Mondays, we build your grocery list with one food, focusing on this month’s main topic.
For the month of May, we have been focusing on those best foods to help support a reduction in your own personal burden of stress. Today, one last one. Let’s talk…
FERMENTED FOODS. If you can tolerate them.
For those who wish to know the ‘why’ behind this idea, I’ll give you three things to think about.
BECAUSE GUT LOVE + ANTI-INFLAMMATORY WORK
Are you seeing a pattern in these posts yet? (week 1 not inherently mentioned, week 2, week 3, week 4) When you are tackling reducing that high burden of stress, it will always be about reducing chronic inflammation internally. That work lies in reducing the troubles at ground zero - THE GUT.
Fermented foods are one of those crucial supports to put in place, when it comes to nourishing the gut lining and looking after the correct pH there. When you do this, you start to support a return to balance at that gut level and knock out less desirable gut bacteria. (Need more convincing? Read this article.) This is a key piece to supporting work at ground zero!
Want to learn more about the Gut as Ground Zero? Well listen chum, I have a few free Master Class for you. Check it out here!
BECAUSE LIVER SUPPORT
One of the benefits of consuming fermented foods is that they provide easier-to-access vitamins and minerals needed for your liver’s work load. Think of the ferments as allies in supporting the liver to do the digestive piece of her workload. Who doesn’t love to have a little help every now and then? Your liver is no different!
Things like B vitamins, vitamin C and minerals like zinc and magnesium are easier to get out of the foods when they are fermented. Vitamin C is one of those all-round liver lovin superstars that helps with detoxification, and immune function. (Oh yes - your immune function is all governed by your liver. Were you aware of this?)
Your liver is queen of working at clean up and balancing when it comes to supporting you through a high burden of stress. She is a key player in hormone and blood sugar balancing, two things that can get impacted when that burden of stress is high. Loving your liver? One of the best foot forward things you can do!
BECAUSE ANCESTRAL WISDOM
Again. For the FOURTH time. Listen. This is how the people who came before you ate. This is how they put up the 140 cabbages that came up in October. Ain’t nobody got enough chewing prowess to get through that much coleslaw, let me tell you… Fermenting foods was how you put up milk that was about to go bad; fermenting foods was how you made the cabbage last into the leaner late winter / spring months. Fermenting grains was how you made sourdough.
Fermenting foods makes them easier to digest - your grans and gramps were on to something!
Anything fermented! Dill pickles, creme fraiche, yogurt, kimchi, apple cider vinegar, shredded beets, kraut… it all counts!
Where to start?
START SLOW. And buy purchased stuff. Not sure how to get about doing that very thing? I have a blog post on the topic here.
Want to start learning to make your own? I’m building a simple program to walk you through how to make your own. Hang tight. Coming in the summer of 2021!
Can’t tolerate fermented foods? Have you ever given thought as to whether or not histamine may be contributing to your symptoms? (Lucky you - I know this one personally. Hit me up if you have questions about this, and what you could do instead.)
In the meantime, for those curious to understand WHY the gut is ground zero of this high burden of stress business, why don’t you take my free Master Class for a spin. It’s available here!
Aiming to Keep Well? Got a high burden of stress? Want to start taming that inflammation dragon? Need some help in feeling real good?
Get in touch by clicking here. Let’s meet up to start drawing up your road map to support you in both quantity and quality of life.
*This is not medical advice.