Study Finds Fermented Foods May Alter Your Microbiome, Reduce Inflammation, and Improve Your Health (nytimes.com) 118
A new study finds that eating fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha increase the diverse of gut microbes — and "may also lead to lower levels of body-wide inflammation, which scientists increasingly link to a range of diseases tied to aging," reports the New York Times:
The latest findings come from a study published in the journal Cell that was carried out by researchers at Stanford University. They wanted to see what impact fermented foods might have on the gut and immune system, and how it might compare to eating a relatively healthy diet full of fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains and other fiber-rich foods... [Among the study's participants], the fermented food group showed marked reductions in 19 inflammatory compounds... For people in the fermented foods group, the reductions in inflammatory markers coincided with changes in their guts.
They began to harbor a wider and more diverse array of microbes, which is similar to what other recent studies of people who eat a variety of fermented foods have shown. The new research found that the more fermented foods people ate, the greater the number of microbial species that bloomed in their guts... Higher levels of gut microbiome diversity are generally thought to be a good thing. Studies have linked it to lower rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease and other ills...
Suzanne Devkota, the director of Microbiome Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new study, said it has long been assumed that eating fermented foods had health benefits but that the new research provides some of the first "hard evidence" that it can influence the gut and inflammation.
They began to harbor a wider and more diverse array of microbes, which is similar to what other recent studies of people who eat a variety of fermented foods have shown. The new research found that the more fermented foods people ate, the greater the number of microbial species that bloomed in their guts... Higher levels of gut microbiome diversity are generally thought to be a good thing. Studies have linked it to lower rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease and other ills...
Suzanne Devkota, the director of Microbiome Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new study, said it has long been assumed that eating fermented foods had health benefits but that the new research provides some of the first "hard evidence" that it can influence the gut and inflammation.
So- fermented is good (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So- fermented is good (Score:5, Informative)
then distilling that essence must be even better...
That might not work. For instance, foods with antioxidants are known to promote health. But when the anti-oxidants are isolated and taken in pill form, they provide no measurable benefit.
According to TFA, the benefit of eating fermented foods appears to be related to promoting a highly diverse gut biome. That may be from consuming live bacteria rather than some "essence".
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That loud whooshing noise is the joke flying over your head.
And that loud sighing noise is the informational aspect ending up completely lost on you.
Congratulations, ironically and sincerely, both.
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"then distilling that essence must be even better... at least that is my theory."
Yes, your Sauerkraut-Whiskey will be a hoot.
Re: So- fermented is good (Score:2)
For science! (Score:5, Funny)
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Not to mention the dough you put under that cheese.
Essentially, according to this article, living on beer and pizza should ge a very healthy lifestyle.
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Sourdough, if aged properly, is also fermented. Sourdough crust pizza, and I'll upgrade to whiskey.
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Read my thoughts exactly. Gonna have to step up my intake of beer.
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I doubt there is much of bacteria in industrial pasteurized beer. While alcohol abuse and even modest consumption are to provide you with a bunch of disservice.
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Simple - brew your own.
It's fun, it's cheap, and your can brew it exactly how you like it, including the alcohol levels.
Homebrew beer (Score:2)
Ok, I'll bite. Recommendations for how to start homebrew beer without buying a pile of stuff?
Re:Homebrew beer (Score:4, Informative)
You do have to buy some stuff, but it'll pay for itself within a couple of brews. Start with kits (malt extracts). All of this should be available at home brew shops.
1. fermenter with airlock and tap, like this one:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/280641622145 [ebay.com.au]
2. sanitiser - sodium hypochlorite or similar - VERY IMPORTANT! Cannot stress this enough. Spoiled brews are heart-breaking.
3. Bottles and caps (time consuming, but cheap), or kegs and CO2 bottles & fittings (easier, but more costly to start with).
4. Kit of favourite style, e.g. dark ale, lager, bitter, pilsenser. Home brew shop can also help to get it close to your favourite commercial style - starter kit, additives, etc. Standard kit will ferment out to about 3.5%ABV. 1kg/2.2lbs of dextrose will raise that to about 4.5%. Dextrose only, do NOT use table sugar.
5. join a forum, e.g. https://aussiecraftbrewing.com.au/ [aussiecraf...ing.com.au]
You should be able to get started with less than $200 worth of stuff. Subsequent brews will cost $40 of supplies, and your time & effort. If you find that you like it, you can move on to full-grain brewing, but that involves more gear.
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You should be able to get started with less than $200 worth of stuff. Subsequent brews will cost $40 of supplies, and your time & effort. If you find that you like it, you can move on to full-grain brewing, but that involves more gear.
When I was brewing - I'd make certain to drink the yeast at the bottom of the bottle. And some in my family didn't like the yeast, so my mom would get it when she collected the dead soldiers.
Some people say it goes right through them. I suspect that's actually one's body adjusting their biome. After a bit of yeasting, they don't have that problem any more.
But my family has been eating fermented stuff pretty much forever. Marmite/Vegemite might be similarly good - although a true acquired taste.
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Just to add to what dwywit said (with one point of difference);
I have a pair of 50 litre steel kegs that I brew my beer in. It dispenses straight from the keg with the help of a CO2 cylinder, which saves on hours of cleaning, bottling and capping. The whole setup cost about $800.
But that was ten years ago. Since then, I use a can of brewing concentrate and a three kilo bag of raw sugar per brew (there's nothing wrong with raw sugar [kissmybrew.com]). That costs about $20 and less than an hour's work for about 48 litres of b
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Thanks to you both. Much appreciated. I like the keg idea, but that's a high startup cost.
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In Australia, it costs $52 for 9 litres of cheap beer. (24 cans of 375ml)
At $20 for 48 litres, instead of $277, it doesn't take very long at all to become a worthwhile proposal. Even more so if you like the good stuff [liquorland.com.au].
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How long does that 48 liters keep? I could easily see it taking me a month or longer to go through that much beer at home. I worry that it'd go off, even in a CO2-pressurized keg.
The main things affecting beer's longevity are oxygen and sunlight. So... ages and ages in a keg I would think.
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Beer won't go bad in the keg. It's lightproof, and there's no oxygen in the keg, only CO^2, so it would only mature the flavour further.
Oxygen would be bad, because it allows any Acetobacter that sneak in to do their thing, and you end up with a lifetime's supply of brown malt vinegar instead.
Light is worse, because it breaks down the iso-alpha acids released by the hops. The resulting compounds bind with proteins that contain sulphur to form 3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol, and that shit is nasty
But an airtight
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Make your own wine, instead. All you need is a 5 gallon glass jug (don't use the plastic ones, it affects the taste), a piece of mesh cloth, a siphon, and a bubbler that costs a couple of bucks. I make wine the way my great-grandfathers did. Last weekend I picked about 4 gallons of blackberries, squished them a little with a potato masher, and then left them in the bucket with a clean cloth over the top. This allows the natural yeasts to start reproducing and crowd out the bacteria. This weekend I'll s
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Notice that nowhere did I mention adding yeast or using a hygrometer. Using natural yeast and letting it find its own specific gravity results in a less consistent brew, which many people find unacceptable. For myself I like doing it that way, because while some years are better than others you'll occasionally get that amazing knock-your-socks-off good batch that the more "professional" process will never deliver.
You are really close to making a Lambic. I do like a Framboise or a Kriek every once in a while.
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Simple - brew your own.
It's fun, it's cheap, and your can brew it exactly how you like it, including the alcohol levels.
Been there - any alcohol stays alcohol. I was making wine, becoming exposed to the apple garden, also wine from dandelions, brilliant by itself. But it all ended drunk. I would rather suggest skipping on alcohol, tobacco, if we are here after advising.
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The solution is obvious, switch to cloudy wheat beer.
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The solution is obvious, switch to cloudy wheat beer.
Solution is to drop alcohol, take seriously fermented food products.
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I'm alcoholic, know the expense. Luckily, sympathetic kind of.
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And... (Score:3)
A new study finds that eating fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha increase the diverse of gut microbes ...And barley. I swear I heard someone say fermented barley.
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Probably, but my suspicion is that it only works if the food contains a live culture, so don't pasteurize your beer.
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So, only homebrew will do :-p
Re:And... (Score:5, Informative)
Source: https://journals.asm.org/doi/1... [asm.org]
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Put within context the entire paragraph that I quoted parts from is this:
Well duh (Score:1)
Being fermented is only a step away from being rotten. Of course your gut microbes will change. It's trying to prevent you from being poisoned by that almost rotten food.
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Uum, you should look up what bread and beer and cheese and salami/ham and pickled vegetables and dry-aged meat and cocoa and black tea etc, etc, etc are...
Also, you should look up what digestion actually is. (Hint: It's controlled rotting.)
Actually, hell, when you see something rotting on the ground, that's essentially just the digestion of the plants around it in action. Because the digestive system of plants is the soil around their roots.
I seriously wonder how you managed to grow up yet stay so shockingl
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Being fermented is only a step away from being rotten. Of course your gut microbes will change. It's trying to prevent you from being poisoned by that almost rotten food.
Does the gut even have much control over its microbes? I thought the only anti-poison control was vomiting and/or diarrhea.
What about (Score:3)
week old leftovers?
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I'd rather have week old home-cooking leftovers than fresh McDonald's.
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Week is long term, so game can be risky. Remember that buddy, who used to boil rice for the whole week at once, which ended lethal. Be careful. What certainly works for me - reheat leftovers well every second day, especially when these would not fit into fridge. It is much safer in latter, still week is long shot.
Anyway, this has very little to do with fermented food. I was excited by fermenting apples this year in sour liquid with some species, they can be not even ripe, but taste excellent, the skin worki
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If your fridge is kept between 33 and 36 Fahrenheit a week is not particularly long.
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If your fridge is kept between 33 and 36 Fahrenheit a week is not particularly long.
It's 'bout 0,5 -- 2 Celsius here. I support your statement, yet in mine only limited space is at that temperature, I call it zero zone. Still, processed and not preserved foods are especially vulnerable, speaking in terms of weeks. Just be as careful.
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Well, sauerkraut/kimchi is finely sliced cabbage, carrots and onions left unrefrigerated for a week, or even two, so there's your answer.
Although....You do need to keep them fully submerged in an anaerobic aqueous solution with not less than 2% of the total weight being sodium chloride. Otherwise you may end up breeding up a nice healthy colony of Clostridium Botulinum instead.
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> sodium chloride
I know not reading TFA is de rigueur around these here parts, but comments you're actually in the process of replying to??
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week old leftovers?
Gas station sushi or Egg salad sammiches?
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Koji mold can deliciously ferment meat, though it isn't guaranteed to prevent pathogens. (It's been tried but not studied.) Really high salt concentrations can allow fish to ferment safely (fish sauce). And nitrates/nitrites can allow meat to ferment (bacon) without risk of pathogens. I've heard smoking meat also has an antimicrobial effect, but I don't know if it allows some beneficial fermentation microbes.
For those that never leave the house (Score:2)
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So save the geeks
why interfere with nature? it created doritos for a reason!
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i have no words, so please just accept my spaghettiform gratitude.
Mechnikov (Score:3, Informative)
It's funny that more than a hundred years ago Mechnikov identified a group of Bulgarians that lived a very long time and what they all had in common was eating a local yogurt. This yogurt's culture was isolated and the /l. bulgaricus/ strain was identified. It's used by almost all commercial yogurt producers today.
The Bulgarians aged slowly due to low levels of vascular inflammation.
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Dannon used people from Georgia (not the one in the USA) in their ads at one time. Everyone in the ad was supposed to 100 years old or something like that. Turned out they were old, just not that old.
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Turned out they were just 40something factory workers. /s
Beer ... (Score:1)
As someone suffering from CIBD... (Score:2)
...let me say: No shit Sherlock!
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I saw this one a few days ago:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.co... [wiley.com]
Just a preliminary study, but it's encouraging that there's a path to understanding and perhaps treating chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.
I prefer kimchi, but if a supplement is going to help, have at it!
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Might be barr-epstein virus related gut issues. Butyrate (supplement or naturally from gut bacteria) bring the barr epstein virus out of latency and is then able to be killed by natural killer cells. Otherwise, barr-epstein kills almost 80% of neutrophils within 1 day.
https://rupress.org/jem/articl... [rupress.org]
https://cancerres.aacrjournals... [aacrjournals.org]
https://journals.asm.org/doi/f... [asm.org]
EBV is a gamma herpes virus similar to HIV and cytomegalovirus. Estimated 50% of infants, 70% of the population by age 30, and 95+% (!!!!) by ag
Tinkering for science recognition (Score:2)
Re: Tinkering for science recognition (Score:2)
anti-inflammatory you say? (Score:2)
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Without emphasizing anti-inflammatory feature alone, microbiome is your great companion. You have provided another example how enriching your intake makes great difference to your well being. Similar goes to fermented, live foods, which are extremely stimulating rich microbiome.
Re: anti-inflammatory you say? (Score:2)
Couldn't you cook your food with all those spices (fresher the better) and enjoy them more?
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In case you didn't know, oregano, sage, and rosemary will grow in pretty much any yard in North America, and if you're not careful will become a serious annoyance as they spread and take over (mint too, and if you let lemon balm go to seed once you'll never get rid of it.) My first experimentation with fresh herbs in cooking were because someone planted them in a park down the street and they went nuts.
We've known that for a while (Score:2)
I felt healthier while living in Eastern Europe (Score:3)
Anything that isn't gross? (Score:2)
So, can I get the good bits in a pill or what?
Re:Anything that isn't gross? (Score:4, Informative)
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You just listed incredibly gross things. The smell of kombucha makes me nauseous as does the taste of yoghurt. I'm going to stop because I'm getting there just thinking about it this much.
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For a better part, it would. Eat it sauer.
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holistic healers & chiropractors are quacks, plain & simple. They don't know how to diagnose, which is why they talk in such vague terms & everything they say sounds pretty much the same & every treatment's used for a very long list of ailments. You know what you call alternative medicine that actually works? -- Medicine! If you need a doctor, go to a real doctor. If you need a physio, go to a real physio. They'll diagnose, treat & send you on your way -- At least in the civilised world
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If you'd like to have more energy, sleep better, live longer, & generally be healthier;
It's not that complicated... and yet it is hard. If you want to feel better, you can start following better sleep hygiene practices. It's incredibly simple, and it will have an enormous impact on your health and mental performance. But simple doesn't mean *easy*.
You have to *hack your behavior*. It's not enough to know that eating a diet with more fruits and vegetables will make you feel better, you have to know how to study and understand your habits and behavioral quirks to find ways to exploit them.
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Chiropractor is essentially quackery that the general public takes seriously. It's not as utterly wacky as the early days, but there are still quite a lot of hardcore practitioners who still literally believe all diseases spring from the spine, even though most chiropractors are just unlicensed orthopedics.
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Yup, chiropractic has a history. It's listed under "alternative medicine" on wikipedia. Now it may be controversial as it's changed a lot over the years, but as for it's history it is genuinely in the category of "alternative".
See, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. Now the weirdness of the early days is low these days. However I also work a few blocks away from the Palmer College of Chiropractic, which is named after the original guy.
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holistic healers & chiropractors are quacks, plain & simple.
Have you been to many, or are you just judging from afar, with no data? That doesn't sound scientific to me.
If you'd like to have more energy, sleep better, live longer, & generally be healthier; get plenty of exercise, eat more plants & plant-based foods (no need to go vegetarian or anything, just change the ratio) & whole foods, & eat better quality carbs in smaller quantities. For quick results, take psyllium husk (it's horrible!) every day & you should start to feel better after a couple of weeks. It's almost pure soluble & insoluble dietary fiber which cultivates the conditions in your gut which allow pro-biotics (beneficial bacteria) to thrive. It's a temporary measure until you've changed your eating habits for the better.
All I said was that holistic healers espouse what you just did.
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All I said was that holistic healers espouse what you just did.
Yes, & who needs a quack to tell them to do that? Most people need a decent, qualified, evidence-based dietitian to help them to adopt healthier eating habits. Not someone who puts them on extreme & sometimes dangerous diets & quacks & charlatans often do.
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2) Was a dietician going to address my kyphotic neck? A chiropractor did after many traction treatments, and then confirmed it with x-ray images.
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1) I'm guessing the holistic people existed before there were "dieticians" and accessible Internet resources. They aren't all wackos...
Before modern medicine we also had doctors who believed in spontaneous generation, blood-letting, cupping, & a wide range of wacky & sometimes downright dangerous treatments, chiropractic being one of them. Patients' chances of recovery were substantially lower than they are with modern medicine.
2) Was a dietician going to address my kyphotic neck? A chiropractor did after many traction treatments, and then confirmed it with x-ray images.
Are you sure you don't mean you had physiotherapy? These days a lot of chiropractors learn physiotherapy because, unlike chiropractic, it's scientific evidence-based & so osteopathic doctors & physio
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I can't speak to the US healthcare system.
Ah, now I think I understand; this might be a miscommunication. The term "holistic approach" in the US just means considering more than just on area of the body/medicine. I've seen that there are 'holistic healers' whose methods are questionable and they may not even be doctors, and then there are those who ARE trained doctors who explore other areas of the body system instead of just focusing on one. For example, I've heard of chiropractic doctors who address the spine's alignment along with using acu
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Don't call chiropractics doctors. They aren't doctors.
There are real doctors who do adopt some quack treatments & it is a real problem. The scientific community isn't immune to quackery. Currently, nearly 50% of Americans reject evolution too. It's not the most rational or educated of cultures.
BTW, you might want to look into where the term 'holism' came from. Look up Jan Smuts... ...actually, thinking about the parallels between US & S. African colonial history & white supremacy, I think holis
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Yes, many people are stupid here, but that's not the discussion.
What should chiropractors be called then? Here, they go to medical school and can't practice without a license. They cure people of certain ailments, usually something involving the spine, its supporting structures and its alignment. They aren't gods, but I've spoken with several of them; each one was intelligent and
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There is the reduction of symptoms as reported by the patients.
That isn't how medicine works. Without accurate, reproducible identification of disorders, diagnosis, prognosis, prescription, monitoring in multiple RCTs, & analysis, data & findings published in peer-reviewed journals, it ain't medicine*. If you want that for spine-related issues, go to an orthopedic surgeon &/or a qualified physio.
*There are papers published on chiropractic but the quality of the research, as reviewed by experts, is terrible. So chiropractic isn't medicine. Plain & simple
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That isn't how medicine works. Without accurate, reproducible identification of disorders,
It seems reproducibly identifiable and diagnosable. [umms.org]
prognosis, prescription,
Aren't a prognosis and a prescription always patient-dependent?
monitoring in multiple RCTs, & analysis, data & findings published in peer-reviewed journals, it ain't medicine*.
I don't know what "RCTs" are.
There was "medicine" long before there were peer-reviewed journals (which don't cover every malady today, for sure). Hippocrates wasn't a quack.
If you want that for spine-related issues, go to an orthopedic surgeon &/or a qualified physio.
I don't think that's how it works, here. The orthopedic surgeon I saw once simply sent me to physiotherapists (months-booked surgeons seem too busy to deal with repeated non-surgical appointments). The physica
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I think you'll find in at least many cases that their stated goal is not to treat disease but to prevent it.
And sure, some of them are quacks. So are some MDs. But on balance the alternative medicine community is often WAY ahead of the "mainstream" on topics like this. The fact that fermented foods can significantly improve the diversity of the microbiome was known within our community more than 20 years ago, as was the fact that we are symbiotic therewith and really can't be any healthier over time than
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Nope. Much of the alternative medicines, especially those concerned with prevention are based on the theory of spontaneous generation (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]). So when they say your diet is too acid/alkali or your chi energies are out of balance or you need to eat these "superfoods" (there's no such thing as superfoods & no substitute for a healthy, balanced diet), they're based on this very old & scientifically discredited theory of what causes illness. It really is utter quackery.
An
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At least in the civilised world (I can't speak for the USA's healthcare system).
If you'd like to have more energy, sleep better, live longer, & generally be healthier; get plenty of exercise, eat more plants & plant-based foods (no need to go vegetarian or anything, just change the ratio) & whole foods, & eat better quality carbs in smaller quantities. For quick results, take psyllium husk (it's horrible!) every day & you should start to feel better after a couple of weeks. It's almost pure soluble & insoluble dietary fiber which cultivates the conditions in your gut which allow pro-biotics (beneficial bacteria) to thrive. It's a temporary measure until you've changed your eating habits for the better.
Not certain what the civilized world does, but my family was foodies and ate really well long before it was popular. Lots of good carbs, not much simple carbs, and very little sugar. Combo of Hungarian and Italian. Both fresh and cured, and lots of fermented stuff. Kraut, pickles. We didn't have much money, but damn, we ate well.
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I've been making spicy sauerkraut that I like to use uncooked with hot dogs and hamburgers. You'd be shocked at the difference from the cooked stuff. It's crispy, crunchy, and full of flavor.
Cooking will kill most if not all of the bacteria. That's not the reason I eat it cold, it's just a nice side benefit. It's a pretty simple recipe. 6 Jalapenos, 4 carrots and a big head of cabbage all chopped up and massaged with 2% celtic sea salt by weight and stuffed in a vacuum sealed jar. Six weeks later it's
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You'll notice how nobody's attempted to replicate the Princeton HFCS rat study in animals with closer to human digestive systems like pigs or monkeys. After all, if it showed the same results the corn industry could no longer claim that the results were simply due to the rat's digestive systems being simpler than humans.