Fermented Food: How to Use Probiotic-Rich Foods to Grow Your Gut Garden and Heal Your Body.

Fermented food is amazing for gut health. I took a course by Phoebe Lapine, a food and health writer while attending the WELL Summit in NY in October 2018.  Phoebe's book, The Wellness Project, chronicles her journey with Hashimotos Thyroiditis and how she learned how to cook food that support our health.

During the class, we learned about the impact of fermented food on our health; Phoebe was great and gave us few tips and an easy recipe on how to make Sauerkraut. We also tasted a salad with fermented food and it was delicious!

Few things to know:

• Th health of your gut impacts everything from your mood to your sleep. Fermented food supports the body production of good bacteria. 
• The focus here is the health of your microbium. Your microbium is the whole bacteria system of your body and it is essential to our health. 70%of your microbium leaves in your guts. 
• We all know it,  but it is worth repeating. Antibiotics, while helping us,  also wipe out our microbium.
• Chlorine in the water is also killing the bacteria in our body.
  
• Anti-acid reduce our stomach acid. This depletes the first layer of bacteria that fights for our immune system.
• Advil and birth control pills also create an unbalance in our hormones.
  
• Avoid probiotics that are not in the refrigerated section.
  

Misconception about probiotics : they add new good bacteria. The truth is that probiotics act as an agent to help create the good bacteria in our guts.

Food that are  have insoluble fiber are great for gut health.

• Artichoke
  
• Asparagus
  
• Leek
• Onion
• Sauerkraut
• Kimchi
• Kifer- higher concentration of probiotics vs yogurts
• Miso
  

Diversify our natural source of probiotics is essential too. You could do a stool testing to assess your diversity.

Easy Sauerkraut Recipe!
All you need is :
• 1/2 Green cabbage
• 2 tsp of salt

How to Make Sauerkraut?

• Mix the shredded cabbage and the salt
  
• And massage the cabbage for 5 minutes you will see it get some liquid out naturally.
• Transfer into a jar
• Press the cabbage down under the liquid
• Make sure the cabbage is submerged
• Put something on top to maintain the cabbage submerged.
• Cover the top with some cheese clothes.  Air should be able to go through the top.
  
• Taste 3 days after and make sure the cabbage is still submerged.
• Leave it rest for a week.
• Cover with a lid and put in the refrigerator.