Here’s a thought. Buy
as much sauerkraut as your supplier can give you, and base your menu
around it. Well, maybe not. But if current scientific findings prove
to be solid evidence, then creative users for cabbage in all forms
might be a real money-maker. Ruben sandwich, anyone?
The nutritional benefits of cabbage are well documented. But with
all the recent talk of a potential Avian Flu pandemic and how little
vaccine is available to control it, the solution might - and that’s
still a big “might” be as simple as fermented cabbage.
Consumers bought sauerkraut at record rates from grocery stores last
month (After WCCO television news in Minneapolis reported a study
findings released by scientists at Seoul National University. They
fed Kimchi sauerkraut, which is prepared similarly to traditional
sauerkraut, to 13 chickens infected with avian flu. Eleven of the
chickens got better. The key ingredient in fighting the infection
appears to be the lactic acid, which is produced by the fermenting
process.
More research is needed to prove definitively the study’s findings,
of course, but that isn’t stopping a record cabbage harvest
in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Great Lakes
Sauerkraut Company, the only sauerkraut producer in the state, is
harvesting 115,000 tons.
The condiment might fend off cancer, too: A University of New Mexico
study’s results showed that cabbage - sauerkrauts main ingredient
- may prevent breast cancer. The study researched why native Polish
women had lower breast cancer rates compared to Polish-American women.
The study showed that women who ate four or more servings of raw or
lightly cooked cabbage per week during adolescence - as polish women
do - “were 74 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than
the women who ate 1.5 or fewer servings of sauerkraut per week,”
ABC News reported. Polish women ate an average of 30 pounds of cabbage
per year, compared to 10 pounds for American women.
