Study links fermented veg consumption to low C-19 mortality

Post Reply New Topic

“For each gram per day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the risk for COVID-19 mortality fell by 35.4%.”

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200 ... ality.aspx

So, there ya go.. guy health is critical to overall human health. Sauerkraut eating Germans know this, fermented bean curd eating Asians know this, kefir drinking Russians know this.. etc. Fermented foods have been regularly consumed by many cultures for thousands of years and they’ve intuitively figures out their health benefits even without having mapped the human gut microbiome yet. Meanwhile, in North America, we mostly ignore these foods in our diets and peoples’ health suffers for it in many ways.

Makes sense to me that super strong healthy insides helping you function fully makes for a better stronger immune system, too. When I was in my worst overall health I would get sick easily and frequently. Through diet and exercise I’m in better shape and have very rarely gotten sick over the last several years. I take probiotic supplements, drink kombucha and acv in water, eat sauerkraut and kimchi etc in my diet regularly. I do believe these things keep me healthier in many ways and it’s nice to know that they seem to also dramatically reduce the chances of death by covid-19.

Last edited by goldfish21 on 09 Jul 2020, 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Don’t you consume pickles or yogurt? Beer?

My favorite fermented food:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makdous

I don’t drink or eat anything fermented.

My COVID was quite mild—a slight flu with some weird symptoms.

I’m close to 60 years old.

I had it in March. By June, I was walking 40 miles a week.

Pickles aren’t fermented, they’re preserved in a vinegar base vs just salt brine. AFAIK pickles are not sources of probiotics like fermented foods are.

I eat almost zero dairy products, so no yogurt. But if people do eat yogurt for probiotics it has to be Real and Live and unpasteurized, not the dead stuff full of corn syrup based fruit purées sold under most major brands of “yogurt,” in North America. Specifically seek out a natural one containing live probiotic cultures.

I drink beer but not for probiotics. There are some beneficial bacterias in some beers, but the fermentation process to make alcohol is different than the ones that spit out probiotics. Probably minuscule amounts of beneficial probiotics in beer vs fermented drinks that don’t produce alcohol and do produce probiotics - like kombucha.

Never heard of Makdous before but it sounds really good! There’s only one local specialty shop I can think of that might actually have it in stock - it’s the place where I buy Lebanese orange blossom water. I’ll have a look for some next time I go there.

Now not sure if makdous would be considered fermented.

I thought homemade pickles; I mean it’s kept for weeks there and I eat them only when it has “bubbles” on the surface; the concombre’s outer skin becomes “soft” (or any other veggie like cauliflower or eggplant) and tastes very acidic.

I don’t know of fruit flavored yogurt; the only yogurt I know is plain and sour; like the famous Greek yogurt or Turkish Ayran. For cooked yogurt (for some recipes), I use sheep or goat yogurt; the cow yogurt is fragile to heat and decomposes quickly.

The typical yogurt on the market here would start with non-filtered yogurt (so not thick like Greek yogurt), add a shedload of processed sugar and fruit puree and then get sold in a little 100g tub.

Personally I mix that stuff with the (also over-sweetened) greek yogurt sold here and call it a day. No wonder I'm gonna end up with Wilford Brimley Syndrome.

Maybe it depends on if you’re pickling veggies in just salt brine or not? Here, I would say it was pickled if it was in a vinegar based brine - like dill pickles, pickled onions, pickled eggs etc. Making homemade pickles and fermented foods like sauerkraut is almost a lost hobby here - just a few old ladies and some young healthy living hippies that do it. Most people buy commercially made stuff at supermarkets.

And probably 90%+ of the “yogurt,” sold here is the dead pasteurized processed crap loaded with sugary super sweetened fruit purée like funeralxempire described. I’d guess 10%ish is live with proper probiotics, some kind of plain Greek yogurt, or other natural healthy style yogurt. Food in North America, especially the USA, is fake. It’s all just carcinogens flavourings corn syrup and preservatives and gmos. Well, processed food anyways - which is MOST of what most people eat; straight up garbage.

In a typical giant warehouse style supermarket there’s one or two choices of sauerkraut, maybe 1 kimchi, maybe 2-3 proper yogurts, probiotic supplement capsules in the pharmacy section, and over the last several years a few options for kombucha thanks to its growing popularity, and Maybe a brand of kefir.

Meanwhile at an Asian (Chinese/Korean) supermarket they half half an aisle dedicated to a wide variety of fermented veggies - because their diet is different and they routinely eat live foods. North American diet is garbage - which contributes to ASD rates IMO.

My pickles are ALWAYS in apple vinegar and pepper - salt pickles taste like s**t.

Well, that's the only one of the two types of yogurt I know (the other is thicker):

I've read before that gut flora in the US is exceptionally poor, which was linked to very high obesity rate.
Fermented food enriches gut flora. Maybe it also has some impact on immunity or maybe just lower obesity and diabetes rates make things better.

Thanks for sharing the link! useful resource.

Oh, dear, I ate them in an Israeli restaurant, they're a wonder!

Buttermilk is also good and I brew my own Kombucha.

Perfect timing to start drinking switchel! I've also been sprinkling apple cider vinegar on potato chips and popcorn for years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchel

Never heard of apple vinegar pickles. I drink apple cider vinegar in water almost every day, though.

Those look like dolmades in that pic above, ya? Def like those.

Never heard of switchel, either.

In my kitchen:

Yeah, they don't look beautiful, but they're great, I swear. lol My aunt's gift.