Ginger Kombucha – The Anti-Inflammatory Drink

Ginger is powerful medicine! I have been consuming ginger every day and found it to be very effective in helping with any kind of inflammation – especially hay fever in the springtime. Ginger is anti-viral and anti-inflammatory as well as being a powerful antiseptic and antihistamine.

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Fermented Foods: Immune Fuel for Flu Season

Fall through winter is the time of year they call “flu season.” People are really afraid of it but I have often said, “The flu should be afraid of me!” When you build up the good bacteria in your body, you create an army that goes with you everywhere you go and touches every person you come in contact with. . .

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Einkorn FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions About Einkorn What is Einkorn Bread? Einkorn bread is made from einkorn wheat, one of the oldest and purest forms of wheat. It’s a nutrient-dense grain that has a lower gluten content and a different type of gluten compared to modern wheat, making it easier to digest for those with gluten allergies.…

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The Amazing Benefits of Bifidobacteria

Everybody Needs Lots of Bifido Bifidobacterium is a genus of beneficial bacteria that reside primarily in the intestines. Bifidobacteria play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy gut and overall well-being and keep your immune system strong. I am hearing more and more that many people have diminished bifidobacteria. If you don’t have enough bifidobacteria,…

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Kefir and Respiratory Health

Benefits of Kefir Kefir has long been used for its ability to support respiratory health, especially during the cold and flu season. I have seen this personally work well after respiratory infections and also through those who shared with me through many emails that they have gotten off of their asthma inhalers. It was one…

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Kefir Soda FAQs

Super Soda Imagine sipping on a refreshing, bubbly drink that’s not only delicious but also brimming with probiotics, enzymes, and vitamins. That’s the magic of Kefir Soda! At Cultured Food Life, we’re all about bringing the incredible benefits of fermented foods into your everyday life, and Kefir Soda is one of our favorite ways to…

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10 Reasons I Have Kefir Every Day

Lots of articles are popping up about reasons you should have kefir, but few of the people writing the articles have actually drunk kefir every day for 14 years. This post is specifically talking about milk kefir and not water kefir. My reasons for drinking kefir are very personal and specific to me. […]

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Can Cultured Foods Hurt Me?

I get a lot of people writing me letters indicating that they are afraid they are going to get sick from eating cultured foods. They don’t understand cultured foods and how they work; preconceived ideas and the media have created fear, a lot of fear. […]

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Tips That Nobody Else Talks About

Years ago when I was young and raising my kids, I was often influenced by well-meaning friends and family. They scared me to death with the latest news they had heard and would say, “Don’t eat this and don’t let your kids do this and did you read that story about how bad this is for you?” […]

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New Yogurt Recipes: Cashew, Coconut, Goat, and Raw

Homemade Yogurt You Can’t get from the store I have been making lots of new yogurt recipes lately. Many people have been asking about goat yogurt and nondairy yogurts, so I have been experimenting with several versions. I got a non-dairy version of L. reuteri and Yogurt Plus yogurt from a Biotic Pro member, and…

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Help! My Kombucha Is Too Sour

In the early days of making kombucha, I would often let my kombucha go too long and it would lose its bubbliness. There were a few times it turned so sour that it made me squint and gasp. I honestly thought I had killed my uvula. You know that little thing that hangs down the back of your throat. […]

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7 Ways To Change Your Gut

Gut Health Gut health is more important than you can imagine. Having a healthy gut means your gut contains large amounts of healthy bacteria and immune cells that ward off infectious agents like bacteria, viruses, and fungi. But that’s not all!  A healthy gut also communicates with the brain through nerves and hormones, which helps…

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7 Tips for Summer Kombucha

Kombucha is a must-have in the summertime! When the body is exposed to excessive heat, the liver can become stressed and kombucha can help! Drinking kombucha can keep you cool and hydrated in the summertime. It can also help your liver which is one of the organs most vulnerable to excessive heat. . .

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10 Tips for Summer Kefir

Kefir is a living food that tends to have a mind of its own. It ferments differently in the winter than the summer, so understanding the process can make a huge difference. I’m sharing seven tips to help you make great summer kefir. . .

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10 Reasons Kefir Soda is Your Perfect Summer Beverage

Why Kefir Soda is a Summer Must-Have for Your Health Summer is the perfect time to enjoy the light, refreshing taste of kefir soda. I drink a lot of kefir soda in the summertime. Not only is it delicious and bubbly, but it’s also packed with amazing health benefits that make it a fantastic addition…

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Brain Health and Fermented Foods

How your gut and Brain work together Fermented foods are truly magical when it comes to nurturing our microbiota-gut-brain axis. These living foods don’t just taste amazing—they transform our health from the inside out. They do this by modulating our immune system, strengthening our gut barrier, and even regulating our neuroendocrine system – fermented foods…

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9 Ways to Use Extra Kefir Whey!

If you’re making kefir, and especially kefir cheese, you’re going to wind up with a lot of whey. Whey has been called liquid gold, and it has been used throughout history to help with many diseases. In fact, Hippocrates and Galen, two founding fathers of medicine, frequently recommended whey to their patients to heal them. […]

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Super Healing Summer

It’s summertime!! And all kinds of things can happen in the summertime that otherwise might seem impossible. Let me explain a few things that happen in the summertime that can help you be healthier, heal from all manner of diseases, and support good health! […]

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Why Magnesium is Essential for Good Health

The Mighty Mineral That Powers Your Body Magnesium – my favorite Mineral Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. I first realized its importance to me when I had my third child. I wrote about it here. The Mineral That Saved My Life I firmly believe that many of us…

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Super Fast Einkorn Pizza and Bagels

Einkorn Pizza and Bagels! 🍕 Jump to the recipes! 🥯 Oh, let me tell you about these pizza and bagel recipes — they’re a real game-changer! Imagine this: you whip up the dough with just a couple of ingredients, throw on your favorite toppings, and straight into the oven it goes—no waiting around for it…

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The Best Tasting Blueberry Kraut

Blueberries 🫙Jump to the recipe & video! 🫙 I eat berries almost every day. I have them for breakfast with kefir and for snacks, too. I also put them in kraut, and it’s like getting a mouth full of blueberries in your kraut. It gives kraut an incredible flavor! I know my gut bacteria love…

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Kefir for Breakfast ~ My Favorite Four

I learned a long time ago that if I wanted to feel good, I had to have kefir every day. It seems to work best for me to have kefir in the morning, but sometimes I have it other times too. I’ve kind of played around with different ways to have it and found these four breakfasts give me lots of energy. . .

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7 Reasons I Use Einkorn Flour

Most ancient species of wheat I have been consuming einkorn wheat for many years now and have converted much of my diet to exclusively using einkorn flour. I have noticed some changes in my health and have found einkorn flour makes my life a lot easier in regards to making foods my family can enjoy…

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Yogurt Versus Kefir – Which Is Better?

So, what is the difference between kefir and yogurt? Which is better? Kefir is far superior, but yogurt has its benefits too. I read once that yogurt is like wine and kefir is more like champagne. It has more pizazz! […]

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Sugar Drops Your Immune System By 75%

Boosting your immune system is one of my favorite things that cultured foods do. Your gut is responsible for 80 percent of your immune system. The more good bacteria you have, the better your immune system will function. Viruses run around looking for a human host to inhabit. When it finds one, your body has special helpers designed to seek and destroy this invader.

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Are Fermented Vegetables Safer Than Raw Vegetables?

Cultured foods have become an exciting frontier in health and wellness. We take so much for granted, and just as this earth spins on its axis and hurls us through space so does our body contain billions upon trillions of microbes that compose our bodies and were designed to help us live a fulfilling and healthy life. […]

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The Tale of the Disappearing Kefir Grains

We make a lot of kefir. We drink it every day along with making kefir cheese and kefir sodas, so we make it daily. As usual, my husband and kids were helping me make kefir on April 1st, 2014. As I poured out the jugs into the strainer, no kefir grains appeared. . .

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10 Ways to Use Your Over-Fermented Kombucha!

Kombucha is a wonder drink. This fermented tea has been around for centuries and is legend in many countries such as China, Russia, and Korea. There are even stories that Genghis Khan drank it often and gave it to the men in his armies. […]

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Kombucha vs Kefir Soda: What Is the Difference?

Kombucha & Kefir Soda Kombucha and kefir soda are both fermented probiotic drinks, and boy, are they delicious and good for you. They are bubbly, living, raw beverages that tend to have minds of their own. They ferment differently in the winter than in the summer, so understanding the process can make a huge difference.…

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Histamines and Fermented Foods

How to deal with Histamine flare-ups is a common question I get, and especially since fermented foods can either help or worsen symptoms. It occurs when there is a buildup of histamine in the body. […]

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Kombucha – Healing My Addiction

Many years ago I was addicted to diet cola. I know, I know. It is terrible for you. But still, I couldn’t stop drinking it. I had drunk it for years and when I first started eating cultured foods they made me want to conquer my addiction. But try as I might, I couldn’t stop drinking it. It would call my name, so I knew it was an addictive substance. . .

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When You’re Trying To Get Better…

The Special Superfood Smoothie Scroll down to check out the video 🎥 and 🫙 recipe! If you’ve been sick and not feeling well and trying to recover, or you are just trying to reset your gut, this is a quick and easy smoothie that starts the ball rolling in the right direction. It is fantastic…

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Kefir Chia Puddings

Kefir the Immune Booster This is one of my more popular recipes, and I love it because I can make several of them ahead of time to have a fast and easy breakfast. Kefir is a necessity for my family and me during cold and flu season. Whether you are trying to keep colds and…

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Yogurt Plus – Made with Raw Milk

Yogurt Plus and its Benefits Yogurt Plus is a wonderful and easy yogurt to make on a regular basis. I can’t wait to share the recipe and video. 🎥 Everybody knows I love kefir with every fiber of my being and have it constantly, but there were bacterial strains that kefir didn’t have that I wanted.…

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Einkorn Sourdough Jam Pies

Einkorn Mini Pies I love Valentine’s Day, and I love einkorn flour, so the two always go together. I have been using einkorn flour for everything lately, including these little jam pies, so I can’t wait to share the recipe and video 🎥  I made, along with my new Einkorn eBook for Members! I will…

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8 Ways To Second Ferment Water Kefir

There are a million reasons why you shouldn’t drink regular sodas that are laden with high fructose corn syrup, dyes, and chemicals that are hard on the body. Water kefir can provide minerals and probiotics, and they are easy and fun to make. Replace your drinks with water kefir or kombucha, and you will have…

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Asthma and Fermented Foods

One of the first friends I ever told about cultured foods had a little boy with asthma. Making and drinking a kefir smoothie every day allowed him to get off his asthma inhaler and live a normal life. I was quite surprised and thrilled that it worked so rapidly. He had been taking kefir quite regularly and stopped needing his inhaler. […]

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Is Your L. Reuteri Yogurt Separating?

L. Reuteri the super strong microbe L. Reuteri Yogurt I have always said that L. reuteri has a mind of its own. It’s a very strong strain of bacteria, and they even use this bacteria to clean out fermentation vats that have other undesirable bacteria. Many yogurt manufacturers felt L. reuteri couldn’t be made into…

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Matcha Tea and Me

Matcha Tea and Me Being and staying healthy is an ever-evolving journey. As I change and grow older, I have found new things that have profoundly impacted my life. In comparison, these don’t always mean cultured foods, but sometimes they are prebiotics that my body needs. I am a coffee lover, but it didn’t love…

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The Real Reasons Your Immune System Needs Cultured Foods

Viruses, yuck . . . my family used to get them a lot. Colds, flus, you name it, we got it. But so did everybody else I knew. It’s normal, right? Well, it’s actually not. Every year at Christmas we would go to my mom’s in Virginia and somebody would inevitably get sick, and then it would spread down through the family. […]

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Best of Cultured Food Life 2023: Our Top Articles!

Happy New Year! Wow, I can’t believe 2023 is coming to an end, and what a year it has been! As I sit down to reflect on the past twelve months, I can’t help but marvel at the unexpected twists and turns that have shaped my journey with cultured foods. In the last few years,…

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Does Your Bacteria Whisper?

I had just started my blog in April of 2010 and was afraid that nobody would be interested in cultured foods. I decided to do it anyway. I believe we are all guided to do things but it comes in whispers, not loud sounding trumpets. One such whisper came from my daughter Maci. She told me I needed a Facebook page to help people find my blog and then quickly made me one before I could protest. […]

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Why You Need Christmas Pickles

The Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped ornament that is the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve. The story goes something like this. […]

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Warm Up With Prebiotic Marshmallow Hot Chocolate

New Hot Chocolate Traditions Cozy up with Healthy Hot chocolate I love the holidays and all the festive foods. It makes me so happy to make holiday foods; but as the years have gone by, I learned that I needed to incorporate healthy holiday treats that not only satisfy my cravings around the holidays but…

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The Thick and Thin of Kefir

I have had my kefir grains for over twenty-two years and have made kefir every day since. Let me tell you – these kefir grains have a mind of their own. When I make kefir, my kefir grains will start to float to the top of the jar like they have a life jacket on. They…

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Cranberries Have Many Healing Powers

Cranberries are usually eaten only around the holidays. It’s really a shame we don’t eat them all year long as they are powerful foods that can work like preventative medicine. I got all emotional when I discovered all the things cranberries can do for us. […]

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A Cold You Can Beat After A Holiday Treat

For many years, and way before I found cultured foods, we would travel to my mom’s house in Virginia for Christmas. It was a twenty-hour car ride from my home in Kansas City, and we would often drive all night to get there so the kids would sleep. We would always be exhausted by the…

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The Healing Crisis and Cultured Foods

A “healing crisis” is something that happens when the body starts a detoxification process which is really a program of natural healing. This is a common occurrence among some individuals who start consuming cultured foods. When you start consuming cultured foods, your body is flooded with good bacteria. […]

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Probiotic Foods For Colds and Flus

It astonishes me that everybody doesn’t know about Cultured Veggies – they are such powerful little scrub brushes for the colon and deliver such powerful anti-virus abilities. Over and over again I have seen these veggies knock out colds and flu and even work magic on food poisoning. […]

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10 Tips For A Healthy Halloween

Probiotic Halloween 🎃 Halloween is always a fun time for kids and families. Let’s face it, the kids look adorable in their costumes and even I like to dress up; but it’s a sugar fest and that can present some challenges. We really need a probiotic Halloween. It’s such a fun time; but it is…

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Fermented Dairy Is Better Than Regular Dairy

History of Milk Many of the foods we eat have been deemed either bad or good. Throughout my life, I have witnessed that many foods once deemed to be super healthy are now being deemed bad for you – and dairy is one of them. Often it is not the food, it’s what we have…

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More Recipes to Use Your Homemade Yogurt

Reasons to Have More Cultured yogurt  Yogurt is such a huge part of my life along with kefir and all my favorite fermented foods and drinks. I reach for it a lot when I’m hungry and want something fast to eat. I also have this thing that I do. I think about my microbes whenever…

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Vitamin C-abbage

Captain Cook was one of the first people to make cultured sauerkraut a healing modality. When he took his first vessel and crew on a long voyage in 1768, a violent storm arose. The waves tossed the ship about violently, and many crewmen were injured. […]

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A Love Affair With Coconut Kefir Soda

Coconut Water  Coconut water makes fabulous kefir soda. I love how it tastes, and how easy it is to make.  It has 10 times the probiotics and 5 times the probiotic yeasts that kefir sodas made with fruit juices have. You can have 236 billion good bacteria in a cup! (See our lab results below.)…

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Kefir and Cholesterol

One of my good friends told me her cholesterol had gone up since drinking kefir, and then she said, “That’s my good cholesterol! It went through the roof and my doctor is very pleased.” I got a few emails this week from people expressing to me that since they’ve been consuming kefir […]

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How Natto May Help Your Heart and Improve Blood Pressure

Bacillus Subtilis Natto is a superfood and one that I have been wanting to make for decades. It was hard to find the culture, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to eat soybeans since they’re a little controversial. But that all changes with the magic of fermentation. In Japan, it is eaten every day…

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Probiotics and the Autoimmune Epidemic

I’m going to introduce you to your microbiome. These trillions of microbial organisms, which normally inhabit a healthy small and large intestine, are your friends. They’ve been co-creating with humans since the beginning of time, but it is likely you know very little about them. We depend on these microbes for our health and well…

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Einkorn — Before Gluten Was a Problem

Einkorn  Einkorn wheat is amazing. It is the most ancient wheat (over 12,0000 years) and arguably the best wheat for many reasons. Einkorn wheat is hardy, drought tolerant, and naturally resistant to pests, making it a naturally sustainable and regenerative food source, unlike modern wheat that requires vast amounts of chemical inputs and is easier…

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What Happened After a Year of Eating L. Reuteri Yogurt

The Journey — Finding answers I have been eating L. reuteri (Lactobacillus reuteri) yogurt for over a year now, and wow I’ve noticed some big changes in myself and family and from countless emails from all of you. I have a great podcast with Dr. Davis who really invented the L. reuteri yogurt recipe. I…

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Make Your Condiments – Probiotic!

We all eat condiments. They are easy to make, but most people just buy them. Why don’t you let me help you make them in as little as five minutes? They will have billions of probiotics and are perfectly preserved for months. . .

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Need Crunchy Pickles?

Pickles are a huge part of my life. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used them to help someone in need. If someone feels a bug coming on, I give them a pickle or a spoonful of pickle juice. […]

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Low-Carb Cultured Foods

Low carb and keto diets are very popular right now. I think we’re all different and what works for one doesn’t always work for another which is why I love cultured foods. They fit into any diet be it keto, vegan, low carb, vegetarian, paleo, or raw food diet. These foods can be mostly condiments; or some of these foods, such as a kefir smoothie, can be a whole meal. You can always find a way to add cultured foods to your diet and sometimes you only need a spoonful to flood your body with billions of probiotics that change your microbiome in a powerful way.

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How to Get Started With Cultured Foods

My Special Superfood Smoothie When people ask me how to get started with cultured foods, I give them this formula. Most of the time they’re really sick and desperate to feel better. This formula is fantastic for restoring your microbiome and giving you a delicious way to do it. It helps to lower 19 inflammatory…

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UTIs, Yeast Infections, and Cultured Foods

Understanding How Bacteria Work In The Body We know that more than half of all women will experience the burning urgency of a urinary tract infection (UTI) in their lifetime. Although men also suffer from these infections, the occurrence is much less frequent due to anatomical differences. If you experience discomfort when you urinate, you…

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How Your Gut Affects Your Entire Body

Let me tell you about Mary. She sat on the front row of one of my classes and cried throughout my class while I talked. Right after class, she came up to me and explained how much these probiotic foods I teach about had changed her life. Sick with digestion and depression and feeling hopeless, she found encouragement and hope from my books to give these foods a try. . .

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Probiotic Foods For The 4th of July

✨Keeping your gut healthy 🇺🇸 If you’re new to cultured foods, then let me help you understand how epic these foods are, and especially during parties. Cultured foods are loaded with probiotics, extra vitamins, and enzymes. They help your body heal by adding billions of probiotics to your gut. They rebuild your microbiome and this…

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Probiotic Drinks For Summer

Soda for summer Probiotic drinks are a must in the summertime. As you try to cool off and have something that is fizzy and delicious, there are two drinks I recommend.  I drink kombucha and kefir soda all the time. You can make different flavors and you can even make a float with probiotic ice…

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Benefits of Each Cultured Food

 The many things cultures Can Do Nothing has influenced and changed my body and life more than cultured foods. I’ve done many studies on myself and my family and, hands down, fermented foods are here to stay in my life. They create such wellness for me and mine that there is no way I’m going…

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Is Kombucha Good For You?

Is kombucha good for you? Is it alcoholic? As of late, kombucha has been getting a lot of press. Kombucha has become a 0.6 billion dollar industry and is expected to reach 1.8 by 2020. It is causing quite a stir in the beverage business. Its popularity has grown strictly by word of mouth and is growing at an incredible rate. . .

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Kefir And Your Blood Pressure

In 2001, I was battling hypertension and diabetes. It was then that I started drinking kefir and I noticed an interesting occurrence. It seemed that when I drank a glass of kefir every day my blood pressure would go down; and not just a little, but quite a bit. It would put me in the normal range. . .

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How to Care For Your Einkorn Sourdough Starter

I usually make sourdough bread once or twice a week. I make sourdough more than sprouted bread as my family likes it better and I enjoy making it so much. There is nothing as special as having a sourdough starter that has your own unique yeasts from your kitchen and hometown – that makes it uniquely your own. […]

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Probiotic Tomatoes

I have a diverse group of people who subscribe and are members of my site. They have very different diets but all are adding cultured foods to enhance what they’re doing. I’ve discovered that consuming cultured foods is one of the keys to living an incredibly healthy life. Not only have I experienced this, but others are recognizing this as well. […]

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Cultured Foods For Your Bones

Osteoporosis Osteoporosis is a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, makes too little bone, or both. This results in the bones becoming weak and may break. Osteoporosis means “porous bone.” The inside of a bone looks something like a honeycomb. When someone has osteoporosis, the bone, which forms the “walls”…

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Dairy-Free Yogurts: L. Reuteri and More

Making a dairy-free yogurt, be it L. reuteri or Yogurt Plus, can be a little different from regular yogurts. Since these types of milk are made with mostly water it can be challenging to create a creamy yogurt and especially with L. reuteri since it ferments for 36 hours. I have found that making your…

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Building Up The All-Important Bifido Bacteria

Missing Microbes One of the most important bacteria you have is called Bifidobacteria. It is the one your mother gave you at birth. Bifidobacteria become the predominant (95%) microorganism in the intestine within a week after birth. [1,2,3] They call it the young bacteria and it is extremely important for adults too, although it often…

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Carrot Cake in a Jar – Culture Your Carrots! 🥕

I have glass jars everywhere in my house, and I have lots of cultured foods in many of them. I’m always looking for new recipes and jars to make my cultured foods in. This is an unusual recipe as it combines fruit and veggies in my favorite jar that looks like a pot. […]

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Cultured Kefir Butter

 Reasons To Have More Vitamin K2 A few weeks ago I went to 123 Farm to speak, and honestly, one of the big reasons I go is to get their cultured butter made with kefir. It is so crazy good that it inspired me to make my own kefir butter. Certain cultures prized butter as…

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Does Your Gut Help Control Food Cravings?

Food cravings — why do you have them? We tend to think food cravings are normal and there is not much we can do about them, but there is much more to it than this. This is a time of change. A time to look at the way we function in this world and do it differently than ever before. . .

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Fermented Vegetables Are Safer Than Raw Vegetables

Cultured foods have become an exciting frontier in health and wellness. We take so much for granted and just as this earth spins on its axis and hurls us through space, so does our body contain billions upon trillions of microbes that compose our bodies and were put there to help us live a fulfilling and healthy life. […]

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How Many Cultured Foods Do I Eat In a Day?

People have the mistaken idea that I only eat cultured foods all day long. Although there are a lot of days that I do eat only cultured foods, this is not the norm. I mostly eat them because they’re easy for me to prepare and are what I call healthy fast food. […]

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10 Ways To Heal Your Gut

Your gut is your largest immune organ The Microbes That Control You Your gut is your largest immune organ, with a surface area of 100-130 square feet! Inside of you are trillions of microbes that make up the body known as you. Without them, you can’t digest your food and receive the nutrients that you…

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Yogurt Plus FAQs

Yogurt Plus Yogurt Plus is your everyday yogurt to use as a wonderful way to replenish your microbiome. Yogurt Plus isn’t just your regular yogurt—it’s a probiotic-rich superfood that’s packed with extra nutrients, enzymes, bifdiobacteria, and more. By combining the creamy goodness of homemade yogurt with additional strains of probiotics you’ll get a yogurt that…

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Einkorn Sourdough Bread

A few years ago, I started hearing about the ancient species of wheat called einkorn. People who were gluten intolerant were writing me letters about it and saying it was allowing them to eat bread again without the problems regular wheat had caused them, and I wanted to know more. . .

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How to Make Kefir Soda

Kefir Soda Starter Fizzy Fermented and Fun! Kefir soda . . . oh, how I love this probiotic bubbly drink. I’ve been making it in different ways using culture packages for over twenty-one years. For many, many years I have wanted to make my own kefir soda culture with good yeasts and bacteria. After testing…

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Winter Kefir

I love winter kefir! It’s often creamier and thicker than summer kefir. Kefir acts differently in the winter than in the warmer months of the year, due to cooler temperatures that make it ferment more slowly. […]

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A Cultured Food to Help Heal SIBO

Fermented Foods for SIBO Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is popping up everywhere and seems as if it’s becoming more and more prevalent. SIBO colonizes the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract which ascends up the 24-feet of ileum, jejunum, duodenum, and stomach. Most species abide in the colon; and when unhealthy microbes start to abide in…

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The Mineral That Saved My Life

My family has a history of high blood pressure. I struggled with high blood pressure on and off for years and was told to just expect to take medication for it. This made me fighting mad, and I didn’t want to accept it as predetermined destiny that I had no choice over. I wanted to know why I had a tendency for this and what was happening inside of me that was causing all of this. […]

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How to Make Cultured Vegetables

Having a jar of cultured vegetables in your fridge is a must. They can last for over nine months in the fridge and can be very helpful if you have stomach distress of any kind be it food poisoning or stomach cramps. Just a spoonful of the juice works mightily and will calm your stomach…

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How Microbes and Your Brain Work Together

A healthy body isn’t the only result of consuming good bacteria – having a healthy gut also leads to a healthier emotional state. Before I found cultured foods, I was a different person – physically and emotionally. As a young woman, and all the way into my late thirties, I would get upset easily. . .

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Best of Cultured Food Life 2022: Our Top Articles!

Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy!  Our Most Popular Articles of 2022 This has been a very special year for me. I’ve been eating cultured foods for over twenty-two years and I never expected new cultures with special species to come into my life and create such joy, wellness, and challenges. With the addition of…

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I Fed My Microbes on Christmas Day

We love traditions in our family. Every Christmas my mom always made a Christmas braid which was a giant concoction of cinnamon, nuts, and bread topped with a creamy frosting. I kind of changed the recipe with my family and made it from sprouted grains, and this year I decided to break with tradition and make something new. […]

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The Power of Peppermint That Changed a Holiday

It was gloomy outside, and I was gloomy inside. I was having my own personal pity party, feeling overwhelmed, and discouraged. I decided I was going to take my daughter Christmas shopping and break the gloom that was following me around. […]

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Yogurt For Christmas

Cultured Cream and yogurt I am very thankful this year for the many new cultured yogurts that have entered my life. I’ve been eating kefir for over twenty-one years and never expected to have particular strains of yogurt make such a significant impact on me. Kefir has over 50 bacteria, but these new yogurts have…

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Homemade Cultured Christmas Gifts

It’s the holidays and we’re all needing all the help we can get. One of the wonderful things about cultured probiotic foods is how fun it is to make them a part of your everyday life […]

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Easy Kefir Eggnog

Making New Traditions Staying Healthy During the Holidays I love eggnog. It was an exciting day when we discovered how to make Easy Kefir with a little eggnog to give it festive flavors. You just put a little eggnog  (get a good one from your health food store without additives) with milk into a jar…

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The X Factor Vitamin In Cheese

Raw Milk Cheese The rewards of making your own cheese are by far worth the effort, and it’s easier than you may think. It is thought that cheese was first discovered around 8,000 BC. Milk curds were strained and salt was added to help with preservation. This gave birth to what we now know as…

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Sourdough Stuffing Bread —With Fermented Cranberry Sauce

Bread that Tastes Like Stuffing Jump to the recipe “Nurture a sourdough starter and rise your bread to heights of grandeur and fall in love with sourdough bread.”Donna When I was a little girl, my mom always made her stuffing for the turkey the night before Thanksgiving. It would sit in this large glass bowl…

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How to Make Yogurt with Lactobacillus Gasseri

The Microbe L. Gasseri Lactobacillus gasseri (L. gasseri) is a very important microbe that lives in the genital, urinary, and digestive systems of the body. It also has the special ability to live in the upper gastrointestinal area similar to Lactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri).  L. gasseri is also believed to offer other specific health benefits.…

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L. Gasseri Superfood Starter FAQs

FAQs and Recipes with L. Gasseri Yogurt We get a lot of questions about this super-powerful superfood yogurt. We have answered most of your questions in this FAQ along with recipes too. L. Gasseri Superfood Yogurt Recipe Click Here L. Gasseri Yogurt Starter Click Here Frequently Asked Questions About L. Gasseri Superfood Starter Which Dairy…

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Eczema and Probiotic Foods

Skin Problems What’s Going on Inside Eczema is a skin condition that causes itchy, red patches on different locations of the body and affects over 30 million people, especially children between the ages of one and five. The standard treatment is steroidal creams, corticosteroids, or antihistamines but this does not address the underlying cause of…

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7 Reasons I Drink Coconut Water Kefir

Coconut water is one of my favorite drinks! It is fast and super easy to make and wow is it good for you. Water Kefir Crystals make fantastic coconut water kefir. It’s bubbly, tangy, and delicious! All you need are water kefir crystals (which are different from milk kefir grains) and some coconut water and 24 hours. . .

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Healing From Food Allergies

“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.” ~Galileo Galilei It was early 2002, and my sixteen-year-old daughter climbed out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. “How do you feel this morning?” I asked. Her response broke me. “I never feel good anymore mom. I feel bad all…

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Sleep Problems and Your Gut

Sleeping is fundamental to our wellbeing and health, and I have my own experiences with sleep and health. In 2001 when my daughter Holli was born eight weeks early and weighed in at four pounds, I was a woman on a mission to help her. Babies born this early don’t get the mom’s immunities and Holli was no exception. . .

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How To Make Water Kefir

Water kefir grains, or we call them kefir crystals, are unlike milk kefir grains as they thrive on sugars and not lactose. The special probiotic yeasts and beneficial bacteria in the water kefir crystals consume the sugar in the sugar water. They produce probiotics, new enzymes, organic acids, and antioxidants which may have many beneficial…

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The Secrets To Probiotic Sugar-Free Ice Cream

4 Ice Cream Secrets Making good homemade ice cream is really fun – making probiotic ice cream made with kefir and yogurt is even more fun. You can really use a multitude of ingredients. I even use my smoothie recipes and turn them into ice cream, especially when it’s a hot day. I love to…

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Make Probiotic Cottage Cheese With Yogurt or Kefir

Cottage Cheese with probiotics I love cottage cheese but I didn’t always love this soft cheese. I used to think it was awful as a kid and wouldn’t touch it. Then when I got older, I started making it myself after a good friend who had a raw milk dairy farm showed me how to…

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Fermented Probiotic Salsa Recipes

Fermented Salsa Salsa is one of the easiest ways to get in your fermented vegetables. It is super easy to make, everybody will enjoy it, and most will never know it is filled with billions of probiotics. I basically throw all the veggies in a blender, pour them into a jar, add a culture, let…

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Cultured Veggies ~ Saving Lives

Forget everything you think you know about vegetables and let me tell you what happens when you culture them. Grow your own probiotics in a jar of vegetables, and you’ll be shocked and amazed at all they can do. I feel like I’ve been standing on the top of a mountain singing the praises of…

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Don’t Rinse Your Kefir Grains and More!

Kefir Grains Never Rinse Them in Water I get so many emails from people who, in an attempt to help their kefir grains, will rinse them in cool water. You should NEVER, EVER, EVER do this. It damages them and rinses off the protective bacteria that make them thrive. So many times they will either…

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My Kefir ~ L. Reuteri Super Smoothie

Superfood Smoothie Nine times out of ten, I have a kefir smoothie every morning. A cup of coffee and a smoothie has been the norm for me for over twenty-two years. It’s super fast and it tastes really good, but since early March I’ve changed it up a lot with spectacular benefits. I’m kind of…

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Probiotic Foods and Cancer

In 2010, I had just started my blog and Facebook page, and the second person to post on my page was a man named Chris asking me How to Make Kombucha. He was a friend of my older kids and what I didn’t know at the time was Chris had just been diagnosed with […]

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Summer Cultured Vegetables

There is no better time to make cultured veggies than in the summertime! The fruits and veggies are abundant and when you ferment them they’ll last nine months in your fridge! Culturing, or what can also be called fermenting, is a no-sweat endeavor. . .

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Feeding Your Microbes — Wellness is Made in the Gut

The microbes that have made your body their home are quite impressive, and most people are unaware of the magnitude of microbes that reside within them. One hundred trillion microbes is a tremendous amount, and let me better explain just how much this is. . .

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Oxalates and Why You Need Fermented Foods

 Oxalates and Gut Health Oxalic acid is an organic compound found in many plants. In fact, all plants produce oxalic acid at various levels. It is their natural defense against insects and other pests. The terms “oxalic acid” and “oxalate” are used interchangeably in nutrition science. Foods like spinach, beets, chocolate, and almonds are all…

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Gluten Pain: The Best Teacher

I have met hundreds of people who are now on gluten-free diets. My daughter used to be one of them. Gluten pain can make life difficult and become a heavy load to bear. How can this grain that has been around since time began suddenly wreak such havoc on […]

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Feeling Younger is an Inside Job

I was 41 when I first found cultured foods. I felt old, discouraged, and sick. I remember resting on the couch and watching documentaries about people who had changed their lives and done extraordinary things. […]

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Beet Kvass: Original, Orange, & Golden Lemon

Beet kvass is a fermented probiotic drink with many health benefits. I first made this drink back in 2012 to help my daughter heal her IBS and food allergies. One of the things we did was give her a cultured food with every meal, but she also had a probiotic drink with her meals too.…

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Kefir Benefits For Your Heart

Keep Your Heart Healthy Just recently, my dear friend’s husband died at a young age of a heart attack and nobody saw this coming. It can be so devastating to families to feel the hurt of losing someone they love. Your heart is certainly one of your most important organs, and since heart disease is…

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Can You Make Happiness in Your Gut?

Emotions are my best friends. They help me not only understand my present state but also how my body is doing. Researchers are discovering that an imbalance in your gut can cause mental symptoms. They call the gut the second brain, and boy are they right. […]

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Fermented Sauerkraut and Breast Cancer

Sauerkraut is an incredible food. I teach people to make it at all my classes. It can be life changing along with kefir and kombucha and I’m pretty intense about it. It changed my life and I have watched it change thousands of other people too. . .

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Microbes That Change Your Home in 24 Hours

When you and I find the courage and strength to be better in any regard we help everyone around us. This goes for every area of our lives and even what we eat – and it includes our bacteria. You have trillions of hitchhikers that live in and on you, and they play a huge role in keeping you healthy. […]

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Living Longer on Yogurt and Kefir

Yogurt And Kefir Yogurt and Bifidobacterium I love to eat and make kefir as well as yogurt. Lately, I’ve had yogurt turn my world upside down. I love kefir with every fiber of my being and have it every day, but there were bacterial strains that kefir didn’t have that I wanted. Bifidobacteria is a…

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43 Ways to Use Kefir Cheese

I make a lot of kefir cheese. I use kefir cheese in place of any recipe that calls for cream cheese, sour cream, or Greek yogurt. It’s very versatile, and the length of time you strain it will determine how thick it becomes. . .

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L. Reuteri Superfood Starter FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions About L. Reuteri Yogurt   This yogurt has shocked me in so many ways, but it wasn’t without its problems. I always shoot straight with you – the health benefits blew my mind and continue to do so, and I don’t recommend anything I don’t make and consume. I didn’t really believe…

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Eight Probiotic Foods to Always Keep in Your Fridge

When it comes to cultured/probiotic and fermented foods, I am officially obsessed. Not everyone is going to make as many of these foods as I do; but once you get started, it’s an exciting journey! Here are the top seven probiotic foods I ALWAYS have on hand, and why. . .

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How Gut Microbes Tell Your Hormones What to Do

Female hormones are complex and beautifully made. But take those hormones and ignore them, and they will get your attention through symptoms of discomfort that can lead to disease and believe you me, they can wreak havoc on your life. There is no giant step that accomplishes this, just a lot of little steps that can make all the difference.

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Kefir and Diabetes

I remember that day quite vividly. It was over fifteen years ago. It was February and bitter cold outside. I made myself a breakfast that I thought was healthy – high-fiber cereal and skim milk. Thirty minutes later a terrible feeling came over me […]

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Earl Grey Probiotic Pickles 📹

Fermented pickles are the best pickles. Cultured pickles are super powerful, but so is the brine they are made in. The powerful bacteria in cultured veggies is called Lactobacillus plantarum. It is a powerful weapon against pathogens that try to invade the body. It will steal nutrients from pathogens and they will die unable to survive while Lactobacillus plantarum is around. . .

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Fermented Foods vs Fiber — Guess Who Wins?

 Fermented Foods Stun Researchers Nothing has changed me more than cultured foods. I’ve consumed them for over twenty years and nothing is more convincing than your own life experience. I’ve done many studies on myself and my family and hands down fermented foods are here to stay in my life. They create such wellness for…

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7 Reasons I Eat Cultured Vegetables

Cultured vegetables have special powers that go far beyond regular vegetables. I love them and reach for them day after day and in times of special need. They can be powerful food – like medicine – and so I always have several jars in my refrigerator. […]

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Hesperidin: The Amazing Flavonoid in Orange Juice

Hesperidin’s Amazing Benefits I am very fortunate to have many fruit trees on my property. I have several varieties of orange trees and I am constantly trying to find ways to use the oranges, but never did I realize how powerful oranges and their juice can actually be. Orange juice contains special compounds that have…

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What are Cultured Vegetables?

Forget everything you think you know about vegetables and let me tell you what happens when you culture them. Grow your own probiotics in a jar of vegetables, and you’ll be shocked and amazed at all they can do. […]

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Sourdough FAQs

Helpful Tips for sourdough bread The secret to good sourdough bread is in the bubbly sourdough starter. (You can buy my live starter here.) To make a really bubbly sourdough starter, you must feed it a ratio of one to one to one. So what this means is 1/2 cup of sourdough starter and 1/2…

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Making Winter Kombucha

Kombucha is a wonderful probiotic drink and something you should really consider drinking daily during cold and flu season. The special probiotic yeast in kombucha (Saccharomyces boulardii, which cannot be killed by antibiotics) can help you stay healthy when viruses are all around you. […]

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Best of Cultured Food Life 2021: Our Top Articles!

Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy!  Our Most Popular Articles of 2021  I’m chasing a feeling when I cook, write blogs, come up with recipes, and even when I eat food that makes me feel good. That feeling is joy and the things I give my attention to determine how often that occurs. When I…

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Reasons to Have Fermented Foods During the Holidays

As the holiday season hits, we spend more time with friends and family. One thing I have noticed is that there is more and more talk about the health issues that so many are struggling with. Extended family whom I don’t talk with often mostly talk about how sick they are and all the medications they’re on. . .

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An Apple Peel a Day Keeps The Doctor Away

The Bacteria that keeps your gut lining intact Do you know the old English-language proverb that appeared in the 19th century that said, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away “? There may be more truth to this than we know. Apples have been associated with a number of benefits that could help promote…

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Gingerbread: The Healthy Holiday Treat

Food as medicine is the way that I live my life. Cultured foods are front and center, but there are many other things I turn to when we need extra help and one of the most important is ginger. […]

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20 Ways To Use Fermented Garlic!

There are certainly many ways to enjoy garlic, but having a jar of fermented garlic in your fridge is easy and convenient to use. You can use this in so many ways, and it is even great to hand on hand for heated recipes. […]

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