It’s Eric Bakker, naturopath from New Zealand, author of Candida Crusher. Formulator of the Canxida range of supplements. Thanks for checking out my video. I’ve got a question here from a guy called Josh in Canada and Josh is a body builder who reckons he’s got a yeast infection. I haven’t really checked his email properly yet, but Josh’s question is “Is whey any good for Candida? If I’ve got Candida, can I have whey protein powder?” Let’s talk a little bit about whey protein powder, Josh.
Whey protein powder is a good powder to take for energy and body building overall in general. It has been for a long, long time, but I’m not a big fan of dairy products in general. Especially these sorts of like filtered whey protein isolate drinks. I just don’t think they’re really good. I think they’re quite refined. It’s almost as bad as really getting a hold of cow’s milk and then heating it up and pasteurizing it and homogenizing it and then giving it to people in a plastic bottle and say, “Here, drink this.” And I just didn’t really know, but I discovered a few years ago that all the milk that we drink is, in fact, reconstituted milk powder, so it’s actually milk that’s been completely dried out and then reconstituted back into a liquid again. Milk’s is not really a good product.
Whey protein is allergenic for quite a few people. Now, whey is a protein and casein is also a protein, and generally, they’re separated when whey protein isolate is made. Particularly like these body building powders. The casein is the highly allergenic component of cow’s milk. Casein allergies, casein intolerances are quite common with a lot of people. It’s very difficult to separate all the casein from the whey, so many people who take a whey protein powder still get allergies. So therefore, I would say don’t have it if you suspect you’ve got a gut problem or a yeast infection.
I’ve written down the four chief things that you need to look out for if you’re taking whey to see if it could be causing your problem. Gassing or bloating, so if you get really gassy inside or bloating, this is a problem. You may want to temporarily stop the whey to see if the gassing or bloating disappears. Farting or gas production, so lots of farts and gas. If you have a lot of this, especially offensive flatulence and lots of it, you could be going through a protein overload or have an allergy towards the casein component of the whey.
Stuffy nose and catarrh, all blocked up in here. Waking up in the morning being blocked up in the nose or coughing up phlegm or catarrh. These are typical signs of a problem with casein intolerance. Excess mucous in head, nose and throat. Doing this and then getting all this mucous back or spitting up mucous all the time, having partially blocked ears, having recurring sinus infections. These are all signs that you need to give whey the flick, so it’s not good.
Dairy contains lactose as well, which is a sugar, and some people have got lactose intolerance. They haven’t got lactase or the enzyme to break the sugar down. Diarrhea is a chief symptom of lactose intolerance. So is whey good for Candida? Give it the flick. And move maybe across to something like a yellow pea protein or a brown rice protein. There are other kinds of protein powders you can have. If you want protein, Josh, just start eating good quality eggs. I’m a big fan of soy, of non-genetically modified soy products. I think tofu is a good source of protein. Very lean cuts of grass fed beef and bison and animals like that are very good. Not so much red meat in your diet. I tend to go more for fish. If you’re looking for protein, you can’t beat fresh fish. Good quality, young white filets. Fish is a superb protein.
Whey does contain quite a lot of cysteine and other good amino acids in it. Cysteine, as we know, is one of the building blocks for a tripeptide called glutathione, which is a very, very powerful combination of three amino acids in the body that has an incredibly powerful effect to help prevent a lot of different kinds of diseases and reverse free radical damage. Glutamine is also part of this tripeptide, but you can get cysteine from eggs and from many other sources as well. You don’t need whey in your diet at all.
As I mentioned, gas, bloating, farting, stuffy nose, catarrh, excess mucous in head and throat. If you’ve got any of those, stop whey to see if there’s a link between them. Again, just to reiterate on the answer. No, I don’t think whey is a good choice if you think you’ve got a gut problem or a yeast infection or this catarrh.