I'll live.
Posted on 11/14/2005 9:34:46 AM PST by Red Badger
Sauerkraut, the dish adored in Germany but much maligned in Britain, could prove to be a secret weapon against the threat of bird flu, experts revealed yesterday.
Scientists believe that the traditional recipe, which is made from chopped cabbage that is fermented for at least a month, contains a bacteria that may combat the potentially fatal disease.
Their findings follow a study in which kimchi - a spicy cabbage dish popular in South Korea and similar to sauerkraut - was fed to 13 chickens infected with bird flu. Just one week later, 11 of the birds showed signs of recovery from the virus.
"The feed has been shown to help improve the fight against bird flu or other types of flu viruses," said Prof Kang Sa-ouk, who led the research at Seoul National University, yesterday.
Prof Kang's team claims that lactobacillus, the lactic acid bacteria created during the fermenting process, is the active ingredient that could combat bird flu.
Health experts have already agreed that there may be some truth to kimchi's curative properties, prompting an increase in the consumption of the dish in South Korea.
Sales of sauerkraut in the United States have also soared as a result of the research, and now Britain is starting to catch on. Last night, importers of the dish to Britain said that sales were rising and they were increasing stocks in the expectation that demand could escalate.
Geoff Hale, the commercial manager for Euro Food Brands, said: "Sales are very buoyant at the moment. We bring in about half-a-million jars of sauerkraut to Britain from Germany every year and that number is definitely going up."
Sales of sauerkraut were up 20 per cent on this time last year at Sainsbury's, according to a spokesman for the supermarket.
Whether or not sauerkraut does cure bird flu, the dish is said to have a number of other health benefits, among them cancer-fighting and detoxifying properties.
It is also a rich source of vitamins.
One serving, which contains only 32 calories and has four grams of fibre, provides 102 per cent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K, 12 per cent of iron and 35 per cent of vitamin C.
Prof Richard Mithen, from the Institute of Food Research, in Norwich, said: "Eating kimchi or sauerkraut may be good for your health and help fight off infections.
"I wouldn't recommend anyone rushing out to stock up on sauerkraut specifically to fight off bird flu, but it may help your immune system."
A further study on sauerkraut, carried out recently by Polish and American scientists, concluded that the meal might be the reason for the lower breast cancer rate observed among Polish immigrants in America.
Fermented vegetables? Grapes and wheat are vegetables..........
The FDA does not recognize food as anything other than calories. Ditto for many here on this site.
If that were all, it would be OK, but should a doctor so much as wisper the truth to a patient his career is over, and he may end up in jail. The medical establishment is not about cures, it's about money, and the FDA is there to make sure. That is what Codex is all about too; guaranteed funding of the poison manufacturers.
There's another no-no. We don't eat any chips - it's just another junk food to cause the risk for heart problems skyrocket.
Ooooops, sorry, I messed that up. After talking to my uncle he reminded me that they never added water, just salt. It has been a while (50 years) fortunately he is still making sauerkraut so he remembered.
I'll live.
Gotcha!!..........okay, salt, and wine............then skip the salt, skip the cabbage..........
"Fermented vegetables are known all over the world for their ability to prevent, or cure colon cancer..."
Interesting. The standard establishment medical practitioners or dietians claim that fermented vegetables will help cause cancer. This is why our family avoid them as much as we can.
LOOKS LIKE A CONSPIRACY BY B I G C A B B A G E !!!!!!!
It is likely this one. It cites other studies which show an inconsistent relationship. It's not strong enough for me, personally, to forgo the health benefits of pickled veggies. You might find this online text interesting, especially this section.
Thanks. Indeed the original study cited by the link is this one:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1349991&itool=iconabstr&query_hl=1
And also just conventional wisdom sites like these ones:
http://cancer.about.com/od/causes/tp/topreventcancer.htm
http://www.howtodothings.com/ViewArticle.aspx?Article=720
Don't know if they are established facts though.
No honest dietitian will ever tell you that. My mother was a hospital dietitian, and she used to try to get us to put up with sauerkraut (without much success) specifically to prevent cancer.
Good news: I love sauerkraut! And I liked kim-chee when I tried that awhile ago, too.
But pretty soon, some people are going to start thinking lutefisk is healthy. . .
I suspect it must be Chinese pickled vegetables. We are Chinese and we have been warned not to touch anything pickled ever again because studies about pickled vegetables indicate they are associated with increased incidence of cancer. See post 134.
But then again, there is one kind of pickled vegetable that is very similar to sauerkraut in Cantonese culture. (The vegetable is rubbed with salt and fermented) But even that type is no-no according to doctors and dieticians based in Hong Kong .
and they all laughed at me when I sold my house to buy sauerkraut futures.
I wonder whether those chickens would have recovered anyway. Is bird flu necessarily fatal to chickens? Do millions of chickens really need to be slaughtered or could they just sit on the back roost for a couple of weeks to regain their health?
Aha, found this link about studies on pickled vegetables and cancer:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3370141.stm
In particular, "Salting, pickling and smoking are traditionally popular ways of preparing food in Japan. Pickled vegetable and noodles are rich in sodium and low in vitamin C.". It must be an entirely different preparation from sauerkraut.
The disease is usually fatal en masse from what I've read and seen on the tube. If these recovered from the flu, cabbage futures will skyrocket!......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.