Pickles. You either love them or hate them. Pickles can be great to snack on, to add to drinks (Bloody Caesar!), on your burger, or chopped up and added to tuna salad. Pickles can also be good for you as they can be very beneficial to your gut health.
You can make pickles two ways. One with vinegar and one without. Although both types of pickles offer some gut-promoting health benefits, pickles made without vinegar via a fermenting process have the most gut-boosting live active cultures. You should not ignore vinegar pickles though. A fermentation process happens with vinegar pickles. This fermentation is produced by microbes and contain polyphenols. Polyphenols are a plant based antioxidant that has an anti-inflammatory effect and are good for your gut. However, fermented ones are even better.
To make fermented pickles, instead of soaking them in vinegar, you add cucumbers to a jar of brine with herbs and spices. The microbes that naturally live on the surface of the cucumber will begin to multiply and grow. This process will naturally create vinegar with vitamins and macromolecules that have antibiotic properties. This means you get health benefits towards various ailments such as metabolic syndrome, high cholesterol, obesity, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and brain health.
All fermented foods can improve your gut health within weeks of adding it to your diet on a constant basis. However, fermented pickles will provide you with more benefits. Unfortunately, the majority of pickles in the grocery store are vinegar based. Here are some fermented pickles to try:
https://www.sheldoncreeksupplyco.ca/products/pickled-canadian-full-sour-garlic-dill-pickles
https://www.bubbies.com/canadian-products
https://hobbspickles.com/#home-section-3
You can also make your own fermented pickles. Check out this recipe for garlicky dills.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/262281/fermented-kosher-style-dill-pickles/
