Environmental Issue & Sick Building Syndrome Blog

        Mold is from the family of fungi. That is a distinction shared with the mushroom, a very common food and source of medicine. 

        Many of us would be dead from an infection by now if not for penicillin and other antibiotics derived from mold. In this instance, penicillium is the source mold from which we got the wonder drug penicillin.

        Yeasts are in the same family, and unless you are a fan of unleavened bread they are essential to our food supply. Just in case the “unleavened” word was never on your vocabulary list, that means there are not any agents to raise the bread. That would be no yeast or no baking soda. 

       Mold can be very beneficial. More exactly, some molds are very beneficial and play a role in the foods we eat and beverages we drink. In the days before refrigeration cheese was a very important food. The mold was a way to preserve the nutrients found in milk.  

        Beer and wine are dependent upon mold to preserve the nutritional value they contain. The alcohol is now a recreational 

Mark Welch, DO, F.A.O.C.O.  Mold Elimination Diet lists the following foods:

• Cheeses -all cheeses including cottage cheese, especially aged cheese
• Vinegar and vinegar containing foods (Mayonnaise, salad dressings, catsup, chili sauce, pickles foods (beets, peppers, eggs) pickles, relishes, green olives, mustard
• Sour Cream, sour milk, butter milk, yogurt
• Alcoholic liquors especially beer and wine
• Soured breads sour as pumpernickel, coffee cakes and any other food made with yeast
• Sauerkraut
• Cider and homemade root beer
• Pickled and smoked meats and fish including delicatessen foods, sausages, frankfurters, corned beef, ham and bacon
• All dried fruits such as apricots, dates prunes figs and raisins
• Canned tomatoes

Mold is an important part of our food chain, industrial production of chemicals and manufacturing of drugs.