Here is a picture of all my vegetable ferments,
freshly made. These ferments will be ready to eat in a weeks time. They not
only add crunchy, raw, loaded with nutrients food to my diet, but also feed my
gut with the good bacteria.
When we talk about bacteria, the first thing that comes to our mind is a bacterial infection, or something unclean. And the only positive thing we hear about them is a small mention about the good bacteria in our science text book, with one example of it, which is yogurt or curd or dahi. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each person carries about 2 - 6 lbs mass or 100 trillion of these good bacteria throughout our body. They are in our gut, oral cavity, and various places of our body. There are 10,000 varied species and not limited to the mere 5 strains present in home-made yogurt. Like every other thing in our body, these good bacteria also have a function or rather they carry out multiple useful jobs. They regulate several bodily behaviors like, digestion and nutrition absorption etc. They not only affect your gut, but also your brain. This is a complex connection, but a lack or imbalance of this gut micro-biome can cause, depression, multiple sclerosis, affect the immune system, cause systems of autism, and much more.
It is predicted that, gut health, micro
flora and probiotics, is going to comprise the next 10 years of medicine. It is
one of the most overlooked sectors, when looking at health problems. People
struggle to rid themselves of problems like: Candida,
chronic fatigue, depression, weight problems, early aging, ADHD, autism,
hormone imbalance and auto-immune disorders; and sometimes surrender to living
with it. But there is hope. There are many web-sites with information about how
a diet, high in probiotic food, low in gluten (protein found in wheat,
sometimes oats and barley) and casein (found in milk) can significantly
reduce the symptoms of these diseases.
Since the day that I was introduced to it for my sons gut health, I was hooked. I bought myself some glass bottles of odd shapes and sizes, loads of veggies and knocked myself crazy. You have already seen the picture of my jars of ferments. I have been waiting to share my new discovery with all my readers, but it took me a while. I wanted to first experience it and then share. There is loads of information available online, but I would like to share my personal experience.
To be fair, I started fermenting veggies, coconut water and also water kefir. Of these my son could only develop a liking for some water kefir from time to time. I started him off on probiotic capsules, food enzymes and kefir. He was off gluten and milk, occasionally he ate cheese. In about 3/4 months time we saw that his gut was calmer, fewer loose motions and his appetite was much lower. Now why is the appetite going down a good thing. Am I not a typical Indian mother who would rather over feed her child. Well, when I first thought that there is some problem, he had a healthy appetite but had trouble putting on weight. Most of my friends would complain that their child did not eat enough, but their children were all cutely cherubic. And here I had a 7 yr old who would eat two sunny side up eggs and 2 dosas (fermented crisp pancake) for breakfast, carry two tiffins, finish both and then come back home with a decent appetite. One thing I always maintained was that the kids ate home cooked meal most of the time. So, this observation lead me to think that he was probably not getting the nutrition that his body needed and therefore he craved more food. I had ignored this and other symptoms like: often growing pain in legs, 5 minute discomfort after drinking milk (his favorite) and IBS symptoms. Mind you he was doing absolutely fine and was an extremely active child, who even today needs very little sleep. That is the reason doctors too pacified me saying that he probably has a good metabolism etc. And who doesn't like to hear that. I am glad I finally got out of the inertia and worked on his diet. Now he is at a healthier weight and no more stomach discomfort. But while all this correction was happening in his case, I lost about 7 lbs. I was religiously eating my fermented veggies, drinking kefir etc. Got plenty of compliments from everybody. I wish I was a little more consistent with it, that way I could have said I lost another 10 lbs and feel a whole lot healthier. Nevertheless I have settled at the 7 lbs lower weight.
These are a few ways in which
probiotic food helps:
- Nutrient absorption: When foods are fermented, they are converted to a
predigested form, the sugars in the foods are consumed. This process
increases the absorption
of vital minerals in the gastrointestinal tract, thus preventing mineral
deficiencies. On cooking such foods, we loose the live bacteria but still
get the above benefits. Examples: Idli, dosa, dhokla etc.
- Supplies good bacteria: What
is even better is, when we can eat fermented foods raw. This not only
gives us the above benefits, but also provides us with live bacteria which
can colonize in our gut and thus help in the digestion and absorption of
all our food.
- Destroys anti-nutrients: Compounds
called anti nutrients interfere with the absorption of nutrients. These
compounds are destroyed by fermentation.
There are lots of good articles and
videos about the benefits of fermented foods and how to prepare them.
Some of my favorites are:
http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/7_must_eat_fermented_foods_for_a_healthy_gut
http://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/stories/how-to-make-kimchi-in-5-easy-steps
