 |
When Sour is Sweet |
 |
By Gary Scott
Ask yourself this. What happens if the prosperity and forward economic
momentum our world has known for the past forty years disappears?
Could we face untold poverty, despair, political turmoil and perhaps
even a major war, if international commerce comes to a grinding halt
and unemployment soared everywhere?
Could tens millions of people even die from poverty and the
chaos/mayhem that would grow?
If the global economy stopped growing and shrinks, these deaths are
for certain!
The global economy is driven by a strong and steady US economy.
This is as certain as one can be.
US federal debt and US trade deficits can destroy the US dollar.
This is certain too.
A broken greenback can stop or stall the US economy and lead to global
economic unrest that could cause tens of millions of deaths.
This is a certainty as well.
Yet the US government borrows still. The latest plan is to spend seven
billion dollars on vaccines that may not work to stop a virus that
most likely will never appear.
There is little you or I can do to stop this either.
But we can protect our own health and wealth.
This fifth message on how to protect against the Asian flu ends this
series with one of the most unusual ways to gain viral protection.
I wish our government would look at this. Perhaps they could save a
few billion.…but I’m betting they won’t even consider it.
I have often written how generations past knew how to live long and
well without expensive health insurance, a huge array of
pharmaceuticals and a hospital on every corner. The family cemetery on
our farm proves this as the five headstones show that the former
occupants were aged 86, 91, 96, 100 and 115 at death.
I also remember my Grandpa’s house, a creaky one bedroom structure
with an old dirt basement. Yet grandpa and grandma managed to raise
five children in that house who all turned out pretty healthy and in
one piece (except one uncle who lost some fingers as grandpa was a
powder man working in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and
Uncle Lloyd climbed into a forbidden cupboard where some blasting caps
were stored).
However he became a minister in Washington State and is still going
strong in his nineties. Maybe Uncle Lloyd learned something from that
explosive event.
What I recall most though was that old dirt basement. I used to go
down there with Grandpa and it was most mysterious, damp, smelling of
musty earth, slightly forbidding but filled with a wonderous
collection of construction objects and tools. Grandpa was a putterer
and collected all types of amazing goods and gadgets.
The other part was storage for the delicious foods that Grandma
prepared, jars of pickles, beans, peas, strawberries and rhubarb,
jellies and jams. Plus in one corner stood a huge ceramic vat of
sauerkraut, perhaps ten gallons, stone colored and bubbling with a
slightly soured perfume that promised delights Grandma would serve
with potatoes.
I never thought of this as a health food, but listen to this. The old
copies of Farmer's Almanac show recipes for sauerkraut that treat
virtually every ailment known. Now there is scientific evidence that
sauerkraut has cancer fighting abilities and may be even be a cure for
avian flu. Sauerkraut could be one of the most unassuming super foods
ever created.
Sauerkraut is made by fermenting sliced cabbage and this produces a
high level of lactic acid and lactobacillus bacteria which may help
combat viral infections.
The November 2005 issue of Men's Health Magazine advises constructing
a pandemic kit, including a few of cans of sauerkraut; “it's packed
with lactic-acid bacteria, shown by Korean researchers to speed
recovery of chickens infected with avian flu," the magazine says.
A November 9, 2005 ABC news story entitled “Sauerkraut Touted as Bird
Flu Cure” confirms this fact and says:
“ABC on Tuesday said sauerkraut has grown more popular after the
discovery of the medicinal effects of fermented foods such as kimchi
on bird flu.
“In one study, South Korean scientists found eleven of 13 infected
chickens with bird flu started to recover after eating a kimchi
extract.”
Other sites about sauerkraut confirm this.
One site http://waltonfeed.com/old/sauer.html says:
“There's a reason for everything, even if we don't understand it. It's
likely the old timers of 200 years ago didn't understand many of the
reasons they made sauerkraut except they knew this was a good way of
preserving their cabbage through the winter. Today we know that fresh,
raw cabbage is very rich in vitamin C, containing enough in 200 grams
(that's about a cup) to supply a whole day's needs. Cooked cabbage and
sauerkraut have about half this much. Sauerkraut is also an excellent
source of Vitamin K. In the old times, Vitamin C was hard to come by
during the winter. Beyond their conscious knowledge, sauerkraut was
one of their very few sources.”
“The results of a recent study published in the Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry concluded that sauerkraut is a cancer
inhibitor. The study discovered that the fermentation of cabbage (how
sauerkraut is made) produced a substance called isothiocynates, which
prevents cancer growth, particularly in the breast, colon, lung and
liver. Packed with vitamins, iron, and fiber, sauerkraut is also rich
in cruciferous phytochemicals, which have long been proven to have
disease fighting powers.”
Another ABC story covers this in more details and says: “Vitamins,
Definitely; Anti-Cancer Properties, Maybe."
"There is no medical research showing the fermented cabbage dishes
have curative properties against the avian flu, but researchers have
found other reasons people should stop by the condiment aisle on their
next supermarket trip. A recent study by the University of New Mexico
indicates that eating sauerkraut's main ingredient, cabbage, may help
ward off breast cancer.
“Researchers wanted to know why Polish women have low rates of breast
cancer, so they compared Polish natives to Polish-American immigrants.
They discovered that women who ate four or more servings of raw or
barely cooked cabbage per week during adolescence were 74 percent less
likely to develop breast cancer than the women who ate 1.5 or fewer
servings of sauerkraut per week.
“More research will be needed to prove a conclusive relationship, but
that doesn't mean people should skimp on the sauerkraut. Cabbage is
packed with vitamins that may boost the immune system, and fermented
cabbage contains lactic acid, which helps with digestion and may
weaken infections.
“A one-cup serving of sauerkraut provides 102 percent of the
recommended daily intake of vitamin K, 35 percent of vitamin C and 12
percent of iron, according to NutritionData. Plus, it contains only 32
calories, with four grams of fiber.”
Another great benefit of sauerkraut is that it is tasty and versatile.
You can eat it as part of a main course, as a garnish, mixed in German
potato salad or just on its own as a snack.
There is even, believe it or not, a recipe for sauerkraut jello!
| 2 cups |
sauerkraut,drained |
| 1 (6 oz) pkg |
lemon Jell-O gelatin |
| 1/8 t. |
salt |
| 1 cup |
boiling water |
| 1/8 t. |
paprika |
| 1/2 |
lemon (juiced) |
There you have it…some big questions. Is the Asian bird flu a danger
or not. If so should we #1: become anti-social,
#2: take vaccines, #3: take natural ingredients that reduce viral
infections, #4: use alternatives therapies that hinder flu,
#5: take steps to enhance our immune systems. Or should we use several
or all of these steps?
Only you can answer such questions for yourself, but next time when
you sit down for a meal and ponder or discuss such weighty questions,
have a little sauerkraut. It’s pretty tasty and may help you improve
your health and overcome the flu.
Protecting the wealth can be simple as well. Invest in a basket of
currencies. Have a MultiCurrency sandwich, leveraged or not. This
hedges and protects again the US dollar’s fall.
We may not be able to stop the fall and decline of the US dollar, nor
can we turn our government around. We can protect our own bodies and
our savings and capital.
Invest in a multicurrency sandwich and enhance that sandwich with
sauerkraut. Protect your health and wealth in easy non-expensive
ways…and enjoy good health and investing!
Gary
|
|
|
