When I researched information about digestive health, I kept coming across the importance of good and beneficial bacteria, called probiotics.

“ What are probiotics”?

Probiotics are live microorganisms (or “good bacteria”) that aid your digestive processes and help your digestive organs function optimally. We often think of bacteria in a negative way, but you need these bacteria in order to properly break down the foods you eat.

In nature probiotics are found in the soil…just imagine being alive many thousands of years ago. One of your food sources would be wild plant leaves and fruits grown natively in your area. You would pick and eat them fresh. On the surface of those fruits and vegetables are natural, invisible probiotics, called Soil-Based Organisms.

Nowadays, if you own a organic garden or fruit trees, you would walk out and perhaps pick an apple off the tree or a piece of lettuce and just eat it. It’s what we were designed to do and have been doing for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, many of us no longer consume wild fruits and vegetables, nor do we typically have our own organic gardens.

Instead we’ve often grown up being fed foods with additives, toxins, antibiotics and other unnatural substances that actually kill off beneficial bacteria inside of us.

This may have led to a situation where many people, even those who eat healthy, suffer some sort of digestive or health issue, related to an imbalance of their intestinal floral. An imbalance of the good and the bad bacteria has a large list of side effects and depending on the person everyone reacts differently. For some, it may be acne, dry skin or brittle hair, for others it could be low energy, bloating or indigestion after meals.

Seeing all this, and the fact that most probiotic supplements being sold do not reflect what’s found in nature, we decided to include probiotics to some of our dishes. Our Grandparents and our GreatGrandparents received their probiotics through food – more specifically pickled vegetables or through live cultures like kefir. Probiotics can be supplied through foods and beverages, some examples of foods that already contain these helpful bacteria are kefir, yogurt, kimchi, and more.

If you’re struggling to fit probiotics in your daily diet, consider picking up one of our healthy probiotic rich item’s we serve at café evergreen: 

“Pickled Vegetable Plater” – homestyle pickled vegetables served with our ginger kimchi and grilled flat bread…all made in our restaurant

all our “Reuben’s” are served with our house-made sauerkraut, which we let ferment for about 3 weeks  

Probiotic “Water-Kefir” drinks – Kefir-Water plain, Cranberry Kefir Cooler, Aloe Vera Kefir Cooler and our Kefir Mojito