Fermented Foods: How to ‘Culture’ Your Way to Optimal Health

July 21st, 2021

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

There is an abundance of nutritional therapies that can help you get to new levels of health. I’ve been advocating them for decades now, but there is one that I’ve found to have phenomenal benefits in your overall wellness: the introduction of fermented foods to your diet.

I’m so excited to share with you today the radically positive changes fermented or cultured foods can provide your body: how they can “heal and seal” your gut to optimize health or reverse disease, and how culturing your own veggies and foods can give you a jumpstart to achieving better health today.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”110028″]

Fermented Foods Are Abundant in Your Ancestor’s Diet

The way our forefathers lived offers clues on how different cultures used fermented foods (like yogurt and sauerkraut) not only as food preservatives, but also as support for intestinal and overall health.

History shows that:

• During the Roman era, people consumed sauerkraut because of its taste and health benefits.
• In ancient India, it was common to enjoy lassi, a pre-dinner yogurt drink. This traditional practice is anchored on the principle of using sour milk as a probiotic delivery system to the body.
• Bulgarians are known for their high consumption of fermented milk and kefir, and for their high level of health.
• Ukrainians consumed probiotics from a fermented food list that included raw yogurt, sauerkraut, and buttermilk.
• Various Asian cultures ate pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash, and carrots, and consume these fermented treats until today.

Fermented foods are chock-full of probiotics or good bacteria. A myriad of research has demonstrated how the ideal balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut forms the foundation for physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Why a Fermented Food List?

Consuming traditionally fermented foods provide you a number of benefits, including:

• Important nutrients — Some fermented foods are outstanding sources of essential nutrients such as vitamin K2, which help prevent arterial plaque buildup and heart disease. For instance, cheese curd is an excellent source of both probiotics and vitamin K2. Just half an ounce (15 grams) of natto daily can also provide all the K2 you’ll need . Fermented food is also a potent producer of many B vitamins.
• Optimizing your immune system — An estimated 80 percent of your immune system is actually located in your gut. Probiotics play a crucial role in the development and operation of the mucosal immune system in your digestive tract, and aid in the production of antibodies to pathogens. This makes a healthy gut a major factor in maintaining optimal health, as a robust immune system is your top defense system against all disease.
• Detoxification — Fermented foods are some of the best chelators available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are highly potent detoxifiers, capable of drawing out a wide range of toxins and heavy metals.
• Cost-effectiveness — Adding a small amount of fermented food to each meal will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Why? Because they can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement!
• Natural variety of microflora — As long as you vary the fermented and cultured foods you eat, you’ll get a much wider variety of beneficial bacteria than you could ever get from a supplement.

What the State of Your Gut Tells About Your Overall Health

Probiotics, along with a host of other microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to “a newly recognized organ.” Your microflora – a term used to describe the bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microbes that make up your microbial inner ecosystem – impact far more than your digestive tract.

Here are areas where your gut bacteria play key roles in:

The GAPS Protocol by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

Your gut is home to both good and bad bacteria, which outnumber the cells in your body by at least 10 to one.

The challenge is optimizing the bacterial population in your gut: striving for an ideal good to bad bacteria ratio. This can help them live in a beneficial, symbiotic relationship to help nourish you and fight disease. This is where the GAPS Nutritional Program – which has also brought massive benefits to my own gut and overall health – comes in.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a Russian-trained neurologist with a full-time medical practice in the United Kingdom, in her GAPS program,treats children and adults with autism, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, immune disorders, and digestive problems using GAPS.

I am completely amazed by the principles of the GAPS, which introduces fermented foods and the “heal and seal” process that Dr. McBride has developed. GAPS stands for “Gut and Psychology Syndrome,” which talks about the functioning of your brain. According to Dr. McBride, any dysfunction of the brain is usually connected to what’s going on in the digestive system.

GAPS also means “Gut and Physiology Syndrome,” which talks about the functioning of the rest of your body. Here, we’re talking about all forms of autoimmunity and inflammatory conditions:

It would be wise for you to implement the GAPS program if you’re suffering from any of these diseases, or practically any other health issue. Dr. McBride explains:

“Once you heal and seal your gut lining, and once you make your digestive system healthy and working properly again, you’ll be surprised how many various symptoms in your body originated from your digestive system. Most [symptoms] start disappearing, because the health and the disease are usually born inside your digestive system. That’s where they originate from.”

The GAPS Nutritional Protocol intends to restore the integrity of your gut lining. Its dietary component consists of easily digestible foods that are dense in nutrition, including fermented foods. Learn more about the GAPS diet.

The Phenomenal Health Benefits of Fermented Vegetables

But whether you’re suffering from GAPS or not, cultured or fermented vegetables will do great wonders for your health, as shown in their presence in virtually all native and traditional diets.

Fermented vegetables are a mainstay in the GAPS diet. Remember, though, that cultured foods are very efficiency detoxifiers – you may experience a “healing crisis” or detox symptoms if you introduce too many of these foods at once.

Begin with very small servings, then work your way up to the quarter- to half-cup serving size. This gives your intestinal microbiota the chance of adjusting.

It is ideal to include a variety of fermented foods and beverages in your diet, because each food with inoculate your gut with a mix of different microorganisms. There are many fermented foods you can easily make at home, including:

Fermenting Your Vegetables

You can do wild fermentation, or allowing whatever is on the vegetable or fruit that you’re culturing to simply take hold and culture the food. However, this method is very time-consuming. It is suggested that you inoculate the food using a starter culture to speed up the fermentation process. Here’s a summary of Caroline’s recipe for making your own fermented vegetables:

Learn more tips and tricks in fermenting your veggies.

Are You Being Conned by Commercially Processed Fermented Foods?

Your fermented food choices are not limited to vegetables. Here’s a quick look at some of the ideal options out there:

However, it is important that you’re aware of the BIG difference between healthy fermented foods and commercially processed ones.

Fermentation is an inconsistent process, and is more of an art than a science. Commercial food processors developed techniques to help standardize more consistent yields. These include pasteurization, which effectively destroys the naturally occurring probiotics.

Some olives, too, are not generally fermented; they are simply treated with lye to remove the bitterness, packed in salt, and canned. Olive producers can now hold olives in salt-free brines using an acidic solution of lactic acid, acetic acid, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate – a far cry from the old, time-tested, natural lactic acid-fermenting method of salt alone. Simply put, some pickles are simply packed in salt, vinegar, and are pasteurized.

Beware of some “probiotic” yogurts, too. Most of them that you find in the grocery are NOT recommended for many reasons: they are pasteurized (and are linked to the problems of pasteurized milk products), and typically contain added sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, dyes, and/or artificial sweeteners, which can be detrimental to your health.

How About a High-Quality Probiotic Supplement

If you don’t enjoy the taste of fermented foods, taking a probiotic supplement can be your next best option. But don’t give up on fermented foods too easily: start with small amounts like a half-teaspoon, and use them as a condiment added to your food, like a salad dressing.

I generally do not advocate taking a lot of supplements, but a high-quality probiotic is an exception if you truly don’t want to consume fermented foods. Your probiotic supplement should fulfill the following quality and efficacy criteria:

Through my years of clinical practice, I’ve discovered that no single probiotic supplement works for everyone. But many individuals seem to respond positively to Lactobacillus sporogenes more than any other probiotic, so that is a great place to start.

About the author:

Born and raised in the inner city of Chicago, IL, Dr. Joseph Mercola is an osteopathic physician trained in both traditional and natural medicine. Board-certified in family medicine, Dr. Mercola served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years, and in 2012 was granted fellowship status by the American College of Nutrition (ACN).

While in practice in the late 80s, Dr. Mercola realized the drugs he was prescribing to chronically ill patients were not working. By the early 90s, he began exploring the world of natural medicine, and soon changed the way he practiced medicine.

In 1997 Dr. Mercola founded Mercola.com, which is now routinely among the top 10 health sites on the internet. His passion is to transform the traditional medical paradigm in the United States. “The existing medical establishment is responsible for killing and permanently injuring millions of Americans… You want practical health solutions without the hype, and that’s what I offer.”

Visit Mercola.com for more information, or read Dr. Mercola’s full bio and resumé here.