Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are a huge part of our family’s life. From Kombucha, Sauerkraut and Kimchi, to Coconut Kefir and Coconut yogurt. Other cultures have fermented foods they eat regularly but our culture seems to be lacking in this department.

Why are fermented foods so important? Fermenting foods makes them easy for the body to assimilate and extract optimal nourishment. It is also like partially digesting them before eating them. If we eat fermented foods regularly it improves digestion. We can consume large amounts of nutrients but if we aren’t digesting properly we aren’t going to absorb them. The ecology of our gut is still not entirely understood, but what science does know is astounding. It doesn’t just affect our digestion and nutrient absorption, but also our moods, likelihood of disease, menopausal symptoms, and our weight, to name a few. With the use of antibiotics being so commonplace and toxins in everything from our air to our food, our gut ecology is being compromised probably more now than ever in the history of mankind. Even something as common as baby formula is recreating the human gut flora. Although misconceptionally thought to be equally as healthy as breast milk by many, formula leaves children with compromised immunity and completely different gut ecosystems than children who have been breastfed. Leaving them at a greater risk for diabetes and Parkinson’s disease later in life, lacking beneficial bacteria like Lactoferrin and Immunoglobulins in their intestines to help them digest food and fight germs, unable to develop antibodies when they and their mothers are exposed to common viruses, and statistically having lower IQ’s than breastfed babies. Even a new study of over 10,000 children by British scientists shows that babies who are breast-fed for at least four months show less behavioral problems in childhood.*

What we can do to try to repair all of the damage is start rebuilding the microflora in our guts and have fun trying new foods while doing it! The important thing to remember is that we are trying to obtain living probiotics in our fermented foods. Therefore, jars of cooked sauerkraut are not going to help, and the sugary pasteurized single serving yogurts aren’t going to help much either. What we need are massive amounts of good bacteria going in and re-terraining our guts, kicking out health destroying invaders like candida overgrowth while they are there.

You can buy all of the fermented foods I mentioned but they are usually quite pricey. They are all easy, cheaper and fun to make at home. If you’d like to see how I make coconut yogurt you can watch me here: 

and how I make coconut kefir at my rawbabies channel on Youtube.

*Published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood  http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2011/03/24/adc.2010.201970.short?q=w_adc_ahead_tab

Check out other healthy recipes at the Healthy Home Economist Here

This entry was posted on May 8, 2011 at 3:55 am and is filed under Eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.