“Let Food Be Thy Medicine And Medicine Thy Food” This is a quote from Hippocrates 130 BC. In another quote he said, “All disease begin in the gut”. Did you know that 80% of our immune system resides in our gut? Eating fermented sauerkraut benefits that even more.
He knew that thousands of years ago, but today we have lost it. How did gut health fall so low? How did we get so far out of balance?
Some of the contributing factors are the evolution of the modern diet, fast foods giants, processed, faked, refined, denatured foods of commerce. The introduction of steroids, antibiotics, hormones, and GMO.
Farming methods and refrigeration have negatively impacted our foods. Further removing fermented sauerkraut benefits from the dining table.
We no longer ferment our foods!
If you’re consuming organic vegetables, roots, and herbs, believe me some of those are some powerful superfoods.
If you’re eating fermented foods, taking probiotics, raw organic cheese.
How Do You Benefit Form Sauerkraut And Other Fermented Foods?
Why Is Sauerkraut A Superfood?
Sauerkraut is the ancient art of fermenting and pickling vegetables, that dates back thousands of years. It is a naturally occurring process that is carried out without heat or pasteurization.
The idea of culturing vegetables actually first originated as a way to preserve food so it could be stored without the need for refrigeration.
Today this raw ferment is viewed as a superfood for the digestive system, and known for its effects at reestablishing a balanced inner ecology. Fermented sauerkraut benefits also packed with nutrients raw cultured vegetables help to rebuild the immune system, as well as detoxify the body.
“When you make sauerkrauts, you are in fact concocting a vessel full of enzymes, lactobacilli and an alkaline reactive food source. A powerhouse of nutrition for your stomach, intestines, organs and entire body”, Sandor Katz.
Many health experts agree that a healthy life begins with a healthy digestive tract. Eating fermented foods like sauerkrauts, will create a balance to the good and bad bacteria in the gut.
When digestion is off track, it can affect many bodily functions, and hinder the efficiency of the vital organs and glands.
Our ability to digest the foods we eat keeps us in top shape for preventing acute and chronic illness and disease.
Eating Sauerkraut is the preventative approach to maintaining health at its root in the digestive system.
Knowing The Whole World Of Sauerkraut?
Basically, sauerkraut is shredded cabbage fermented in its own juice with or without a culture starter or a salt water brine.
Many other vegetables and spices can be added for extra flavor and variety. But cabbage is usually the main ingredient because the leaves contain high amounts of naturally occurring cultures that help it to ferment.
The process is accomplished in a glass or ceramic fermentation jar or crock of some kind. The chopped or shredded veggies are pressed down tight creating an oxygen free space.
Typically some sort of heavy weight is placed on top but it is not always needed. Over the fermentation time between 4 to 10 days or much longer depending on how you like them.
The vegetables become soft slightly pickled, tangy and very tasty. In some countries the jars are traditionally buried in the ground for many months or up to a year or more.
But stored to ferment in a cool dark environment, cultured vegetables are known to improve in quality, the longer they aged.
Raw Sauerkraut’s Benefits To Health: Packed With Enzymes.
Our digestive functions naturally provides saliva and digestive enzymes to break down our food into usable nutrients.
But over time, eating foods low in enzymes reduces one’s own digestive enzyme reserves. Raw sauerkraut is a food packed with enzymes because it is not heated or pasteurized like some commercial brands.
Enzyme rich foods help you to digest your meals so you get the maximum amount of nutrition and energy out of them.
“Our enzyme potential has a problem somewhat similar to a checking account which could become dangerously deficient if not continually replenished. Either vitamins, minerals or hormones cannot do any work without enzymes.” Enzyme Nutrition by Dr. Howell.
A jar of cultured vegetables is an enzyme Factory and only a small amount of sauerkraut provides more than enough for the proper digestion of the foods we eat. The fermented sauerkraut benefits can be an especially helpful condiment for diets high in cooked foods, dairy and animal proteins.
Those here in the West, eating the Standard American Diet, (a SAD one for sure), could definitely benefit from the consumption of these ferments that many people around the globe have used for literally thousands of years.
In fact we have never really needed the benefits of cultured sauerkraut more than we do today. With increased industrialization more and more of our food and drink is prepackaged with chemicals and artificial preservatives to maintain its shelf life, and there is nothing here to laugh about.
Fermented Foods Help Digestion
When you consume foods that cannot be efficiently broken down by the body, you are left with undigested waste material that gets trapped inside the gut, causing bloating, constipation, obesity, fatigue and lowered immune response.
Consuming fermented foods like fermented sauerkraut benefits can be a valuable asset to overall health. Which can be helpful for processing the leftover byproducts of an unhealthy enzyme less diet.
Contains Lactobacillus, The Friendly Bacteria.
In addition to enzymes the friendly microbial bacteria that exists inside your digestive tract are particularly helpful at converting more nutrients vitamins and minerals out of the foods you eat making them more bioavailable to the body to use as nourishment.
This is why it is very important to maintain a balanced body ecology.
Foods like fermented sauerkraut benefits will put your cells in the alkaline state.
And that is essential because you should have at least 80% alkaline friendly bacteria and 20% of the other acidic microorganisms like Candida albicans, which are actually helpful to the health in the intestinal tract in small amounts.
Fermented sauerkraut benefits food will help to synthesize vitamins in the entire B group. We have from 5 to 7 pounds of bacteria in our GUT, the large intestine. Eighty percent (80%) of our immune system is our gut flora (bacteria).
This is the terrain that is responsible for our perfected health.
The bacteria in the large intestine is responsible for all our B vitamins. Fermented foods help to balance the flora in the gut. And when the optimum bacteria is not present, our health is seriously compromised.
Cultured vegetables are a true longevity food, an essential part of a super healthy diet plan to cleanse and re-establish a healthy intestinal ecosystem. There’s an incredible diverse array of beneficial bacteria found in cultured krauts and they are known to increase in volume, the longer they ferment.
The fermentation process involved in making sauerkraut creates an acidic environment in which these friendly flora can reproduce and proliferate. This is accomplished by transforming the lactose and other sugars in the vegetables to lactic acid.
This lactic acid rich space gives birth to different strains of the bacteria called lactobacilli including leuconostoc lactobacillus and Pediococcus.
Nobel Prize winning scientists Elie Metchnikoff in his book “The Prolongation Of Life” – proposed that consuming high quantities of lactobacilli-rich foods would eliminate the dominance of unfriendly bacteria.
Reestablishes pH Levels And Control Yeast Overgrowth
So many conditions such as candida overgrowth, bone thinning and especially inflammation in the body, are a result of eating too many acidic type foods that build excess levels of acids in the digestive system.
These acids leak out into the blood and Limp. Cultured vegetables transform into an alkaline rich food when consumed. This helps to reestablish the proper balance of pH levels in the intestinal tract.
“That thrilling taste of homemade sauerkraut, the practice of fermentation is one of partnership with microscopic life. This partnership leads to a reverence for all the processes that contribute to the well-being of the human race.” Sally Fallon
“The History Of Cultured Vegetables”
The original version of sauerkraut or types of cultured cabbage are thought to have originated north of China as far back as 200 BC, and were later introduced in European countries by migrating tribes and Tartars of Genghis Khan and his armies.
The fermented sauerkraut benefits like fermented cabbage, which was used as a side dish with meals, was the perfect food for traveling soldiers because it never spoiled. It was also a well known food of Chinese laborers building the Great Wall of China over 2,000 years ago.
Eventually it made its way to Europe where it was discovered by the German and Austrian people.
The word sauerkraut originated here with the word sour meaning sour, and kraut meaning green leafy vegetables or plant material. In the old days usually in the fall season, Eastern European families prepared for winter by making several barrels of cultured cabbage enough for the entire family to eat for many months.
Different from the Asian version which was fermented in rice wine, Germanic peoples cured cabbage with salt, caraway seeds spices and other vegetables.
Raw cultured sauerkraut is a well-documented food of Dutch seaman because of its high vitamin C content which helps prevent scurvy. It was popularized by Captain James Cook who began taking many barrels of it along on long sea journeys, to provide this hard to find vitamin for his crew.
Today it is popular all across Europe as well as in Asian cuisine with the popular Korean version known as kimchi.
Why Learn How To Make Fermented Sauerkraut Benefits?
There is nothing quite like learning how to make sauerkraut from scratch, with the vegetables spices and seasonings you select for your own unique tastes and health goals.
Homemade raw cultured vegetables are very affordable to make with minimal kitchen tools.
Once you get down the kraut making process, you can start making fermented sauerkraut benefits by the gallon which will help you to save money and time. Fermented sauerkraut benefits is one of our top favorite food condiments that we enjoy on a daily basis so we need plenty of it around in the fridge and cellar.
At first the idea of making it homemade, might seem a bit intimidating like you are performing some kind of laboratory experiment.
But rest assured as you familiarize yourself with this age-old way of preparing food, you will become more confident with each batch you make.
Long shelf life
Fermented sauerkraut benefits cultured vegetables stored for long periods of time in the refrigerator. It can also be kept in a cool cellar or basement where they will continue to age like fine wine. When they are kept below about 40 degrees Fahrenheit they tend to stop fermenting.
A Word About Store-Bought Brands
There are some high-quality organic cultured vegetables available at most health food stores, but they can be quite costly for just a small jar.
That is another bonus to making fermented sauerkraut benefits right in your kitchen.
This is important to be aware that many types of sauerkraut on the market are not cultured but pasteurized, which destroys a lot of its nutritional value. They are primarily designed to render the final product more uniform and thus more marketable.
You get taste perhaps, but none of the health benefits of real raw fermented sauerkraut benefits.
Note, at first cultured veggies, because they are cleansing to the body might trigger the elimination of toxins and undigested waste material in the colon, which is a type of detox program.
Therefore, you might have an increased amount of intestinal gas with frequent bowel movements.
Also as unfriendly yeast die-off you may also experience some intestinal bloating. These side effects however are usually short-lived and sometimes a necessary part of the detox process and eventually fermented sauerkraut benefits will actually help to prevent these symptoms.
