Most cultures (if not all) in the world have some form of fermented foods on their traditional menus, from German Sauerkraut to Mexican Escabeche, Japanese Miso, Korean Kimchi, Ethiopian Injera, to even our very own highly celebrated and widely appreciated Sourdough Bread. And there’s more… soooooo much more.
You’ve probably heard that fermented foods are great for our guts and our microbiome because they are (or at least contain) probiotics.
And they are! And we love natural whole-food sources of probiotics! Why? Because they’re amazing and they have all kinds of great health benefits like improved digestion, boosted immunity, and even improving certain mental health conditions and all kinds of other great stuff that happens when we take good care of our gut bugs.
My tip to you is just to be mindful of what other ingredients are in your fermented foods. For example, Kombucha, which I LOVE, that there can contain quite a lot of sugar (and even trace amounts of alcohol). So don’t go crazy and start drinking it by the gallon… like somebody I know… but won’t name… because it’s mean… and I don’t want to be mean to my brother…
Some fermented foods also have a lot of salt in them, like pickles, which I could eat for days without coming up for air, so that’s another thing to be mindful of.
One of my absolute favourites is Kimchi, and it’s not nearly as hard or scary to make as I thought it was going to be. I have posted a recipe HERE if you want to check it out.
For more info on gut health, check out How to reset your gut microbiome and check out the Sweet Vegan Spills the tea Podcast S01E03 – Is your food feeding you, or your anxiety – available wherever you get your podcasts and also on Youtube!
