A yeast-free diet is a choice for anyone who may be battling with unbalanced levels of bacteria and yeast in their guts (otherwise known as dysbiosis), or who have an allergic sensitivity to yeast, and need to be mindful of not introducing any additional yeast into their systems that may provoke the allergy and increased systemic inflammation. If someone has an allergic sensitivity to yeast, they will also need to be aware of any environmental yeasts they may be encountering (such as mold!). A yeast-free diet helps reduce the incidence of encountering foods that naturally contain yeast, reducing the total body burden while they work on soothing and healing the gut so its integrity can be returned.
A yeast-free diet can range from being a diet that avoids all sources of starches (which can “feed” the unwanted yeast in our digestive systems), to a diet that moreso excludes foods that contain yeast themselves. Natural, whole foods that contain yeast include dried fruit (like dates!), wine or other fermented drinks, vinegar, kombucha, fermented foods like pickles or sauerkraut, any low-quality pantry goods like nuts or seeds that potentially have been in storage too long and now have molds on their surfaces, nutritional yeast, yeasted products (like traditional sourdough breads), chocolate and other fermented bean products (like coffee!).