fertile ground for the others?

290. Obesity rates have soared over the last few years as society indulges in comfort foods. Why do we over-eat? For me, on the weekend of my birthday, it was very much family related. I did not want to feel what was going on with another close family member and myself. I felt a little in overwhelm and before I knew, I was over-eating, because this has been an automatic habit in my life. When things are difficult or I feel I cannot cope, my go-to is food! To cut this old habit out, all I need to do is stay connected with myself and stay present, that is how I support myself in not over-eating.

291. It is always good to stop and reflect on our relationship with food as food has become one of the biggest distractions to numb and dull our light. At the week-end, it was my birthday and I over-ate over 2 days ( the excuse was my birthday). The impact was immediate, the following mornings, I struggled to get up and slept much longer than I would normally which took me out of my rhythm. The feeling I had was like being hung-over. I felt awful. My body was communicating loudly the consequences of over eating…..

292. Absolutely, Marika, and this kind of collaboration means everyone involved gets to learn stuff. This takes a willingness to be open to each other and humility to work alongside another as an equal.

293. Brilliantly succinct and accessible facts about thrush and athletes foot. A lot of people ‘put up’ with these conditions, considering them to be a normal part of life. I love your conclusion, Carmel, laid out so simply… a choice.

294. Super informative blog, thankyou Carmel. The old saying feels appropriate here, what you put in, is what you get out….. If we put in the wrong fuel in our cars, they simply do not work. Why is it then that we do not see the correlation with certain comfort foods that we consume to be a part of the condition we find ourselves to have. Not enough attention is given to our diets. When we listen to our bodies, they tell us very clearly what is good for it and what is not. The awful hangover the next day from drinking alcohol is a sure sign and clear message that alcohol is a poison in the body.

295. Learning to listen to our bodies and get in tune with what is going on should be taught from a young age. For years I thought it was normal to feel sleepy after eating, and perversely thought it was because I was not eating enough. But when I finally decided to try giving up gluten and dairy, the symptoms disappeared straight away. Obviously I had a degree of gluten intolerance, but the real question is, why as a society do we not make it normal to have this very intimate relationship with our bodies? Instead we place the emphasis purely on the medical profession to diagnose our state of health. They are obviously an important piece, but so is our own discernment.

296. Great article Carmel and yes I can affirm that I haven’t had thrush for many years since letting go of sugar and yeast in my food.

297. Cracked me up !! In a good way…
     An article that brings lived experience with science always offers a fresh new look on how and what could be really going on, bringing simplicity to the forefront.

298. Carmel thankyou for highlighting this commonly found infection and offering such a simple insight into one of the causes, namely some of the foods we eat. If this sort of information were made readily available to us as children, we could potentially grow up with a much deeper understanding of what really supports our bodies and what does not, and avoid many symptoms of illness and disease. It’s interesting to note that many young children refuse to eat certain foods that they are given from an early age – perhaps they already do know what their bodies are telling them…

299. Doctors seem to operate within a limited power of prescribing sometimes – it is only the drug they can prescribe. What if Doctors prescribed more than a drug but a healthy way of living? Doctors would have to live this themselves of course, but the Doctor should be able to communicate more than what they do. It is common knowledge that what our body consumes gives us the symptoms we have, but is simply not practised by the public or by medicine.

300. Thank you Carmel for a great article, how simple to stop the itch, smell and discharge, just by changing your diet, I did the same thing with candida, and cleared it up with a change in diet just like you suggested.

301. A fascinating and thoroughly educational read. It is truly extraordinary the difference that some foods can have on our health and levels of discomfort… and amazing the powerful effect that such a simple choice to remove food or substances from our diet that clearly do not support us, can have on our well-being.

302. Carmel I love how you ask “do we suppress the symptom or get to the root of the underlying cause?” for it seems that this suppressing of symptoms is rife in the world today – not just in the sense of illness and disease. It is so common for people to be tired, if not exhausted, yet the norm is not to address the cause of the exhaustion, but to ‘fix’ the symptom either by using caffeine or sugar (or both) to get us through. Fixing symptoms is simply not a sustainable way of living, as sooner or later the underlying cause will need to be addressed – it is up to us how loud the symptoms get before we look to the cause.

     1. We have become a quick fix society where we want results and we want them now. In this we close ourselves off to the true root cause of many of our problems and problematic situations. It is time for us to see that we are here for the long haul.

303. There seems to be many people who are closed off to the idea of making changes themselves to their diet and lifestyle when they are unwell, even if they know it would help to reduce or eliminate problems. As we know our health systems around the world are groaning under the weight of trying to cope with the level of preventable disease that is occurring. So we are headed for a time where the crisis in health care will reach such levels that there will be no choice but for people to have to start to take more responsibility for their health and well being. This bigger picture scheme of things also asks us to query why we would settle for such levels of pain and discomfort in our lives when it is often all or partly avoidable. Thanks Carmel for sharing your story which highlights that even non life threatening conditions are multilayered in origin.

304. I’m surprised the doctor didn’t suggest a change in diet when it seems such a quick difference is made. What is beneath this? Are we all too scared to ask another to take responsibility for themselves, knowing that if we did we may have the discomfort of honestly admitting we would be hypocritical in some way?

     1. So we collude in the ‘comfy’ choice, indulging in the oral pleasure of certain foods rather than prompting/inspiring each other to consider the consequences of eating these foods and the impact they have on our overall wellbeing.

305. There is a huge tension in in the medical world regarding the proof that our diets play a significant part in our well-being, and what is delivered in reality. Do medical people (any level of qualification) live in truth the reflection of well-being? How is that what is made as discoveries in science and even common sense doesn’t translate to our own choices?
     How can a doctor assist a patient for a health situation and be as equally in-need of support for the same health concern?
     How can the medical profession hold the tension between the paradox of what is know to be true and what is clearly ignored, denied and even argued when it comes to living everyday life?
     This is all coming at an enormous cost to humanity’s health and also financially, to the extent people have never been so unwell with figures rising at extreme rates, and the money to support the level of health care that is required is just not available. Does denial of what is truly going on work as a solution? It has already proven to be a very ineffective band-aid.

306. Responsibility for what we choose to ingest is a topic people go to great lengths to avoid. It is interesting to observe the medical practitioners, who could reflect and inspire patients, are part of this great denial. While we aren’t directly responsible for someone else’s choices, we are responsible for what we live and reflect to others. Medical practitioners take an oath of care (I understand), perhaps it’s time this oath was updated to include their own integrity and responsibility to choose to live a quality of life that reflects well-being and not the personal, recreational, my-time, no-one sees me consuming and partaking in what medical science is discovering is harmful and hinders well-being and vitality.

     1. This is exposing the public/private oscillation so many of us indulge in. What others cannot see we can get away with. This is a really messy deception because not only do others feel it in the quality of our wellbeing and vitality, but also we are ‘pretending’ to ourselves that this living a lie is not abusive of ourselves.

307. The science of this is so basic, therefore the answer should be fairly obvious. It is exposing of society and the medical profession when we are quite happy to ignore the obvious answer and play dumb.

308. What a great read Carmel and I was left pondering what other symptoms I have that are not really issues when I take responsibility for myself. Relationships, organisational challenges and my own health and wellbeing all relate to the same principles of true responsibility. You are on the money when you mention about doctors being reluctant to suggest a change in lifestyle choices in favour of increased health and wellbeing. Now there is an oxymoron!

309. This is a very concise and real description of thrush and its many impacts on the body. Particularly important is the final question you ask in regard to diet, “Is it worth it?”And then you say “Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!” As someone who has experienced every form of Candidal infection, I would say yes, it is. We cannot place all of the pressure on the medication, expecting it to do everything for us. While we continue to eat the same food, we are encouraging pockets of organisms to remain, perhaps inactive, but still be present in our body, waiting for another triggering event to set them off again.

310. The way to health is before our feet and there is only one other way. Which way do I prefer? If I find that I choose the way away from health, I can be honest and feel that I am responsible for everything that occurs on this way. With this humble approach it is easier to allow for help.

311. I can confirm what you have written here Carmel. I used to get re-curring thrush and I can confirm it was when I was eating a lot of sugar based foods, chocolate, biscuits and cake and drank alcohol. Since giving them up I have not had thrush for many years until recently when I had a mild attack because my immune system was run down from having a bad bout of flu and my body was stressed and struggling to cope. Interestingly enough I had chocolate a few months before which I had not had for many years. We can never underestimate that the food we put in our body will at some stage whether immediately or sometime later affect our body.

312. Another example of accepting the simple cause and solution to healing rather than delving deeper into what is truly needed to get to the root cause through our actions and choices.

313. Thank you Carmel for a super factual article that makes a point you really can’t argue with – we can choose band-aid solutions all we like, but making the commitment to take responsibility for the way we are living is the only way to bring about true and lasting change.

314. Great points raised Carmel, what we eat and the way we live has major effects on our bodies. It is just whether or not we want to choose to take responsibility for our lives or seek a quick fix treatment and carry on living in disregard to our bodies. The choice is ours!

315. ‘…could it be that they don’t want to tell patients to stop drinking alcohol or eating sugar?’ absolutely, for in giving this advice to others due it being responsbility for this ill then it would be another area of their own life style they would have to face as being irresponsible and harmful.

     1. Not only that but someone who drinks telling another not to drink really doesn’t cut it; the statement doesn’t come from a lived experience and totally lacks power and knowing.

316. It is so worth eliminating things from the diet that clearly don’t support us. Sugary and yeasty things always make me feel terrible and I get an itchy rashy skin which is most unpleasant. Needless to say I avoid these foods now and feel so much better for it.

     1. Simply stated and committed to, Jeanette… self love and responsibility in action.

317. Thank you Marika, this is a great moment to feel if the energy has changed or if we are simply feeling better.

318. This blog is hugely informative and supportive for everyone who suffer from these common fungal infections. It makes so much sense that it is directly related to what we eat and how we live. So many people experience repeat cases of these infections and revisit the doctors to get the same medication without getting to the root cause.

319. Our own choices are either the strongest medicine, or the most potent poison to our bodies. You outlined both sets of choices and the health (or not) outcome for each. Super clear examples of the power of choices Carmel.

320. Amazing changes Carmel from simply eliminating sugar and yeast. From the discomfort it causes, it is a no brainer to eliminate these substances from our diet, especially as they offer little if any nutritional value. Thanks for pointing it out very clearly.

321. It’s interesting that although there is a known, effective solution that doctor’s can suggest to patients suffering from athletes foot, thrush or other fungal infections, so many people still suffer from these conditions. Are we at a point where the sugar, yeast and other dampening foods in our diet more important than our health?

322. For myself cutting our certain foods and substances was a natural progression I came to long before Universal Medicine. But understanding now that I have, and often still, continue to use foods to dull what I feel is very exposing. When I chose willingly to cut these out I get to feel everything which isn’t always nice, but I too feel much lighter and more vital in my body which is great.

323. Carmel Reid has put in very simple terms, how illness and disease can be a symptom of choices made about self-care. And so it becomes very simple to reverse those symptoms simply by changing the way we care for ourselves i.e. in the foods we eat. I love this, it feels empowering and although I would always still go to the doctor for any symptom or illness, at least I can also make steps to support what the doctor says and be an equal partner in the care of my body.

324. Great practical blog Carmel our diet seriously needs to be examined before we look to a cure for common ailments. Taking the responsibility for what we put into our bodies is paramount. I used to get chronic heart burn which was sorted out everyday by a magic pill, until I stopped putting alcohol, dairy and gluten into me and then the heartburn miraculously disappeared, the magic pill being made redundant.

325. Such an awesome, yet simple, way of approaching a physical ailment. It does come down to what we put first – a few seconds of taste in the mouth or a much healthier body to live with day in and day out. I, too, noticed how once I gave up breads/yeast and obvious sugars, my whole body seemed to balance itself and surprise! No more thrush, not to mention a whole host of other benefits like enhanced sleep, energy and clarity. Thanks, Carmel, for the reminder that a simple shift in diet can have a big ripple effect.

326. Reading these amazing comments has shown to me the power of us sharing everything we know and have experienced – it appears that thrush is commonplace but not something most women openly admit to having – even Athlete’s Foot is something we may be ashamed of. These kind of symptoms and their root cause need to be exposed, talked about, and changes in lifestyle accepted as a normal correction. It shows up even more the great divide between conventional and natural medicine and that when the two work together they are truly powerful in changing the health of humanity.

     1. Absolutely Carmel, sharing the truth from our lived wisdom comes across as a loving choice, which is bringing about a change that starts the true healing process.

327. Yes, Marika, there are always deeper levels we can explore and when you talk about the giving up that many of us do – my feeling is that it is endemic – we feel an impulse to do something magnificent but give up because we don’t believe we are good enough – self worth is something to be fostered throughout our lives, right from birth.

328. The body is a complete system that depends on certain things to work well. It makes perfect sense to me that our diet could disrupt the delicate and precisely balanced system of the body.

329. Thank-you for this very informative blog Carmel, including some very insightful exposure. From my own experience I know how debilitating thrush can be. I went onto the candida diet as a last desperate measure. In the diet I was put on, apart from eliminating all sugars, wheat and yeast products it also included eliminating dairy and even potatoes. At that time I can remember thinking that I had a healthy diet and by most standards that would have been accepted as being the case. It took over four months for all of the candida symptoms to disappear. But because I went on the candida diet as a last desperate measure and not by it being a self-loving choice, I slowly slipped back into having most of those foods in my diet again and although I never got Candida back I still knew that I wasn’t really being totally responsible for my health by choosing to eat those foods, for I could feel how heavy they made my body feel or tired they made me. But now and for the past several years I’ve chosen to take more responsibility for my own health by avoiding those foods that don’t support me to feel my true vitality and when I do feel unwell I now reflect on what I have been doing or eating that maybe contributing to that state of being and may not be supporting me anymore. “Is it worth it?” Most definitely.

330. Thanks for sharing Carmel, a lot of our medical conditions have very simple underlying causes, but it is the willingness of a person willing to make changes that will see a reduction in symptoms.

     1. Harry absolutely, I love the fact that we can actually be our greatest healer or we can destroy ourselves simply by our choices and the way we live. We don’t need someone to “save” us, but we do need the will to choose a way of living that is inline with what our body is truly asking.

331. Super duper love this Carmel. Thanks for sharing all the info about candida – a common one for many women. Changing my diet is what helped for me! I can feel the difference if i go back to sugar/ starchy foods straight away. What a difference feeding your body supportive foods makes ! I agree, it’s strange that this treatment is not well practiced/ known about. It’s the only thing that doesn’t have recurrences.

332. One of the other by-products of Candida is ethylalcohol, so even though I chose to stop drinking alcohol over 16 years ago now, I have regularly had ‘hangoers’ which I came to label as ‘sugar-hangovers’ without realising I was still suffering the effects of alcohol poisoning in my body despite not ingesting a drop! Because candida is so common it’s not taken particularly seriously by the vast majority, and yet my experience is revealing that it is a force to be reckoned with as it is in actual fact the physical manifestation of our own self-disregard with its very own set of physical needs. Having said that, it is no match for the power of self-love, appreciation and responsibility – a triumvirate that are a natural part of our expression which simply needs to be connected to and expressed.

333. …and just to add to my previous comment, consistency in self-care and appreciation are the greatest medicine I could possibly take. Serge Benhayon has presented that our greatest for =m of medicine is the way we live, and I am finding this to be absolutely true, with each passing day confirming this more.

334. No coincidence you have written this blog Carmel I was looking for one on these very pages a few weeks ago. I have recently accepted that I have had Candida overgrowth going on in my body for many years – probably since I was about 12 in fact – so all my adult life. Symptoms for me have mainly been ones that could easily be mistaken for something more general – things like depression, negative thoughts, poor memory, fatigue and food cravings. I had totally identified this as being who I am – that even though I have been given the huge gift of awareness through the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I would find myself only getting so far with making changes to my life and then fall back into old, destructive self-disregarding patterns. Candida although a yeast grows like a fungus and sends out roots, or hyphae which penetrate the gut lining and spread to other parts and organs of the body – a physical manifestation of the self-disregard I have lived with as being normal for so long – one that has it’s own agenda and appetite, that craves sugar in any form.
     About a month ago I opened my eyes to what was really going on and committed to clearing this from my body. I have taken out what few carbs remained (nuts have been my compulsive eating food of choice since I stopped eating any other forms of carbs a while ago) and started on a program of supplements to support my body. But the biggest change has been from taking responsibility for where I found myself and realising that I am not the person clouded by candida. For the first time in 35 years I am seeing and feeling the world clearly – without the fog I had seen as who I am. I don’t feel the balance is back in my body as yet – but I can honestly say I feel like a new woman – and one I am appreciating more deeply and more fully every day.

335. Awesome article Carmel. I love how simply you present the facts. Sometimes, in fact, more often than not, we take simplicity for granted. In fact, just writing that makes me realise how much I take it for granted. The answers are all there, no discovery required if we were willing just open our eyes and take a bit more responsibility of our bodies. Sure we require the support of the medical system at times, there’s no doubt, but why oh why are medicine and complementary medicine not working together?

336. Great question Carmel to either have minutes of flavour sensations in the month and discomfort and pain as a result or a change in diet that supports a vital healthy and comfortable body. I know that even though I haven’t had a fungal issue I have made diet changes such as cutting out gluten and it has made a enormous difference in how I feel in my body and my vitality levels.

337. Having dealt with a candida overgrowth myself, and realising that I had an imbalance in my gut flora for most likely decades, I can say that there was nothing like the clarity that came from taking the steps to clear the candida.
     I won’t lie and say that it was easy, but the response from my body could be felt in just a couple of days. It was like a fog lifted from not only my ability to concentrate, but the intense food cravings that I had lifted, and with that the emotional rollercoaster I was on became so much less. There was still work to do and it was a long process, especially since I had it for so long, but really worth it all.

338. It has always confused me why traditional medicine and the complementary medicine do not work more closely together because when they do the results are not only astonishing but way more cost effective.

339. “So worth it” – it seems so simple explained as you have Carmel. What I am pondering is the level of indoctrination some people experience up to this point where they can’t recognise the simple link between what is ingested and what the body produces and a result of this.
     What is the power of a certain way of eating that will keep someone continually adding to ill health rather than choose to say no to a food or drink?

340. No body wants to tell us to look at what we are eating as the cause of our symptoms and discomfort because the sales of these products namely alcohol, sugar ,gluten and dairy are part of the economy and money making as are the drugs and medication to alleviate the symptoms. How simple and loving life really is with true integrity honesty and love. Thank heaven for Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for lighting the way for us all .And thank you Carmel for your amazing article.

341. “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!”. I love how you’re ending this very informative blog Carmel. A crucial question for almost everybody living on this planet… Do we want the Responsibility and surrendering to what choices our bodies actually ask from us? Or are we too stubborn, arrogant and / or ignorant that we keep eating and drinking foods and drinks that so obviously do not serve us. I love and appreciate your honesty here Carmel, on subjects that are up until now, not very often spoken about so openly and intimately. That many may be inspired by this sharing.

342. At 15 I went on a ‘candida diet’ for 3 weeks. It was considered an extreme diet and something I needed to just ‘get through’ before I could return to my normal way of eating. I was told that in this period of time, the candida in my gut would be cleared. However, at no point was the notion of a permanent change to my diet suggested, nor discussed with me by my health professional. The ‘candida diet’ was merely a quick fix solution, no different to using medication for relief that is void of healing.

     1. Exactly, Kylie, as soon as we feel ‘better’ or our symptoms have cleared, we go back to our old way of living, thereby missing a great opportunity to change our lives permanently.

343. Thank you Carmel, a great sharing on how our bodies respond to simple common sense approaches to foods.

     1. Very true Greg, ‘simple common sense approaches to foods’, nothing radical or extreme needed.

        1. Exactly Greg and James – “simple” and “common” – i.e. regularly occurring and something we all equally have access to, should we choose it.

        2. Thank you James and Hannah, my feeling has always been to simply feel what is right for my body. Usually it is just the common fruits, vegetables and meats that feel harmonious in my body, which in other words does not bloat me. When we have complicated foods and mixtures it becomes difficult to know what food is bloating us.

        3. What is fascinating is how some foods will support me on some days but not on others. And then even with the best nutritious food available it is also very easy to over eat. For me I have found there is a constant unfolding with food and my choices. It not only affects the way I live but also shows me how I am living. For example if I am feeling run down or exhausted then I immediately start wanting sugar. If I then have some sugar I want more and more and it is a very vicious cycle! Whereas if I stop and look at why I allowed myself to get run down then I stop the cravings rather than letting them run for days.

344. This is a great sharing Carmel – and highlights the healing power of foods. We seem to have come to a time where medicine and doctors are there to fix things so that we don’t have to perhaps look at why they came about in the first place – but what if we were using doctors and medication as a support, and we took responsibility in how we live – knowing that these changes will be just as if not more impactful than a cream or a pill? I love what you shared about how you changed your diet – it shows that perhaps it isn’t want we put on our skin or what pill we take, but what we start to remove that can make the difference.

345. “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body that does not itch, smell or discharge!” A no-brainer Carmel, I’ll choose the healthy, vital body and give the rest a miss thank you. However with the addictive quality of sugar it is clearly sometimes not so straightforward, but absolutely well worth that initial withdrawal for the amazing longterm health we then enjoy.

346. Such a crucial question to ask Carmel of anything we may use to treat our conditions: ‘Does it get rid of the underlying cause?’ I’ve also found that choosing to address health issues by looking at how I can change my diet and daily choices has played a great part in the long-term absence of the issue.

347. great sharing Carmel, thank you.

348. ‘Candida albicans releases up to 79 different byproducts, including uric acid and a powerful neurotoxin named acetaldehyde.’ No wonder I always felt so lousy when I had yet another outbreak! It was a lady at my local health food store that told me about the Candida diet and I made the link between courses of antibiotics and my outbreaks. The diet clear up my symptoms and I have avoided yeast and sugar ever since but I had lingering issues with fungal foot infections. It was only after listening to presentations by Serge Benhayon that I started to look at the deeper reasons why I was abusing my body with the foods I continued to eat that I knew did not agree with me such as gluten and also indulging in the rollercoaster of emotional ups and downs that drained my vitality. Choosing to take responsibility for what goes into my mouth and the way I choose to take loving care of my body has dramatically improved my physical and mental health and saved me a lot of money – the answers were available to me when I chose to listen but it took many years of misery before I was prepared to make the necessary changes. Thank you Carmel for this down to earth blog that brings clarity to an uncomfortable subject that plagues so many of us.

     1. The food we eat is made up of compounds and substances which our body amazingly breaks down into the things that it can use to either build it or degrade it. There is nothing that goes into our body that does not do one or the other. Just as so many medicines are derived from foods, so too is our food equally medicine. It needs to be respected as such.

     2. You’re right Helen. The answers are available to us so long as we choose to listen. It really as simple as that.

349. There is of course the energetic component to consider here. If all women were taught not to let disregard into their bodies, thrush would not be needed. And not letting disregard into our bodies would naturally include choosing not to ingest disregarding foods. Having said that, disregard can take more than one life to clear. In which case the symptoms need to be supported, with medication, right foods, and choices that honour who we are.

     1. Victoria great comments. What you have said so clearly indicates that we could do with deepening our understanding of what true health is in the first place throughout society – including within the medical and health professions.

        1. Before I came across Universal Medicine, I hadn’t really considered that what I was doing to my body was disregarding. I had been educated to think hard exercise was good for me and eating enough fruit and vegetables was enough to keep me going. I didn’t want to question any of it. But through small changes and more willingness to be honest, I am now able to feel more and more what is honouring or not to my body. It is an absolute learning process, and an education that everyone can have access to.

350. I have consumed bucket-loads of thrush preparations in my life time. Imagine what this simple advice, on its own, would have saved me and countless other women in terms of costs and discomfort. Life is far easier when you make everything simple.

     1. Life is so much easier when we take away the complication and keep it simple. Thrush is exceedingly uncomfortable and can last sometime, I would certainly prefer not to get it in the first place than to medicate to clear it up.

     2. This also shows us how valuable what we have to share in support of others is.

351. So simple, yet so effective. It seems the medical profession has a little catching up to do! Other than a handful of integrative health GPs, very, very few (if any) doctors seem to understand nutrition at all. Indeed, I have heard all sorts of advice that has come from medically-trained nutritionists that seems to based on governmental (read industry) guidelines for nutrition. Many are still encouraging the consumption of breads, fruits and dairy, substances that aren’t beneficial for us at all.

     1. Further to this, it would be great to develop food as medicine specialists. Understanding all the while that food in and of itself does not hold or provide all the answers.

     2. Unfortunately there is very little true education out there – even for doctors. We could all use a re-education or a true education when it comes to nutrition and what really nourishes our bodies; and this education actually comes from our bodies.

352. This is a very powerful blog as the very powerful responses attest. We are feeling the truth of this from our bodies and the evidence of the truth of this comes from our bodies. When we wonder why doctors don’t suggest a diet that will totally eradicate thrush and other fungal infections from our systems, it is because doctors are constantly asked to just keep us in comfort. Part of being in comfort is not to be confronted with the truth.
     If we consistently ask for the truth and present the truth, this will change.

353. Much has been exposed here, Carmel, including the fact that Doctors are under pressure to ‘fix’ us. Even if they are aware that a change in diet is the only long term treatment, they know that most patients don’t want to take responsibility for themselves and would be reluctant to make such lifestyle changes. Applying a cream with each flare up is all that some are willing to do for themselves.

     1. Yes the majority of patients want ‘fixing’ to avoid taking personal responsibility and doctors respond to this need. They are caught on the frontline of, and snowed under by, dealing with the symptoms of illness and disease. It feels like the lifestyle changes that would have a dramatic impact on so many symptoms that patients present with need addressing as a separate issue. Surely education has a role to play here as the way we bring up children and the choices they make will affect the future of humanity?

        1. So while schools are focusing on children getting their commas and apostrophes in the right place, the children’s internal health is deteriorating because no-one is reminding them to listen to their bodies.

     2. I agree, it must be disheartening to the doctors also to know that the majority of people actually don’t want to hear how they can help themselves simply without taking drugs or creams, and that they just want a quick fix. So is it safe to say that we have created this type of supply and demand type of doctoring.

        1. Absolutely Julie! We are all equally responsible in having created the situation where we have colluded and agreed to ignore the root causes of our illness and disease so we can stay in the comfort of our irresponsible choices.

     3. Wow, great point out Carmin.

     4. That is a profound observation Carmin that we get what we call for. We as a whole have not wanted to be responsible for our own health for a long time and we have been going to the doctors after we have pushed it as far as we can, demanding a quick fix so that we can get back and carry on as before. The escalating rates of illness and disease is showing that is not a wise or sustainable.

354. It’s bizarre how we can often consider our body as a standalone separate unit to life, like one big block, a law unto itself. This is so far from the actual reality, that is a combination of microbes, bacteria and cells, the kind of matter we see around us every day. So it just makes complete sense to me that what we put into our body each day has a direct and logical effect on the cells that live inside you and me. How could it be Carmel any other way?

355. It is amazing how often we accept some physical conditions as ‘normal’ and just keep finding a way to manage it and accept that as a part of our life. And we often say how hard it is to change our life style, clearly indicating that putting our body into a state of disharmony is not.

356. Growing up, I remember Athlete’s Foot being caused by wearing running shoes too much and the feet getting hot and sweaty, thereby creating an environment for the yeast infection to grow….but this cause misses the point. Are the feet getting hot and sweaty in an attempt to release toxins as a result of the food that is being consumed?

     1. That is a great question Sandra. Are both athlete foot and the sweaty and hot feet that led to that, because of the body attempting to “release toxins as a result of the food that is being consumed?” If we observe something and it is not harmonious and healthy, it makes sense to me to keep inquiring what is behind it. Whatever answers we already have there is always a deeper layer to unfold, as your question shows.

        1. Good point, Golnaz, I’d forgotten about the sweaty trainers – I just bought new ones or was careful to change socks. It never occurred to me that the sweating was another symptom of how I was living – I used to sweat buckets – I don’t so much now. Mind you, I’m more gentle in my exercise!

     2. I’d never considered that Sandra. Awesome point!! naturally the body get’s hot, and sweating when working out for example is, I believe normal, so if it’s normal and the body is having a reaction to that, then there has to be something else going on.

     3. Its funny how quickly we latch on to the easy solution as like yourself Sandra I too was brought up with the assumption that athletes foot was brought on by a non breathing/sweaty part of the body and to give that area as much fresh air as possible – and to wear cotton underpants! The point is definitely missed – that easy flip response takes away any responsibility to look further at the root cause.

        1. Isn’t this just how we, humanity as a whole have come to view illness and disease? Throughout history medicine has focused on treating the symptom not the cause because we have collectively been living in a completely irresponsible manner and to look at the cause of our illnesses would mean taking responsibility for them developing in the first place and making different choices. That’s why Esoteric Medicine can be so confronting for some people – it asks us to be completely honest with ourselves as to how we have been living that has led to dis-ease in our bodies.

357. It is amazing how our body offers us evolution and by listening to it, we make changes we never thought would have been possible, with benefits that far outweigh the loss of the indulgent behaviour we have let go of.

     1. And actually spotting and appreciating those benefits gives us the next inspiration to take care and listen attentively to our bodies and what they have to say.

358. The gut is a great indicator of the way that we deal with life. Whether we put whatever we want in there and expect our body to deal with it, just like the way we do what we want in life without regard for how it affects everything else; or whether we feel the enormous sensitivity of our digestive system and eat respectfully in relation to this, so that our body can operate optimally, just as we can contribute ourselves to life with awareness of the whole picture.

     1. I’m learning just how sensitive the gut is. The more I understand this and respect the sensitivity in my body, the more I am willing to be present and sensitive to people, situations, life. Feeling the details in my own body and the bigger picture of my whole being, supports me to see both the details and whole picture of life.

359. I think you might have a point there Carmel: the Doctors don’t want to tell us to stop drinking alcohol, eating yeast or sugar because they are not willing to make these changes for themselves. Without that experience in their own life, they can’t ask their patients to do it. If they did, they would experience the incredible lightness of being and clarity that comes with it, with which also comes great awareness, which they avoid because it would highlight the gaps that so desperately need to be filled in the current medical approach, which disregards true healing as a foundation to health.

     1. Ouch! But oh so true Emma. It might come across to some as a judgement, but it really is quite spot on with what is going on in the medical profession. There is not a lot of ‘practice what you preach’ out there. So it’s hard for us as patients to really believe that such things as removing sugar from one’s diet would actually relieve symptoms when there is a myriad of drug options to take that might seemingly do the same thing, albeit temporarily.

        1. Like the people with Type 2 Diabetes who take their Metformin and continue drinking beer . . . .

360. Gut imbalance has been the key marker for my body to communicate the changes I have needed to make, so I would class myself an authority on this subject, based on my own experience. I first went on the Candida diet when I was 20 with little success because it was far from wholistic; it was just way too hard to make that change without any other support. I went in and out of different diets throughout my twenties, with greater and lesser degrees of the symptoms returning. Doing the GAPS diet in my early thirties was a big turning point for me in addressing this fundamental imbalance in my body, learning how to make bone broths and slow cooked meats and vegetables which are so nourishing, satisfiying and easy to digest.

     You can’t just remove sugar from the diet without learning how to cook properly, because the emotional and energetic patterns are way too strong. Nearly 3 years on now and I can say that with this foundation in eating coupled with a diligent approach of addressing the patterns to truly heal, with the support of several Esoteric Practitioners, I am now free of this in my body and have a healthy, well supported digestive system. I no longer crave nor need sugar of any kind in my body. And yes, the benefits are enormous. I am very grateful to my body and soul for offering this growth to me, for without the symptoms in my body, I don’t think I would have really made the changes that were needed.

     1. That’s great Emma. It is true that to tell someone to quit sugar, alcohol and bread is a huge ask when not given the support to do so. We underestimate the emotional attachment we as a society have with food. So asking someone to do this can be as overwhelming as like dropping a bomb and walking away. If the medical system worked along side complementary practices more collaboratively, the support would be instantaneous.

     2. The weight loss clubs that so many millions of women attend would benefit from a greater understanding of this, Emma – what you write about here should be in a book for all health professionals to read.

     3. It’s supportive to read other’s experience of candida. I recall searching for cures myself and being frustrated at the lack of information available, it was rare to share my experiences with other women. These exchanges educate and inspire women of all ages. What you share about sugar reminds me how sneaky this substance is (or rather how easy it is to be seduced by it!), it can be a constant temptation. A few year ago I went on a no sugar diet for one year, eliminated all fruit apart from grapefruit and cumquat. No carbohydrates, no surgery foods at all. My body loved being free of sugar. As I write and having read Carmel’s blog and all the comments, I feel the true impact of letting sugar back in and what this means for me and my body. The choice to re-commit and replace sugar with Love is always there and for me to make as of now.

     4. What you’re offering here Emma is incredible valuable to me. It’s not about a solution. Yes, there are changes to be made, but what is crucial is the intention why we choose to change. To just ‘solve’ the problem or to find answers for ourselves in relation to self-caring and self-nurturing choices. The effect of little to none appreciation is shown here. As we’ve reduced and confirmed each other to only functional beings, we treat ourselves and each other this way… So if our bodies getting sick, we’re looking for a (quick) solution so we can get on with life, rather than we take a moment to ponder and appreciate our body for communicating with us that there are choices and patterns that actually don’t serve us. The (w)holistic way as you’re so beautiful pointing out! Thank you Emma!

361. Yes Carmel, I find it odd that Doctors are unwilling to see the link between the gut flora and yeast infections. Over the years I have been to the doctor about this and mentioned probiotics and dietary change, they have looked at me blankly. Medicine is so amazing yet so compartmentalized, in that one area of the body is viewed in complete isolation to the rest. There are doctors now specializing the field of nutritional medicine which are well worth seeing. They are usually super expensive because their work is not recognized under Medicare so you have to pay their private fees. And usually they are not accepted within the medical profession; they are marginalised. The real change in medicine will come when Doctors are able to integrate the depth of wisdom and understanding presented by Esoteric Medicine so that their care encompasses the whole picture and not one isolated part.

362. Thank you for a great article here, Carmel, extremely informative and clearly expressed. It seems a ‘no-brainer’ here for me, it seems to be common sense to remove those foods that contribute to fungal infections out of our diet. It does not seem that we are meant to eat these foods if this is the effect that they have on our bodies, and our bodies are giving us that message. I find that the body is very good at giving us messages. For quite a time, I was really enjoying using coconut oil for much of my frying of foods, a lovely taste and supposed to be good for us. I also used a little coconut milk or cream occasionally, loved a Thai curry. But out of the blue, I was incredibly sick one night after a curry I had cooked with the coconut milk, then a couple of weeks later I had a similar night after a glass of coconut water. My body was telling me very clearly that it could no longer cope with coconut products. I am learning to listen to my body’s messages, it seems to have much wisdom. I feel if we listen to our bodies, then we are well on the way to good health.

     1. . . . and it’s different for everybody. Some people can eat coconut products with no obvious ill effects. Sometimes these foods naturally drop away. It’s so great to have on tap the amazing instrument that is our body because it is self-regulating – it tells us directly how to look after it – all we have to do is be open to hearing its messages and make sure that we honour every one of them.

        1. What I have experienced is that when a food is considered good for us, like coconut – and by all accounts it is indeed one of nature’s superfoods, I can override my body’s signal that it actually does not work for me because I have taken on the belief that it is good for me, so clearly my body must not know what it’s doing! I have persisted eating many things on this premise, but finally have reached the point where I trust my body knows best what it needs, and so follow its lead most of the time. Still find myself overriding when I have an investment in eating something in order to cover up something I don’t want to feel, but this also is lessening, thanks to the more honouring relationship I am developing with my body.

363. Thank you Carmel, your article has reminded me that I too used to suffer from Thrush occasionally but have not had a bout for well over 10 years now, having stopped eating bread, yeast, sugar, alcohol and starchy foods amongst other things and resolving my anxieties issues. At 50 years old I have never felt better and my body certainly agrees, so many of our health issues can be improved just by changing the foods we eat.

     1. And you certainly look stunning! Yes, it’s not just the foods but our anxiety issues that can cause our bodies to be ill, that’s why our mental health is as important as our physical health.

     2. Well, it stands the testament of time! That’s awesome to hear Rowena and makes me appreciate how taking care of ourselves can result in so much.

364. Thank you for sharing this Carmel. I feel like one of the big issues in this for the medical and healthcare professions is that suggesting a change in diet, such as you have, is very confronting for the practitioner. It asks them to consider the possible impact of food on many aspects of life and their own relationship with food. For many, this is a step too far to consider.

     1. Good point, Lee, if the practitioner is not living that way, how can they recommend a change of diet and it sound true. Like a doctor who smokes and drinks alcohol telling a patient they should cut down on smoking and drinking.

     2. Great point Lee – the health professional suggesting the changes is then exposed in their own choices, which also means their advice only comes from knowledge, without the power of them being a living example of what they are espousing.

365. You raise a great question, Carmel. Seems we are willing to keep stoking our bodies with foodstuffs that create these debilitating conditions rather than use logic married with a loving, nurturing approach to supporting our vitality. So we’ll put oral gratification as a priority over digestive responsibility.

     1. Yep, we are willing to buy products to help clear infections (especially fungal) but asked to change our diet sometimes seems like we are being asked too much. Really in anything our diet is the first place we should go to, look at and change.

        1. The reason it is so difficult at times (often) to make different food choices is because we don’t treat the underlying cause of why we are craving or choosing that food. I’ve recently become very aware of damp foods but to just cut them out of my diet does nothing because we can generate dampness in our body via behaviours too. So the key is in understanding what foods do and when and why we want them, and to work with healing the underlying cause. Then we don’t need to ‘give up’ anything, the craving or want for that food dissipates.

        2. “…but to just cut them out of my diet does nothing because we can generate dampness in our body via behaviours too.” This is so true Sandra. making changes that come from our heads, from knowledge and not from feeling it for ourselves in our bodies does not cut the energy that feeds the underlying issue of why we might be reaching for eg. damp foods. What you say is so powerful and something that isn’t widely acknowledged – particularly in the medical world. I feel there is denial going on about how our behaviours generate physical conditions is our bodies because if we really accepted this a true then the responsibility for our health is planted firmly at our feet, requiring us to make changes to our lives.

     2. Well said Cathy. Its so true – we will willingly eat or drink something that give us a few moments pleasure over the knowing ness of the consequences that it will have in our bodies. This is indeed a responsibility that we have, as the impact on the body can be at times debilitating, which can have a knock on effect on those around us.

        1. So true Sandra. And this is the way that has become normal. It is normal for people to eat cake and sit back feeling bloated and sick. It is normal for people to drink alcohol and laugh about the subsequent stories and consequences. It is normal for people to eat sugar so they can keep going regardless of what it is doing to their teeth or their mood or their nervous system. There is a wide spread disregard for our bodies which is perpetuated by the desire for pleasure through the taste buds.

        2. Yes sandra, I have been trying to cut out the foods which I think I shouldn’t be eating but this has created a feeling of sacrificing, experiences cravings, caving in when things get too uncomfortable. all in all not a very loving way to be. I haven’t been willing to really look at what foods do and when and why we want them. There is an amazing science to food which I can competely understand through my body.

        3. A great place to start is looking at what foods we eat when we are tired as you can bet it’ll be the sugary foods that we go for.

     3. It makes sense. The misery of fungal infections that are then ‘fixed’ by pharmaceuticals appears to be much less than the misery we feel when we don’t have sugar during the day.
        That both the sugar and the fungus are harming us gets lost in this daily calculation.

366. I suffered with thrush on and off for years – very uncomfortable. It wasn’t until I read about sugar being a major contributor to thrush that I started to take notice. Since I’ve had a low or no sugar diet I’ve had zero thrush.

367. This is brilliant Carmel I love your down to earth honest approach to these unpleasant very common conditions that have such a loving cure to them so simply explained. Taking responsibility for our bodies and how we treat them is such an important part of our education and livingness that is so often forgotten and left out and really does need to be brought back to our everyday livingness .

368. What a great conversation to have Carmel. Thrush and Athlete’s Foot are so common and as you say, treated for the symptoms. This is a great example of how changing lifestyle and diet can have such a huge impact and reduce or remove symptoms completely.

369. it is amazing what we will suffer and put our bodies through for the moment of sweetness in the mouth. Great straight down the line blog Carmel.

370. Great blog Carmel, thank you. I had a similar experience with my doctor regarding a different medical condition, but one whose symptoms were most definitely lessened by addressing my sugar consumption. During a check up for a Hypothyroid condition, I was sharing with my doctor the correlations I’d made between my sugar intake to that of the symptoms I was experiencing related to this disease. What I was met with was a lack of interest to the point of steering the conversation away from my findings. I too find it very strange indeed that not only are simple dietary considerations not discussed in detail by medical professionals, but that they are shutting down to these conversations with their patients.

371. Love your clear and simple style of writing, Carmel, with all the facts easy to grasp. Fungal infections are another of those commonplace ailments which could be easily rectified if we changed the way we think about diet and food.

372. I adore the matter of fact way you present the truth Carmel.

373. A great blog that is raising awareness around Candida as it has not been fully realised how debilitating this disease can be, as it is a physical condition that slowly creeps up and worsens and the various symptoms that can be experienced are often considered ‘normal’. I did not suffer from thrush or athlete’s foot but had digestive issues. I know when I addressed what I was eating and how I was living, as well as supporting myself with supplements, the symptoms cleared up and I felt more vital and I was not drawn to sweet food, as the Candida over growth was not demanding these foods anymore. Thank you for sharing this so simply, Carmel.

374. I love the simplicity of what you have presented here, Carmel. It is all about our choices and it is incredible really that the medical profession seldom makes us responsible for our choices!

375. Such common sense really is it not. My question is why do we choose to put up with a lower quality of true health and wellbeing just so that we can experience the same gambits of living? Surely life is worth living in full health and wellness over anything else? Perhaps not and this reveals there is more to the equation than simply just the common sense of not eating something when it is not truly good for us to do so.

376. Carmel, you really lay out the choices we have, to enjoy that taste for a short while or to have our bodies clearly show us with thrush what is actually going on. What I’m finding recently is how prevalent the idea is to make the body work, no matter what is done to it, and how much I buy into this, and yet I’ve not always been willing to truly see what I put into it or the stresses I put it under. I’m learning to love my honest body more and see how I am responsible for its care, and the more I listen to it the more I see and feel the impact my choices have on it. And part of that care does at times mean I engage medicine, for me it’s about looking at all the supports I can have for my body while taking into account the choices I’m making and the impact they have.

377. I had a severe case of candida in my twenties and it’s a very unpleasant condition to have. I was surprised at the foods that naturally contain sugar – fruit was fairly obvious but so do a lot of vegetables. It took me being on a highly restrictive diet for eight weeks avoiding all sugar and yeast containing products, then medication to eradicate any remaining nasties before taking further supplements to repopulate the gut with good bacteria. This all came about through choosing to eat foods to numb how I was really feeling instead of choosing to deal with what was going on for me at the time.

378. Looking at our lifestyle and food intake when the body has an ailment is a great way of taking responsibility for our health and wellbeing, rather than leaving up to a pill/tablet to fix.

379. Do we want to take responsibility for our health and well- being, or do we just want to visit our GP and get a quick fix solution in the form of medication? Eating the foods that are right for us as individuals and learning about the poison of sugar, for example, and making new choices has surprising results. We could then say that food is medicine. Taking Responsibility is the new black.

     1. I love that Sue ‘Taking Responsibility is the new black.’ This is definitely the only way to go for humanity.

     2. A great comment here sueq2012, I feel it is important for us to take responsibility for our own health and well being, I would rather not go along the line of medication if possible. So many medications have further ramifications later for the body. To me, much better to cut out most sugars from my diet, limiting it to a very small amount of fruit each day, and no other sugar products. I have had very little problem with fungal infections since I did that.

380. I do find it strange that doctors don’t consider food and lifestyle when treating patients. Yet if we consider that their training consists of very little information about nutrition, this isn’t so surprising.

     1. I feel Sue that this is something we’ve brought upon ourselves. My GP of thirty-five years would tell me when I presented with with some minor illness to go home and rest, whereas I was wanting the quick fix and to be made better because I had things to do and young children to attend to. Of course what he offered was very wise and responsible. So when we make these types of demands over and over, we effectively create our own market.

     2. This is an area none of us have truly been educated in. Our children are still taught the very much outdated food pyramid at school despite the knowledge that has come to the foreground in recent years. With many diets with a proven symptom and vitality success story around still none of these are considered. The Atkins diet and Paleo are two that spring to mind along with the increase in the abundance of super and raw foods. They may not be the be all and end all but at least they bring an awareness and responsibility to our food choices. Until we give up our investments, most probably monetary, I wonder if this basic education will ever change?

381. I too had the uncomfortableness of thrush for many years and medication never fully eliminated the symptoms, though it did help some. Making the choice to also eliminate sugars and yeast from my diet has brought about a huge change in my body and one of those changes is the ability to now be still. Hence, no part of me wants to continue to eat the foods that my body is now indicating are no longer supporting it.

382. Thank you Carmel for bringing to the fore this subject of ‘fungus’. I used to find even the mention of fungal infection so very embarrassing, e.g. of the toe nails etc. My experience of fungal infections were always related to the feet – interesting that, maybe reflecting how I was walking on the earth, lovingly, gently or otherwise. The fungal infections of my feet and toenails hit a pinnacle of disturbance at the end of months of antibiotics that were prescribed, as stronger and stronger medications to combat a germ picked up while travelling on the Nile in Egypt. I used to blame that incident – seemed to make a plausible excuse for its existence, not ever considering that it could also possibly have had anything to do with my own choices of behaviour, especially choices of what I actually decided to put in my mouth, which would seem to be the first port of call for responsibility to come in. At that time there was never any mention that the types of foods that I chose may have needed to be addressed. One wonders if our own doctors/or GPs are any the wiser even now as to the possible link between food and lifestyle, i.e. stressful living and fungal infections of varying expressions. Someone even said to me once that it was a result of ‘old and mouldy’ thoughts – now that’s an interesting perception. My appreciation goes out to Serge Benhayon for sharing with us the Ageless Wisdom. How awesome and amazing it is for our expanding awareness to now remind us of the tools to explore the truth behind good medicine, that is truly ‘Universal Medicine’.

     1. A great sharing here, Roberta, and a great point that you introduce, whether doctors yet have any acceptance of the possible links between food and lifestyle causing many of our health problems such as fungal infections. I like what you shared of someone’s comment to you “that it was a result of ‘old and mouldy’ thoughts”. Now that gives much food for thought, there seems to be much wisdom in that comment.

383. My body always communicates to me when I eat something that is not supporting and is abusing. Sugar is a big one and my feet, on top, get red achy spots whenever I eat that, no denying possible.

384. Carmel I love this, how simple. We hear about 80% of illness and disease being lifestyle related, this is a great example of one. Yet why don’t the Doctors prescribe the same “lifestyle” medication?

     1. Yes, lifestyle medication makes so much sense. It would reduce the amount of people queing up to see the doctor for a start. The medical system is swamped, yet it is not embracing the one thing that would help to reduce illness tenfold.

385. Some alignment here, Carmel. Just yesterday, I reflected on two things, my proneness to vaginal thrush as a young woman, now cleared for over forty years, partly by being watchful of what I ate and reducing sugar in my diet. The other was athlete’s foot (in one foot only) which plagued me for a number of years. Supported by two esoteric practitioners, I became completely clear of athlete’s foot. A naturopath prescribed supplements and advised a total sugar free diet, to eliminate fungus at source and in my gut (getting to the root cause). Another practitioner recommended a pharmaceutical medication which, when taken over 6 months, completely cleared it. Six years later it has not recurred. Another example of complementary and conventional medicine working hand in hand. And also of how what we eat is reflected in our bodies.

386. It is like the world doesn’t want to know that taking gluten, dairy, sugar, yeast and alcohol out of the body can transform ones health. Why we spend so much money on medication when there are solutions that are free and effective. I know I have at times struggled to stop having sweet food, but I also know that not having it makes an incredible change to my whole life, energy, mood, communication, life becomes fun and problems disappear or become trivial. Life only eating the right foods for our body is pretty special.

     1. It is really lovely to connect to what we gain when we ‘give something up’. When I consider not eating this or that it is almost impossible to do from a place of willpower. When I connect to the clarity and ease in my body in the absence of foods that upset the balance of my body, there is no struggle and no willpower required. Nothing tastes as good as a vital body feels. When I do find myself craving foods that are not good for me, it is always because I have been living in a way that does not support this balance by indulging in emotions, checking out etc. Food is always second to the energy I am choosing.

        1. A great way to look at this Leonne, when we give something up we gain something else, so it is just a case of swapping one feeling for another, so it makes sense that we create an outcome that feels better in our bodies. Then there is no fear of missing out as what we have is better than what may have been.

387. It is ironic that some doctors can use their status in society to do a lot of things but when it comes to challenging a patient’s lifestyles as opposed to prescribing quick fix medications, this is seen very rarely.

388. This could be applied to so many other aspects of our health and the bottom line being the quality of choices we are and have made. Are we willing to admit our ills that led to where we are now and then change, and from that change not experience the suffering or ill or ignore our results and attempt to patch it all up on top and not change the underlying cause or choices made?

     1. This is true Leigh, what is shared can be equally applied to any aspect of our life or health.

389. Carmel a great and timely blog, I have currently been looking at the health of my gut and cells, with the support of nutritionist and naturopath, I have been put on a candida cleanse to flush out the candida that had spread. The advice is very clear in cutting out sugars, yeast, alcohol and stress. I have not had alcohol for many years, but the stress in my daily life has been part of the candida. Having been on this cleanse for now a month my body has been going through a great change, I am not as tired, more alert and aware, the sugar cravings have reduced.

     1. It’s a great point that stress has a significant impact on the body.

390. Great article, thank you Carmel. In my twenties I too chose to change my diet in order to change the environment in my gut and stop the symptoms of thrush that I was experiencing. It came back several years later after I had relaxed my diet substantially. I no longer eat any of the foods that have such a marked effect and have been free of any symptoms for a long time. I feel sure that this will continue as long as I keep myself free from irritating foods containing sugar or yeast and I am consistent in caring for myself and my body, following a lifestyle that supports me whatever the world may throw at me, so to speak.

391. Carmel, thank you for shining light on this not very pleasant subject. I experienced thrush in my twenties when I was stressed, drank alcohol and ate a great deal of sugar. I noticed that it got worse particularly when I drank lager, which is full of yeast. It was mainly the alcohol that made it worse, as when I stopped drinking lager it would lessen and almost disappear. Since dropping sugar and alcohol completely from my diet I have not experienced any thrush at all. Yes it is very strange that GP’s do not recognise that diet is related to fungal infections. Perhaps this is an inconvenient truth that they would rather not acknowledge. The science of my own body tells me that this is the truth.

392. Hands up I’ve been one for an easy opt out also and turned to a medical solution first rather than look truthfully how I am Living life. When the answers are very simple. How do we live in our every day, how we eat, sleep patterns and work with the stresses and strains of life that is presented. Once a professional medical diagnosis is given we can work alongside this through choice and, take back responsibility for our health and very easily implement all the self help that we can and perhaps a so called ‘common’ fungal invasion can become a rarity. Great article Carmel thank you.

393. You raise an interesting point Carmel at the end of your blog: “Is it worth it? Well that depends on whether you would rather indulge your taste senses for a moment or two, or live with a healthy, vital body” – the thing is, I think that a lot of people (including myself) would choose the former, which is crazy when you think about it, because your body is what you live with every second of every single day, in comparison to the maximum 10 minutes it takes to eat a sugary food/icecream etc. Could we maybe be getting more out of eating those foods other than the taste?

     1. Love the question Jessica, there has to be a payoff bigger than the momentary taste sensation…

     2. For me when I reach to these foods, it is to numb myself. To stop myself from feeling everything that I can. They dull my sensitivity and they distract me. The truth is I don’t even like the taste, but after a few mouthfuls or rounds of biscuits etc, I can no longer differentiate between the taste and so think it tastes good.
        So I agree there is much more that we get out of these foods, they are yet another addictive substance.

        1. Food scientists have found the formula for bliss; that is the perfect blend of sugar, fat, and salt. That allows us to switch off that I will only eat one. Could it be the moreish factor or just another addiction?

     3. Yes, Jessica, much food for thought in Carmel’s final point, “Is it worth it?”. Yes, it is crazy, to even think of choosing something to eat that gives me a few minutes ‘hit’, and then results in health problems that can last a long time in our bodies. Yes, maybe we are getting more when we choose these products, could it be the dulling of our awareness of the mess our lives are in?

     4. Great question, Jessica. For many of us food has become something more than, or anything but, what builds and sustain a healthy body. And we think we are being ‘good’ when having one or a few occasional bouts of ‘eating healthy’ instead of making that a foundation we live with. Even when we realise we are using food as a reward, we still go ‘So what? What’s wrong with that? I need it”. It really exposes the discontentment we are feeling with what we have settled for as our life.

     5. Absolutely Jessica, “Could we maybe be getting more out of eating those foods other than the taste?”

394. This makes sense Carmel to me as I have experimented with adding different sugars into my diet and have found in-between my toes will itch and as soon as I stop the sugar the itching goes. The same with yeast used to give me a stomach ache and I would be plagued with yeast infections.
     There was a time when I would not listen to these simple messages my body was telling me and would only pay attention if a doctor or practitioner pointed these things out. But over the years I was never told to change my diet, which now seems to me to be astonishing after being symptom free for many years now.

395. Carmel, thanks for this very informative blog, I love how simple and practical your blogs are.

396. What an awesome blog, very inspiring. I have had candida and what can I say, that wasn’t much fun. I know for myself that it can be hard to change your food patterns but I have also made the choice to stop drinking alcohol and I don’t eat any gluten nor sugar. I don’t have any candida problems or itchy feelings any longer and I feel very vital and alive. It is well worth it to give it a try. Why? Because we are worth so much, there is no amount of food that comes even close to the sweetness and love that we all are.

397. It is interesting that Athlete’s Foot has only been around since the early 1900’s due to the greater use of shoes. The mild version of a band-aid for bullet hole are the creams, sprays, and chiropodists to allow us to carry on with our lifestyles – it is a bit of madness! The body is the most amazing mechanism for telling us what is not good for us; I know as a man that I have found that myself and most other men never read the instructions till something breaks.

398. Thank you Carmel. As always, it is our choice and we live with the consequences of our choices. However, we all have to know the connection between the different foods we eat and the effect on our body and this is one of the beauties of the presentations by Serge Benhayon that make sense of it all so that we are able to make informed choices.

399. For medical professions to point out that sugar, alcohol, starchy food, etc. cannot be part of a truly evolving diet, one that supports true vitality is rarely done as this means they themselves have to reflect on how they are living. I had a doctor making fun of my healthy diet, calling me boring and lacking the fun of life, but actually he wasn’t making fun of me, but he was deeply disturbed by the reflection he got for how he was living, in an overweight body characterized by alcohol induced sweating. Everything we reject to see or change is always related to our own choices and whole industries are run by this.

     1. Wow rachelandras – amazing sharing – sounds like you should be charging the doctor for the appointment. 🙂 . I have had similar experiences with both doctors and complementary health practitioners. It is an absolute shock for them to ‘treat’ patients that are choosing a truly supportive way of living because it shows that it is possible to live responsibly if we choose to. I have also met practitioners who are inspired by my choices as most of their other patients find it impossible to follow the sound advice they give and take responsibility for their own healing.

     2. It is great the understanding that you bring to this situation Rachel, for many are disturbed by the reflection of a truly vital and loving person for it exposes the arrogance of their own ill choices.

400. Brilliant Carmel, how you approach the diagnose of the repeated fungal infection with just “Ok, time to change my diet again”. That to me is the only true way we have to become with ourselves. As in all honesty, we as a society are not ready yet to acknowledge and accept our own influence in any illness and disease other than the genetic make up of our bodies (in which we have no hand as we tend to say). But one day we will get there as a society, but before this is a reality, please do not wait until your GP tells you this truth, but like Carmel, take the responsibility and make the choices that will bring you a true healthy and vital body.

401. Thank you for making this important connection between yeast and sugar and the various fungal infections that can occur. It’s a no-brainer really that everything that happens in and to the body is a reflection of a choice we have made, but can we go there, are we willing to go there is the question.

     1. Well said Gabriele, we all know the impact food has on our body, but most often people choose to not pay attention to it and prefer to go on with what they like and ignore the body, although it is shouting out very loud. So the question you raise is super important, are we willing to go there??

     2. Couldn’t agree more Gabriele, the question is ‘are we willing to go there’ for we do know what does and doesn’t work for us food and otherwise. And to add, what impediments might we have put in place to stop us going there, or to stall our progress. What all of this, your comment and the blog highlights is that we are very knowing and very scientific about how things impact us, but we often choose to willfully ignore that knowledge because we’re not willing to go there, or there is something we want to hold onto. This is raising some great questions for me to ask myself on any places where I am not willing to go.

402. Over the years I have had some fungal issues and like you Carmel was not informed of a need to change my diet. It was only on visiting a Naturopath that I had any information shared with me concerning diet.

403. Carmel I love your no nonsense straightforward way of presenting the facts about these conditions, it shows how they are simply a reflection of both lifestyle and diet choices and the true way to heal them is to look more deeply at our choices and way of living. When presented in this way it makes sense and it shows quite clearly we do not have to put up with anything if we are willing to make change that supports our whole body and not just our taste buds!

404. Imagine how the pharmaceutical companies will react as more and more of us discover that simple changes in diet can mean less medication . . .

     1. This is a great way forward you are advocating Carmel. That each of us do have the power to affect our health by the choices we make. And well worthwhile trying out what is recommended or what we wonder about and observing possible changes. Because they could turn everything right round.

405. A great blog Carmel, bringing some understanding around these very common conditions, so common in fact that we tend to dismiss it or see it as only a minor discomfort to the body. But as you clearly state here, Candida can result in much bigger issues for the body. Better to look at the diet and what foods are being chosen and give the body some support instead of subjecting it to whatever we choose to get a few seconds of pleasure from, and then suffer from later. It doesn’t seem to make sense.

406. Sugar + Emotions = Candida – often.

407. Carmel thank you for your clear and informative article. Interestingly I had an experience of a fungal conditional in my toenail. I clocked that I had fallen for indulging in a honey and mentioned this to the doctor who confirmed the link between sugar and fungal infections, but did not outright mention that a change in diet could sort it out. Could it be that doctors have become our servants, offering us over the counter solutions to make us feel better, rather than delivering the less palatable news that change is required? And if so what is our part here – have they found that we are unlikely to make changes so they leap straight into solutions? And is possible that a practitioner will only suggest what they realistically are willing to do themselves?

     1. It is indeed possible, Anne, that Doctors hold back from telling us unpalatable truths.

408. We have accepted a picture of health that is far from truly healthy as our normal. We have accepted our worth as much reduced from the shining light that we are. Candida and Athlete’s foot are majorly uncomfortable situations for the body, but they are accepted to be although annoying, common situations that just happen as a part of being human. The link you have made Carmel between diet and these infections is a question of whether we are truly accepting our worth and what really is true health? True health is always from the whole of us, infections in one part of our body is telling us there is something that is not harmonious in our entire body as a whole.

     1. Making the connection between infections and how we are living is a major step forward for humanity

        1. Yes it is, and it is also applicable to all dis-eases. The way we live has consequences on our body, that is a no brainer, but taking full responsibility for this seems to be the challenge for people.

        2. It really is Carmel, for most of us see infections as something that attacks us, and we have no option but to fight it. Instead what you offer is cultivating a body that is not so readily open to infections.

     2. Agree Adele, this is a great example of what quality of life we have accepted to be called normal. We have accepted to live with uncomfortable conditions and prefer to indulge in foods that are simply not made for the human body, but made by the human mind that believes is ahead of the body and with overpowering the immense wisdom constantly communicated by the body. The level of sickness and lack of vitality we have today is a result of this arrogance, the arrogance of living against the body and not by from body.

     3. Well said, Adele. We don’t stop to think about the cause and effect. We just focus on the problem and go to the doctor whose job is to fix us. There is great responsibility in illness.

409. Thanks Carmel for this comprehensive yet simple explanation of thrush and athletic foot. These two common irritants affect the level of stillness and harmony felt in the body, they affect our quality of life. This blog offers people suffering from these conditions a choice to change what is happening to their body’s in the form of illness and disease – very empowering and very exposing.

     1. I hadn’t thought about it that way – that these ‘two common irritants affect the level of stillness and harmony felt in the body’ so thank you for bringing it to my attention. I am already aware that eating sugar made me racy and from what you are suggesting, feeling irritation from the infection created a further raciness leading to more exhaustion and the craving for more sugar Crazy cycle.

     2. Years and years I had vaginal Candida and it definitely made me feel very irritated. I was constantly aware of this disharmony in me being female and was not able to connect to my stillness. For sure it had to do with not living the woman. Changing my diet was one thing, but becoming aware of the stillness we innately have and are was much more the key for me.

        1. Yes I too spent a lot of time feeling irritated, physically and emotionally! I have found changes to my diet supportive but learning to re-connect to my stillness has been the most effective for establishing lasting changes.

410. Wow, isn’t this the truth Carmel! I was plagued with these conditions for the best part of two decades before I was ‘brave’ enough to make the required dietary/lifestyle changes. It’s crazy isn’t it…we moan about the discomfort we are in, yet we are very reluctant to rock the comfortable boat we have sailed in for so long by taking the time to pause and look at the turmoil we are creating when we insist on living in a way that cannot support the body we are in! One thing I noticed with these yeasty conditions is that they thrive in a damp environment. This is key because our love is a flame and you can’t light a fire with damp sticks. That is, we cannot express the love that we are when we keep our vehicles of expression (our bodies) damp. Before there can be dampness, there is first a rejection of fire (love). The dampness then confirms our choice to not be love.

     1. So as with everything, it comes down to our willingness to truly offer ourselves true loving care so that we are not dancing to the tune of our desires that lure us away from that self-appreciation, making us believe that it is too hard or that feeling amazing is unattainable, when in fact it is the natural result of a very simple choice to be love.

        1. I love and appreciate the utter simplicity of your statement here – as you point out, feeling amazing is not unattainable, it is a simple choice to be love.

     2. Definitely agree Liane: “It’s crazy isn’t it…we moan about the discomfort we are in, yet we are very reluctant to rock the comfortable boat “

        1. Yes I can relate to this and also see it everywhere in life too. It is rather exposing for us when we hear statistics like 80% of disease is lifestyle related.

        2. Absolutely Jessica, it seems crazy to consider living in the discomfort. But many aren’t equipped to step outside of their normal. When people do make their changes and look back they say “why was I holding back?”

     3. I love the way you make sense using simple analogies Liane.

     4. That dampness you speak of is very relevant, but little known in medical or nutritional circles. The diet changes to remove the dampness from the body are like miracles!

     5. Yes, unbelievable that we will put up with discomfort rather than address the issue that is the cause in the first place. This is true of many aspects of life where we are not willing to take responsibility.

     6. You raise a crucial point Liane in the chain of cause and effect, even if we get Candida from taking antibiotics for another infection, what was the dampness or opening that allowed the infection to occur in the first place. When we live out of our natural balance of love there is an opening for what is not love (damp) to flourish.

     7. ‘Before there can be dampness, there is first a rejection of fire (love).’ Ouch, the truth can hurt – can we really do this to ourselves? Yes, of course. And seeing it in this way may be the impetus for us to choose fire/love first and foremost.

411. Thanks for the information Carmel. I am currently understanding how important the health in our gut is and when truly looked after with nourishing foods and drinks, mainly broths and water, it is paramount to our vitality and well being. If we look on the internet many places will talk about changing the diet with candida or yeast infections but it seems this natural wisdom has yet to reach all healthcare professionals.

412. Thank you Carmel for such detailed information on the symptoms and effects of fungal infections. It is great that you cleared this condition up within two weeks through making different choices in your life. It seems to be quite common for people to not link symptoms in the body with what we are actually putting inside our mouth or not want to know as change in lifestyle is required!

     1. I agree Stephanie there does seem to be a huge reluctance to change our diets even if it means having improved health, more energy and in some cases losing excess weight due to the changes.

     2. I enjoyed your detailed description of these conditions too. I was unaware of the full details of these and found your sharing to be very straight forward and informative.

     3. Absolutely Stephanie. It always feels to me that we don’t want to take responsibility for these things. It is much easier to think that it just happened to us and we need a solution rather than taking responsibility and seeing how we have contributed to any condition and what our responsibility in addressing it is.

413. Does it come back to how prepared are we to truly love ourselves, as to whether or not it is too hard to change our diet permanently in order to live in a body that is in harmony, or balance?

     1. Great question Suzanne, this blog exposes how we are disempowering ourselves by living in a way that is not true to the body and with this causing problems we then believe have to be solved with external help and pharmaceutical products, when in truth we are holding the key to true health and vitality in ourselves and the way we live.

     2. Having changed my diet many years ago to address the Candida that was rife throughout my body, I know how this total turnaround in one’s diet can prove somewhat challenging, but I also know from my experience that it is absolutely and completely worth it. I also have seen others who simply have found it way too hard to change and have chosen to keep on living the way they always have, unfortunately at great detriment to their long term health: but in the end it is all about free will, choices and consequences.

        1. So true Ingrid, no matter what the health issue, until we take responsibility for our unloving choices in our diet, lifestyle and interactions there is little possibility of truly healing them.

        2. It can be so difficult to make these choices – the tongue and tastebuds can hold so much over us! If we’re willing to at least try, the results will be felt and that is hard to argue against.

     3. Yes, and it also comes back to how prepared are we to eat for humanity and not just what we ‘like’ in our mouths.

        1. But it is not only about changing our diet, as Carmel wrote after a couple of years she again had to change her diet because of returning symptoms. It is also about developing more love and truly feel and acknowledge what the effect of our food is. In that way it is not a diet but a way of living that supports us to eat what keeps our body healthy and clear.

        2. Eat for humanity! Now there’s a concept. I take it by that you mean everything we eat affects us, and therefore potentially affects everything we do and are in the world. And that how we live is noticed and felt by all.

     4. Suzanne, I found that addressing the diet specifically for candida was great but only short term, because once the symptoms had disappeared, I went back to eating ‘normally’ so of course it returned again later. When I addressed the issue of my exhaustion, and what was causing THAT, then there was less craving for the sugar, so no willpower was needed, and once I experienced the stillness (less racy) then it was easily a no-brainer to stay off the sugar.

        1. So true Carmel, I’ve tried eating certain foods to improve my health but they never lasted long. Addressing why it is that I was craving certain foods has been the key to unlocking lasting change.

     5. Great question Suzanne – what comes to me is that maybe we hold on to habits around eating that cause illness and disease in our bodies because the distraction allows us to avoid looking deeper.

     6. The issue is eating well seems like punishment, or limitation to many, rather than love. But love it is.

        1. Eating well is an utter joy when we prepare nutritious food lovingly and rather than limiting I have found that it is the opposite. The variety of foods I now buy is far broader than it was a few years ago.

     7. For me it is about the quality of self love and commitment. Loving myself enough to listen to my body and make the change and then committing to that change and consistently choosing that change.

     8. Great question Suzanne, for myself I would say that I had very little self worth and would have said I did not know what self love was, but when I felt for myself very clearly what certain foods products like bread and dairy were doing to my body and my health, then it was very easy to give up. Having said that, I did have several health conditions like severe IBS, Candida, painful joints, headaches – I could go on. So to me it was a no brainer I had got to the point where I would try anything and when I heard Serge Benhayon present the ill effects of gluten and dairy, I knew instantly that these products were affecting me.

414. The way we are feeling in ourselves is often reflected in what we choose to eat.
     Feeling cravings for sugary starchy foods is a sure sign we have excess dampness and a disconnection within ourselves that we feel the need to smoother and dull down .
     I too have felt these cravings and suffered as a result with gut issues reflecting a candida overgrowth.
     As I connect more to who I am however the desire to eat foods that support the sugary, damp, yeasty environment candidiasis thrives in are no-longer a major issue.
     The deeper I connect the more I am drawn to that which supports rather then harms my body.

     1. If we deny ourselves the sweetness of our love, we will forever search for surrogates that blind us to the buried treasure that lies untapped and on tap within.

        1. Beautifully said Liane, seeking sweetness and satisfaction in food is seeking a replacement for what we have chosen to not live.

        2. So exquisitely expressed Liane. I was one that denied myself the “sweetness of our (my) love” for such a long time, endlessly searching for those “surrogates” to take its place. Now I finally know that absolutely nothing can take the place of the untramelled love that flows from every single particle of my being.

        3. There is no sweetness that matches or makes up for the love we ignore by not connecting to the treasures within.

        4. Beautifully expressed Liane. The comfort from the surrogates are so short lived and false while the sweetness of our love is eternal.

        5. I love this, so if we don’t deny our sweetness then maybe we wouldn’t reach for sweet foods or drinks to subsidise this? Surely accepting and feeling our sweetness is easier? And healthier!

        6. What an exquisite point you make Liane. The world searches for love, and “Self-love” is a byline of much of personal development, although it is often presented as unattainable. What you offer here is that our love for ourselves is not only normal, it runs so deep that its sweetness is like a tonic.

        7. Indeed Liane we are forever searching for the sweetness and love that we naturally are outside of ourselves, from food, our relationships and recognition, acceptance or approval from another.

        8. And what a sickly, sticky trap this is.

     2. Love this Nicole as it shows that connection to self is quite often the underlying issue we are overlooking. Funny how we will use so many others things to cover up this fact rather than stopping to feel what is truly going on. I love how Carmel makes it so simple and obvious and reveals the true part we can each have in supporting ourselves in the most simple and loving way.

     3. Yes Nicole, re-connection has been the foundation of healing for me too, and recognising and valuing the integral part I play in the whole. Releasing the way I was using food to drug myself has liberated me into being available to a whole new pulse of life working through me. Now it is not so much what I eat but eating too much that dulls and dampens this enormous capacity I am tapping into.

     4. This is so true Nicole that we are drawn to foods that reflect the way we feel. I now use this as a marker of how I feel – if I am drawn to sugary or salty foods I then reflect on how I am feeling that would lead to this craving and for me the food that I am craving is often to distract me from what is going on.

        1. Great point, Lee. How many of us stop to consider why we have our cravings, what’s behind them and why do we want a particular food.

     5. This is such a great outline of the links between cravings for sugary and starchy foods Nicole, an underlying disconnection to who we truly, causing a dampness in our body where the fungus can flourish. I find it interesting too how we often can fill and hide that emptiness in disconnection with starchy foods, but it does not last long and needs to be constantly fed.

     6. ‘The way we are feeling in ourselves is often reflected in what we choose to eat’. So true Nicole. I have eliminated dairy, yeast and sugar (almost) from my diet, but still have cravings for certain types of food and observe myself when I am this way. To connect to the feeling behind the craving would be honest and support me to choose Love and expansion instead dullness and contraction.

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