OT: Probiotics

[Guest guest]

Hi Ron,

 

To get more probiotics, eat lots of 'live' fermented foods. As you know, yoghurt

is one

example of this that is commercially available, although you need to make sure

to buy

yoghurt with 'live' cultures, as some companies pasteurize their products (and

of course,

you can make your own from RAW milk, which is even better). That is the

challenge with

most commercially fermented foods, they've been cooked afterwards, killing all

the good

stuff!

 

In addition, you can make all sorts of things yourself. There is a GREAT book

called 'Wild

Fermentation' by Sandor Katz (www.wildfermentation.com) that I use in

combination with

" Nourishing Traditions " by Sally Fallon. NT is based on the research of Weston

A. Price (http://www.westonaprice.org/), a dentist who studied indigenous

cultures around the

world to understand why they are so healthy (good teeth, cardiovascular health,

low

incidence of cancer, etc). One of the things that he found in common is that

they all had

some form of 'live' fermented foods in their diet. This book is big into

'lacto-fermentation'

(aka adding whey as an innoculant), to help speed fermentation. They are also

huge

supporters of raw milk, and they are definitely big into cooking!

 

However, you don't have to use whey, which I learned in a weekend with Sandor

(www.wildfermentation.com) in Portland last summer, although it can help speed

things

up a bit. Fermentation can be done just using salt to limit the bad critters

and allow the

various natural yeasty beasties found on organically grown produce to flourish

and do

their thing (and yes, it's good to avoid using chlorinated water for washing

things, as that

will kill all those 'good' critters that you want).

 

Soon after that I had the pleasure of housesitting for a friend for 3 weeks, and

in that time

made a bunch of 'wild' and raw ferments. This included a couple of types of T'ej

(ethiopian

version of Mead/honey wine - one with OG peaches from a friends farm, the other

including some blackberries and friend's apples), saurkraut and pickled

cucumbers.

Recently I've been making a bunch more krautish things - a kimchi-ish mix,

pickled

garlic, pickled daikon, pickled carrots, pickled radishes, beet kvass, and

cabbage tonic so

far (pickled ginger and pickled burdock coming soon), plus miso pickled

parsnips, idlii (a

mixture of rice and lentils, fermented for a few days and then steamed), and a

bunch of

variously mixed/soaked grains (millet, oats, quinoa, rice, spelt). I know some

of these are

not fully 'raw', but I'm just sharing the possibilities. I've been using the

'brine' from the

ferments to add to things too, to impart both the flavor of the ferment, and

more of those

live probiotic critters.

 

So this then leads into various cultured things (many of which Sandor writes

about in his

book), and how to get starters....there is a called " kefir_making "

that is an

awesome resource for a wide variety of things, including, but not limited to

it's

moniker...Dom (the moderator) has several websites that you can link to from

that group

(like http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html) that are boggling in

their volume of

information, and then the group fills in any gaps! You can get cultures for

dairy and water

kefir, kombucha, pima, vilii, and many other things I am still learning about.

You can also

make your own miso, or buy reputable brands, although this is definitely not a

raw food

(but it has loads of good bacteria, enzymes and many other health benefits.)

 

Anyway, I hope this is helpful, and wish you the best in your journey away from

allopathic

medications.

 

Warmly,

 

Jen

 

, " dukkadon " <dukkadon wrote:

>

> I have just taken myself off some pretty powerful bipolar II drugs.

> Among other side-effects, I believe these drugs probably wiped out my

> intestinal flora (or fauna, whichever it is) and I'm now interested in

> replenishing these bacteria.

>

> I understand that there are over 500 different kinds of friendly

> bacteria in the gut, and that I need billions and billions of them to

> help with digestion, absorbsion of nutrients, controlling bad

> bacteria, etc.

>

> I understand that replenishing these bacteria is a problem because

> most of the bacteria in the food I eat will be killed by the acids in

> the stomach. So the problem becomes: where can I get billions and

> billions of these friendly bacteria; and, how can I get them past the

> acids in my stomach without killing them? How can I re-establish a

> colony of them in my gut?

>

> Any advice would be appreciated--especially if anyone knows what I can

> eat, or where I can buy supplements, etc.

>

> Thanks.

>

> Ron

>