Disclaimer: This blog today is to give you an idea of what goes into a low-mold diet and to hopefully make it easier for you. For a personalized program that works around all your food limitations ( a side effect of mold toxicity) and lifestyle, please contact me for a consult. 

Low-Mold Diet Made Simpler

Mold toxicity is a bear. You’ve been feeling worse despite trying to change your diet and lifestyle. It’s frustrating but now you finally know why! Having an answer is fantastic! Yet, the road to recovery is a marathon and not a sprint. When mold starts to die off, it causes us to get much sicker. When we’re already sick, it can often be debilitating.

Surprisingly, and comforting to know, mold toxicity is not rare. You are not alone. There are about 15% of people who don’t respond to traditional integrative approaches to healing. We are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to environmental mold. We start feeling the detrimental effects of it first and take the longest to recover from exposure. Recovery is tricky. We can’t rush it. Our bodies can only detox out so much at a time. If we kill off the mold more quickly than our bodies can filter it out, we’re going to feel worse. We have to back off of our supplements until we feel better, then start slowly moving forward again. Professional guidance is a must.

3 Steps To A Successful Low-Mold Diet

As you know, the foundation to recovery (and health) is what we put into our bodies.

The very first step and the key to a successful low-mold diet is everything as fresh as can be.

This looks like:

• Absolutely no leftovers (unless you freeze immediately)
• nothing prechopped or precooked (that isn’t already frozen)
• and nothing preserved in any way (other than freeze-dried)

You know how in most other countries people go to the market daily for their food? It’s like that. If it has a barcode, you have to skip it. I don’t see this as a bad thing, it’s usually a huge adjustment though. Becoming BFF’s with your local farmers market and farmers will make life a lot easier too.

The second step is to avoid the foods that feed mold.

It makes sense right? If you’re trying to kill the mold that has taken hold of your body, you have to avoid the foods that keep feeding it. There are two main groups: mold and yeast containing foods and sugar.

Mold and yeast containing foods include:

• Fermented foods and drinks
• All cheese and soured milk products
• All cured meats (including bacon and hotdogs)
• All alcoholic beverages
• All vinegar except apple cider vinegar
• Mushrooms of all varieties
• Dried fruits
• Condiments including mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, etc
• Juices bottled for more than 24 hours
• Most nuts, except almonds
• High-mold coffee

Sugar, artificial sweeteners and high sugar foods including:

• All forms of sugar including coconut sugar and raw honey
• Artificial and zero calorie sweeteners (green leaf stevia okay is very small amounts)
• Tropical fruits including pineapple, mango, banana, and grapes
• Grains and pseudo-grains

The third step is to enjoy lots of these fresh (or frozen) foods!

Proteins

• Organic and pastured meats, fish, and eggs
• Almonds
• Seeds including hemp, chia, flax, sunflower, and pumpkin

Vegetables Including:

• Dark leafy greens
• Cruciferous including broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus, etc
• Squashes including zucchini, yellow, acorn, butternut, spaghetti, kohlrabi,etc
• Sweet potatoes (peeled and only a couple of times per week)
• Carrots, turnips, parsnips (peeling is a must)
• Radishes
• Artichokes
• Bell peppers
• Fresh tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Onions
• Garlic
• Fennel
• Jicama

Fresh and freeze-dried herbs and spices

Enjoy plenty of these because their healing properties are amazing AND they add a lot of variety to your dishes. This will help prevent food boredom!

Healthy Fats

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Virgin coconut oil
• Butter and ghee from organic and grass-fed cows
• Avocado oil and avocadoes

Lower sugar fruits

• Lemons
• Limes
• Berries (frozen or fresh picked)
• Cherries
• Apples
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Pears
• Nectarines
• Plums
• Melons

Drinks

• Purified water
• Organic, low-mold coffee (such as bulletproof brand coffee)
• Herbal teas

That’s a lot of food! If you want to know the science behind this approach, the book Toxic by Neil Nathan (Amazon affiliate link here) is a fantastic read. If you feel overwhelmed and aren’t sure where to begin, I would love to give you a plan and on-going support. Drop me an email and we can schedule a free 15-minute consult.