Examples of Cultured Foods

To give you a closer look in at cultured foods and talk about some examples…

There you can see a few of the many examples I could have chosen. I want to spend a little time here talking about the enemies of probiotics.

You saw the list there including everything from alcohol, GMO foods, medications, smoking, sugar etc… even too many antibiotics. These all destroy your gut bacteria.

I would suggest you take a good hard look at that list and decide if there is anything there that is part of your everyday life. If it is, consider what you can do to change. I mean, seriously!

You can attack this from both sides by first trying to eliminate any of the probiotic killers that you can and… add in some good probiotic foods.

Purchase high quality

Obviously you can buy a number of these, but the trick is to make sure you are purchasing good quality and not just a gimmicky drink or food. An obvious one is yoghurt. That is one that the manufacturers have caught hold off and run with. You don’t want yoghurt to be low fat, or full of sugar and fillers. Please make sure you buy the true kind of yoghurt that will build your health and not knock you down in a heap.

Look for plain yoghurt that includes the correct cultures… it will say on the tub. Make sure it’s unsweetened as you can add lovely sweeteners to it at home. Stay away from sugar. Go for a little raw honey or maple syrup. Try some fresh fruit and a little real vanilla. Maybe a drop of Stevia. There is so much you can do to increase the palatability without buying the sweetened versions from the shop.

If you want ready-made, you must read the labels

It’s the same with the other examples I’ve given. If you purchase them you must read the labels to ensure as best you can that they include what they should and don’t include what they shouldn’t!

According to Dr Mercola, just one serving of fermented vegetables contains 100 times more beneficial bacteria (probiotics) than an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic product.

I’ve given you some of the strains of beneficial bacteria on the last slide, but really… there are hundreds of different strains, most of which have not yet been identified. What does that say to me? It’s a bit like the vitamins and minerals… it’s best to receive all these from natural foods such as fruits and vegetables where you receive the benefit of all the ‘other’ things that have not yet been discovered and/or identified.

Like vitamins, store-bought probiotics are made in a lab and can only be as good as ‘known science’ at best. They will help but they can never compare to the probiotics you’ll receive through cultured foods.

Before moving on, how about a little quiz on cultured foods…