ultra-processed food

Sauerkraut

by

I just have to share two brands of sauerkraut that are so good that I eat them for taste, not just as food-medicine. Sauerkraut is a fabulous addition to daily diets because it has probiotics, fiber, and is easily digestible. It also happens to be low-calorie, filling, and a fantastic way to get a different variety of vitamins and minerals into your body instead of relying on the ones that are regularly in your routine. Variety matters when it comes to your best health. I started eating sauerkraut with gluten free crackers a few years ago, and back then it was solely to better my digestive health, but now I have really fallen for the taste, especially of the two brands below.  

Pangea Garlic Dill Sauerkraut 

This one is easily my favorite. I get it in the refrigerated section of my local food co-op, PCC, and it looks like it is in a variety of markets, at least here in Washington. It is made in Bellingham, WA, so the reach might be limited; I am not sure. I hope you can find it though wherever you are because it is so good it will change everything you ever thought you knew about sauerkraut.  

Pickled Planet I-Boost Herbal Krauts 

This Herbal Kraut is a close second in terms of taste. It was the first sauerkraut I had that I genuinely enjoyed the taste, and not only that, but it also has unique ingredients such as horseradish, nettle, and burdock that boost its health promoting qualities. (Hence its name, I-Boost Herbal Krauts.) I buy this one at Whole Foods and it looks like it can be found in quite a bit of the U.S, plus you can order it online. I do not have it in right now, so I will share the product photo from Pickled Planets’ page: 

How to Eat Kraut 

Obviously, eat it any way you like! But if you want to get the most health benefits from fermented foods, switch up the ones that you eat, if not daily or weekly, at least buy varied brands each time you restock. You can return to your favorites often, but eating a variety is truly what is best for your gut’s health. Since I was not a sauerkraut fan in the beginning, the only way I could eat it was with crackers. I would put a tablespoon or two of kraut in a bowl and scoop it up with gluten free crackers as a snack. Now, even though I have grown to truly like the taste of sauerkraut, I still enjoy the crunch of a cracker balancing it out. 

Fermented Foods

We have so many things working against our digestive systems, especially if we adhere to the modern Western diet, such as ultra-processed foods, glysophate, too much sugar and salt, and much much more. Adding fermented foods can help balance out diets and add health promoting probiotics back into our cores. Choosing a variety to eat is the best way to make the most of what fermented foods offer. Other fermented foods to consider include: kefir, kimchi, kombucha, miso, sourdough bread, tempeh, and yogurt.

What are your favorite fermented foods? I’d love to hear about them! Happy Eating!🥣

*I’m not affiliated with any of the products in this post.

Thirty a Week and Ultra-processed Foods

by

There are two trends in healthy eating right now that complement each other nicely. The first is Thirty a Week, with the focus on eating at least 30 different plant foods each week to enhance the microbiome.  

Why has this become a thing? 

Eating a variety of different plant foods means you are giving your microbiome plenty of prebiotics which are essential for helping the good bugs in the gut to prosper and win over the bad bugs, (or too few bugs).  

How to do it: 

Thirty means thirty different plant foods, which can include many categories of food besides the obvious fruits and vegetables. It includes herbs, whole grains, nuts, legumes, and even dark chocolate, coffee, and more. The main point to observe is that if you eat a certain food, such as a Honeycrisp apple, every day at lunch for 5 days in a row, that only counts as 1 of the 30. If instead you eat a different kind of fruit every day at lunch for 5 days straight, then you have 5 out of the 30. There are apps out there to track how many plant foods you eat, if that is your thing, but personally I already have more apps than I care to. For more ideas on how to achieve thirty a week, this linked article is a wonderful place to start.  

How it relates to minimizing ultra-processed foods: 

The Thirty a Week concept works well with trying to get away from ultra-processed foods because when focusing on getting real foods into our bodies, there are less opportunities to choose ultra-processed food. There is more awareness now that ultra-processed foods make up the majority of American diets, (55% is the latest number), and an even larger proportion of youths’ diets. Ultra-processed foods lack nutrition, contain questionable ingredients, are generally packed with excess sugar and salt, and are designed to make people crave foods and overeat. Ultra-processed foods are seen as one of the main reasons if not the number one reason that people are overweight, especially children, and yet unfortunately, they are everywhere.  

What exactly is an ultra-processed food? 

Knowing what is ultra-processed as opposed to simply processed can be tricky. To understand what makes a food ‘ultra-processed’, I am copying this simple explanation from Stanford Medicine’s News Center: 

  • Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Examples are fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, poultry, pasta, plain yogurt and coffee. 
  •  Processed culinary ingredients: These include sugar, honey, maple syrup, vegetable oils, butter and vinegar. 
  •  Processed foods: Examples are salted nuts, cured meat, canned fish, canned vegetables, most cheeses and freshly made bread (such as from a local bakery).  
  • Ultra-processed foods: Examples are commercially produced breads, most breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts, hot dogs, frozen meals, potato chips, soft drinks and candy bars. 

As you can see, unprocessed or minimally processed foods are mostly the foods that make up the Thirty a Week guideline.  

The upcoming change of seasons is as good a time as any to commit to healthier, smarter eating. Happy Equinox week! 🥣🌿Â