The Importance of Fermented Foods on a Keto Diet

How is your digestion doing?

Most likely if you are on a keto diet, it’s slowly improving.

You have removed most of the offending foods (hopefully) and the reflux is gone….

BUT

The journey to a truly healthy digestive system is a long one when you come from a SAD (standard american diet) background!

The number one problem with that kind of diet is the chronic lack of enzymes and probiotics.

Enzymes from raw and unprocessed foods are essential to replenish our body’s reserves. We can not properly digest foods without enzymes.

That is why mother nature created most foods already packaged with their own perfect enzyme content.

But then we have to go and mess that up, by cooking and processing.

Probiotics are almost more important than enzymes.

When you are on a Keto diet and not eating fruits and high carb veggies, fermented foods are the perfect vegetable!

They are extremely low carb, because the microorganisms from the fermentation have already eaten all the sugars!

They are full of nutrients made more available for absorption, and they teem with enzymes and beneficial bacteria!

Why are beneficial bacteria so important? (probiotics)

Didi you know that at all times we carry about 4 to 6 pounds of microorganisms in our digestive system?

Without those beneficial bacteria that lives in symbiosis with our body we would not be alive.

The gut has been recently been defined as an organ in it’s own right. And the little guys in there are part of it.

Gut flora is not called The Microbiota and it’s importance has become more and more relevant, not only for digestion but for mental health, immunity, and disease prevention.

One way we can cultivate a healthy Microbiota is though fermented foods.

Traditionally, most cultures have several fermented dishes that are made and regularly eaten with meals.

The German Sauerkraut, Korean Kimchi, Argentinian Cortido, Israeli Pickles, Japanese Miso and Natto….the list is very long

Daikon Kimchi: A Korean Delicacy for your Health

Daikon Kimchi (Ggaktoogi) is a very traditional ferment. Is is part of what is called “Ban Chan” a series of little dishes that accompany the main course as a sort of appetizer/ side dish in Korea. Several fermented dishes are part of it.

Daikon Kimchi is delicious and can be made spicy or mild depending on your taste. For best results use the traditional Korean Chili Flakes (Gochugaru) I recommend buyng a big bag of it and keeping it in your freezer, so any time the kimchi frenzy hits you have it availble.

I also used this original anchovy sauce, which is rich in sodium (great for us ketoers!) and wonderful anchovies but NO fillers or preservatives!

In this recipe I also used Resistant Starch. In traditional recipes rice powder is used or plain sugar to feed the beneficial bacteria.

Using resistant starch takes the ferment to the next level of potency, making it into a true superfood!