I absolutely agree with this. My great grandmother had Alzheimers as well as Hidradenitis suppurativa, which I have inherited from her. I switched to a yeast and wheat free diet many years ago to relieve symptoms of HS. Not only did it resolve my HS, but also migraines and many other inflammatory issues. Looks like there is research around Alzheimer's and Dectin-1 signaling which is involved in innate immunity to fungi, including bread yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). It's absolutely insane to me that people eat a pathogen that triggers an innate immune response. A inflammation response to yeast is coded into our cells, if it weren't we'd be killed by unbaked bread. Why then do most processed foods contain it? We're taxing and confusing our immune systems by eating it.
> We're taxing and confusing our immune systems by eating.
Well this is not wrong. I'm no expert, but it seems as though not eating (or drinking) would result in less need for inmune system activity, at least in the digestive track. Of course, you'd die, but maybe that was the cost of healthy living all along
I can easily imagine someone with a genetic trait that malforms a single protein could end up with a heritable sensitivity to one particular yeast strain, and not all yeast, everywhere.
This diet is hard to follow because yeast cuts through a lot of foods, especially in fermented foods as you've mentioned. A non-exhaustive list of yeasty foods looks like: Non-distilled vinegars, non-distilled alcohols, dried fruits, naturally-fermented soy sauce, cheese, many savory packaged goods, most vegan meat replacements, some dried spices, bread, etc.
Fermented foods and mushrooms can be good at fighting cancer precisely because they ramp up the immune system. In fact yeast is used as an adjuvant inside of vaccines for this purpose.
What's insane is that it is both known and not known that yeast causes inflammation by science. Used as adjuvant, used to "boost" immunity, yet not understood to be a cause of general low-grade systemic inflammation when in our food supply.
Most cheese, if not all, doesn't have yeast in it. It's bacteria that ferment it.
Though I guess it will have as much wild yeast land on it as any other food in your plate but I don't think that's what the parent comment was referencing.
Source: I've been involved in small commercial cheese making for years.
Umm, yeast is a common surface flora on many cheeses (probably all natural rind cheeses), and you can in fact buy packets of Debaryomyces Hansenii and Candida Utilis from Danisco specifically for use in cheese. Source: I'm involved in cheesemaking.
So what are you proposing? Trying to avoid everything that might cause an immune system reaction? That will eventually lead to the immune system really running amok...
I'm just saying that a wheat and yeast-free diet has reversed Hidradenitis and many systemic inflammation symptoms for me. In trying to understand _why_ it became clear to me that yeast (and maybe wheat) trigger an inflammatory response in our innate immune system - by design. So it's probably not a good idea to eat yeast unless you want to up-modulate your immune system (inducing inflammation). Even if your body can down-modulate, isn't that just causing a sensitivity imbalance similar to diabetes and glucose?
For example, Dectin-1 is one of many innate cellular receptors that launch inflammatory responses when Bread yeast (and others) is detected (and possibly 1,3 beta glucans from wheat). We are in a genetic war with saccharomyces cerevisia, inside of our DNA. And not just us, all animals need to be in this war, because otherwise we'd die.
This isn’t a well understood area at all but the idea that yeast / fermented food consumption helps us regulate our immune system in a good way has also been studied.
Yep, it's kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand an over-active immune response can be great for fighting cancers and opportunistic infections possibly. But too much inflammation will wear down our bodies and trigger auto-immune responses.
