What are the 3 major microorganisms used to ferment foods?

Lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and fungi play an important role in the production of fermented foods.

Can I eat fermented foods everyday?

While there are currently no official guidelines regarding how often you should eat fermented foods, adding a few servings to your daily diet may be beneficial ( 44 ). For the best results, start by eating one or two servings per day, and then slowly work your way up.

What is the best yogurt for gut health?

Dairy kefir is made from fermented milk, like yogurt is. But kefir is typically less thick and more tangy. Kefir contains more probiotics than any yogurt. With up to 61 different strains of microbes, it can be an excellent source of probiotics.

Does fermentation remove toxins?

Digestibility and Toxin Reduction During fermentation, microbial enzymes can break down many of these toxins , including cyanogenic glycosides, which can inhibit cellular respiration. Additionally, some toxins are removed during preparation steps, such as removing the outer hull of seed pods or through cooking.

Can sauerkraut cause bloating?

An excess can cause diarrhea and bloating . There is also the issue of sodium. But the good news is that about one spoonful (10 grams) is enough to supply a significant dose of “good” bacteria, and with this amount there is no concern about sodium.

What is the oldest fermented food?

Brewing and winemaking The earliest archaeological evidence of fermentation is 13,000-year-old residues of a beer , with the consistency of gruel, found in a cave near Haifa in Israel.

What food ferments the fastest?

Vegetables are possibly the easiest and quickest fermentation : cut the vegetables, place in glass jars and submerge completely in the brine for 1-2 days until fermented (you'll know it's ready once the ferment has developed a ˜tangy' taste). Then, keep the jar in cold storage.

Can you eat too many fermented foods?

Fermented foods are considered safe for most people . However, some individuals may experience side effects. Due to the high probiotic content of fermented foods, the most common side effect is an initial and temporary increase in gas and bloating ( 32 ).

How often should you eat fermented foods?

For the best results, start by eating one or two servings per day , and then slowly work your way up. Getting probiotics from whole foods is a simple way to take advantage of fermented foods' health benefits while reducing your risk of side effects associated with probiotic use, such as digestive issues ( 45 ).

What are the best vegetables to ferment?

In alphabetical order, the best vegetables for fermenting include cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, garlic, kohlrabi, peppers, radishes, snap beans and turnips .

3 Best Fermented Foods – Recipe Included (2024)

I want to introduce you to one of the most helpful foods you can eat: Fermented foods.

Our gut bacteria is made up of literally thousands of different strains of good bacteria. Keeping this bacteria diverse and plentiful is crucial to preventing anxiety and depression, losing weight, killing candida, sleeping well, and having an abundance of energy.

When you take aprobiotic, at best you get thirty different strains of good bacteria—not a lot. And if you take thatprobiotic over and over again, you never add to the diversity of your microbiome. This is why I encourage you to try adding fermented foods into your diet.

If you want a healthy gut, you are going to need to start eating a variety of fermented foods.

Here are some of my favorite and the best fermented foods:

Sauerkraut

This food is simple to make, tasty to eat, and packed with trillions of good bacteria—a must for anyone who is serious about repairing their gut.

Sauerkraut is a fermented cabbage that has been popular throughout central Europe for hundreds of years. It combines one of the healthiest foods there is—cabbage—with one of the most beneficial and time-honored food preparation methods ever used: fermentation.

I kid you not: a daily dose of this cabbage treat will repair your gut quickly and many times better than the strongest probiotic. But before you rush out and grab a jar of Bubbie’s sauerkraut, make sure your sauerkraut is unpasteurized. Just like milk, when you pasteurize sauerkraut, you kill all the good bacteria.

Raw Kefir

Raw kefir is another probiotic-rich food you don’t want to miss out on. Kefir is a unique cultured dairy product that is one of the most probiotic-rich foods on the planet. It has incredible medicinal benefits for healing issues like leaky gut. Its unique name comes from the Turkish word keif, which means “good feeling.” For centuries, it has been used in European and Asian ancient medicine due to the wide variety of conditions it has been known to cure.

Kefir is fermented milk (cow, goat, or sheep milk). It tastes sour like yogurt but goes down more like milk. I like to put it in my smoothies, as it’s high in B12, calcium, magnesium, vitamin K2, biotin, folate, enzymes, and of course, probiotics.

Kefir is known to do the following:

Boost immunity
Heal inflammatory bowel disease
Improve lactose digestion
Kill Candida
Build bone density
Fight allergies

Support detoxification It is the perfect food to add to your diet while on the 45-Day Reset. The one thing to be careful about with kefir is to make sure it’s raw and has no added sugar. You’ll find many yummy kefirs in your local health food store that appear to be healthy, but when you look closer, you’ll see that they’re packed with sugar and pasteurized, which means all the beneficial probiotics have been killed.

Kombucha

Surely you have heard of this hot new drink—you can find it everywhere. Kombucha is made from a sweetened tea that has been fermented by a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast called a SCOBY, or “mother.”

It’s packed with probiotics—not as many as kefir or sauerkraut, but it’s still a great way to get a healthy dose of good diverse bacteria. And although kombucha starts off with yeast and sugar, the finished drink actually contains no yeast and very little sugar. In fact, one of its claims to fame is killing candida.

This “health elixir” has been around for more than two thousand years and has a rich anecdotal history of health benefits, like preventing and fighting cancer and combating arthritis and other degenerative diseases. Easy to make at home, easy to find in your local supermarket, high in good probiotics, and low in sugar makes this drink a perfect complement to your45-Day Reset.

Here are some of the other benefits kombucha has a reputation for helping:

Detoxification
Joint care
Digestion and gut health
Immune system booster

What you need to look for when buying kombucha is the sugar content, as some kombuchas are higher in sugar than others. Keep your amount of sugar down, under 5 grams per bottle.

Many of you have sat down with me and had nutritional consultations. I often test the diversity of a person’s gut bacteria to see if they have had too much bad bacteria or yeast. When I discover that the microbiome is the source of a patient’s symptoms, I will immediately put them on a high fermented foods diet.

SunnyKraut

YIELD: 14 Cups,
CARBS: 0 Carbs per 1 oz. serving (2 tablespoons)
PREP TIME: 30 minutes
FERMENTATION TIME: 5-7 days

INGREDIENTS:
2 heads green cabbage, shredded
1 whole fresh pineapple, chopped
1/3 cup fresh tumeric, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

ADDITIONAL BRINE:
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pull 4 to 5 large leaves off of one of the heads of cabbage and set aside. Shred the remaining cabbage When shredding cabbage, I prefer the control that a sharp chef’s knife gives me, but you can also use a food processor or mandolin. I like using a fine rasp grater for the ginger and turmeric.

2. Mix the shredded cabbage, turmeric, ginger, salt, and vinegar in a large bowl (I prefer a stainless steel bowl, because the turmeric won’t stain it bright yellow, as it will my hands). Wear gloves and massage the cabbage mixture with your hands until it breaks down and starts to soften (5 to 10 minutes); then let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to give it time to continue to macerate and release more juices.

3. Massage the mixture for another 5 to 10 minutes.

4. With a large long-handled spoon, pack the cabbage mixture into two 36-ounce mason jars. Pack the mixture in tightly all the way down to the bottom. You want the mixture to be submerged in brine (the natural juices create through the maceration process). Leave about 1½ inches of space from the top of the jar.

5. Typically, I need to make additional brine. This is done by combining 1 teaspoon of sea salt with 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Continue to add brine until the cabbage mixture is submerged.

6. Roll up the cabbage leaves you set aside and place them in the jar to push the cabbage under the brine. Screw on the jar loosely so gas can escape as fermentation takes place. Set on the counter for 5 to 14 days in a cool, shaded place. During fermentation, the sauerkraut will bubble a little and become cloudy. If scum or mold appears at the top or on the whole cabbage leaves, remove and discard; replace these with new cabbage leaves to keep the cabbage submerged.

7. Taste the sauerkraut every day and, when you like the flavor, remove the rolled-up cabbage leaves and place the sauerkraut in the refrigerator, which slows down the fermentation process.

TIPS & TRICKS:

Wear gloves and clothes that can get stained when making this recipe; the turmeric juice will stain your hands and could permanently stain your clothes. The pineapple gives this sauerkraut a refreshingly different flavor. Fruit such as pineapple can accelerate the fermentation process and might take less time to achieve a flavor of your liking. After 5 to 6 days, the sauerkraut is crunchy and deliciously fresh. After about 10 days, the flavor gets a little more tart and the texture is softer. This sauerkraut is the perfect accompaniment for a breakfast dish.