The Most Underrated Fitness Food!

There is one food that I cannot do without. It is not because it tastes good or that it easy to prepare. Even though it is easy to make--it requires little prep time, I would still consider it to be an essential part of my usual diet. It is one of those foods that I would see in the supermarket that would cause me to wonder about its appeal.

So, what drives my food choices?
I am not really concerned about how food tastes. Just to be clear, me not being too worried about food choices should not be equated with not caring about how food tastes. I just choose to eat foods that lead to favorable outcomes; foods that generally have no adverse effects on my body composition or performance. For example, I typically prefer to eat white rice and pasta before a long 40-mile or 80-mile bike ride. I would choose to eat white rice before one of my 5K races. I would prefer to eat foods that would support a ketogenic metabolism whenever I wanted to sleep better or has fasted workouts.

So what food could I really not do without?
I know it sounds incredibly insignificant, but that food is sauerkraut. I would not say that I eat more sauerkraut than any other food by volume, but sauerkraut seems to be one of those foods that allow me to expand my list of food choices. I probably eat sauerkraut at least one to two times per week, and I do not feel as confident about my daily eating habits without having sauerkraut around.

So why sauerkraut?
One thing about sauerkraut is that I believe it really helps me maximize the energy and nutrients I extract from my foods. While I do not understand how or why sauerkraut works the way it does, I do notice a difference in how my body responds when I consume it. One of the benefits has to do with how it helps with particular food cravings I often experience.

Whenever I tend to eat a lot of foods that contain carbohydrate, I have noticed that sometimes it may lead to intense cravings for more carbs. One thing I have found to help with my body's desire for carbohydrates happens to be sauerkraut. Whenever I feel the need to eat a lot more carbs, I typically just fix myself a bowl of sauerkraut and eat it until my cravings subside. I would imagine that I would usually eat less sauerkraut than I would in carbohydrate foods (in volume) and have my food cravings satisfied. Sometimes, even when I am not craving carbohydrates, I also add a couple of tablespoons of sauerkrauts to my lunchtime salad for good measure.

So, why does sauerkraut work so well addressing cravings?
I believe it has something to do with the gut biome. The gut biome is an essential part of digestion. Somehow, eating fermented foods like sauerkraut aides in digestion. From what I understand, being able to digest more of the food you eat, means that the body operates more efficiently and is able to make better use of the nutrients that are in the foods we eat.