If you are a long-term reader of Outsmart Disease you know that dysbiosis and leaky gut are major factors for thyroid autoimmunity and hypothyroidism.
Your immune system depends on beneficial bacteria or probiotics that help to:
- keep intestines healthy,
- properly digest your food,
- reduce food allergies,
- produce important nutrients such as folic acid, different digestive enzymes, vitamin B and K
- support conversion of T4 into T3 thyroid hormone
Without sufficient amounts of probiotics in your diet your body cannot absorb vital nutrients or carry out many of its every day functions. Recent research studies show that different strains of probiotics have a different effect on the human body and can influence your digestion, immune system and even help to lose some weight.
We all understand the importance of probiotics but most of us are not familiar with cultured foods, don’t know how to prepare them and have difficulties incorporating these nutritious foods in our diets. And this is the part where many of us get frustrated…
Today I would like to share with you over 350 pages and 80+ recipes combined in 3 amazing absolutely free eBooks on how to make cultured and fermented foods. This is a great way how you can add probiotics to your optimal thyroid health diet to support thyroid hormone conversion and balance the immune system.
Table of Contents
Why Commercial Yogurts Limit Your Healing Abilities?
Nowadays you can get kefir, kombucha and yogurt with probiotics in many supermarkets and stores. However, what many consumers don’t know is the way how commercially produced probiotic drinks are prepared limits their healing properties and may not deliver the health benefits you expect.
All commercial yogurts, for example go through a heating process called pasteurization when high temperatures basically sterilize most of the beneficial and other bacteria. This means that all commercially prepared yogurts generally are low in “live” probiotic cultures because they were reduced or wiped out by heat-intensive pasteurization processes.
Another problem is that all flavoured commercial yogurts are heavily processed, loaded with sugar, preservatives and additives that should not be in any healthy food and in your thyroid health diet. So even if you are eating yogurt that you got from your supermarket the chances that your gut flora is still lacking healthy bacteria are very high.
Unfortunately, too much sugar and artificial ingredients are not the only problem. Just check out how much sodium is on the label when you buy your cottage cheese next time. You may be surprised that there is an extremely large amount of salt added taking into consideration the size of the container.
Why Probiotic Supplements Are Often NOT The Answer
It is easier to take a pill and hope that it will help. Many of us tried probiotic supplements that are widely available on the market today just to find out that they didn’t make much of a difference to our thyroid health.
The truth is that most probiotic supplements just don’t deliver what they promise.
The label on the probiotic supplements should disclose the potency, all species and types of strains contained in the product. Many people are not aware that the label on the probiotic supplements indicates the potency of probiotics at the moment of manufacturing.
The strength of probiotics becomes reduced due to storage, shipment and can be affected by different temperatures. By the time you get the supplement you can expect less potency of probiotics than it is claimed on the bottle.
If you absolutely have to add probiotic supplements to your thyroid health diet please read this new report called “Probiotics: Why You Need Them and How to Choose Them” before you buy any supplements. But also keep in mind that
No supplements can bring as much positive effect to our health as traditionally prepared cultured foods that you can make yourself at home.
Why You Should Make Probiotic Rich Foods Yourself
1. You Control Ingredients
When you prepare your foods at home you are now in control of what goes into your food and what ingredients you choose. There is no mystery and unknown ingredients in your thyroid health diet.
2. You Control Potency Of Probiotics
You also overlook the preparation process and are not required to do pasteurization. This will ensure that you control the amount and potency of probiotics in your cultured foods.
3. You Control Flavour
You can choose your flavours and natural sweeteners for many cultured foods such as yogurt, kombucha and kefir and ensure that they are organic and all natural. When you prepare them at home you are in charge of the ingredient quality but also you determine the culturing time that affects the flavor of your final product.
4. You Save Money
Many cultured foods can be surprisingly expensive. Making them at home can bring you substantial savings. If you decide to make kefir than you may need to purchase kefir grains only once because with proper care you can re-use them over and over again.
5. You Can Improve The Quality Of Your Food
While there are some types of organic cheeses available on the market, who can afford it? Most of us cannot. But did you know that you can get a cheese kit and make many different types of cheeses at home using organic ingredients? There are a few basic steps to cheese making and they are the same no matter what kind of cheese you want to make.
6. You Can Avoid Allergens
Many people thyroid health problems have food allergies and have to read labels in order to watch for allergens. However, if you make your own cultured foods at home you can be sure that they are prepared safely and are not cross contaminated, as can happen in manufacturing facilities.
How To Get Started?
To make it easier for you to get started with making your own cultured foods and adding them to your every day thyroid health diet I would like to share with you these 3 free resources:
1. Free Kefir eBook
This is an amazing resource on 155 pages that teaches you everything you need to know about this probiotic-rich drink and how you can make it at home. You will learn:
- What is the difference between kefir and yogurt
- How to use kefir grains and encourage them to multiply
- How to make kefir and add natural flavours
- How to lower the lactose content of kefir
- How to use kefir in your everyday recipes and prepare salad dressings, ice cream, smoothies, soups, sourdough starter and baking cakes, muffins and breads
- 35 Tasty recipes with kefir that you can start to use right away
2. Free How to Make Yogurt eBook
This is a 79 page guide about how to make homemade yogurt that includes:
- What is yogurt
- How to make homemade yogurt
- How to choose your milk
- What alternative types of milks you can choose and how to use them to make yogurt (Soy, Nut, Rice, etc.)
- What yogurt starter is the best
- How to enhance yogurt by controlling the thickening and flavouring
- How to make Greek-style yogurt
Plus so much more and 20+ recipes for using your homemade yogurt
3. Free Kombucha eBook
This is a 130 page guide to brewing kombucha that also includes 27 recipes and much more:
- What is kombucha, how to make it and choose the right equipment and ingredients
- Natural flavouring and bottling kombucha
- Creative ways to use kombucha tea
- 27 Recipes for using kombucha in salads, dressings, marinades, sauces, meats, main dishes and as a drink.
Click HERE to get your 3 guides absolutely free.
P.S. Do you like what you read and want to get more? Subscribe to our Thyroid News and get FREE eCourse Hypothyroidism Diet Guide
My name is Marina Gutner, PhD. I am a researcher, medical writer, Author of forthcoming series on thyroid, hypothyroidism and autoimmune disease. I was diagnosed with autoimmune Hashimoto’s disease and hypothyroidism in 2004 and soon got so sick that I was unable to function. It took me years of research to find how to recover from severe adrenal insufficiency, stop Hashimoto’s and reduce my high dose of thyroid medication. On my blog I show you exactly how I did it so you can learn how to get started. Read more in 
