Why we eat fermented food
This is what we had for breakfast this morning.
Fried egg (fried in butter), steak, goats cheese served with homemade tomato sauce, homemade sauerkraut and salad from the garden.
We try to build in as much fermented food as possible in every meal we have.
Fermented food includes food such as, yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented veggies, fermented condiments, cheese, tempeh, and many more.
Fermented food is amazing for your health and this is why.
👉 It helps with digestion. It Is packed full of live enzymes and when eaten with your meal, it helps break down food you are eating it with, making the nutrients from the food easier for the body to absorb.
👉 It builds your immunity by building the good bacteria in your gut. Fermented food is packed full of beneficial bacteria both in counts and range of strains. Some fermented food can have over 60 different strains of beneficial bacteria.
Most man-made probiotic pills only usually have up to 10 strains and the counts are small by comparison. And unlike most man-made probiotics pills, which have a hard time getting the beneficial bacteria all the way to the large intestine (as most are killed by the acid in the stomach), the beneficial bacteria from fermented food gets to travel all the way and reach the large intestines alive. Once they reach the large intestines, they are able to populate there.
👉 Fermented food is also packed full of bio-available vitamins and minerals. Fermentation breaks down food, making the vitamins and minerals from the fermented food easy for the body to absorb and utilise.
Sauerkraut for example has high levels of Vitamin A, B, C, K and Vitamin U. The minerals are iron, potassium, iodine, calcium, magnesium, manganese and sodium along with trace amounts of phosphorus, chlorine, cobalt, fluorine, silicon, boron, copper, zinc, sulfur and selenium.
Milk kefir on the other hand, has an abundance of minerals such as tryptophan (essential amino acids), calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamins such as Vitamin B12, B1, Vitamin K and biotin. Biotin is a B Vitamin which aids the body’s assimilation of other B Vitamins, such as folic acid, pantothenic acid, and B12.
There you go, this is why it is essential to bring in fermented food into our diet.
Amongst many things we plan to do this year, we want to launch a fermentation course. Fermentation is such an essential part of healthy living, it is hard to be healthy when we lack beneficial bacteria in our gut. And the best way to fix that, is to eat fermented food.
I’ve been fermenting for a few years now and have recently learnt so much more about fermentation from our naturopath. I’m keen to pass on the knowledge. ❤
Will you be interested to learn how to make your own ferments at home?
Please feel free to add to the comment below.
