A Quick-Start Guide to Probiotics and Fermentation

When you hear “ferment” you may think of the process of turning fruit, juice, or grain into alcohol.  Today’s fermentation is much healthier as it turns common foods into probiotic bombs that introduce good-for-you micro-organisms into your gut to clean out the nasty ones.   These healthy bacteria line your intestines and are proving to be helpful in healing the digestive tract from IBS as well as aiding in weight loss, improved skin, and boosted immunity. 

Bread, wine, and beer are fermented foods that have been around for thousands of years.  Fermentation began as a method of preserving foods without refrigeration.  Today, a new kind of fermentation process has introduced pro-biotics, the amazing little microbes that have so many health benefits.  They are easily digestible and have even had anti-carcinogenic properties. 

Everyone has a unique microbiome, a collection of bacterial strains, up to a thousand.  When we are ill, doctors love to prescribe an anti-biotic.  Studies are proving that these prescriptions disrupt a person’s microbiome, which then must recover from the very medicine that was supposed to heal us.   Recommendations today are that we take it easy on the number of antibiotics we ingest.

Probiotics are available in a wide variety of supplements.  However, like many supplements, it is better to try to get them in the foods you eat, and fermented foods are a great place to start.  Below is a list of the top six fermented foods.  Choose one to try on your next visit to a good health food store.  Even better, try making one on your own.  The web is a good place to source recipes for this unique new kind of food.

Top Six Healthiest Fermented Foods

(description follows)

Kefir

Kimchi

Miso

Sauerkraut

Kombucha

Yogurt

Kefir—Ranked by Clean Eating Magazine as #1 of all fermented foods, kefir contains the most CFU, colony-forming units, which is how probiotics are measured.  It is a sour-tasting drink made from cow’s milk.

Kimchi—Spicy pickled cabbage considered the national dish of Korea.

Miso—A paste made from fermented soybeans, it is also the flavoring in a soup of the same name.

Sauerkraut—Shredded, salted cabbage left to ferment.

Kombucha—Fermented sweet tea.

Yogurt—A semi-solid sourish food prepared from milk fermented with bacteria; often flavored and sweetened.