Re: to Magnolia, or anyone actually:

You know I think that the real reason why those silly pills don't work and the Ferments (Food Based) work isn't because of the bacteria it's because of the By products they produce. Like Lactic acid, amino acids, vitamins, and other things too many to mention.

My mother is from india and she still cooks some items in the old way. There are a couple of foods that are fermented that I am aware of.
- Chappatti's - They let the whole wheat needed doe sit overnight. Bacterial action works to break down gluten.
- Lentils and beans - Soaked overnight in water. For breakdown in nutrient inhibitors and some complex sugars. can be used to make Dosa.
- Idli - Fermented Blended rice.
- Homemade yoghurt - Supereassy to make. Also can be used to make whey.
- Pickled mangos and other fruits in oil - Don't know if this is a ferment but it does age somehow.

I should note that a lot of the fermented products are then cooked. If they were just trying to get the probiotics, why would they do that. I am also a big fan Weston Price. He tals about an African dish named Ogi. That too is cooked after fermentation. The only Exception seems to be the dairy products like Yoghurt. But in that case too they often add strong spices like Turmeric and Fennel seeds probably killing most of the probiotics in the process. My did eat a lot of Yoghurt rice. He loved it. He said it soothes his stomach. But He ate this at the end of the meal when stomach acid might be the strongest.

I believe we just need the nutrients broken down and in a highly assimalable form. Some of these byproducts may take weeks for these bacteria to produce. We don't have a long enough colon for that.

About the Appendix. You know that funny little thing sticking at the beginning of the colon. I remember that when I saw anatomy pictures when I was young I was thinking why is it that way food might get stuck in there. Well thats the point I think it's supposed to hold your starter culture there. There are a lot of lymph nodes there which means probably that the culture is carefully monitored. Every Time food passes through this junction It would be coated with this starter culture. it would then break down the food the rest of the way. Now this happens AFTER your body has already tried its best to absorb as many nutrients as possible in the small intestines ( note there are some bacteria here too).

There is one case for consuming live cultures and that's enzymes and vitamins wich are heat sensative. Saurkraut works best for me because I can't hack the certain dairy cultures like Kefir.

My point is maybe it's not the probiotics that we are after but the byproducts they make. I have other points to make but post is already too long.

-Venk Tweet