Body Ecology Veggie Culture Starter. Raw cultured vegetables help reestablish your inner ecosystem, increasing beneficial lactobacilli needed for vibrant health and protecting against harmful bacteria that can cause illness. Rich in nutrients and essential enzymes, they improve digestion and increase longevity. They reduce food cravings, even for sweets, and are ideal for appetite and weight control.

With Body Ecology’s Culture Starter, you can make raw, cultured vegetables in your own home. (Complete instructions are included in the box, and each box contains six packs of starter.) The result will be a delicious, health-enhancing food that far exceeds the quality of commercial cooked, fermented vegetables, whose natural enzymes and healthy microflora have been destroyed by heating. You can also use Body Ecology’s Culture Starter to make delicious sour cream or whipped butter.

In the making of raw cultured vegetables, shredded or chopped vegetables are fermented at room temperature. Friendly bacteria (lactobacilli) naturally present in the vegetables quickly lower the pH, making a more acidic environment in which the bacteria thrive and reproduce. The vegetables become soft and delicious, and acquire a somewhat “pickled” taste. Eating these vegetables then creates a healthier micro-ecological balance in your body. In short, beneficial microorganisms thrive, and harmful ones (such as candida and E. coli) are kept in check.