One thing I’ve come to realise is that, as Asians, most of our diet consists of cooked vegetables, meat and rice. Less emphasis is placed on raw foods, fermented foods and salads. This is where we might be lacking in important nutrients, fibre (prebiotics) and beneficial bacteria (probiotics).
Hence since recovering from my recent episode of food poisoning, in which the doctors prescribed me a dose of antibiotics to complete, I have begun a slight overhaul of my diet. Both to replenish and help proliferate the good bacteria by feeding them with their favourite foods!
This mainly includes:
- Eating at least a salad a day (it might keep the doctor away! 😉 )
– trying to go organic as much as possible
– buying pre-cut and washed if short on time
– making my own dressings and avoiding store-bought ones - Adding some fermented foods with each meal
– a tbsp of Fasskraut
– or tsp of Red Boat Fish sauce (you can buy these at your local Cold Storage)
– or 1 tbsp of fresh salted/pickled veggies (aka ‘suan/xian cai’ from the local fresh market)
The Benefits?
- My digestion has certainly improved with well-formed and smooth stools, sometimes twice a day!
- I can feel the inflammation in my system reducing at a much more noticeable pace these days, sometimes after a particularly large salad meal, I feel significantly better the next morning!
- Quick and easy meal. Just wash the ingredients, add some healthy oils, something acidic and anything else for taste and protein and voila! Check out this post for more detailed instructions.
I hope this has convinced you to make your own salads! Oh and do try to avoid store-bought dressings as they usually have all sorts of unhealthy ingredients such as vegetable oils and preservatives added. Try making your own dressings! It only takes 5 minutes of sprinkling some liquids over your salad and mixing/tossing it up!
JT 