Is allium family good for candida treatment?

Hi there, Eric Bakker, naturopath, author of Candida Crusher.

I’m here to talk to you today about the fifth Candida crushing food, the allium family, in particular, brown onion. Brown onions or red onions are quite similar. Brown onions are a bit stronger. So brown onions we call Allium cepa and garlic we call Allium sativum.

So I’m going to talk a little bit about a study that was conducted at the University of Tehran in 2006 where they compared water extractions of allium cepa and allium sativum, so onion and garlic, against 19 different strains of Candida albicans and about 12 different Candida species in general, including 35 different types of dairy defined species. So these are various species of yeast that infect hair, nails and skin, different parts of the body.

So what they did is they prepared these little agar dishes of these little, you know, growing medium in a laboratory. And they would have all these different species of yeast growing there on these plates and then introducing to those plates water solutions of garlic and onion to see what the activity was like. And they were stunned to see how powerful both onion and garlic were when it came to reducing the populations of yeasts. And, in fact, what they found in some respects the activity was even more powerful against strains which are resistant to Fluconazole and particular pharmaceutical drugs.

So the point I’m making here is it makes a heck of a lot of sense for you to incorporate onion into your diet, very small amounts of raw onion, raw red onions, raw brown onions, spring onions, you know, the shallots or scallions, the green things. Cut them up and add them to your salad. Get some red onions and cut it really fine and add it to salads. Add it to different types of dishes. So raw onions are extremely powerful and have been used for thousands of years by many different people around the world.

Egyptians used onions going back a long time ago. It is said even when the pyramids were built, garlic and onions were actually traded for labor. And these foods also are very high in sulphur, which is an important compound required for detoxification. So your liver, in particular, has got a high infinity for sulphur for cleansing and purifying the body. Sulphur has been used for a long time. And here in New Zealand, we’ve got these sulphur baths, you know, the hot water that comes out of the ground in thermal activity is high in sulphur, which has a very deeply purifying and cleansing effect on the body.

So now why should you incorporate the allium family into your diet? Well, think about it. Antifungal activity, cleansing activity, purification, cheap, it’s something you should really consider doing. So instead of rushing off and buying the latest, greatest pill or taking drugs which can develop resistance against fungi, you can eat foods which are grown and available at your grocery store or supermarket, which have an anti-fungal activity. Make sense? Makes a lot of sense to me.

So I hope that answers your questions about the allium family and anti-fungal activity. Thank you.