In my free and online community, we often chat about poop…yes poop! This is one of my favorite subjects along with the health benefits of fermented foods.
Why is poop one of my favorite subjects? Simply because I believe that the condition of your poop is a direct reflection of your health.
Now you are here to learn about the health benefits of fermented foods, so why should you care about poop? Well simply said, fermented food is a natural remedy for poop issues because of its high content in probiotics and fiber.
So before we dive into the benefits of fermented food, let’s understand why poop health is such a big deal for all of us.
Connecting Mind and Body
A problem in the poop department means a health issue now or later. As the Going Beyond The Food Method teaches us, our body has a way of communicating with us and that is through symptoms and disease, or as I like to say – Body Messages.
When we express our life through fear, safety issues and/or an overall lack of grounding, most often we will present with bowel movement issues mainly around constipation. We just can’t let go and feel the need to hold on to everything for dear life including our poop.
The body is simply figuratively expressing what the mind is seeing and feeling. Our body is sending us signals that we need to let go and with time, by not addressing this issue, the compounding effects of non-healthy bowel movements will start creating disease in our body.
The need for each one of us to know what a healthy bowel movement looks like is crucial in taking care of our body. You would think most people know but unfortunately, based on my years of practice, we have no clue!
Healing with Fermented Food
In this post, we have learned to identify healthy poop and learned what to do to increase or maintain the health of our poop. So if you have never been through poop training, get reading right now.
When healing is needed, we must address both the physical and emotional aspects. Louise Hay Heal your Life book is a great place to start for the emotional aspect. From a physical perspective, fermented food is a great add-on to your daily diet to boost the health of your gut.
“Boost your intestinal flora by adding naturally fermented food into your diet, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and Kombucha; add a probiotic supplement if you suspect you’re not getting enough beneficial bacteria from your diet alone”– How to score a home run with your poop – Stephanie Dodier, Nutritionist.
What is Fermented Food?
Fermented food has been through a process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feeding on the sugar and starch creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food and creates beneficial enzymes, B-Vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics. Natural fermentation of food has also been shown to preserve nutrients and breaks the food down to a more digestible form.
Cultures around the world have been eating fermented foods for years – from Sauerkraut in Germany to Kimichi in Korea and Kombucha in China. Studies have even shown a link between probiotic-rich foods and overall health. Unfortunately, with the advances in technology and food preparation, these time-honored traditional foods have been largely lost in our society.
List of Health Benefits of Fermented Foods
Besides the benefits of probiotics for our poop health and overall health, fermented food have many other benefits:
- Important nutrients. Some fermented foods are outstanding sources of essential nutrients such as Vitamin K2 which helps prevent arterial plaque build-up and heart disease.
- Optimizing your immune system. An estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut. Probiotics play a crucial role in the development and operation of the mucosal immune system in your digestive tract and aid in the production of antibodies to pathogens. This makes a healthy gut a major factor in maintaining optimal health as a robust immune system is your top defense system against disease.
- Detoxification. Fermented food is one of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria are highly potent detoxifiers which draws out a wide range of toxins and heavy metals.
- Cost-effectiveness. Adding a small amount of fermented food to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Why? Because it can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement!
- Natural variety of microflora. As long as you vary the fermented and cultured food you eat, you’ll get a much wider variety of beneficial bacteria than you could ever get from a supplement.
How Much Fermented Food Should I Consume?
This is a typical breakfast for me.
My recommendation is 1/4 to 1/2 cup a day of fermented vegetables and 1 cup of Kombucha eaten with one to three meals per day. It can have a dramatically beneficial impact on your health.
If you’ve never eaten fermented foods, too large of a portion may provoke a healing crisis which occurs when the probiotics kill off pathogens in your gut. When these pathogens die, potent toxins are released. Here, the risk of a healing crisis outweighs the health benefits of fermented foods, so you need to know how to introduce fermented foods into your diet properly.
If you are new to eating fermented food, you should introduce it gradually, beginning with as little as one tsp. of sauerkraut with a meal. Observe your body’s reactions for a couple of days before proceeding with another small portion. Then increase your dose gradually, as tolerated.
Make Your Own Fermented Food
You’ll get the full health benefits of fermented foods when you make your own. I have recipes for homemade kimchi and sauerkraut. You might want to check them out. Culturing your own vegetables is not difficult, but as with anything, having the right tools makes the job much easier and more fun.
So now you know the valuable health benefits of fermented foods. I hope I inspired you today to begin your journey in fermentation and provide your body with much-needed love!