Resolution Reboot 2023 for Your Healthiest Year by Joan Kent, PhD
I recently gave a webinar covering 4 topics I decided would work well as posts. Let’s explore them over the next several days.
Let’s Start with Rotten Food
Obviously, I’m not referring to spoiled food in your fridge that needs to be thrown away. This is about the magic of fermentation and eating fermented foods.
85% of your immune system is in your gut. Gut health is critical. Why?
Poor gut health can lead to inflammation, allergies, autoimmune disease, poor workout recovery and/or poor athletic performance.
Signs you need fermented foods can include all types of issues relating to the digestive system: bloating, gas, gastro-esophageal reflux disorder (GERD), constipation, and diarrhea.
But poor gut health can also result in problems we don’t necessarily attribute to the gut: skin issues, sleep problems, headaches, UTIs (urinary tract infections), weight gain, strong sugar cravings.
We have both good and bad bacteria in the gut. The good should outnumber the bad by at least 6 to 1. But several factors can interfere with that. The environment can introduce pollution, chlorinated water, and farming pesticides.
Antibiotics can interfere with gut health, whether in prescription meds that we take or the antibiotics that are fed to any animals we may eat (for their growth and “health”). Both animals’ antibiotics and our own prescription meds can affect our gut bacteria.
Use of antacids or laxatives can unbalance our good/bad bacteria and increase the need for beneficial bacteria in the gut.
Finally, our dietary habits affect our gut bacteria. Processed foods, sugar, and alcohol can unbalance gut bacteria. So can artificial sweeteners in diet foods, diet beverages, or sugarless gum.
What Will Fermentation Do for You?
Fermentation breaks down and eliminates toxins in the body. It rebalances bacteria in the gut by destroying the bad ‘bugs’ and promoting growth of the good. It aids digestion and helps with vitamin and mineral absorption. It regulates stomach acid production, so we have not too much, not too little.
Fermentation produces B vitamins, which are essential in transporting nutrients throughout the body. They release energy from the foods we eat, and even help to control sugar cravings.
Fermented foods include:
Soy products, such as tempeh, miso and natto.
Sauerkraut and kimchi, made from cabbage.
Yogurt and kefir, made from milk. Best practice is to use unsweetened versions of these, as sugar has health-disrupting effects of its own.
Kombucha, a fermented beverage, does contain some alcohol. Pay attention to how this may or may not affect you. I noticed a reaction to it that felt addictive, so I stopped drinking it. Do what’s wisest for you.
Special mention must be made of apple cider vinegar (ACV), a well-known fermented product. It has so many benefits, books have been written about it for decades. One ‘health perk’ that goes beyond fermentation is that it’s known to lower glucose levels in both diabetics and nondiabetics.
ACV also has an amazing ability to help with chest congestion. Pour 1 ounce (2 tbs) in 8 oz of warm – not hot – water and gargle as follows. Take a mouthful, put your head back and gargle for several seconds while making the gargling sound to really open your throat. Instead of spitting it out, swallow. Repeat the process with the entire glass. It will bring up the chest congestion and help you get rid of it. Because this is food, not a drug, you can use it over and over as needed.
ACV is also okay to drink daily for its other health benefits. There’s no need to gargle. Just mix it with warm water as described above and drink it early in the day, preferably on an empty stomach.
Fermentation may seem minor, but it works. My client, Cherrie S., says, “As long as I can remember, I’d suffered from bloating, stomach pain, constipation, cramps, low energy & irritable bowel. After 1 week on Joan’s program, my digestive problems & pain disappeared! I’m eating foods I could never eat, my energy has improved & I’m sleeping better.” Excellent results – and in only a week.
For help with fermentation and everything it can do for you, just visit LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free Heal My Gut consult. I’d love to help you with that.
So fermentation rocks. And the real rotten food continues to be sugar – but we’ll get to that in a few days.
Be here next time for info on inflammation – and how the foods you eat can and will control it to keep you healthy and feeling great.
Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar.
