adjusting to fermented foods

[bubblies]

Hello, I've recently started making my own kimchi, sauerkraut and eating lots of kefir, and am really loving eating these things. Until three or four weeks ago, I had zero fermented foods in my diet. I feel like I'm starting to get some "die-off" symptoms, as I'm now eating at least two different kinds of fermented foods per day. Is this possible? Is this common? the norm? unheard of? Just wondering because I must say that every since I've integrated these foods in my diet, I have not been feeling all that great. Granted it's been only a couple weeks, but I'm wondering if this is normal.

[Gutted]

Beginning with one type of fermented food might of been a good idea to find out how things go. Starting with everything means you do not know what might be affecting you and what is causing any problems.

[Christopher Weeks]

Even as "into" fermentation as I am, I go in fits and spurts. Some weeks I'll eat nothing but yogurt, sourdough biscuits and kimchi and others I'll have nothing. But I've never felt bad from eating my stuff.

[kamillentee]

I'd say there should be a gradual implementation of live fermented foods. After I started enthusiastically with those same ferments, I fell ill with really loose stools that would spontaneously come and go for several months. At the time I was wondering if I had some sort of food allergy I never noticed, but no testing done by the medical specialist found a cause. They were really quick to jump to "IBS."

I weaned myself off fermented foods, and did some other lifestyle changes, and now I've adjusted myself to them again and feel fantastic. At the time, I went from nothing to heaping cups of fermented veggies daily, so it would seem that at least for some people, the drastic change could throw off the internal microbial balance with some unpleasant side effects. Time was the main solution.