Why eat fermented foods?

Fermented foods are like a 'guiding light' - they repair, protect, sort, invigorate, cleanse, rebuild, nourish & inform your body on a steady course throughout ALL OF YOUR LIFE. That is why at the age of 40, I started to live a CULTURED LIFE, and quite frankly will NEVER LIVE WITHOUT them & their valuable contribution. 🍅🥥🍏🌿🌱🥥

It’s important to give you some perspective on the ‘Why should I eat fermented foods?’, because let’s face it - there seems to be an almost daily revelation about some ‘fad’ diet or ‘superfood’ hitting the scene.

Fermented foods it can be confidently said, are not NEW - it is a ‘practice’ which has been central to almost every civilization & indigenous people’s across this vast planet. Providing a way of preserving food, transforming the ‘substrate’ from one thing into another (such as berries or grains into alcohol) as well as utilizing this technique to make food SAFE by removing harmful compounds.

In my mind fermented foods don’t JUST preserve food, but also ‘preserve’ people - by allowing us to become more resilient & connected to our environment.

FERMENTED FOODS are certainly multi-pronged in their ability to support our health, however can take some getting used to in the beginning. For some folks adjusting to their ‘funky’ smell is hard enough - let alone getting it into their mouth!! Truly we have seen it all & can confidently reassure you, that if this is YOU, you will get there! And not because you ban them from your mouth forever but because you find ways of incorporating small/tiny amounts daily into your diet. And over time those tiny amounts become bigger & before you know it you are LOVING your CULTURED FOODS & actually miss them if you don’t consume them. YES, it’s true - even the most resistant become CULTURED CONVERTS. I can speak from personal experience (my daughter & our brother) as well as the 100’s of people over the last 14 years which we have taught - not everyone rocked up to fermenting classes thrilled about what they were about to taste! What is helpful to know my friend is - the change happens in your GUT first. By consuming small amounts, daily, consistently, over time you begin to change the populations of bacteria in your GUT to more beneficial populations. This is the VERY THING which fundamentally changes your eating experience & choices. Most people are not aware it is the dominant species in your GUT which are literally running the show. So if the dominant species are non-beneficial yeast strains, you will be craving sugar & carbs & living a terrible cycle of energy ups & downs, foggy brain, digestive complaints, mood swings, crashes, skin issues etc etc.

When you start out - you may not even enjoy the experience. You may start with gusto & then give up, finding your enthusiastically purchased ‘Kraut’ pushed further & further to the back of the fridge!! In the beginning you may find that Cultured veggies are just not your thing but instead really enjoy drinking Milk Kefir or Coconut Kefir. You may find BEET KVASS intolerable because you are not a beetroot fan but when you mix it in with a small amount of Organic Pomegranate juice it’s suddenly AMAZING! It’s important to know that there are a wide variety of FERMENTED FOODS to enjoy. And each one of them provide our body with different nutrients, enzymes, probiotics & levels of beneficial acids which support our gut healing journey.

When introducing fermented foods to your life...........it is always a good idea to start slowly! Each of our inner-terrain is different therefore it is MOST important to begin introducing FERMENTED FOODS slowly.

1 tsp twice daily is sufficient to begin with......keep in mind, it's not so much the amount but the consistency!

A thing called CANDIDA DIE-OFF can occur. Simply meaning, as more favourable bacteria move in, i.e lodge onto our intestinal wall, non-beneficial yeasts & bacteria die, they release waste.......this can make us feel 'less well' in the beginning as we are shifting the odds back in our favour.
Please be aware of this.....again it is very common!

At this point I would like to point out two situations where eating FERMENTED FOODS are not helpful until the situation is rectified.

1. S.I.B.O - ‘Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth’. Indicating that there are too high of a population of bacteria in the upper gut. This is a challenging situation & MUST be addressed before you begin to feel well again. Eating CULTURED FOODS in this case only exacerbates the condition. Making you feel less well. If you begin your journey including fermented foods to help with your health & find that after 1 month of consistenly eating fermented foods doesn’t ease your symptoms of bloating, digestive discomfort etc then it’s possible you have S.I.B.O or a HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE. I would strongly suggest you visit an Integrated or Functional Practitioner who can provide you with accurate avenues of testing. Important to check with your chosen practitioner whether or not they have treated cases of S.I.B.O before?

2. HISTAMINE INTOLERANCE - Histamine intolerance is not a sensitivity to histamine, but an indication that you’ve accumulated too much of it, due to a decrease in the enzyme (diamine oxidase) which breaks down histamine in our body.

   Histamines are everywhere in our food - the following are foods high in histamines;

   alcohol and other fermented beverages, fermented foods and dairy products, such as yoghurt, dried fruits, avocados, eggplant, spinach, processed or smoked meat, shellfish & aged cheese.

   There are also a number of foods that trigger histamine release in the body, such as; alchohol, bananas, tomatoes, wheat germ, beans, papaya, chocolate, citrus fruits, nuts especially walnuts, cashews & peanuts etc.

   Bacterial overgrowth is another contributing factor for developing a histamine intolerance. Bacteria grows when food isn’t digested properly, causing histamine overproduction.

   If you suspect you have a histamine intolerance you may wish to go on a HISTAMINE FREE diet for 1 month to see if this alleviates symptoms. My suggestion again would be to see an Integrated Practitioner who could work with you & take the ‘guess work’ out of your situation.

   In this case FERMENTED FOODS are to be avoided in the beginning whilst you reduce the histamine accumulation, reset your gut health & down the track small amounts of fermented foods will be a wonderful ally in your life.
   Living a CULTURED LIFE <3
   Is not terribly complicated - the rest is.

   Below are some dot point reasons ‘WHY EATING FERMENTED FOODS’ serves our GUT HEALTH (which is everything).

1.  Fermented foods POPULATE the GUT with beneficial bacteria & yeast.

In the last 10 years Science has identified the lower GUT as a METABOLIC ORGAN & as important as any other organ in the body.

In fact it could be the MOST IMPORTANT.

Recently termed The MICROBIOME; simply meaning a 'community' of micro-organisms such as; bacteria, yeast, protozoa, viruses, fungi & their genes. (MICRO-BIOTA) We have 2-3kg of bacteria living in our gut. Weighs as much as our BRAIN.

THE MICROBIOME effectively represents up to 80% of our IMMUNE SYSTEM. It's HUGE.

REPLENISHING THE STOCKS: Each day we lose bacteria through a number of areas; bowel movements (POO consists of 1/3 dead & living bacteria), stress, food choices, chemicals, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, GMO's etc.

2.  BOOST IMMUNE FUNCTION

3.   AIDS DIGESTION: in a number of ways; providing additional enzymes & acids, removes pressure on the pancreas (excellent for diabetics), nutrient extractor, fermented foods themselves are predigested nutrition.

4.  CONTROLS YEAST OVER-GROWTH

5.  HELPS BREAK UP COMPACTED FAECES

6.  REBUILDS TISSUE IN LARGE INTESTINE (in the case of Leaky Gut)

7.  BALANCES BLOOD SUGAR

8.  HELPS FIGHT FREE RADICAL DAMAGE, therefore reduces INFLAMMATION

9. GUT BRAIN RELATIONSHIP It is estimated that 90% of Seratonin is produced in the GUT (not the brain). Depression/Anxiety etc have a clear link to poor GUT HEALTH.