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Fermented Foods for Gut Health – Center for Applied Nutrition UMass Medical School

Top Fermented Foods

Kefir

Plain Yogurt

Dry Curd Cottage Cheese or Farmer’s Cheese, or fermented cottage cheese

Certain aged cheeses (check label for live and active cultures)

Fermented Vegetables

Tempeh (choose gluten free)

Miso (refrigerated)

Pickles (in salt, not vinegar)

Sauerkraut (choose refrigerated)

Kimchi

Kombucha (no sugar)

Other probiotic drinks (no sugar), like beet Kvass, apple cider

Fermented Foods for Gut Health — https://www.umassmed.edu/nutrition/blog/blog-posts/2019/6/fermented-foods-for-gut-health/

I’ve spent some time at the request of a reader to list the top fermented foods for gut health. Many websites have very similar lists. If you’re interested in learning more about what some of these foods are the Healthline article 8 Fermented Foods and Drinks to Boost Digestion and Health is a decent source. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/8-fermented-foods

But if you really want to learn about fermented foods you’ll never eat because you won’t find a store nearby that carries them read the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fermented_foods

Although I think I can get Bánh cuốn at the Vietnamese grocery store.

The take home lesson is simple. Find a few fermented foods you enjoy eating and eat them often. Beet Kvass? No thanks. I’ll stick with yogurt, pickles, and sauerkraut.

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Eat More Sauerkraut

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00754-6

Over the 10-week randomised dietary intervention, the high-fibre diet increased levels of microbiome-encoded glycan-degrading carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) without altering the intestinal flora, whereas the high-fermented-food diet incrementally increased microbiota diversity while decreasing inflammatory markers.

Here’s Why You Need To Eat Your Sauerkraut! Dr. Sharma’s Obesity Notes – https://www.drsharma.ca/heres-why-you-need-to-eat-your-sauerkraut

I like sauerkraut. I like pickles. I really like yogurt.

But please don’t come anywhere near me with that kim-chi stuff.

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Why Crash Weight Loss Programs Don’t Work

One of the most startling findings is the notion of constrained daily energy expenditure. This is the idea that the human metabolism adapts to our activity levels to keep our daily calorie burn in a surprisingly narrow range — no matter how hard you work out

Why Crash Weight Loss Programs Don’t Work: Clues From Hunter-Gatherer Societies — https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/16/1016931725/study-of-hunter-gatherer-lifestyle-shows-why-crash-weight-loss-programs-dont-wor?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Now I understand how my low exercise levels during year one of the pandemic factored into my weight loss efforts. My metabolism reset and it spent calories on other life functions. Here’s the part of the interview that hit home for me. The quote refers to a recent television show The Biggest Loser.

Contestants went on this show and were put under a brutal routine of intense exercise, coupled with near starvation. You can lose a lot of weight that way. But it’s not sustainable. Your body pushes back hard by slashing its metabolic rate.

The Take Home Lesson

DO exercise for all of its associated health benefits. But exercising more is not exactly the best strategy for losing weight.

Herman Pontzer is an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University. His theory argues that human metabolism has evolved to the point where how we eat and expend our calories is more important than what we eat. I think I’ll put his recent book on my list of books to read.

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25 Vegan Appetizer Recipes – The First Mess

Laura Wright is a vegan cookbook author and blogger based in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, Canada. Her most recent post is 25 Vegan Appetizer Recipes and can be accessed at https://thefirstmess.com/. Y’all might remember my earlier posts 25 Vegan Soup Recipes – the First Mess and 25 Vegan Chickpea Recipes – The First Mess. To repeat, I take no credit for these recipes and Laura isn’t paying me any royalties for advancing her brand. This is merely another Giant Sticky Note that serves as a reminder to Self to try these recipes. And before I forget…

Here’s the link https://thefirstmess.com/2021/07/14/vegan-appetizer-recipes/

Enjoy! I constantly remind myself I own Laura’s cookbook.

Try more new recipes. Check.

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Vegetarian Journal – 2021 Issue 2 – Scientific Update

One study focused on almost 9,000 breast cancer survivors and asked the women about their diet every four years after their diagnosis. Over the follow-up period, averaging 11.5 years, women who ate more fruits and vegetables and women who ate more vegetables had a lower risk of dying from any cause than did women with lower intakes of these foods. Women with the highest intakes of vegetables and fruits averaged 7.4 servings per day; those with the lowest intake averaged 2.2 servings per day.

Farvid MS, Holmes MD, Chen WY, et al. Postdiagnostic fruit and vegetable consumption and breast cancer survival: prospective analyses in the Nurses’ Health Studies. Cancer Res. 2020;80(22):5134-5143.

Total fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a reduced risk of frailty with those averaging seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily having a lower risk than those averaging fewer than three servings a day. Leafy green vegetables, yellow and orange vegetables, and apples and pears were specific fruits and vegetables associated with a lower risk.

Fung TT, Struijk EA, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Willett WC, Lopez-Garcia E. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of frailty in women 60 years old or older. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020 [published online ahead of print].

The quotes above are just two of the studies profiled in the Vegetarian Journal’s most recent scientific update. Unfortunately the citations are not links to the original studies. Here is the link to the full Vegetarian Journal Scientific Update:

https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2021issue2/2021_issue2_scientific_update.php

Eat your vegetables!

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Turmeric and Curcumin

Turmeric is the whole herb and curcumin is the most abundant bioactive compound found in turmeric. Most studies use standardized extracts that contain mostly curcumin. Both are beneficial for health. 

Minimize Inflammaging & Maximize Your Healthspan with Turmeric — https://www.naturalgrocers.com/health-hotline-article/minimize-inflammaging-maximize-your-healthspan-turmeric?mc_cid=317e1f689f&mc_eid=7c3cb8595d

Here’s a nice little research article on Turmeric with nearly 30 references. It’s always a plus when someone else does the research for you. And it’s free.

I don’t take an abundance of supplements and will start taking a supplement only after I’ve done the research and am convinced of the benefits. I added Turmeric to my daily medications after my doctor suggested I research it for my arthritis. My medications are a low dose statin (10mg), baby aspirin, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-complex and a multivitamin.

And high quality Scotch.

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