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fermented foods healthy

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Having an unhealthy gut microbiome might be at the root of all sorts of health issues, some experts say. Your gut microbiome is a family of bacteria and microorganisms that live in your gut. There are roughly a trillion, so you can see how they’re quite the powerful force. Fermented aka pickled food can boost the healthy microorganisms via their probiotic count (something you must take after taking antibiotics), and so they’re often touted by nutritionists and health experts as a great food to add to your diet.

 

Right now, with many of us limiting how often we visit the grocery store, hoping to minimize incidents of exposure to COVID-19, we’re looking for types of food that can last a long time. We have our canned, frozen, packaged, air-sealed, and, of course, pickled! Now, when we think of pickles, we typically think of cucumbers in brine. But cucumbers aren’t the only food that are preserved that way. It’s worth it to start exploring the other pickled foods at the store, as well as pickling your own foods as a way of extending their shelf life.

 

Thanks to their vibrant, salty, and sometimes sweet flavor profiles, pickled foods can sometimes take a bland food to a mouth-watering creation. In some cases, a pickled food is the only thing you need to add to something to bring it to a state of Umami. Here are unexpected uses for pickled foods.

fermented foods healthy

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Kefir with fruit

When we think fermented foods, we often just think of things like sticks of vegetables inside jars of brine. But Kefir, a type of yogurt, is fermented and filled with great gut bacteria. It tastes good with many of the same things you’d put over regular yogurt or Greek yogurt, like jam, honey, fruit, or granola.

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