Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Lacto-Fermented Foods

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Aside from freezing and traditional canning methods, there is another way to preserve fresh produce from the growing season to enjoy all year round. It’s called lacto-fermentation.

And if you’re interested in your gut health, this is probably the best way to add some fantastic flavors to your plate that will improve your gut flora. So what’s this lacto-fermentation and what is it all about?

What are Lacto-Fermented Foods?

Lacto-fermentation, also called lactic acid fermentation, is a method by which vegetables, dairy, and even bread doughs are preserved through the process of fermentation using beneficial bacteria.

Different foods require different types of bacteria: common types are Lactobacillus bulgaricus, streptococcus thermophiles, and Leuconostoc. Mostly, when it comes to LF vegetables, the bacteria used are lactobacillus.

It requires no special equipment and you don’t need to “can” the jars using a pressure canner or even by boiling. In fact, it was a common method of preservation in the times before modern canning methods came into play.

Women would have crocks for fermented vegetables like garlic, beets, onion, pickles, or sauerkraut (or some of all of the above) in their cellars and a batch of sourdough bread sitting on their counters. Lacto-fermentation is much easier than canning, and you still get all the gut-friendly benefits.

Lacto-fermentation is easy. All it takes is some fresh vegetables or fruit, jars or a big crock, salt, water, some spices, and maybe some whey if you want a bit of extra insurance when you’re just starting out. That’s it.

The process works because the salt you use kills the bad bacteria, while the good bacteria survives and flourishes and starts to turn lactose and other sugars into lactic acid. This creates the acidic environment required to preserve the food. The lactic acid also provides the tangy flavor that you will grow to love.

Why You Should Try Lacto-Fermented Foods

The process is much less time-consuming than traditional canning methods. If you’ve ever done any canning before, you’ll know you have to sterilize the jars and lids, prepare yours veg or fruit, mix the syrup or brine, fill the jars, and then boil or pressure can the jars for a certain amount of time according to the contents and your location’s feet above sea level.

You can do the entire process of LF – and store the results – with zero energy usage. As long as you have a root cellar that stays cool even on warm/hot days, you can prep, make, and store your lacto-fermented foods completely without using any electricity.

The resulting product is full of beneficial bacteria (probiotics) and enzymes. If you’re looking to increase your gut health, then there’s no better way than to introduce some LF foods.

What to Make with Lacto-Fermentation?

You can LF pretty much any vegetable and several fruits. Things you might want to try include cabbage, ginger-carrots, salsa, cucumber dill pickles, sweet pickles, coconut milk yogurt, beets, kvass, sauerkraut, kimchi, green beans, watermelon relish, and lemons. You can even make condiments like hot sauce, ketchup, and mayo using these methods!

Basic LF Methods

If you’re doing a basic vegetable LF, all you need is fresh produce, salt, some water, and maybe some whey if you’re hesitant about using just salt. If you’re doing something like ginger carrots, cabbage, or coleslaw, you’ll need a food processor or grater because you need to grate the vegetables first. Just add saltwater to veggies for a basic lacto-fermentation.

One main rule of LF is that the vegetables have to be covered in the salt mixture in order to prevent mould and other bad guys from taking over in the first stage of the process. If mashing the grated vegetables you’re fermenting, doesn’t produce enough liquid, you’ll need to make a brine to cover. Generally, the ratio is one tablespoon of salt to one cup of filtered (non-chlorinated) water.

For things that you’ll leave in chunks to ferment, like beets or onions, then you don’t need to mash them down to produce brine; instead, you’ll make a brine using water and salt (and whey if you prefer).

To Get Whey

If you don’t have access to liquid whey, then it’s super easy to “make” your own. Get some good-quality plain yogurt from the store (raw is best but if you can’t, just try to get organic). Do NOT buy Greek yogurt as all the whey has already been removed.

Spoon the yogurt into a cheesecloth or clean t-shirt and tie it shut. Suspend the ball of yogurt over a bowl and move it to your fridge for about 24 hours. The liquid that drips out of the yogurt is whey.  

As for what’s left of the yogurt, well, it depends on how much whey came out. You’ll have either a really thick Greek-style yogurt, or a cream cheese-like product that you can then use plain or mix with herbs and salt for a fantastic “cheese” spread. It’s called labneh and you can use it just like you would cream cheese.

Lacto-Fermented Ginger Carrots

Recipe by the PaleoHacks Team

This is a great recipe to start out with. Kids and grownups alike will enjoy it; just start out small and serve a teaspoon or so as a condiment with dinner.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of grated carrots
• 1 T grated fresh ginger
• 2 T of sea salt (or one T if you’re using whey)
• 4 T whey (optional)
• Filtered water as necessary

Instructions:

1. Wash and grate your carrots using your food processor or the large hole setting on your hand grater.

• In a medium-sized bowl, mix together everything but water. Mash it all together to try to get those juices out of the carrots and ginger.

• Spoon the mixed ingredients into a quart-sized canning jar or ceramic crock.

• Press down on the carrot/salt/ginger/whey mixture as hard as you can using a spoon or the back of your fist. Push it down so that the brine rises up to cover the carrots. If there’s no brine, make some with a bit of filtered water and some more salt (1 tablespoon of salt per cup of water). Pour just enough brine in to cover the carrot mixture.

• Seal and let sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for five to 10 days. Taste test and move the jar to cold storage (or your fridge) once the taste is to your liking.

Watch this video – The Guide to Lacto-Fermentation: How To Ferment Nearly Anything

Written by PaleoHacks Team

Author Bio:

PaleoHacks is an online paleo diet community that promotes a healthy lifestyle through primal methods. PaleoHacks started as a way for people share recipes, ideas and general opinions about the Paleolithic lifestyle. Now, whether it be the paleo diet, physical fitness or overall wellness, PaleoHacks has evolved into an online resource for healthy living. check us out on Facebook.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

Why Do I Need Magnesium and How to Get More?

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

Most of my clients are shocked to learn that they are deficient in magnesium. But I’m never surprised: that’s because over 75% of them receive this diagnosis!

A widespread addiction to coffee, a poor diet, large amounts of stress, and small amounts of sleep can all add up to a magnesium deficiency. The signs and symptoms of this deficiency can be unpleasant, but luckily, fixing this condition is very easy. The single best thing to do is to eat a magnesium-rich diet. The second best route is to supplement.

Our Paleolithic ancestors had much more available to them as far as natural sources of magnesium. Whether it was from diet, water, or soil, they never experienced the current depletion of magnesium from which we currently suffer. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning and think about exactly what magnesium is and why exactly we need it.

What Is Magnesium?

You’d probably be surprised to learn that only three elements on Earth are more abundant than magnesium! As far as our health is concerned, there are only 10 other elements that are found in higher concentrations inside our own body.

Magnesium is also essential to all cells, and it plays a major role in DNA and RNA. This makes magnesium deficiency pretty darn bad, right?

Also, about half of your magnesium is stored in bone, which means that bone health rests just as much on magnesium as it does other elements. Some studies have even induced osteoporosis by mimicking our current low magnesium diet.

Why Do I Need Magnesium?

For starters, magnesium is needed for over 300 enzymatic reactions in the human body. This includes neurotransmission and energy for your very cells. Sound important? It is.

It’s even more important for women to have enough of this nutrient, as a magnesium deficiency can make your period much more painful. Magnesium can also help to reduce headaches, nausea and cramps associated with that time of the month.

A magnesium deficiency affects your fitness level, too. Studies have shown that even a marginal magnesium deficiency impairs athletic performance and amplifies the negative effects of exercise, like soreness, making it harder for you to effectively work out.

Not enough energy to work out, and then extra sore the next day? You may have a magnesium deficiency. 

Besides impairing performance, acute exercise can cause the body to redistribute magnesium throughout the body and to lose more magnesium, resultant from the exercise. Magnesium goes into the red blood cells, presumably to deal with the stress of exercise.

As a muscle relaxant, magnesium can help with sleep, as well as constipation. Sleep and magnesium are so interrelated, that one study shows that not getting enough magnesium can disrupt your sleep, and even alter your mood. This is why it is important to take magnesium strategically – at the right time, with the right intention.

How to Get More Magnesium?

The easiest way is to supplement. But, the best way, and the cheaper way, is to eat a diet which contains much more magnesium. This means lots of: halibut, spinach, Swiss chard, nuts and (with moderation) dark chocolate. Eating these foods adds other much-needed minerals and vitamins as well.

Since everyone in the Paleo world loves nuts, it is important to note that Brazil nuts, almonds, and cashews all contain decent amounts of magnesium. Squash and pumpkin seeds also contain a large amount.

Wild-caught mackerel and tuna are also excellent sources of magnesium. Fish, spinach, nuts and dark chocolate are great sources of magnesium.

Drinking mineral water can also help bring some magnesium into your body. While our Paleolithic ancestors consumed water that was rich with minerals, our tap water has been stripped of magnesium. Making a conscious effort to drink mineralized water can help bridge that gap.

Of course, especially in this day and age, people always want to be able to take a pill. This means that, of course, you can supplement with magnesium.

It is wise to choose a small amount to start with and then slowly progress from there. That is due to the laxative effect that magnesium has. In the Paleo community, and in my work with clients, it seems that Natural Calm is the best source of magnesium supplementation.

The only form of magnesium supplement worth avoiding is magnesium oxide. as your body can’t absorb this form very well. Magnesium citrate seems to have the most risk as a potential laxative, so choosing another from in those susceptible, may be a good option.

Watch these 2 videos –

10 Signs Your Body Needs More Magnesium

Magnesium Supplements: What You Need to Know — Dr. Tod Cooperman

The Bottom Line

Magnesium deficiency is not a pretty thing, but fortunately, it’s both easy and delicious to fix. And also, if you’re a coffee drinker, perhaps I’ve given you motivation to cut back on the bean and step up your meditation and sleeping routines.

Remember, your body does not need caffeine, but your cells do require magnesium!

Written by Casey Thaler

Author Bio:

Casey Thaler, B.A., NASM-CPT, FNS is an NASM® certified personal trainer and NASM® certified fitness nutrition specialist. He writes for Paleo Magazine®, The Paleo Diet® and Greatist®. He is also an advisor for Kettle and Fire and runs his own nutrition and fitness consulting company, Eat Clean, Train Clean®.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

Permanently Cure ED – ED and Gum Connection Discovered (study)

 

 Click on Here to Discover How You Can Increase Stamina and Heal Erectile Dysfunction Without Using Drugs

Sexual function can be so easily derailed by a wide range of serious and non-serious conditions elsewhere in your body.

A new study in the journal Andrology has now revealed a fundamental cause of ED.

And it starts in your gums, of all places.

Periodontitis is the sixth most common disease in the world. This inflammatory infection of your gums is caused by bacteria that live and accumulate on your teeth and gums.

Bacterial plaques accumulate on your teeth and spread towards their roots. This causes the gums to pull away from your teeth and allows bacteria to accumulate in the holes that consequently form between your teeth and gums.

Your immune system tries to fight these bacteria with inflammation, which damages the gums even further. Eventually, the gums and the bones that support the teeth completely dissolve, causing the teeth to fall out.

Having missing teeth is already a self-esteem problem; to make things worse, consider the ED that the French and Canadian authors of the new study believe may result from periodontitis.

They noticed that previous studies had found a relationship between periodontitis and ED. They conducted a review of the literature to determine how common this finding is.

They identified 19 relevant studies; the smallest had 53 subjects and the largest had 197,136. They were all performed on adults, with an average age of around 41 years.

Almost all of the studies found a significant link between periodontitis and ED, with the most severe cases of periodontitis also having the most severe cases of ED.

As one would expect, age was one of the most common factors the two conditions shared, with elderly people being the most likely to suffer from both periodontitis and ED.

Tobacco use and systemic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes were also common in people with both conditions, as were obesity and medications that reduce saliva production.

Some of the studies also examined the relationship between periodontitis and sexual hormones, with lower testosterone levels found in people with periodontitis in two of the three relevant studies.

So how can a condition in your mouth affect your sexual health?

Most of the researchers speculated that the high levels of inflammation in the mouth that result from the fight against the bacteria become systemic. In other words, inflammatory substances spread from your mouth through your bloodstream to your entire body, including the penis.

Inflammation damages the inner linings of blood vessels. This causes endothelial dysfunction, which many previous studies have proven to play a role in both heart disease and ED when blood vessels in the penis are affected.

Systemic inflammation also causes oxidative stress and reduces nitric oxide levels in blood vessels, which further reduces blood vessel function.

So the most important thing is to tackle inflammation in your body at the source. There is one single cause of almost all inflammation—and it’s quite easy to counteract, as I explain here…

But if you already suffer from erectile dysfunction, it’s easy to regain stamina using the simple home exercises explained here…

To Permanently Cure ED, Cut This Out (literally, slash it)

In a small research study, 67% of men had their ED cured as a “side effect” of a simple, low-risk surgery.

The weird thing is, the surgery took place nowhere close to the genitals. In fact, it was done on a small gland in the throat.

Although there has been no proof until now, a connection between hyperparathyroidism (overactive parathyroid gland) and erectile dysfunction has been speculated by many doctors.

The researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wanted to put this theory to the test.

They analyzed data from 160 men who underwent parathyroidectomy (a surgery where one or more of the parathyroid glands is removed). Every patient completed a list of “yes or no” questionnaires before surgery and again six months after surgery.

Twenty-one men reported erectile dysfunction before the surgery. Two were using erectile dysfunction medications.

Six months after the surgery, only seven men (one-third) still suffered ED. And the two men who were taking medications didn’t need them anymore.

This was, of course, a very small study. Much more research is needed to get any reliable data. But you may want to have your doctor check your thyroid activity if you experience erectile dysfunction.

What the study shows for sure is that your hormones do affect your erection strength. Therefore, it is essential that you take supplements that balance your gland’s efficiency and hormone levels.

But even better are a set of easy erectile dysfunction exercises. These exercises boost the blood flow to the genital, guaranteeing a strong, powerful erection…

Permanently Cure ED – Why ED Medications Do Not Work and What to Do Instead

ED medications have become so common that they’re almost considered the norm for men over 50.

But according to new research, there is a big problem with these drugs. Even for men who have 100% success using them and few side effects, these drugs leave them unsatisfied in the bedroom.

In this Manchester University study, 2,612 men taking Viagra (sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil) or Levitra (vardenafil) were questioned about their attitude towards sex.

Although many of the men claimed, the drugs had somewhat positive or very positive effects on their sex lives, even those who gained 100% erection reported being unsatisfied sexually.

It’s like something is still missing.

I believe the reason is that although the drugs force more blood flow into the penis, causing erection, they do not address the real underlying cause of erectile dysfunction.

In almost all cases, erectile dysfunction is physical (blood flow), hormonal (testosterone is one example), and emotional. Unless you address all three levels of the condition, you’re not going to feel satisfied in the bedroom.

I’ve helped many couples throughout the years. One of the most successful methods is a set of exercises to strengthen erection.

You can do the pelvic muscle exercises to boost blood flow into the penis. These exercises require no help from a partner and nobody needs to know you’re doing them. Research shows these PC exercises are even more effective than prescription medications.

But then you can take it to the next level. When we were in our twenties, we had desire and stamina to spare. As we get older, this approach also gets old. We want something more, deeper, more pleasurable. It’s the same difference as gulping down a six pack of cheap beer to get drunk or enjoying a fine wine in a good restaurant.

Our expectation and appreciation for pleasure deepens as we get older.

Partner exercises strengthen the connection in the relationship and take your sexual intimacy to a whole new level.

Many men have told me that even if they cured their erectile dysfunction using the PC muscle exercises, they didn’t begin enjoying sex again till they began working the partner exercises.

Maybe it’s also because your partner will enjoy them even more than you do. She will probably experience pleasure on a level that was never possible in her twenties and thirties. And that will make you feel great.

Watch this video for more ideas to permanently cure ED – How to FIX erectile dysfunction for good! – Doctor Explains!

So here is more info on how you can try out both the PC muscle exercises and the partner exercises to heal erection dysfunction on all levels…

This post is from the Erectile Dysfunction Master Program, which was created by Christian Goodman for men who are looking for the best erectile dysfunction natural remedies.  This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to permanently cure erectile dysfunction. By following the techniques in this program, you will be able to get hard fast without pills and maintain stronger erections for hours so you can enjoy sex again. 

Erectile problems can be physical or emotional. If your problem is physical, you need to exercise the muscles around the genital area. If your problem is emotional, then you need to learn relaxation techniques. Erection Master will teach you steps that can help get rid of your erectile dysfunction for good. As long as you’re willing to commit 30 minutes of your time, 3 to 7 days a week for 1 to 2 months, they’ll work for you. You can practice the steps alone or with your partner. 

These techniques are far more effective than Viagra, Cialis or other drugs for erectile dysfunction. The drugs only help about 40% of men who use them and can also cause very serious side effects. 

To find out more about this program, click on Permanently Cure ED