OT: Probiotics

[Guest guest]

Jen,

 

Thank you very much for all the good suggestions about fermented,

probiotic foods. Running down all these leads should take me quite

some time.

 

One more problem I have, however, is the heat in my apartment. I have

tried to culture yogurt and saurkraut in my apartment previously and

nothing happened. I found out that my apartment is too cold for too

long a period each day (while I'm away, and while I'm sleeping) for

bacteria to grow (because I turn the heat down to save on my heating

bill). I found out that most bacteria will not grow below a

temperature of 65 degrees. So I'm going to have to get a yogurt

warmer or bread warmer of some kind to keep the temperature between

100 and 110 farenheit for the bacteria to do well.

 

What do you do about this problem?

 

Ron

 

 

-- In , " Real? " <nifer.jenny wrote:

>

> 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

> >

>