Health

Only 34 percent of our bodies are human cells, the majority of them make up various microscopic colonies, the so-called microbiome.

Most of the cells found in the human organism are not human multicellular cells, but single-celled microbial cells. They are in an estimated ratio of microbial cells to multicellular cells of about 10: 1. In absolute terms, an adult human being is colonized by about 10power14 (100 trillion ) bacteria. They often settle in communities of various unicellulars, in a sense as biofilms and can be found in the intestinal flora. Next, to these intestinal bacteria, there are also all microorganisms that live on the skin ( skin flora ) or other parts of the body (oral cavity, nasal cavity, mucous membranes, genital organs (e.g., vaginal flora ), etc.). In a broader sense, our body became during the span of our life a gigantic hotel for microbial communities.

Although the words microorganisms, bacteria viruses often scare us the colonization of microbes very often symbiotic mutual beneficial relationships. Many others are just nonharmful commensals guests that are no parasitic and therefore are not affecting us anyhow. Evolutionary, they have emerged as a result of long-term adjustments.

Human endogenous retroviruses ( HERV ) are present in large numbers in the human genome. Some HERV contribute to the development and regulation of essential organs, e.g., B. the placenta in humans and mammals; others are suspected of being involved in the development of some autoimmune diseases.

Our Medizin is still evolving, and often we treat only the symptoms because of the lack of understanding the cause that is responsible for our illness. Considering the massive amounts of microorganism inhabiting our body nourishing from our body and releasing through their metabolism chemicals, we can only assume that some of them affect our health. Therefore we don’t know if the assumed commensals guests are just innocent bystanders or are actively involved in the status of our health.
As we talk on our blog about foods and cooking, we want to look more carefully at probiotics that are essential for our having healthy guts. Thus we will emphasize on fermentation processes to eat more live cultures that help us digest, fight pathogens and toxins that we incorporated with our food intake.

Fermentation

Having to deal with acid-reflux and intestinal problems, I started focusing on fermented foods. My doctor prescribed large dosages of probiotic to develop healthy guts, something I probably ruined during one of my more extended overseas stays. These bacterial strains of probiotic helped me, but needless to say, large dosages of several 100 billions of strains are expensive. As I like to take matters into my own hands together with my lovely wife we checked out how to make fermented foods;  it is a natural way to include probiotics in our diet.

We will discuss the various methods of fermentation. Many of these methods were known to our ancestors for hundreds and even thousands of years. For example, the making of beers in Mesopotamia and China and thus the technique of fermentation of cereals with natural yeasts dates back to 6000 BCE.   Evidence of lactic acid fermentation of vegetables such as cabbage to produce kimchi or sauerkraut-like foods was found in Asia and dating back several thousands of years. Lactic acid fermentation of milk products and the making of yogurt was apparently invented 5000 BCE in Mesopotamia and around the same time evidence of cheeses making was found in Europe, Asia, and the Middle -East.  Even Fermentation was used as a mean to preserve food, and it was observed that it had health-beneficial properties. With our modern knowledge of biochemistry, we understand now that micro-organisms are releasing enzymes that are breaking down foods to help our digestive system and give us essential nutrients.  Probiotic is the magic word, and bacterial strains and thus are sold in pills as supplements. As I said at the beginning of this section, it is better to take matters into your own hands and make your fresh highly active probiotics by fermenting food.  So over the course of this blog, we will look into different fermentation techniques using bacteria, mold and thereby will be making delicious foods.

Please join us!

Read more here

Is Gluten so bad for you?

Gluten is most often associated with foods containing wheat. The negative media attention to wheat and gluten has led some people to doubt their place in a healthy diet. There is little research published to support these claims. In fact, newer studies suggest the opposite.
In a 2017 study with more than 100,000 participants without celiac disease who avoid gluten can have a higher risk of heart disease because of the potential for reducing whole grain consumption.
Many studies have linked the consumption of whole grains to improved health. For example, groups with the highest intakes of whole grains, including wheat (2 to 3 servings a day), compared to the lowest intake groups (less than 2 servings per day), have lower rates of heart disease and diarrhea, stroke, and diabetes.
Gluten can also act as a prebiotic to feed the “good” bacteria in our body. The arabinoxylan oligosaccharide is a wheat-bran based prebiotic carbohydrate, which stimulates the activity of bifidobacteria in the colon. These type of bacteria can be found in a healthy human gut. Changes in their level or activity have been implicated in gastrointestinal disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, and irritable bowel syndrome.
For further reading including all references to the appropriate scientific publications, please read an article from the School of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan “Gluten: A Benefit or Harm to the Body”?.