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Strong Women
‘Candida diets’: is trying to starve candida a gut cure-all or dangerous hocus pocus?
By Lisa Bowman
3 years ago
2 min read
There’s talk of ‘candida’ all over social media, with many users documenting their restrictive ‘candida diets’ for better gut health. But what is candida and is it really the intestinal enemy it’s painted out to be? Writer Lisa Bowman investigates.
Candida is a type of fungus called yeast that lives in various parts of our body such as the skin, mouth, throat, vagina and gut, and if social media is to be believed, we all have a problem with it. The #candidadiet hashtag on TikTok has a whopping 10.8 million views, showing that millions of people are looking for quick fixes for their candida woes.
TikTok user @skindeeptosouldeep is a holistic health coach who claims to help women with chronic yeast infections. Her post asking, ‘Do you have candida?’, lists all the possible associated symptoms… but the truth is, we all have candida. In fact, it’s a very normal part of our body.
Research reveals that candida works with bacteria in the gut to keep it healthy, so candida itself isn’t an issue – problems only arise when there’s too much of it.
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