Lacto-Fermentation is the process that turns beets into Kvass, coconut water into Coconut Kefir, cabbage into sauerkraut and milk into yogurt. Certain types of bacteria including lactobacillus strains convert naturally occurring sugars into lactic acid. This lactic acid then kills of the harmful bacteria. This lacto-fermentation process also increases the vitamin and enzyme levels of the fermented product, as well as it’s digestibility.
The presence of lactic acid in the fermented product gives the familiar sour taste as well a hospitable environment for the beneficial bacteria to thrive in. Lacto-fermentation does not have to do with milk products. The ‘lacto’ in the name refers to the process of creating a fermentation by-product "lactic acid", hence the name. Lactobacillus strains, as well as some other bacteria strains, create lactic acid as they digest various sugars.
1. Fermented Vegetables are Stronger than Supplements
Dr. Mercola says, “Fermented foods not only give you a wider variety of beneficial bacteria, they also give you far more of them, so it’s a much more cost-effective alternative.
Here’s a case in point: It’s unusual to find a probiotic supplement containing more than 10 billion colony-forming units. But when my team actually tested fermented vegetables produced by probiotic starter cultures, they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! So clearly, you’re far better off using fermented foods.”
La Vie probiotic Beet Kvass and Coconut Kefir are made using probiotic starter cultures including several strains of Lactobicillus, Bifidobacteria and S.Thermophilus. Fermented food-based drinks, such as these, are the most potent source for beneficial bacteria!
2. Enhanced Nutritional Content
The Lacto-fermentation process ‘predigests’ the food it is fermented with making the nutrients more available to the human body. And some vitamins are increased by the fermentation process, especially C and B vitamins.
3. Greater Diversity of Healthy Bacteria in Fermented Drinks
Most pills and powders contain only a few strains of bacteria. Fermented food based-drinks have a more diverse population of bacteria. La Vie uses a starter culture with 6 different bacteria strains. Fermented vegetables also contain soil-based bacteria not found in the starter culture, nor in probiotic supplements. A variety of probiotic cultures is the best way to go!
4. How much of the bacteria makes it past the stomach to the intestines?
Probiotic pills are enterically coated to protect the probiotic as it passes the stomach.
The live bacteria in Lacto-fermented food-based drinks thrive in acid environments, the bacteria produce acid as a by-product of the fermentation process. The unhealthy bacteria die off, and the good bacteria go through the acidic environment of the stomach and into the intestines.
5. Probiotic Drinks are Ready for Work
Living bacteria in food-based probiotic drinks are already living in active, established colonies and when they arrive in the intestines they are primed for getting to work. Probiotic supplements in pill or powder form, once in the intestines, have to establish a bacterial colony before the beneficial results of probiotic activity can be experienced.
In summary, probiotic drinks are more beneficial than probiotic pill or powdered supplements because probiotic drinks have a far higher concentration of beneficial probiotic colonies, have enhanced nutritional content, allow for a greater diversity of probiotic strains, thrive in the acidic environments of our stomach, and are primed and ready to work once ingested.
www.drinklavie.com