Whole-Food Guide to Overcoming Irritable Bowel Syndrome by Laura Knoff

Author:Laura Knoff
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608820863
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Preparing Cultured Foods

For good gut health, it’s important to include healthful bacteria in your diet on a regular basis. Today many good sources of beneficial bacteria are available (in the form of probiotic preparations); however, some may contain added sweeteners or other ingredients, such as thickeners, that do not benefit your gut. It’s very easy and inexpensive to make your own cultured foods. No additional equipment is necessary, but a few things can make the process much easier. For cultured vegetables, you can use quart-sized mason jars, or for larger quantities, a ceramic crock. A potato masher, wooden pounder, or meat hammer is useful for tamping down the cabbage or other vegetables, and eliminating air.

Many people with IBS are allergic or sensitive to dairy products. Thankfully, you can make many nondairy cultured foods at home, such as vegetable ferments: for example, sauerkraut, sour beets, pickled cucumbers, garlic, ginger and peppers, salsa, and chutney (Katz 2003; Fallon and Enig 1999). Included in the recipe section is a basic recipe for homemade sauerkraut that you can vary to include other vegetables (see chapter 8). Today, when you buy these foods in the grocery, they’ve usually been prepared with added grain vinegar so that they don’t contain any beneficial bacteria. But see the resources for exceptions.

Coconut-water kefir is an excellent nondairy, bacteria-rich beverage that helps replace healthy gut bacteria (Gates 2006). It’s very simple to make because it ferments at room temperature. Its sour, effervescent taste resembles a lemon soda, but there’s no sugar left after fermentation. A source for the starter kefir grains is listed in the resources.

For those who can consume dairy without increasing their IBS symptoms, homemade yogurt fermented for at least twenty-four hours is a good source of healthful bacteria and partially digested protein. The yogurt available in the store has been fermented for only six to eight hours, so it still contains lactose. It takes at least twenty-four hours for healthful bacteria to convert all of the lactose to lactic acid. To make your own yogurt, you need some way to incubate milk with a starter at 100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. You can do this in a gas oven that has a pilot light, in a large cooler chest with an electric hot pad, in a dehydrator, or in a yogurt incubator made for this purpose. Our ancestors made cultured foods regularly, as a way to preserve milk before refrigeration was invented and to provide them with good digestive health. Totally fermented yogurt is tart and has no lactose. However, it still contains casein, the protein in dairy products, so you should still avoid it if you have a milk allergy or sensitivity.

Set up your kitchen so you can enjoy the process as well as the final products. A well-stocked kitchen makes food preparation much easier. If you have the tools you need to speed up food preparation, you can enjoy the creative process of preparing foods both you and your family will enjoy. Get the kids involved in food preparation.

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