12 Steps to Whole Foods

Preserving Raw Foods with Natural Probiotics
bone loss and cardiovascular diseases. Kefir and yogurt are a great source of Vitamin B12, which most people
believe is deficient in vegans.
Tryptophan is abundant in milk and has a well documented calming effect on the nervous system. It converts to
serotonin, which you need to avoid depression. It also helps achieve a regular, peaceful sleep cycle and
prevents constipation. Conversion of tryptophan requires Vitamin B6, which goat’s milk and cow’s milk kefir
also contain in high amounts.
But one of my favorite benefits of kefir is that when you’ve established a strong population of “friendly”
bacteria in the gut, you’re able to metabolize sugar much more easily—natural sugars from fruit, but also
occasional refined sugars if you choose to eat them. That’s because the “friendly” yeast and bacteria eat sugars
for their food, thus potentially reducing the effect of those sugars on your own body. (Still, you should
minimize or eliminate refined sugar.) And when you eat lots of cultured foods, your craving for sugary foods
decreases dramatically.
Daily consumption of these foods is a habit of many ancient cultures and modern indigenous peoples who live
long and are disease free. Fermented milk products are extremely common in Western and Eastern Europe,
Russia, Scandinavia, the Middle East, and Africa. In fact, Westerners consuming unfermented animal milk is
unique in the world and a relatively new tradition.
This is the only place in this book that I promote the use of an animal product as highly nutritious. When
fermentation occurs in a dairy product, enzymes proliferate and milk protein (casein) becomes much more
digestible. The enzyme lactase predigests lactose proteins, and several enzymes created by the fermentation
process increase absorption of calcium and other minerals. Even “lactose-intolerant” people usually have no
problem with cultured dairy products like kefir and yogurt. They are also ideal foods for babies, elderly people,
and those with digestive problems. Claude Aubert, in Les aliments fermentés traditionnels, quotes research that
yogurt proteins are digested twice as quickly as those same proteins in unfermented milk. 1
Thus cultured dairy products are a host for beneficial organisms that populate and protect the human
gastrointestinal tract. Some strains of healthy bacteria actually support other strains and they are your insurance
against a takeover by harmful bacteria resulting in infectious diseases. Dr. Bernard Jensen’s extensive studies
show that most Americans have a ratio of 10:1 favoring bad bacteria rather than the exact opposite, a 10:1 ratio
favoring good bacteria, which indicates a healthy digestive system and protects us from illness. 2 Many people
in the Western world today are susceptible to harmful bacteria due to the absence of good, homemade
fermented foods plus the widespread consumption of toxic foods.
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 225