At a regular dental checkout a few days ago, I was told my gums were in excellent shape — better than the previous checkup. The only difference between the two checkups I can think of is that now, but not then, I’ve been eating lots of fermented foods. My gums clearly got a lot better after I started drinking flaxseed oil (went from reddish to pinkish). Now apparently they have improved again.
After the checkup I went to Whole Foods to buy kombucha. The person behind me in the checkout line was also buying kombucha. She had learned about it from friends. “You drink it because your friends drink it?” I asked. No, she likes how it makes her feel. It gives her more energy. “Does any other drink do that?” I asked. She pointed to the coffee she was also buying: Coffee has the same effect, she said. Since kombucha is made from tea, it certainly contains caffeine. On the other hand, I noticed an increase in energy after I started eating more fermented foods that contained no caffeine, such as stinky cheese, wine, yogurt, and kimchi.
Seth,
That cheese ain’t stinky if you have a nose clip on
Igor.
I think coffee beans are fermented at some point in their life cycle too. I have no idea if they count as fermented though.
1) Do you think that the flaxseed benefit to your gums was from the oil’s nutritional content (and therefore might also be available from consuming ground flaxseed – a little easier to take), or from the contact of the oil directly to your gums?
2) I’ve heard that taking testosterone shots (as one example), helps men have “more energy.” Yet we know that for most people, the long term side effects of such shots are very negative. How can/should we test for long term side effects of fermented products? E.g. too much kimchi is hard on the stomach, as you may already have noted.
-ashish
ps thanks for an always informative and wonderfully thought-provoking blog.
Ashish, flaxseed oil helped my gums because omega-3 is a precursor of an anti-inflammatory signalling molecule. How can we test for long-term side effects? By looking at the health of people who eat a lot of it. E.g., long-term health of Koreans says something about the dangers of kimchi.
I recently read this article about soy, which also includes a spot of interesting discussion about fermentation:
“the Chinese discovered that soy is made edible by fermentation — as are many other foods, and not just those of plant origin. In his own brilliant essay, “Fermented Beans and Western Taste,” Mintz cites Geoffrey Campbell-Platt’s surprising point that “something like one-third of all the food eaten on earth today has been treated by some kind of fermentationâ€
https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5843750.ece