“When you're cooking with food as alive as this -- these gorgeous and semigorgeous fruits and leaves and flesh -- you're in no danger of mistaking it for a commodity, or a fuel, or a collection of chemical nutrients. No, in the eye of the cook or the gardener ... this food reveals itself for what it is: no mere thing but a web of relationships among a great many living beings, some of them human, some not, but each of them dependent on each other, and all of them ultimately rooted in soil and nourished by sunlight.”
―Michael Pollan,In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Quarantine cooking is getting a little nutty, anyone?
Time, effort, monotonous ingredients (I love beans, I hate beans), the dishes. This week I’ve been trying to keep it simple in the kitchen: eat a meal outside in the sun, finger foods, and cook without cooking.
I’m grateful for ripe avocado, cilantro-y green sauce, watermelon radish, sunflower sprouts and pea shoots from the farmer’s market, sharp flaky cheese, and sourdough toast (maybe all of these together, nbd!).
We’re going to pivot this week, from crisis baking, cooking & eating (but rest assured we’re all doing it), and discuss the world of *Probiotics, Prebiotics & Antibiotics* for families. I get asked about antibiotic use often (unrelated to Covid-19, of course) and it’s an important consideration in regards to health, microbiome health, and young children.
image from Cultured Pickle Shop website (Berkeley, CA)
Antibiotics
“Help! I have to take an antibiotic and I’m still breastfeeding, is that bad?”
“My son has an ear infection and just took a course of antibiotic, is that bad?”
Antibiotics, also known as antibacterials, are medications to inhibit or destroy the growth of bacterial infections. If you or your child is prescribed antibiotics by your doctor, likely there’s a good reason for it - most commonly ear infections, sinus infections, strep throat, UTI’s - and you need that medicine. While some mild infections can resolve on their own (without the use of antibiotics) it’s best to heed your doctor’s advice who is monitoring your symptoms. Occasional and infrequent use of antibiotics shouldn’t be considered ‘bad’ but their use can become problematic if used over a long duration of time, and often. For example, recurring ear infections in children, you likely will want to discuss with your doctor root causes, to determine if you can continue to treat and resolve the symptoms in a more productive way.
If and when possible, you want to avoid the overuse of antibiotics, especially in young children, understanding early childhood is a crucial time for microbiome development. This is because antibiotics aren’t necessarily targeted, depending on “narrow spectrum” vs. “broad spectrum” antibiotics, meaning that while they are doing a good job of destroying the ‘bad’ bacteria, likely they are destroying some good bacteria as well.
So what does this mean and why is it important? It means, if your child or yourself (especially if you’re breastfeeding) need to take antibiotics, it’s important to think about ways that you can *boost* and strengthen the good bacteria in their/your system, while your body fights off an infection. Your boosters, of course, are friendly and lively Probiotics and Prebiotics.
If you or your child is taking a course of antibiotics, here’s a few good things to remember - *during* and *following* antibiotic use to restore healthy gut microbiota:
Get better, feel better. Don’t stress about occasional antibiotic use (unnecessary stress doesn’t help your microbiome either!)
Limit excess sugar, processed sweet foods, high-glycemic fruits, etc.
Focus on high fiber foods: vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes
Eat fermented foods, probiotic & prebiotic foods
Probiotic supplementation can be helpful. If you do take a probiotic supplementation during antibiotic treatment, be sure not to take them with the antibiotic itself - meaning take it at a different time of day, so not to immediately destroy the good bacterial strains.
Prebiotics & Probiotics
Probiotics are live beneficial bacteria, think: fermented foods. Prebiotics are considered ‘food’ for bacteria, specific fibers - resistant starch - that is non-digestible by the body, but digested (or fermented) by bacteria in the intestine, think: fiber rich foods. Probiotics balance microbiota, while prebiotics feed microbiota. Both are readily available in whole foods and are very beneficial for microbiome health if incorporated in the diet regularly.
Prebiotic Foods
Apples, unripe bananas (slightly green), berries
Onions, garlic, leeks
Asparagus
Dandelion greens (raw)
Sunchokes
Oats, barley
Green peas, lentils, kidney bean, chickpeas
Seaweed, algae
Mushrooms
Dark chocolate, Cocoa (70% or higher)
Probiotic Foods (Fermented Foods)
Yogurt (whole-milk, unsweetened)
Kefir
Miso
Sauerkraut
Kimchi (there’s a kimchi episode on Super Wings btw)
Lacto-fermented Vegetables
Apple Cider Vinegar
Fermented Pickles
Olives
Sourdough breads
Cultured butter
Aged Cheese
Beet Kvass
In an effort to ‘not cook’ tonight, we grilled sausages. Topped with sauerkraut, funky yellow mustard, and pea shoots. Sliced watermelon radish. Sliced sharp cheddar. & called. it. dinner.
My son’s recipe for tonight’s #krautsandwich: Fill a toasted bun with sauerkraut, sausage, pea shoots. Take a few bites. Remove the sausage and pea shoots. Add more sauerkraut.
Bon Appetit! Bonne Chance! Stay healthy & stay home.