Posts by Donna Schwenk

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 […]

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. . .

 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…

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. […]

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. […]

Many people wonder if probiotic pills provide the same benefit as probiotic foods since they seem to be marketed in the same way—healthy bacteria for our guts. However, probiotic foods work significantly better because of their construction […]

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.

 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…

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…

One of the most important things I’ve learned about health and wellness is that overeating can be just as stressful on your hardworking liver as drinking too much, but most people don’t know this. Overeating or having too much fatty food on your plate can make it difficult for the liver to function smoothly. . .

I get hundreds of emails about the subject of Candida, and a lot of them are asking me why so many health care practitioners don’t recommend the consumption of fermented foods if you have Candida. […]

Berries and I have a love affair. I eat them every morning for breakfast with kefir and for snacks too. I recently began adding a red berry phenol powder to my smoothies to get even more benefits, and what a difference it has made. I have over 50 recipes in this article and even more…

For many years, I’d read thousands of books that I had stacked by my bed – and thank goodness for Kindle!  I read books on what foods are best for you and tried gazillions of diets and still couldn’t figure it all out. […]

Nobody really wants to talk about constipation and diarrhea, but it’s something everybody deals with at some time in their life. I’ve had so many people find help with these ailments that despite most people not wanting to talk about elimination, it’s something that can be your best teacher if you know what to look…

The Call  Finding My Way To Cultured Foods  You have to fight through some bad days to find the best days of your life I have always had a sense of urgency about my life. I never knew why this was, and when I was a young woman with small children my friend said to…

Flashing back to 2001 and my first few months of making kefir, my husband was really leery of it. “Milk sitting on a counter for 24 hours . . . are you sure about this?” he said. He always tries my crazy creations, but it takes him a little bit to wrap his head around it and this one was no exception. […]

A lot of suffering in this world comes from the fear of discomfort. In my own personal life, pain has come to teach me things and get me to change. […]

It’s pretty crazy these days listening to all the talk about health care and what to do about it. It’s causing a lot of fear and one I am well acquainted with. Do you ever wonder why your life takes certain paths and contains certain challenges? I do, and I was contemplating that this week as I listened to people debating on TV about health care. […]

How did I get here? I was a new mother at 41 years old, falling apart, and paralyzed with fear. I was sick with diabetes and suffered from high blood pressure. I also had a brand new premature baby girl in my lap. I knew that I was in trouble and I desperately needed help. I begged for help. […]

Most of you don’t know what processes are actually happening inside of you every day. There are microorganisms everywhere and you can’t see them, but they are inhabiting you and everything else. […]

I’m constantly learning new things about the benefits of bacteria. It’s been almost two decades of eating fermented foods and the new discoveries have never stopped. […]

It’s March 18th, 2020, and the novel coronavirus has everybody staying home and worried about the future. This day also happens to be my 60th birthday so I’m making my own healthy birthday cake and baking a loaf of sourdough bread. […]

Everybody I know leads busy lives, but did you know there is always help for you? My family had a lot of big changes in 2017, but a constant through it all was the way each member of my family used and ate cultured foods. Maybe this could be the answer for you, too. But first, the journey. . .

This is one of the most personal blogs I have ever written. I wrote it several years ago, but what I didn’t know was that the pain was the catalyst that changed everything in my life. I hope it will help you, inspire you, and encourage you to never give up, even when things look like they are going in the wrong direction. . .

Sometimes I wonder how I got here. Symptoms of disease struck my life almost two decades ago and it broke me. Those symptoms shook me to my core and I didn’t know that my body was desperately trying to get my attention to help me heal. And heal I did. With a grateful heart, I’m here trying with all I know to help you too. . .

I’ve been eating cultured foods for almost sixteen years. I eat them most every day with very few exceptions. When I first started eating cultured foods, I had diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, and felt discouraged and depressed […]