Vegetable Starter Culture
Raw cultured vegetables help reestablish your inner ecosystem, increasing beneficial lactobacilli needed for vibrant health and protecting against harmful bacteria that can cause illness. Rich in nutrients and essential enzymes, they improve digestion and increase longevity. They reduce food cravings, even for sweets, and are ideal for appetite and weight control.
With Body Ecology's Culture Starter, you can make raw, cultured vegetables in your own home. (Complete instructions are included in the box, and each box contains six packs of starter.) The result will be a delicious, health-enhancing food that far exceeds the quality of commercial cooked, fermented vegetables, whose natural enzymes and healthy microflora have been destroyed by heating. You can also use Body Ecology's Culture Starter to make delicious sour cream or whipped butter.
In the making of raw cultured vegetables, shredded or chopped vegetables are fermented at room temperature. Friendly bacteria (lactobacilli) naturally present in the vegetables quickly lower the pH, making a more acidic environment in which the bacteria thrive and reproduce. The vegetables become soft and delicious, and acquire a somewhat “pickled” taste.
Eating these vegetables then creates a healthier micro-ecological balance in your body. In short, beneficial microorganisms thrive, and harmful ones (such as candida and E. coli) are kept in check.
Raw cultured vegetables enhance health in a multitude of ways:
- Support functioning of the pancreas and intestine
- Help beneficial lactobacilli thrive in the digestive tract
- Prevent unhealthy microorganisms from gaining prominence
- Strengthen the immune system
- Benefit pregnant women, ensuring a healthy birth canal
- Help children with autism and ADD
- Assist in weight control
- Protect against cancer
Recipes for raw cultured vegetables often include cabbage, adding to their anti-cancer effect. Cabbage is one of the Brassica genus vegetables, which have been recommended by the National Cancer Institute for cancer protection, and it is rich in vitamin C. Other common vegetables used include carrots and beets, which are high in vitamin A and good sources of vitamin E.
Be creative and use your favorite vegetables, or check out the wonderful recipes for raw cultured vegetables in Donna Gates' book, Body Ecology Diet. To make your vegetables taste more like a “probiotic salad,” add organic, unrefined virgin oils, such as olive, pumpkinseed or flax, along with Himalayan crystal salt or other good quality salt, after fermentation. You can also use Body Ecology's Culture Starter to make delicious sour cream or whipped butter.
While it is possible to make cultured vegetables without the Culture Starter, we recommend its use to ensure that your vegetables begin fermenting with a sturdy strain of beneficial bacteria. Body's Ecology's Culture Starter contains a very robust bacterium called L. Plantarum, to provide your raw cultured vegetables a good start.
