Integrative Health Blog

Cultured Vegetables: The Secret to a Healthy Gut

Posted by on Tue, Jun 07, 2016

Cultured and fermented foods have been around for a long time, initially as a means of preserving food, but it turns out there is a wonderful healing benefit to this process. Foods were put in a jar and stored in a cellar for a period of time where they fermented, or cultured. The good microbes grow and flourish in this fermented environment, eliminating the bad microbes. When you consume cultured foods your digestive system reaps the benefits of this beautiful, healthy ecosystem.

Amazing Benefits of Cultured Vegetables   

Rich in probiotics

Fermented vegetables help re-establish a healthy inner digestive ecosystem. Food sources of probiotics give you billions more of viable microbes than most supplements and also are more likely to survive stomach acids and re-inoculate your gut more effectively as they bring their own ecosystem with them.

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Tags: fermented foods, digestive health

Make It or Buy It, But Eat It and Be Well

Posted by on Tue, Jul 10, 2012


Anita's Healthy Tips

If you live in the Washington metro area then you are all too familiar with the recent heat explosion we have had, no to mention the power outages due to last week’s storm. We were without power for 5 days at my house and so naturally we lost all the contents of our refrigerator and freezer.

Fermented Foods Are an Old Tradition

It got me to thinking that prior to the advent of refrigeration people routinely preserved their fruits and vegetables not just so that they could eat them out of season, but because they understood that fermented foods also made them healthy. Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations knew this, Europeans understand it and Asian cultures continue to ferment foods. Here in the U.S., sauerkraut is probably the most popular fermented food but most commercial preparations have been pasteurized and therefore all the beneficial bacteria have been killed off! Some have said that the relishes we use, like pickle and cucumber relish were probably originally fermented. This lost art is surely making a come back with many articles and books written on the subject like the most recent Real Food Fermentation by Alex Lewin.

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Tags: fermented foods, holistic nutrition, probiotics