How Adding Fermented Foods to Your Daily Diet Can Change Your Life for the Better!

Dear Friends,

I am so excited to share how adding fermented foods to your daily diet can change your life for the better! I know that sounds crazy right, because it is such a bold statement, but it really can! In this healthy habits for the new year series, I have suggested healthy habits for your mind, body, and soul. I have gone in depth so far about keeping a gratitude journal and how to make great goals and actually achieve them. I chose to go into depth about those two topics specifically because they have the greatest impact on my psychological health. Adding fermented foods to my daily diet has had the greatest impact on my physical health, even greater than exercise because this improved my health giving me more energy to become stronger when I exercise!

A jar of traditional homemade kimchi on a marble surface with wooden chopsticks beside it.

A child interacts with a detailed anatomical skeleton model, showcasing the brain and digestive system.

So first let’s talk about what fermented food is; a fermented food is basically partially broken down by good bacteria which makes it more gentle on your digestive system, it also adds to it because the good bacteria has multiplied in the food that has been fermented and when you ingest it it is beneficial because it adds to your gut flora increasing the health of your gut microbiome.

Your gut is sometimes referred to as your second brain because it has such a huge effect on your entire body including your brain. This is why specific diets are part of a protocol for mental health and even neurological disorders. The ketogenic diet for instance, was initially used for individuals that had epilepsy especially when it was not under control with the use of anti convulsant medications alone. I mention this to illustrate that your diet does not just effect you physically, but also psychologically.

Now what we eat is very important for our immune system as well. I have heard it said that most of our immune system is in our gut.I do not know how someone came to that conclusion, but I do know that whether that is fact or not, our gut health has a profound impact on the health and strength of our immune system. In my understanding there are two main ways that your immune system is impacted by your gut; the first is by increasing your microbiome, the second is by vitamin and mineral absorption. Adding fermented foods to your diet will help your gut do both of these actions.

First, fermented foods are foods that have been cultured so a strain of good bacteria thrived and changed the food itself. Milk can be fermented to make yogurt and kefir. The bacteria that thrive and multiply during the fermentation of the milk break down the lactose in the milk making it so there is significantly less. This is why a person that cannot have milk because they are sensitive to lactose might be able to comfortably have a form of fermented milk like yogurt or kefir. Adding these good bacteria, or probiotics, to your diet through fermented foods is like taking a probiotic supplement or better. In fact I once read that a man was curious about how many probiotics he was getting from his home fermented sauerkraut so he had it tested and found that 2 tbsp of his sauerkraut had more probiotics in it than an entire jar of probiotic supplements. In another instance, I was reading an article by a doctor who had some sort of infection that she had been having a difficult time getting over, and she was looking for a specific probiotic strain that she could take to overcome this infection. She bought several very pricey probiotic supplements that claimed to have this particular strain in them so she took them but none were helping her the way that she expected. So she had the probiotic supplements tested and found that none of them had the strain of probiotic bacteria in them that they claimed to have. She knew how to ferment food though so she made some fermented sauerkraut and some fermented dairy like yogurt I think, and she tested those, and they had the strain of bacteria in them that she had been seeking. It is fascinating that we are able to produce such simple healthy foods at home ourselves, that we would pay so much to get the benefits from in a supplement.

Fresh lemon raspberry yogurt in mason jars, perfect for a refreshing dessert.

A rustic setting featuring a frothy beer mug and sauerkraut in a jar, perfect for pub themes.

The second way that fermented foods help your immune system are by increasing your vitamin and mineral absorption. First of all, having a healthy microbiome will allow your body to better break down and absorb vitamins and minerals from the foods you eat. This is how eating fermented foods aids in digestion. Fermenting foods means they are partially broken down prior to you ingesting them and that can increase the bioavailability of the vitamins and minerals in the food, allowing your body to more easily access and utilize them. In some cases fermenting foods can increase the amount of vitamins in this way such as sauerkraut, there is more vitamin c available to your body after fermenting than before when it was just raw cabbage.

Now these are such great reasons to add fermented foods to your diet. The other reason to add fermented foods to your diet is because they just taste good! They used to be a common part of our diet because fermenting food also preserves it, so that was a way you would eat the food from the garden you grew when it was no longer in season. Fermenting food is really fairly easy it is mostly a waiting game. If you like kombucha for instance, it is really pretty easy to make you just need some black tea, sugar, a SCOBY which is a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast, and time. I prefer to ferment my kombucha for about 7 days but a lot of people ferment it for closer to 14 and then you just remove the SCOBY, flavor it if you want, and keep it in the fridge until you want to drink it which just stops it from continuing to ferment. You can then use your SCOBY to make another batch.

Adding fermented foods to your diet makes you healthier which often will make you happier. Happy people are a joy to be around! There are so many ways improving your gut health will benefit you and adding fermented foods to your diet will definitely improve your gut health. All you need is a couple of tablespoons at each meal.

Adding fermented foods to my diet were definitely the game changer in gut health and overall health for me so this subject is so near and dear to my heart and I am so happy to share it with you! I hope you try it and if you do let me know how you like it! The next healthy habits topic I will go into depth on is for your soul. I hope you’re enjoying this series as much as I am!

Your Friend,

Amanda