Gut Health (Cultured Foods) – Podcast #51

Post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Listen to the Podcast:

I have been working on making more cultured drinks and food to eat. I read so much about the health benefits of things like kefir, kombucha, and fermented or cultured fruits and veggies. Well, here is what I have been making/doing:

Kombucha

I am making 1/2 gallon kombucha every week. I drink this in the evening to help me detox and sleep good. I put 8 oz. kombucha in a big glass, add a bit of cranberry grape juice, then top with ice and water. Yum!

Reasons to drink Kombucha:

• Kombucha assists the liver in detoxifying and will help get rid of excess hormones, helping your hormones to be more balanced
• It’s good for the kidneys and helps prevent kidney stones
• It boosts the immune system and is good to drink if you are sick
• Kombucha is packed with glucosamine which helps prevent joint damage by supporting the preservation of collagen. So it reduces joint pain and inflammation

Milk Kefir

I am drinking milk kefir once a day. I either mix 8 oz. of kefir into 1/2 cup of rolled oats, then add fruit and stevia. I mix it all up and let it sit for a bit to absorb, then eat. It tastes so good! If I have something else for breakfast, then some time during the day I will put 8 oz. in a cup, mix in some stevia and vanilla and drink. Yum!

Reasons to drink Kefir:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers blood sugar
• restores balance to your gut and prevents acid reflux
• Boosts the immune system
• helps the body detox

Cultured Foods

I made some cultured salsa. It is SO good! The first batch I made, made 1 quart and 1 pint of salsa. It is almost gone! I love to use this as a dressing on my salad at lunch time. The kids even like it! I used the recipe out of Cultured Foods in a Jar book.

I made some cultured dill pickles. I like to just throw a few slices on my salad or on my plate at a meal. I love pickles!

This week I made some cultured apple sauce. It was so easy! I washed, cored and sliced 6 apples and put them in my Vitamix blender with a little bit of water. I blended them up pretty smooth. Then I added 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. pink salt, and 1/4 cup kombucha. Blended it up again and then transferred to a quart jar (actually it wouldn’t fit, so I have a quart jar and part of a quart jar). I put my special fermenting lids that I bought on then and they will have to sit on the counter for a couple days before I can try it. Can’t wait! I am trying to find some different cultured foods that my kids will eat too. Not many of them are fond of pickles.

Reasons to eat cultured foods:

• helps with allergies
• adds tons of vitamins and minerals to the food
• helps to kill the bad bacteria in your gut and strengthens the good bacteria
• removes pesticides

Eating Legumes

This isn’t cultured, but I am also making a point to try to eat legumes (1/2 cup three times a day). I will eat 1/2 cup beans with my eggs for breakfast, 1/2 cup over my salad at lunch, and then 1/2 cup on the side for dinner. I don’t always get all three times, but I am trying. Someone on my newsletter list sent me a link to a Nutritionist in Wisconsin that has been helping people heal from all kinds of things including IBS, Crohn’s, arthritis, and more, using nutrition. One of the main things she talks about is the consumption of beans (red beans, kidney beans, black beans, lentils, great northern beans, etc.). It is something like the toxins in our bile attaches to the fiber and then it is eliminated through our bowel. It is kind of interesting if you want to do some reading on it. I bought her book (And They Said It Wasn’t Possible) and read it all. It is filled with very good explanations about what our body does, how immune system works, and all the systems in our body. How stress and toxins play a part, etc. Very interesting. If you want to check out her site in the Resources section below.

I think I have shared before that my hormones have been all out of wack. I was taking the Maca powder for a while and actually stopped that a couple weeks ago. I don’t know if my body just was not needing it or what, but I decided to stop for a while and see how my body did without it. But since I have been adding in the cultured drinks and food listed above, my achy joints have been so much better! My knees feel stronger and don’t hurt to bend them. My hips are feeling better. My overall fatigue is so much better.

I don’t know if it is the cultured foods or the added beans, but I am going to keep at it!

Resources:

• Cultured Foods Books & Supplies
• How to Make Kombucha
• How to Make Milk Kefir
• My post on making Kefir
• Karen Hurd Website
• Cultured Food Life Website