Fermentation February
As like everything in life, everything comes full circle, which is no different in this instance……
Fermenting – this has been around for hundreds of years, and now it has come full circle again highlighting the benefits of gut health.
This year the trend is all about Gut Health and the fact that our gut is our second brain, therefore we need to look after it. All of you would have heard or said “trust your gut feel/ I got a gut feeling about …..” – so yes the saying comes from this, the fact that our gut is our second brain. And just saying – how many times has your gut feel been right?????
“The reason our gut has such a powerful control over us is due to the gut microbiome. Unfortunately with the dietary combination of our ‘standard diet’, which is full of sugar, processed foods, and food additives, promotes the growth of harmful bacteria and yeast. It also turns on genes that are unfavorable for your well being.
You see headaches, allergies, autoimmunity, weight gain, acne, skin rashes, yeast infections, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, immune challenges, even the way you sense pain – they all relate to the condition and health of your gut.” Dr Vincent Pedre – ‘Happy Gut’
With the foods we have been including in our diets – low fat, high sugar has not been feeding our bodies the best way, and after so many years on a diet like this all the cracks are now showing (especially in our skin, they’re called wrinkles!)
So how our skin looks on the outside, just think that’s how our bodies will look on the inside. Our skin is an organ, just like our liver, heart, cell membranes etc, it’s just we cannot see them. And for this very reason we do not pay enough attention to nourishing what we really need, we worry too much on how many calories are in things! (*note: we need to shift our mindset).
With everything is our diets, we should always have a variety of foods and in moderation, we seem to have become a society of gluttony and an ‘all or nothing’ approach.
So for the month of February I wanted to promote it as Fermentation February and highlight to everyone the benefits of introducing fermented foods and collagen back into your diets.
February is a busy month getting back into routine, but for some it’s a start to a healthier year. However many people concentrate on removing foods out of their diets, without introducing certain foods in.
So yes I agree eliminate the sugars and vegetable oils that cause cell damage, but you must replace this with some gut healing nourishing food your body so well desires. This is why our ancestors had them in their diets, that is why we need to really understand what they were about and also note how healthy they lived compared to how we do now.
Yes we may live longer in age, due to medical procedures, but we are not living longer quality wise.
“Fermented foods help bacteria convert sugars and starch into lactic acid, a process called lacto fermentation. Fermented foods help improve your gut health by “reseeding” your gut with beneficial bacteria.
The fermentation process also boosts the nutritional content of the food, producing essential amino acids, short-chain fatty acids, beneficial enzymes, certain nutrients and increases bioavailability of minerals.” – Dr Joseph Mercola
Read this link below from Dr Mercola that goes into detail about the benefits of fermenting.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/07/18/health-benefits-fermented-foods.aspx
Each week I make a different type of fermented food, well actually I make yogurt a few times a week as my two boys love it.
I enjoy have some sauerkraut with my salads, kimchi is being trialled now, just waiting on my batch to finish fermenting, but my favourite is Kombucha, to make this is so easy, so cheap and so important for my health.
(You can see how to make it on my Kerrie Fatone Health Coach page, I did a live feed the other day.)
I’m yet to experiment with Kefir, but certainly will in the future.
Kombucha is the trend at the moment and as all the ‘morning shows’ talk about as well, you must be careful on what brand you buy, you need to check three things:
1. The sugar content, make sure it is very low (yes you use a bit of sugar in the fermentation process because sugar – like everything – feeds the live cultures. However you don’t need heaps, and if you end up flavouring your kombucha after the fermentation stage, you will have a natural sweetness in the serving.)
2. You need to also check the use buy date, think of when we used to have milk delivered to the door by the milkman, it only lasted 3 days in the fridge, now you can buy milk that lasts 3 WEEKS, and that shouts out to me PRESERVATIVES, well put this into perspective with the Kombucha, the longer the shelf life – the more additives (it’s not like an aged bottle of red wine!).
3. The storage of the kombucha, once I’ve removed the live bacteria (scoby), you need to refrigerate and consume within a few days. Obviously with the production in big manufacturing companies they can tweak it to last longer, however you still need to question the pure goodness of it.
Sauerkraut and Kimchi are fermented vegetables using good quality salt and massaging it through the cabbage and vegetables, again it needs to sit and breathe in the brine to go through the fermentation process.
I wanted to share these with you;
1. Because I care about your health and would love for you to incorporate some of these into your diet.
2. So many people say to me that eating healthy is expensive, however these fermented foods I’ve mentioned cost next to nothing to make, yes it takes 5 mins of your time, but it’s made with love, and the power of that alone is so wonderful to your health.
I am conducting a fermentation workshop (Hamlyn Heights) on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th February – it’ll be for an 1 – 11/2 hours. If you are interested please send me you your details with what day and time suits and I will confirm if there is enough interest. – Friends welcome
The cost is $10 per person and you take home with you Kombucha and either a sauerkraut or kimchi sample.
You will be able to sample my homemade yogurt and gummies as well.
Please feel free to share this information with a loved one.
Here’s to your health and happiness
Kerrie
Professional Health, Fitness and wellbeing coach
