When it comes to preventing toenail fungus, it’s best to stay on your toes in more ways than one. We highly recommend using an effective fungal treatment as soon as you see any symptoms, but watching what you eat is one way to stop toenail fungus before it even begins.

What causes toenail fungus?

Everyone naturally has some amount of fungi in the body. An overgrowth of fungi, however, can cause painful, unattractive, annoying infections. Fungi thrives in warm, moist environments. But while poor hygiene is highly likely to cause toenail fungus, a diet that “feeds” fungi can make it worse. It also makes some people more prone than others to develop the infection.

What foods should you avoid to prevent toenail fungus?

Do you love carbs? If you do, then you have one thing in common with those pesky fungi. They easily metabolize most carbohydrates, which causes them to multiply faster than you can munch down that glazed doughnut.

You don’t need to go on a totally carb-free diet, but you can cut down on the following:

• Sugary foods and sweetened drinks. It’s okay to indulge your sweet tooth every once in a while. But if you’re especially prone to fungal infections, or if you’ve had one before, you might want to think twice before getting that extra slice of chocolate cake or supersizing that soda.
• Refined carbohydrates. Also known as bad carbs, some examples of these are white rice, white pasta, pancakes, waffles, and any kind of bread that isn’t whole grain. What sets these apart from the so-called good carbs is the refining or milling process. This eliminates all the good stuff from whole grains such as dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.

• Alcohol. Aside from the fact that some alcoholic drinks have more sugar than you might think, alcohol can also weaken your immune system. This makes you more prone to fungal overgrowth and thus lead to toe nail fungus, among other kinds of fungal infections.

What foods can you enjoy to prevent toenail fungus?

There isn’t a magical cure against toenail fungus, as far as diet is concerned. But you can prevent fungi from wreaking havoc on your skin and nails by strengthening your immune system and improving your overall health.

Help keep your body fungus free by saying yes to:

• Calcium and vitamin D. Dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt are rich in calcium. If you’re lactose intolerant, however, you can still get a good dose of calcium from seeds, seafood, leafy greens, legumes, and tofu. Seafood, egg yolks and mushrooms, meanwhile, are rich in vitamin D.
• Fatty acids. Get your dose of good cholesterol from fish, walnuts, flaxseed, eggs, seaweed, soybean and spinach. You may also take a fish oil supplement.

• Probiotics. Foods rich in probiotics such as yogurt or yogurt drinks balances the amount of good bacteria in your system. This helps prevent fungal overgrowth. Make sure, however, to check for sugar content. Some yogurt drinks can be high in sugar, which can cancel out their antifungal effects.

• Lean protein. Aside from lean meat and seafood, you get also get lean protein from nuts, tofu and egg whites.  
• Iron. Shellfish, spinach, legumes and quinoa are good sources of iron. And if you’d like to spoil yourself a bit without going overboard on sugar, an ounce of dark chocolate contains 3.3 mg of iron, which is 19% of the recommended daily allowance.

Again, there is no one-size-fits all solution to toe nail fungus as far as nutrition is concerned. But by feeding your body with the right stuff from within, you can discourage the root cause of fungal overgrowth before it gets out of control. Make sure, however, to consult a health professional before making any drastic changes to your diet.