Surprising news about fermented foods
I have been a proponent of fermented foods ever since I discovered their many benefits in my nutritional therapy program, many years ago. They can be either home-made or high quality fresh products made in small batches locally. Of course, they introduce a wide spectrum of suitable microbes into our gut, which needs a steady flow of live microorganisms. In fact their benefits are almost too numerous to comprehend, because the good effects spiral out into every system of the body, mood, cognitive function, hormones… One of the best reasons to eat (or drink) them is that those microbes are a crucial organ of our immune system. Not an incidental, after-the-fact good-idea-supplement for our immune system, but an integral part with which it evolved, and without which it is crippled.
But probiotic supplements are a different animal. Indiscriminate supplementation is probably not a great idea. It can be useful in some situations, if you truly have the right supplement. But there are many, many species, and many strains of each species, and our own individual history and circumstances play into the situation too. Taking in species arbitrarily, choosing one just because the label promises it’s good for us, can create a problem. If you wouldn’t take a prescription medication that belonged to someone else, not even knowing what it was for, then think twice about picking a bottle of probiotics off the shelf without doing some deep research.
Honestly, the complexity and the many unknowns make the safest course simply eating naturally fermented foods, as our ancestors did for a hundred thousand generations. Tried and true. If you have real expert advice, that’s another story; and there are times and conditions when you should be very careful about ferments. One way people sometimes decide which to take is by having their stool analyzed. But to me this makes little sense; it’s expensive, and the results (at best) tell you what you have on board, not what you should have but don’t.
In the context of ecology, we’ve learned the hard way that introducing non-native or inappropriate species can cause problems that propagate out through an ecosystem. Eucalyptus in California, beavers in Patagonia, kudzu, starlings, toads—they have a way of growing out of control and becoming almost unbelievably destructive. Our inner ecosystem is the same: to be healthy, we need ample diversity, and we need to host the species that really belong.
Today, our gut ecosystems are under threat from poisons, just as worldwide ecosystems are. This is true, unfortunately, even for those of us who try to be careful about toxic exposure, including in our food and water. One of the most prevalent poisons is glyphosate. It held a virtually unassailable position in agriculture—in fact, when Monsanto first brought it to the market, they were exempted from even doing toxicology studies on the product, because its target was an enzyme that humans cells don’t make. But our gut microbes do. Glyphosate damages the gut microbiota (among many other things). The title of a recent article in Acres USA said it well: “Glyphosate Does What It’s Designed to Do — Kill.” Yes, the word is out and there is more than enough published science on the damage it can do. (I just did a quick search on PubMed, the online database of the National Library of Medicine, for studies on glyphosate toxicity. There are more than 2,500 in this database alone.)
But the other day I came across some recent studies which made me say “Wow,” right out loud (“wol?”). I got the tip-off from a seminar by Nasha Winters, a world authority on integrative oncology, so I knew it was worth investigating. The coin can be turned over. The studies in question originated in agriculture. Scientists working on soil remediation found they could detoxify glyphosate from soil using sauerkraut juice. Glyphosate is water-soluble, and the microbial community present in lacto fermented cabbage “could reduce soil glyphosate levels by 80% to 90% within 6 to 7 months to significantly enhance both the yield and quality” of crops.*
Studies were done with animals which found that supplementing their feed with sauerkraut juice neutralized glyphosate residues in their digestive tracts. The effect was even better when humic acids were given as well. As far as I have seen, there are not yet studies available with human subjects, but I’ll bet they are underway as I write. And hopefully other age-old health-supporting fermented foods are being investigated too, like miso and kefir.
So there you have it, one more reason to include small amounts of fermented foods (and their brine, if applicable) with your meals, as most cultures have done since before recorded history. Restoring the health of your gut is tremendously important, and there are many easy (and delicious) ways to work at it.
A favorite of mine is curtido, discovered in my youth in a beloved hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran restaurant on 18th Street in San Francisco. I still make it in the rustic way I first ate it there. Sometimes I add cauliflower too, which isn’t necessarily traditional but works beautifully. Hopefully you can find fresh oregano, which gives a livelier taste. Needless to say, please use organically grown produce 🙂
(Somewhat) Salvadoran Curtido
Two cups of well-washed, chopped or sliced mixed vegetables. You can vary the proportions as you like, but it should be at least half cabbage.
cabbage: you can use green or red, but do use the thick waxy type
onion: preferably red
carrot
jalapeño pepper: if you remove the seeds, it ends up being more sweet than hot (you could certainly use other peppers)
cauliflower: broken into small pieces
oregano leaves: preferably fresh
Mix all of the vegetables with about a teaspoon of good salt; don’t use an iodized salt. You can let them sit awhile to start releasing water, or you can speed this up by stirring and pressing. Once they cabbage has wilted a little, mix in the oregano leaves, then pack it all into a clean jar. Add filtered water (or spring water) till the vegetables are completely covered, and push them down to release air bubbles.
At this point you need to leave the jar at room temperature for at least a few days. Don’t leave it where it will get direct sunlight. You need to put a weight of some sort on the top to keep the vegetables submerged. There are nice glass weights made for this purpose. You can also cut a cabbage leaf with a pair of scissors to fit inside the mouth of the jar, then put a weight on it—I use a slightly smaller glass jar filled with water.
You can seal the jar and move it into the refrigerator when it smells and tastes right (“right” meaning delicious).
In a few weeks it will be time for me to make curtido again and I’ll add some photos.
* https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18041-24