Common Food Could Be Avian Flu Cure

By Darla Sitton
CBN News Producer

CBN.com – (CBN News) - As the bird flu threat grows in Asia, scientists are scrambling for ways to fight the deadly virus.

Now some Korean researchers say people may be able to ward off the flu with a food found in many kitchen cupboards.

Recipes from a 19th Century “Old Farmer's Almanac” touted sauerkraut, a German dish made from fermented cabbage, as a treatment for almost every ailment.

And now, some new research says that may be exactly what could help if a worldwide avian flu pandemic breaks out.

The British Broadcasting Network reports that Korean scientists fed a spicy type of ground-up cabbage to 13 chickens infected with avian flu, and 11 recovered.

The world's largest sauerkraut maker in Bear Creek, Wisconsin says that the news does not surprise him.

Ryan Downs, president of Great Lakes Kraut Co. remarked, "We know that sauerkraut is a healthy food to start out with, as it relates to cancer and other diseases."

But while the company is excited about the sales potential, Downs said that they are proceeding with caution, "We have to give it a little more time, to make sure this indeed does work as a preventative agent for avian flu."

Downs says the best part is this year's record harvest of 115,000 tons of cabbage.

It would be enough to provide for both the U.S. and Canada, as grocery stores scramble to meet the demand.

Sales in Minneapolis shot up by 850 percent after a media report there mentioned sauerkraut as a possible treatment for the avian flu.

Mark Anderson of Woodman's Supermarket said, "This is going to impact all grocery stores… so we're going to have to get on it right away and get some back stock so we don't run out."

Great Lakes Kraut says that the company is up to the challenge.

New research supports the idea that cabbage is something of a "wonder food." A study from the University of New Mexico says that Polish women who ate four or more servings of sauerkraut and cabbage every week during their teen years were 74 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate little or none.

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