Mold Avoidance in Foods

Mold avoidance is a tall order. Whether you remediate or simply leave a contaminated environment, the decisions are complicated. And unending.

When it comes to mold avoidance in foods, the same is true. With dried fruit, fermented foods, sugars, sorghum, barley, to name a few, it feels like "mold is everywhere." Truly, mold and mycotoxin avoidance in the diet is as complicated as mold and mycotoxin avoidance in an indoor environment.

There's a good reason for this. We're not taught in health class that our grain supply is commonly contaminated with mycotoxins. We don't learn in a doctor's office that corn is "universally contaminated" with fumonism. And we certainly don't often hear about the 1993 study showing 24 types of colonized fungi inside peanut shells.

Thus an individual struggling with health issues resulting from a mold exposure, prolonged use of antibiotics (fungus-based drugs), or candida, must learn the truth about molds and mycotoxins in food. Healthy people, those with an intact immune system, can get away with eating a mix of healthy and unhealthy foods because the whole foods have antimycotic properties and cancel out the harmful foods.

It is a long, long journey to figure it out. It's trial and error. It's the error part I have difficulty reconciling. Our 13-year-old son has made great progress on a strict anti-fungal diet. We went out to dinner a week ago and he enjoyed a hamburger with a bun, ice cream, and the treat of all treats: a Luna Bar. His vertigo and tinnitus came back with a vengeance. He still hasn't fully recovered.

Yesterday I felt so discouraged about the food avoidance issue that after I woke up and took one look at the kitchen, I had to go right back to our air mattress.

Chris was on duty willingly overseeing the fruit smoothie production line. I felt overwhelmed by everything and lost sight of our progress.

The troops rallied and gave me a much-needed pep talk. Our oldest daughter made an interesting point. "When we were in the house I ate endless amounts of carbs and never felt full. I didn't even feel sick from food. Now my body lets me know."

It makes sense the digestive system would be such a vital part of healing. It represents more than half of the immune system. Bloating, gas, indigestion, reflux, and other irritable bowel problems are often a result of fungal exposure, either in the air or in foods. Here's another interesting fact.

90% of all serotonin in the body is found in the gastrointestinal system.If the digestive track is off so is the serotonin level. We dealt with bouts of depression in our home. No wonder.

The pep talk helped. I felt renewed hope and motivation. So much so that I made our first carrot/ ginger/ garlic juice concoction.

Who knows. With the alkaline boost, maybe today will be a better day.