From a recent story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
[Kelly] Dearie turned to fermented foods in a moment of despair.Her husband Charlie, who suffered from an autoimmune disorder that attacked his platelets, was told by doctors that he needed a spleen removal and a hip replacement. That would mean Charlie, an active 32-year-old man, would never be able to run or mountain bike again. . . .
The family decided to seek an alternative, and consulted Santa Cruz clinical health coach Craig Lane from Health Alkemy. . . . He checked Charlie’s temperature, blood pressure and lab results, and listened to Charlie talk about his diet, sleep and exercise. Instead of the surgeries, Lane recommended some dietary changes such as taking out coffee, wheat and sugar, and adding beet kvass, a traditional Russian fermented tonic.
Within three weeks, his platelet numbers were almost normal. Within two years he was running again, said Dearie. . . . Inspired by her husband’s healing, Dearie opened Creative Cultures and sells the beet kvass.
OK, but maybe it was the absence of coffee, wheat, and/or sugar.
Seth: Yes, that’s a fair question, I should have stressed that.
Ditto Alex…how do we know? I for one, cannot seem to tolerate fermented foods, no matter the type or how much I like them, and I do like them – they give me horrible heart burn.
So, I’m sticking with feeding a limited, but robust, gut flora, instead of a weaker diverse, multicultural variety.
Cheers
I think it was likely both.
Getting rid of the wheat and sugar certainly removes the major gut irritants and contributors to disordered gut flora, but the fermented stuff helps provide the right flora to restore balance.
Add to that that beet kvass has a long standing reputation as a blood cleanser, and I’d say it was both.
There are some clinical studies looking at beetroot, and its blood pressure reducing effects. The lactic and other acids from fermentation (and probably a good dose of B vitamins too) almost certainly help.
Wheat is one of the only plants we know of that is a known cause of auto-immune reactions. (Poison Ivy being the other one, but no-one eats that.)
Wheat-caused autoimmune diseases are known to affect every tissue in the body.
I think it’s a pretty safe bet therefore that removing wheat was the trigger for his improvement, and not the beet juice…
Does fermenting wheat via a traditional sourdough process remove the auto-immune issue?