The benefits of eating “spoiled” paleo food

What do you mean you won’t eat spoiled food? The spoiled food included in the paleo diet may be the healthiest food on your plate.

OK, I’m not talking about randomly spoiled food like an everyday piece of fruit with mystery mold emerging from its innards. And not that cantankerous piece of meat in the back of the fridge that smells so questionable your dog wouldn’t touch it.

I’m talking about food that have been intentionally spoiled in a special way: fermented foods. The foods that are home to healthy bacteria that can help your digestive tract function better and which provide a wide variety of nutrients that your cells need.

Think of foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, pickled onions or just plain pickles. All of these are produced by the action of beneficial (probiotic) bacteria.

In other words, these bacteria “spoil” the food, but in a good way that can make you healthier.

Desirable digestive developments

Studies of the duties these probiotic bacteria perform in your intestines have turned up some surprising results. When you consume fermented foods, these microbes:

• Increase your absorption of minerals that are important for the health of your heart and bones.
• Produce vitamin K2 which directs calcium away from your arteries (where it can cause disease) and into your skeletal bones where it provides strength.
• Help the immune system function more effectively and avoid harmful inflammation.
• May reduce your cancer risk.
• May shrink your chances of depression.
• Can help you lower your risk of diabetes and weight gain.

Better skin

Another great benefit of the probiotic bacteria in fermented foods includes better looking skin.

A study in Japan found that a bacteria called Lactococcus lactis H61 which can be used to ferment milk and is used to make buttermilk, can help keep your skin better hydrated and healthier. It has been found to help protect the skin from unsightly infections.

Unspoiled foods

Another thing to remember about fermented foods – these items have a long, wonderful history in the annals of human cuisine and health.

Compare that back story to the additives that food companies add to packaged food that keeps it looking fresh and unspoiled for years at a time on supermarket shelves.

Recent revelations about hidden food ingredients (including preservatives) that corporate food scientists have been sneaking into processed food reveal a dark and unsavory side to the snacks and “goodies” beloved by so many.

Turns out that because of a giant loophole in the types of chemicals allowed into food, no regulator is even keeping track of what additives and preservatives are lurking in chips, cookies, candy bars and other processed items.

The food companies are putting in substances they say are “generally recognized as safe.” (GRAS) That designation, effectively allows additives untested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be put into food. And nobody knows what these concoctions can do to your health.

GRAS is supposed to cover traditional foods that would be a waste of time to test for safety. But the spirit of the GRAS regulations is being distorted in the name of profit.

“Consumers are being exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals that industry self-certifies as safe for use in foods, with little or no scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration,”  according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

CSPI, and three other consumer groups – Consumers Union, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Working Group — want the FDA to crack down on this continual adulteration of food sold in the U.S.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, “Over the years, companies have added over 1,000 ingredients to their products to “improve their product’s texture, taste, appearance or extend their shelf life” without ever letting the FDA know. And while most of these additives are considered safe, others have caused allergic reactions and long-term health effects.”