Cravin’ Bacon? Here’s Why.

 

Bacon is everywhere these days. There’s even bacon ice cream.

Bacon has a kind of cult following. They even have conventions all about bacon. Once I even saw an ad for one of these gatherings and the woman speaking was wearing a dress made of bacon. Now that is a real bacon lover. People come to bacon conventions to eat bacon ice cream, wear clothes made of bacon, and talk about bacon while gorging on bacon products.

Why is bacon so popular? I have several nutritionally oriented reasons that people want, need, and even crave bacon.

Can you guess what they are?

Fat, Salt, and sugar! They can make you crave them and also can negatively affect your health. That’s often why we think people love bacon. That might be part of it. There is another reason why people want bacon (as well as salami, ham, and other meats).

It’s the smoke. Smoke! (I’m ignoring the fat and salt for this article.)

Yep, they smoke the cuts of meat to make bacon. Many prepared meats contain that smoke flavor, but bacon is the only one that has its own conventions.

As a nutritionist I look at things differently from most people. I know why they crave bacon. There is a simple explanation: a yeast problem. This yeast, called candida albicans, is on almost everything you come in contact with and you don’t even know it. People with a yeast problem often crave sugar and smoked foods.

When yeast is inside your body and living in you that’s when the trouble begins. This is called a yeast problem and it is triggered by eating fermented foods like beer, wine, pickles; sugar and products containing sugar; yeast products like bread, rolls, and some crackers; moldy cheeses like camembert and blue cheese; hard cheeses; and left overs. For many people eating fruit can also be enough sugar to trigger yeast growth in the body.

If you go to a party and have wine or beer, fruit, bread, and cheese you might even wake up feeling like you have a worse hangover than you would normally experience. This is because the yeast feeds on these foods and then produces the byproduct of alcohol. So you are turning your body into a still to make alcohol. Of course this only happens when you have the yeast living in your body. In the 40 years since information was first published by Dr. William Crook on yeast problems, I have seen thousands of people who have yeast problems and ill health directly related to the excess yeast in their body.

How does bacon enter into this? Aside from craving sugar, fruit, carbohydrates, wine or beer, craving smoked foods is also a symptom that you have candida living in your body. Bacon has both sugar and smoke on it so it gives the yeast in your body two reasons to want bacon. If you find that you must eat bacon or sugar or beer or wine then you might want to look into whether you have yeast in your body making you crave these foods to feed it.

There are many symptoms that often are mistaken for a disease when they are actually signs of too much yeast in your body.

•         Itching skin especially in moist areas or areas where you sweat
•         Headaches
•         Constipation and/or diarrhea
•         Discharge from the vagina or penis
•         Nerve deafness hearing loss
•         Numbness in hands and feet
•         Bloating and gas after eating
•         Frequent colds and flu
•         Feeling spacy
•         Some experts even believe that cancers and MS are directly related to yeast problems

There is no way I can list all the symptoms, there are so many that can directly affect you when you have too much candida in your system. There are a lot of detailed books on the yeast problem so getting help is easy. The Anger Cure has an entire chapter, Your Expanding Universe, devoted to yeast including a simple questionnaire to take to see if you have any of the major symptoms. Any books on yeast by Dr. William Crook or Dr. Carolyn Dean will be very helpful. WebMD often writes about yeast problems and the skin. M.D.s didn’t recognize yeast problems for many decades, and now they do. Chances are that in 2014 your doctor won’t think you are crazy if you talk about yeast problems.

What can you do if you suspect you have a yeast problem? It’s simple:

•         Avoid sugar and sugary foods
•         Avoid coffee
•         Avoid fruit and grains together
•         Avoid fermented foods like beer, wine, cheeses, soy sauce
•         Avoid yeasted foods like bread and crackers
•         Avoid processed foods, especially bacon, salami, ham, etc.
•         Avoid cigarette smoke
•         Eat yogurt with no sugar
•         Eat garlic or take odorless garlic extract
•         Eat a lot of vegetables, wash them in a veggie wash first
•         Exercise every day
•         For more ways to overcome yeast in your body, read books about it

Once you have taken a yeast test and read up on it, if you find you have a yeast problem that is undermining your health, see a naturopath or nutritionally oriented doctor for some personalized advice. There are still many doctors who don’t believe in the yeast problems, so don’t despair if your own doctor doesn’t want to talk about it. Find one who does. You will be surprised how much better you can feel if you are free of yeast in your body.

 

Kathleen O’Bannon, CNC, is the author of 11 books on nutrition and consults with clients in person, on skype,  or the telephone. She is available for speaking to your group on health and nutrition.  She can be reached through her email: kathleen@healthaliveproducts.com.