Are Supplements Making Your Candida Worse?

So you’ve started your Candida Diet, stocked up your fridge with lots of non-starchy vegetables and gone to the health food store to buy all the supplements that you need. You’re all ready to go, but there’s one last thing that you need to check. Take a good look at the back of those supplement bottles, because there might be some ingredients listed there that can make your Candida worse.

The trouble is that very few supplements are made specifically for Candida sufferers. So for example a supplement for digestive problems might contain dextrose, which is fine for most people, but it could cause a reaction in a Candida sufferer. You need to check that ingredient label very carefully before you buy a supplement, and today I’m going to share with you four ingredients that you really should avoid.

Maltodextrin

Out of all the ingredients added to Candida supplements, Maltodextrin is probably the one I am asked about most often. It is frequently added to probiotics, antifungals and anything else that the manufacturer wants to give a slightly sweet taste. However, Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide (a type of sugar) that can feed your Candida.

One type of Maltodextrin (made from barley malt) has actually been shown to grow Candida colonies even more rapidly than regular white sugar. The problem is that Maltodextrin is absorbed by your body extremely rapidly, just like glucose, and so it quickly affects your blood sugar levels. That sweet taste that your supplements have? It could be feeding your Candida.

Avoiding supplements with Maltodextrin will deprive those Candida colonies of one more food source. In fact, you should make sure that nothing you eat contains Maltodextrin, including cereal, processed foods and salad dressings. Many sweeteners contain Maltodextrin too. Which sweeteners are OK on a Candida diet? Try Stevia (a low-GI, herbal supplement) or Xylitol (a low-GI sweetener used by diabetics to maintain stable blood sugar levels).

Cellulase

First of all, don’t confuse cellulase with cellulose. Whereas cellulose is an organic compound that forms the cell walls in plants, cellulase (note the different spelling) is a group of enzymes produced mostly by bacteria and fungi. They are two very different things but, as the similarity in their names suggests, they are certainly related to each other.

The role of cellulase is to break down cellulose and turn it into beta-glucose, a form of sugar. This quickly raises your blood sugar and can also feed the Candida colonies in your intestines.

You will find cellulase in lots of digestive enzyme products, but it also appears in many other supplements. Cellulase is not actually produced naturally by your body – your gut flora can do a perfectly fine job of breaking down the cellulose that makes it through to your intestines.

Fructose, Glucose & Sucrose

I already mentioned Maltodextrin, which is the kind of ‘hidden sugar’ that many people see on ingredient labels without really realizing what it is. But you need to watch out for simple sugars (fructose, glucose and sucrose) in your supplements too.

Many vitamin supplements contain added glucose, although sometimes it might be listed as dextrose. You’ll also find it in a number of probiotics and antifungals. To find great brands that don’t contain added sugars, do your research online and read the ingredient labels before you buy.

Another surprising place to find sugars is Stevia, a natural sweetener derived from a plant found in Paraguay and Brazil. Regular Stevia is a great substitute for regular sugar because it satisfies that craving for sweet tastes without raising your blood sugar. However, many brands of Stevia contain added glucose, dextrose or Maltodextrin. It’s pretty easy to find a Stevia brand that contains no added sugars (here’s an example), just remember to read those ingredient labels!

Alcohol

Alcohol is generally a bad thing when it comes to Candida, for the simple reason that it is a toxin. The acetaldehyde that is produced when alcohol is processed in your liver is the exact same chemical as one of Candida’s byproducts. Although alcohol does not really ‘feed’ the Candida as some people suggest, it will make your symptoms worse. It also releases free radicals into your blood that can damage your internal organs and weaken your immune system.

That all sounds pretty bad, but you may have noticed that alcohol is often present in herbal remedies. This is mostly because it is a great preservative, but it also enables the herbal remedy to be administered in a liquid form, improving absorption among those with digestive problems.

You should also know that there are some great supplements out there that use alcohol as a part of the manufacturing process and as a preservative. One example of this is Candidate, an herbal supplement made by Native Remedies. Although this does contain a small amount of ethanol, it is still a very useful supplement for reducing Candida symptoms.

So what’s the verdict on alcohol in supplements? I would recommend that you avoid it if possible, but if there is an herbal remedy that you really like, there’s no harm in trying it. Additionally, some herbal remedies are available both with and without alcohol, in which case you should seek out the non-alcoholic version. For example, if you take bitters for your digestion, look for a brand of noon-alcoholic Swedish bitters instead.

If you’re looking for more information, the Ultimate Candida Diet program contains lots more on how to choose effective antifungals, probiotics and detox supplements.

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