7 Health Benefits Eating Pickles Vegetables

I was in Guilin, China for 10 days last 2 weeks and noticed the people there love Vegetables Pickles. They even pickle the fruits and women especially love to buy them. In some area like when I was wandering around one of their famous ancient towns, the pickling look like almost kimchi in South Korea.

Manage to snap some of the pickles vegetables in Guilin

I was told in Guilin, people eat pickles vegetables as appetizer and snacks. So I decided to do some readings on pickles benefit for health. I was interested in this even before travelling to Guilin but a bit hesitate since most pickles bought from stores are super sour and bad for my ageing teeth.

From my research, pickles or fermented vegetables have more benefit than bad ones.

1. Antioxidants

Apparently, pickles contain more natural antioxidants found in fresh fruits and vegetables, compared to cook vegetables. The cooking process kind of break down some of these heat-sensitive nutrients. While pickles vegetables and fruits preserve their nutrition and antioxidants from the fermentation process. Most pickles use vinegar as brine which makes it boast higher amounts of the free radical fighting and immune-boosting.

2. Blood Sugar Friendly

Due to its vinegar contents, eat pickles with your meal will help to prevent blood sugar spikes. So for those people with diabetes, it will help if they add pickles into their diet routine.

3. Probiotics Power

Save your gut by adding pickles with your meals. Due to its fermentation process, it attracts probiotics which is beneficial and aid to your digestive process.

4. Contains Vitamin K

We often overlook vitamin K which is crucial for body processes for example blood clotting, bone's absorption and use of calcium and keeping the calcium out of arteries. It keeps your bone strong!

5. Replenish Electrolytes and Hydration Booster

For those who always go for an intense workout, you should consider snacking on pickles because it helps to replenish electrolytes and also boost hydration.

6. Help soothes the Muscle Cramps

If you have short muscle cramps, try to drink the pickle brines , the sodium from salt used in the brines can help with muscle contractions.

7. Good for Eyes

Most of us end up staring at the mobile phone and computer screen on a daily basis. Pickles vegetables has vitamin A which good for your eyes health. vitamin A also good for the immune system!

I have been talking about only the benefits. Not fair right? Most things have pros and cons. The downside of eating pickles vegetables are :

* Can cause bloating - since it contains salts for the fermentation process, so salty food can cause bloating. 

* Processed pickles contains lots of preservative and lack of probiotics benefits - Processed pickles often contains lots of sodium to make it last longer and lack of nutritional benefits.

* High in Sodium - since the salt is necessary for fermentation process so pickles can cause high in sodium.

The conclusion to all mentioned, take things moderately. For myself, instead of buying the pickles, I made it at home and it's really simple to make. 

My first homemade pickles recipe kind of simple and just use the available ingredients at home. One benefit to making your own pickles are you can control the ingredients and rest assured about the hygiene parts.

I chose small radishes and cucumber. Wash the vegetables with salt and make sure clean it properly.

I cut the cucumber in vertical and don't really care much on removing the seeds.

Thinly slice the small radish.

Ingredients for pickles brine :

* Raw organic apple cider vinegar (2 glasses)

* Springwater (2 glasses)

* Raw Cane Sugar (4 tablespoons)

* Salt (To taste)

* Whole Black Pepper (I just add 5 of this)

* Clove Garlic (I add in 5 smashes garlic )

* Cinnamon powder (1/2 teaspoon)

I mixed all ingredients in a pot and bring it to boil. Let it cool down before pour over the glass jar with vegetables in it. Make sure the brines cover all the vegetables. Leave it overnight to ripe in the refrigerator before enjoy your homemade pickles.

Crunchy and refreshing pickles ready for healthy snacking. For those who rarely add vegetables in your daily diet, should try this! It is healthy and full of fibre too.