Fermented foods

Since I'm going to be working on my digestive system with the Dr. Natura cleanse, I thought I'd do more for it so I'm going to try fermented foods. I've read how good they are for us, so I thought I'd give them a try.

I went to Whole Foods and bought four bottles of Kombucha. The guy checking me out asked me if I liked it. I told him no, it was vile stuff!! He seemed relieved and said when he first started working there a couple weeks ago he bought some, took a sip, and threw the bottle out. It is vile, but honestly, you get used to it. Also, if you need it, then you will find the taste easier to swallow. :) I drank a bottle yesterday and one today. It's actually refreshing after a workout.

Today I made sauerkraut and fermented beets .... well, I prepared them and now I'm waiting for them to ferment. We'll see how it goes. The sauerkraut in the store is pastuerized, which defeats the purpose of eating it entirely!

I chopped up a head of cabbage, I salted it, then I squeezed it with my hands until water was coming out of it .... I did this in a big bowl so I didn't lose the water. Then I packed it into a jar and pushed it down tightly ... by the time I got it all in the jar, the liquid covered all the cabbage. Now I just leave it sit out on the kitchen counter for a few days so the bacteria can grow. Ewww.

For the beets, I sliced three of them, put them in a jar, then covered them with brine made from four cups of water and one teaspoon of salt.

As usual, I will keep you posted with my progress. Mentally I'm done trying different herbs for killing bugs. I'm just ready to move on to better health!

My shoulder has been absolutely killing me the past few days. It's been sore for a couple weeks, but the pain has been so intense that it keeps me up at night .... so I took a painkiller for it. The last one I took was at 9:30 this morning and now it's 5:30 and I have little pain, so I think it's letting up. I'm thinking this is a healing reaction. My shoulder pain dates back to high school, so it was bound to be something my body had to go back and fix .... it was bound to have pockets of bacteria, or be lacking minerals, or be loaded with toxins/heavy metals, or whatever it was that caused the pain.

My massage therapist could feel the swelling yesterday, but could feel no reason for it other than a series of muscle issues starting at my right foot. He suggested maybe I walked with my foot turned out and that it may be causing the shoulder pain. Interesting because the pain started in High School, after I broke my leg and have walked with that foot turned out ever since. Since bacteria and toxins are opportunistic, perhaps they took up residence in my shoulder. I'm going to work on walking correctly now.

Well, I'm off to have some apple cider vinegar in water .... another source of fermented food rich with probiotics.