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Fermented Sauerkraut and Breast Cancer
Sauerkraut the incredible fermented Food!
Sauerkraut is an incredible food. Sauerkraut can be life changing along with kefir and kombucha and I’m pretty intense about it. These foods changed my life and I have watched them change thousands of other people too. I received three letters just this week from people who had different problems ranging from cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, and chronic fatigue. All of them sent me reports of wellness and it always makes me tear up. I love these foods and all they do. They’re not drugs but medicine-like food that can change your life, and I can’t say enough about them. I love kraut and the other day my family reminded me of what I did with kraut in one of my classes in Florida.
These are not just cabbages!
Everybody in my classes makes a jar of cultured veggies to take home with them, so a few days before class we order all the fruit and veggies from the local market. The store assured me they would have them ready for me.
When I got there, they told me they didn’t have any cabbages, or couldn’t find them, and kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, “Sorry.” Well, this did not sit well with me, and like a one-woman army I marched to the produce section of the store and blasted through the doors that were labeled in red, “EMPLOYEES ONLY.” There I found several young employees looking at me with wide eyes, telling me that I wasn’t allowed back there and sorry, but there were no cabbages – they just forgot, or it was a mistake, nobody knew.
I looked those young men straight in the eyes and pointed my finger and said, “You don’t realize what you have just done. I have over fifty people flying in from all over the country to make these special foods. These cabbages will make a cultured food that can transform a life and not only have you let me down but fifty other people who are counting on me to help them. Your job is IMPORTANT even if it’s “just” working with fruits and vegetables, so don’t take it lightly! Now find me my cabbages and make this right! YOU COULD CHANGE SOMEBODY’S LIFE!” Then I marched out the door to find my husband and did my best to calm down. He was talking to the manager who started calling all the other markets looking for cabbages. The next thing I knew, I had all my cabbages and fruit and they sent me out the door and didn’t charge me for any of the produce. Those boys who handle the produce apologized profusely and I am sure they will either write me off as a crazy person or hopefully realize how important their jobs actually are. I take this seriously, and I will teach everybody that cabbages can change your life. They’re not "just fruits and vegetables," they’re powerful medicine. The really funny thing is that every health food store in that part of Florida started following me on Twitter and Facebook. I think I caused a ruckus and cabbages will hopefully be plentiful when I return to do more classes.
Why It's Important To Eat Sauerkraut
Breast Cancer And Kraut
In 2005, a team of researchers from Poland and the United States observed a higher rate of breast cancer among Polish women who immigrated to the United States. They found the Polish women who moved here from Poland had been used to eating thirty pounds of fermented sauerkraut each year, but once they moved to the U.S. they averaged only ten pounds a year.1 Why does this matter?
Dorothy Rybaczyk-Pathak from the University of New Mexico studied these effects and found that sauerkraut contains high levels of glucosinolates. Glucosinolates have been shown to have anti-cancer activity in laboratory research. “The observed pattern of risk reduction indicates that the breakdown products of glucosinolates in cabbage may affect both the initiation phase of carcinogenesis – by decreasing the amount of DNA damage and cell mutation – and the promotion phase, by blocking the processes that inhibit programmed cell death and stimulate unregulated cell growth,” said Dorothy Rybaczyk-Pathak.2
Another study, published in 2012 in the journal Nutrition Cancer, also shows that consuming fermented sauerkraut is connected with a reduction in breast cancers. Their research supported the effect of cabbage and sauerkraut juices on key enzymes involved in estrogen metabolism. There are also three more studies showing various health benefits of eating fermented sauerkraut and how it can be part of a natural treatment program for certain cancers.3,4,5
Help After Chemotherapy
Along with cancer often comes the use of chemotherapy, which brings with it a host of other problems. Some research has been done on the connection between the gut and chemotherapy. In one clinical study, researchers gave a group of mice an injection of chemotherapy that would, pound for pound, kill most adult human beings. Why? As Jian-Guo Geng, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry said, “All tumors from different tissues and organs can be killed by high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, but the current challenge for treating the later-staged metastasized cancer is that you actually kill the [patient] before you kill the tumor.” So the goal was to test a recently discovered biological mechanism that focuses on preserving the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract—a mechanism that helped mice live through this lethal dose of chemotherapy.
The mice were injected with a substance called Rspo1, or R-spondon1, which activates stem cell production within the gut. These stem cells then rebuild damaged tissue faster than chemo can destroy it. Of the mice that were given R-spondon1, 50 to 75 percent survived the potentially fatal chemotherapy dose. All the mice in the control group died.6 Here is the exciting part - your body already has a way to make R-spondon1 on its own. Inside the human gut, a layer of epithelial cells is regenerated every four to five days, as long as you have the right gut flora. If you have healthy gut flora and it includes a group of healthy strains of bacteria, your body will regenerate itself. If not, then it slows or halts the regeneration of your intestinal cells. The probiotics in your gut can determine how, and if, your body survives chemotherapy—making it even more crucial for those with cancer and going through chemo to add cultured foods and prebiotics to their diet.
Cancer and chemotherapy are complex and affect people in different ways. I am certainly not saying that cultured foods are a cure-all, but rather I'm encouraging you to change what you eat and include probiotic and whole, real foods. You’re the captain of your ship; steer wisely
Many Health Benefits
These are just a few of the things cultured kraut can do. It’s so exciting to see the research flooding in about all the things these foods can do. For years, I have watched it bring about so many health benefits but never had the research or data to prove it, and now it’s showing up everywhere!
I also have everything you need to get started on my website. Just click this button:
START HERE It will give you links to everything you need to help you get started making these powerful life-giving foods. We’re in this together and I will do what I can to help you. Food is powerful and so are you. You just need a few tools and understanding and you're on your way. I believe in your wellness. Your body is a magnificent machine and there is always hope and help for you.
The Trilogy
These foods have been keeping people well througout history and they helped preserve their foods without refrigeration - and preserved them perfectly. Now they're helping me, and thousands of others, to stay healthy in this fast world we live in. They are simple to make, delightful to eat, and I love them because they made me well and continue to keep me healthy and sane in this world that is crazy-fast paced. Is something trying to reach you and help you? Well then, if you're reading this, it most certainly is. And let me tell you, it will keep showing up in your life until you listen. Believe me, I see this all the time. You might as well give in cause it's gonna stalk you. Bacteria are all around you, inside and out, and it's about time you started paying attention to these microbes. That's why I'm here to help you connect with them and live a better life.
"The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well." Hippocrates
Read Susie's Story
Hi Donna,
Just wanted to share that I had my 6-month check-up this week. In 2011, I was diagnosed with breast cancer (stage 1). I completed chemotherapy treatments as well as radiation and hormone therapy until early 2016. I was supposed to have taken the hormone therapy for 5 years but after two years I quit because the side effects of all the treatments left me in worse condition than when I started, and it was all just too much for me.
After I stopped taking the medications (for cancer prevention) my test results began to show that cancer markers were beginning to climb. Of course, my family and I began to worry.
Well, last year while visiting a friend, she shared a cup of Kombucha with my husband and me. We had never heard of it, and what caught my attention about it was that there were claims of it protecting against cancer. After that night I was on a mission. We found it in the stores and started to drink it. Then soon after I learned how to make it and I haven’t stopped!
Early this year I happened to find your inspiring story on YouTube. I was able to find Kefir. I started making and drinking it as well as eating Cultured Vegetables. I am now doing great! My blood test results came in, and after not taking ANY medications for cancer prevention since early 2016, my cancer markers are LOW! Thank you Jesus! My doctor shook my hand and said, “Congratulations, looks like we won’t be doing business with you anytime soon. Keep doing what you are doing and we’ll see you back in one year (no longer every 6 months). Enjoy life."
Donna, you are part of my celebration on staying cancer free AND medication free!! Thank you for being the inspiration that you are! I am one little microbe among 100 trillion who is so grateful for all that you do!
God bless you! 
P.S. Moses, my husband also has his own story. Diabetes is gone, he is able to sleep at night, and incredibly his gray hair is turning black!
Sincerely,
Listen To My Podcast
Sauerkraut is an incredible food. I teach people to make it at all my classes. I receive letters and posts from people who are undergoing chemo and finding help with kraut and other cultured foods. Check out the new research on sauerkraut and cancer!
References:
- D. Patton, “Sauerkraut Consumption May Fight Off Breast Cancer,” NUTRAIngredients (November 4, 2005): http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Sauerkraut-consumption-may-fight-off-breast-cancer.
- H. Szaefer et al., “Modulation of CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP1B1 Expression by Cabbage Juices and Indoles in Human Breast Cell Lines,” Nutrition and Cancer 64, no. 6 (August 2012): 879–88: abstract at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22716309.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22716309
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22173777
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23090135
- L.G. van der Flier and H. Clevers, “Stem Cells, Self Renewal, and Differentiation in the Intestinal Epithelium,” Annual Review of Physiology 71, (2009): 241-60: abstract at science.naturalnews.com/2009/2043215_Stem_cells_self_renewal_and_differentiation_in_the_intestinal_epithelium.html; L. Bailey, “Gut Reaction: Mice Survive Lethal Doses of Chemotherapy,” Michigan News (July 31, 2013): https://news.umich.edu/gut-reaction-mice-survive-lethal-doses-of-chemotherapy/.
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