The “What’s Up” with Sauerkraut and Digestion

I REALLY THINK ALOT OF YOU (whether you’ve got colitis or not) are going to dig this meal.

And let’s start off by agreeing that ALL of our individual systems act differently, poop differently, smell differently…and no two of us are the same in terms of gut bacteria within our colons etc…, but I’m really hoping that food like this can help bring some rock hard poops to a bunch of you and a smile on your face.

I’ve been eating pork chops for a long time, probably written about them before on this site (if not…sorry pork folks), but it’s not the pork chops that make this meal so special.  It’s the cabbage that goes along with it.

Actually, the meal I made March 21st had sauerkraut as the side not cabbage.  If for any reason you’re wondering what the frigger sauerkraut is… OK no worries.  It’s finely chopped up cabbage that’s been fermented.  AND, if you eat this sauerkraut stuff raw (without cooking it—i.e. RAW SAUERKRAUT, there’s lots of bacteria that many folks around the world feel is VERY helpful with digestion.  If you’re German or and Eastern Euro…this is way old news to you for sure!).   You can read more about it here on wikipedia’s sauerkraut page.

So, if you believe that your colitis symptoms have something to do with the food you eat, sauerkraut is most definitely an interesting food to think about.

And, if you want to read up some more about the bacteria I’m talking about, check out wikipedia’s page on Lactobacillus, you’ll understand even more about what’s so cool with sauerkraut.  One more link, if you follow the SCD diet like I do (almost) all of the time, there’s another link from the BTVC page stating sauerkraut is legal for “advanced SCD’ers”.

Pork Chop Sauerkraut Recipe:

Serves: 1 person

Ingredients:

• 1 Pork Chop (I use one about 1 inch thick (2.5 cm)
• full handful of sauerkraut (no sugar added sauerkraut! just salt)
• 1/4 medium yellow onion sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (use less or none, it’s not mandatory)
• tiny bit of pepper
• 1 cup water (about 200 ml)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. Heat up your frying pan to medium heat
2. Add your olive oil
3. A few seconds later once the oil is hot (before it’s burning/smoking), add pork chop.  Sprinkle some salt and a tiny bit of pepper to the top of the pork chop and cover the pan.
4. Once the bottom of the pork chop is browned and looking nice, flip it over, and again add some salt and pepper to this cooked side.  Also, add to the pan your sliced onion.  The onion should start to change colors pretty quickly, and once both sides of the pork chop are brown, your onions should have some brown too.  Feel free to stir or push around the onions from time to time if they are starting to stick to your pan.  Otherwise, have your lid on-top of your frying pan.
5. Once both sides are browned and the onions are as well,

add your cup of water to the pan, and then add your sauerkraut.  I have the pork chop in the middle of the pan, and the sauerkraut all around it.  No need to use a huge pan, as long as there’s a tiny bit of space around the pork chop for your water and sauerkraut, you’ll be all good.  Cover back up your frying pan, and reduce the heat a tiny bit.

After about ten to fifteen minutes, you should still have your water in the pan. Now, you can lift off the lid and let the water evaporate. Once the water is all gone, it’s time to enjoy your meal. If you’re not sure if the pork chop is cooked…What you might want to do is take a cut into your pork chop to make sure its cooked the all the way through and how you like it.If you need to cook it more, that’s fine. Just a little more water and cover it up again and continue cooking. The goal is to never have the pan go completely dry because that would cause the sauerkraut to burn…and you don’t really want that, so keep a good eye on your water level.

Alright…

You’re probably wondering why I cranked out a bomb dinner and COOKED the sauerkraut, when it seems that RAW sauerkraut is what’s actually so beneficial for our gut.  Darn good question.  And here’s the way I see it, let me know if I’m way off:

The meal I made is so friggin tasty, that I’ll bet 95 out of 100 of you who make it will totally agree(I’m guessing about five of you are vegetarians:).  And, I’ll also bet that most of you haven’t eaten sauerkraut in the past few weeks/months.  So, if you take some baby steps, and get your feet wet with some tasty sauerkraut that’s cooked,  I’m guessing once you have that under your belt, you’ll be more apt to try some RAW SAUERKRAUT and potentially get the full on gut flora, hard doodies, whatever you want to call it benefits.  How’s that for a frigalicious rambled arse bit of reasoning UC’ers??

And at the end of the day, if you want to take the plunge and jump into some raw sauerkraut, more power to ya you corner cutter you!  Or, you can get really creative and add some raw sauerkraut to this dish after you’re done cooking some of it…  I just remember hating sauerkraut when my folks forced it on me when I was little.

For any of you who are experienced sauerkrauters, do you feel like it has helped your UC?  Do you think the sauerkraut talk is a bunch of bull?  What’s your thoughts?

Best regards to all of you, especially those of you in the middle of tuffie times with your UC right now,

Adam

(I’ve posted an update to this post on July 3, 2014, here’s the link for that – probiotics & sauerkraut update