Starting Fermented Foods at 71: I Hope I Don’t Throw Up (Kefir, Kimchi and a Man Who Hates Cabbage)
The short version: I’m starting a new experiment with fermented foods, beginning with kefir in my daily protein shake and kimchi, which I’ll eat on camera next week. Fermented foods have some of the better diet evidence for gut health and inflammation. The catch is that I hate cabbage, and I barely eat vegetables at all.
Fermented foods. That’s right, fermented foods.
I’m going down a new rabbit hole, and I’ll admit I don’t know much about this one yet. The only fermented food I can remember eating is buttermilk when I was a kid, and I didn’t care for it.
So I’m starting with two: kefir and kimchi. I’ve never had either one. I’ve already bought both.
Why Fermented Foods?
Fermented foods are made by letting bacteria and yeasts break down the sugars in a food. What you end up eating includes live microbes and compounds that weren’t in the original food.
The study that got my attention came out of Stanford in 2021. People who worked up to about six servings of fermented foods a day for 10 weeks ended up with a more diverse mix of gut bacteria and lower levels of 19 inflammation markers in their blood. It was a small study, 36 people, but lowering inflammation with food instead of a pill is exactly what I’m looking for. (Wastyk et al., Cell, 2021)
Kefir: The Easy One
Kefir is a fermented milk drink, kind of like a thin, tangy yogurt. I’m adding it to the protein shake Kathy makes us every day, probably half a cup, maybe a full cup. I don’t think I’ll even taste it in there.
Kimchi: The One I’m Worried About
Kimchi is a Korean dish of fermented vegetables, mostly cabbage.
I hate cabbage. I don’t even like vegetables. I eat very few of them. I know I should, and somehow I seem to be doing fine anyway.
But I bought it. It looks terrible. I’m going to open it next week and eat it on camera, and I just hope I don’t throw up while I’m filming.
The Fermented Foods I Already Like
There’s good news too. Aged cheeses are fermented, and blue cheese and the old-world cheeses are some of my favorite foods. Those are going into the rotation as well.
I’m trying to track things better than I did when I started this project, so I’ll report back on what I think of each one and whether I notice anything.
Do You Eat Fermented Foods?
I know a lot of you eat sauerkraut. I’ve never tried it, but I see people put it on hamburgers and sausages. Tell me in the comments what fermented foods you eat and what you think of them.
I filmed this one while I was out walking, down by the lake. It was pretty, and I hadn’t been down there in a few weeks.
Come Walk With Me
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Keep Going
Everything I take is on my protocols page. What I do to stay strong is on my fitness page, and every blood number I publish is on my test and stats page.
Live long and prosper,
Gary
A note from Gary: I am not a doctor, and I am definitely not your doctor. I am a 71-year-old man running a 129-year experiment on himself in public. Nothing here is medical advice. If you have a milk allergy, a weakened immune system or a serious digestive condition, talk to your physician before adding fermented foods.
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