You’ve likely been told to “eat your greens” at some point or another. After all, fruit and vegetables play a critical role in your nutrition and overall health. But is there a way to further enhance the value of farm-fresh, plant-based foods?

There sure is, through fermentation!

By culturing greens with specific strains of bacteria or yeast, the fermentation process helps break down its sugars, starch, indigestible fiber, and proteins. In other words, the difficult-to-digest components are “predigested”.

​Fermentation is an ancient practice for preserving food. It enhances the availability and activity of nutrients, increases protein quality, eases digestion, adds enzymes into the food, and in many cases boosts the flavor.

Enhanced nutrition
Fermentation increases the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals in plant-based foods. It makes folate, riboflavin, and vitamin B12 more absorbable, while also synthesizing amino acids.[1] For example, the fermented soybean dish called tempeh contains higher levels of B vitamins than unfermented soybean products. [2] Similarly, people who eat lactic fermented vegetables have been shown to absorb more iron than people who eat fresh vegetables. This is because the fermentation process changes iron into its more absorbable ferric (Fe3+) form.[3]

Fermentation also enhances the antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds and lowers the negative impact of the anti-nutrient phytic acid. By supporting a healthy gut microflora, fermented veggies increase the synthesis of vitamin K2 by bacteria internally. In terms of a plant-based diet, natto (fermented soybean) and sauerkraut top the list of which fermented foods have the most vitamin K2.[4]

Better quality protein

Protein, or amino acids, are the building blocks of muscle and play numerous vital roles in the body. There’s no doubt that fermentation enhances the quality of protein-rich plant foods. It does this by removing excess carbohydrates, concentrating amino acids, and making amino acids more available and digestible. [5] [6] This includes fermented protein from peas, brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, and hemp seed.

Easier digestion

How do fermented foods improve digestion? For one, they help lower the content of FODMAPS (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, nonosaccharides, and polyols), a group of dietary sugars that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine.[1]
Some fermented vegetables contain prebiotic fiber that supports the growth of microflora, while others contain living yeast and bacteria that promote healthy digestion, thus contributing directly to the natural balance of intestinal microflora.[1]

Must-try fermented foods

Fermented foods are a wonderful addition to the diet – both from a nutritional as well as a personal enjoyment perspective. Because the process changes how food tastes, you’ll experience a whole new range of flavors. Delicious options to start with include:
​
Kefir – a cultured, fermented milk drink with an enjoyable tart flavor.
Tempeh – a fermented soybean cake with a dense texture and intense nutty flavor.
Kombucha – a green or black tea that has been fermented with a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. It tastes slightly sweet and tangy.
Natto – a traditional Japanese dish made by fermenting soybeans with Bacillus subtilis. It has a strong flavor and slippery texture that pairs well with soy sauce.
Kimchi – a spicy fermented cabbage that is similar in texture to sauerkraut.
For a more concentrated approach to fermented foods, Whole Earth & Sea 100% Fermented Organic Protein & Greens is a certified organic formula that contains 21 g of quality plant protein and 8 servings of fruits and vegetables per scoop. It is a non-GMO, vegan-friendly green superfood formula made from over 28 fermented grasses, fruits, vegetables, and micronized medicinal mushrooms to support an active, healthy, and sustainable lifestyle.

​How much fermented food to eat?

Fermented foods make great additions to daily meals and snacks. When introducing them into your diet, start with small servings. Gradually work your way up to full portion sizes over time to give your digestive system time to adapt.
Fermented foods are a delicious and simple choice for supporting your nutritional goals and an active lifestyle.

References:
[1] Marco M, Heeney D, Binda S, et al. Health benefits of fermented foods: microbiota and beyond. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2017 Apr; 44:94-102.
[2] Patel A, Shah N, Prajapati J. Biosynthesis of vitamins and enzymes in fermented foods by lactic acid bacteria and related genera – A promising approach. Croat J Food Sci Technol. 2013 Dec; 5(2):85-91.
[3] Scheers N, Rossander-Hulthen L, Torsdottir I & Sandberg A. Increased iron bioavailability from lactic-fermented vegetables is likely an effect of promoting the formation of ferric iron (FE3+). Eur J Nutr. 2016; 55:373-82.
[4] Walther B, Karl, JP, Booth SL, Boyaval P. Menaquinones, bacteria, and the food supply: The relevance of dairy and fermented food products to vitamins K requirements. Adv Nutr. 2013 Jul; 4(4):463-73.
[5] Llowefah M, Bakar J, Ghazali H, Mediani A, Muhammad K. Physicochemical and functional properties of yeast fermented brown rice flour. J Food Sci Technol. 2015 Sep; 52(9):5534-45.[6] Bujang, A and Taib, NA. Changes in amino acids content in soybean, garbanzo bean and groundnut during pre-treatments and tempeh making. Sains Malaysiana. 2014; 43(4):551-7.

​Bone broth has been around, well possibly, since the stone age! This makes beef broth one of the only specific Paleo foods. People have been putting "stock," pun intended, into beef broth since our caveman days. Bone Broth, however, has been on the rise since roughly 2013, thanks to athletes, celebrities, and even bloggers enthusiastically touting its supposedly unexpected health benefits. 

Bone broth has been traditionally consumed in communities (such as those centered around the Weston A. Price Foundation), but today you can find entire restaurants, cookbooks, and even delivery services devoted to bone broth.  Bone broth is animal bones, usually beef but also chicken, boiled and then simmered with a splash of acid for a stretch of time until they yield a satisfyingly, nutrient-rich, slightly gelatinous elixir. 

Bone Broth can take hours to make, it is time and energy consuming. Everything Natural offers Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth Protein in a wide variety of flavors. This superfood protein powder is made from real bone broth! Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth Proteins are non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, grain free, and nut free. 

Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth Protein is gut-friendly, Paleo-friendly supports the immune system, promotes joint comfort and bone health, detoxifies, and supports healthy skin, hair, and nails! All this in an easy to mix powder! ON SALE NOW!

That extraordinary statistic joined with the fact that we have hundreds of thousands of neuro-connections for every cubic centimeter of bowel lining. An amazing array of neurologic intelligence is happening in your body.
And what we’re now finding is that it’s not the brain where thought is initiated. The brain is simply the central processing unit, like you would find in a computer, the CPU chip. That’s that intelligent, Intel computer chip that’s inside your computer. But that chip has nothing in it that would initiate a process. That CPU chip of your computer or the central nervous system here, has never initiated any data. It’s a data processing center, but if you think about it, it’s the keyboard and the mouse on your computer that gives the information to a CPU chip that it would do anything with.

Similarly, this brain has no thought process, has no data to channel, has no reactivity to the world around it without your peripheral nervous system. And the largest portion of your peripheral nervous system lies within your gut.

That profound reality is telling you the story that you’re going to write for health today, or the story of disease you write for tomorrow is going to start at this typewriter of your gut.

The language that’s going to come out of the story that’s going to be told is going to be written across the autonomic nervous system of your intestinal lining. And it’s going to be processed in the brain to initiate the response, the stress responses, the repair responses, everything else that may be needed to get you through a typical day on a chemical planet.
So, on this journey, we need to redefine gut-brain health. We really see it now as a science community, that you can’t have neurologic health without fundamental information from the peripheral nervous system, the gut at large. And, you can’t get the nutrients and fuel to that brain without that gut lining.

Nutrients would include the precursors and the neurotransmitters themselves, as well as the fuel the neurons run on. That’s really coming out as mitochondria that live inside the neurons within your brain. They’re being fed by your microbiome.

So, at every level the brain is thriving and functioning,
fully dependent upon the gut.

This is the journey we’ve been on, to understand that this is the center of intelligence within the human body. This is your central processing unit. You can get information in, and if the brain is not functioning, you may not process it correctly. This is the phenomenon we see in the public right now. Attention Deficit Disorder in our children, ADHD as it’s been termed. The autism spectrum disorders. And then in our adults, major depression and anxiety disorders, typically setting in in our teen years, and then really moving into epidemic proportions in our adult population. Then the neurodegenerative conditions in our adults: things like Parkinson’s, MS, Alzheimer’s dementia, and the other dementias that may come with something like Parkinson’s.

​These conditions are now all tying back to the reality, that all of that dysfunction begins in the gut. America is suffering due to our collapse of the ecosystem within us. We are on a journey, and a scientific mission to find you a pathway back to health, despite all of the crazy stuff we’ve done on this planet.
Best of health,
Zach Bush, MD

Vitamins and minerals play a role in normalizing bodily functions and cannot be made by the body (except for vitamin D from the sun). Adequate intake from food and/or supplements is necessary to prevent deficiency, promote optimal health, improve nutrient partitioning and promote fat loss and muscle gain.

Vitamins are organic substances (made by plants or animals), whereas minerals are inorganic elements that come from the soil and water and are absorbed by plants or eaten by animals. Your body needs larger amounts of some minerals, such as calcium, to grow and stay healthy.