Why Are Fermented Foods Good For You?
Naturally fermented foods help our gut microbiome, they give our body a dose of healthy probiotics. If we don’t have enough healthy bacterias in our stomage, we may develop a “leaky gut”. In other words bacteria and toxins can “leak” through our intestinal wall in to the blood stream and this can cause allergic reactions like migraines, food allergies, eczema, fatigue, bloating, confusion and so on. Gut health is also strongly connected with our mental health. But before you go buying probiotics you should heal your gut. And the best way to do it is to ferment your own foods. It is easy and this way you can be 100% sure that these foods are natural and do not contain any unnecessary impurities.
Which Are The Best Fermented Foods To Make At Home?
Although you can ferment any vegetable, I like pickles, cabbage salad and red onions the best! These 3 are the easiest options of fermented foods that you can make at home. For all of them you can use pretty much the same basic recipe. You only need boiled and chilled water, salt and spices/herbs that you like. However, you can make it without any spices, it will be tasty anyway.
So the first thing you need are glass jars. Wash them first with boiling water to kill all the bacteria. Then slice the veggies, put tightly into a jar with few garlic cloves, dill, chilli peppers, peppercornes. Always leave room for water because all the veggies have to be in the marinade. Now add your boiled/chilled water with 1 tablespoon of salt (0,5 L /jar). You dont want to put too much salt because you can kill all the good bacterias with it. Then put the lid on(not too tightly) and leave them in the dark place for 3-4 days.
You can try them after 3-4 days. It is a good sign if you see some bubbles in them! If you like them more fermented and with stronger taste, leave them for couple more days. But if you are happy with the result, just put the lid on tightly and store them in fridge.
Which Are The Best Fermented Foods For Gut Health?
Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented drink that is made of tea, sugar, yeast and bacteria. It is full of probiotics and antioxidants. In addition it has anti bacterial effect and many more benefits for your gut. No doubt it is a “super food” and it tastes really good as well! So try it out!
Kimchi
Another interesting and super popular fermented food is kimchi. It originates from Korea and consists of salted and fermented napa cabbage, redish and scallions, made with variety of seasonings like garlic, ginger, Korean red pepper, fish sauce and sugar.
Sourdough Bread
Another very good food for our gut is sourdough bread. Mix of water and flour paste produce bacteria that is useful for our gut flora. Although the dough includes some yeast as well it is much healthier than usual yeast bread.
Overall it is one of the most important things to have a balanced diet! What we eat influence so many different aspects of our life starting from physical health over to emotions. We don’t live forever so let’s make sure we enjoy every moment of it! Also, check out my older post about boosting up the immune system!
La Pura Vida
Kariné