Getting older is a privilege that many people want in their own lives. You get to see society advance, your children grow up, and you may even get to accomplish your dreams.

Many things we want to do in life have to wait until we’re older. On the other hand, there are not-so-great things that we can’t avoid but also come with age. For instance, our bones start to ache, and movement becomes more difficult.

One thing that everyone experiences at some point in their lives is a necessary change in diet. Your health needs will require that you change what you eat, which may mean adding things you haven’t tried before.

Your doctor or other health experts might recommend that you add more of certain foods to your diet. One commonly suggested addition is fermented food.

The term ‘fermented’ just means that the food item has been through the natural process of lacto fermentation, which creates healthy bacteria.

It is a process which preserves all kinds of good things in your food that can make you healthier. Read on about why you should start eating more fermented foods on a daily basis after you reach the age of 50.

They Have Probiotics

If you’ve ever seen a yogurt commercial, you’ve probably heard the word ‘probiotics.’ Ads don’t usually explain this term, but probiotics have some significant benefits, which is why you should try to eat them on a daily basis.

Probiotics are great because they get many jobs done at once. They work to regulate your digestive tract while also boosting your immune system to help prevent and fight illnesses.

People sometimes get scared away from eating them because they are technically bacteria. However, probiotics are actually helpful to your body, which is why they are known as good bacteria.

You don’t need to fork over extra cash at the grocery store to buy specialized probiotic-rich brands or products. You can make your own probiotic friendly meals right at home, even on a budget.

They Reduce Acid Reflux

When you were younger, you probably enjoyed eating a variety of foods, but especially those that leaned more toward comfort than health. Maybe you were able to eat burgers and fried foods with ease.

Now, when you try to indulge in your favorite pastime foods, your stomach burns and you get acid reflux. This is another problem that fermented foods can help fix.

Each type of bacteria in fermented food will help your body in different ways. One bacteria strand in particular, thrives on high levels of acid in the stomach.

Named Lactobacillus, this type of bacteria can calm stomach inflammation and reduce levels of acid, naturally preventing heartburn and helping to extinguish it when it does occur.

Your Digestive Tract Will Be Healthier

Your ability to digest foods will change as you get older. Some people find that they just don’t feel great after eating foods they used to love.

There are many ways you can aid your digestive tract right itself – such as exercising, keeping a food diary or even consulting a nutritionist. However, there might be an even easier way to help yourself that won’t cost you time and money.

Fermented foods aid the digestion process by essentially helping your colon get back into balance. The bacteria that reside in your intestines eat away at foods that your digestive system just can’t break down on its own.

Afterwards, they help your body better absorb these broken down foods, and then you benefit from the nutrients, instead of rejecting them. This means less time in the bathroom for you, and more time enjoying some great food with your loved ones.

They’re Safe for People with Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition that affects many people. If you don’t have it yourself, you probably know someone who does. This condition can be the result of obesity, bad diet or slow metabolism caused by a lack of exercise.

If you have diabetes, you know it’s a challenge figuring out what things – and how much of them – to eat. It’s all about watching your sugar intake and timing everything right.

Trying new foods can be intimidating even for healthy people. The thought of causing your body to go into diabetic shock just because you tried a new food can be enough to keep you on the same diet for years to come. However, people with diabetes could benefit from adding fermented foods to their diet.

During the process of fermentation, the bacteria convert the carbohydrates into lactic acid, which means that they essentially eat the stuff that raises blood sugar levels.

Some foods are safer than others, as with most specialized diets.

If you wanted to eat fermented cabbage, for example, you could do that whenever you like. But some foods may have sugar in them before fermentation, like milk. And some foods will have sugar in them after fermentation, like flavored yogurts.

Having to learn a new way to eat isn’t always the most exciting thing you can do with your time. After all, it’s hard to give up foods that you loved to eat when you were younger. It’s even harder to admit to yourself that your body is changing with age and needs some extra help when it comes to your diet.

You can use fermented foods to make your life easier by incorporating them a little bit at a time into your new diet. They’ll solve some digestive problems and are safe for people with diabetes who want some change in their eating habits. Fermented foods come in multiple forms, so you don’t have to add one food and stick with eating it for years to come.

Try eating fermented foods, or making recipes that feature those foods, sometime soon. You’ll quickly see the positive results that come from helping your digestive tract by eating the right foods. All it takes is the knowledge of how fermented foods will help you and the determination to try them.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What fermented foods have you added to your diet? How do they help you in daily life? Please share your favorite fermented foods in the comments below!

One useful way to unearth the wisdom that Islam may hold for all of us would be to look at Muhammad in his own place and time. So, let’s head that way.

Pre-Islamic Arabia: An Unhappy Place

Muhammad was born around 570 CE into Arabia’s tribal society. Built on rigid hierarchies where power and wealth determined everything, this was a predatory and corrupt environment indeed, with a few small cliques of winners and a lot of losers. Blood feuds between tribes could span generations, with violence answering violence endlessly. Those feuds created a lot of widows and orphans, who had no protections or rights. Neither, for that matter, did the poor.

Mecca, Muhammad’s birthplace, centered on the Kaaba, an ancient shrine housing 360 idols that drew polytheistic pilgrims from the region’s various tribes. The city’s elite, having grown rich from this religious tourism, had every incentive to maintain the unjust status quo.

Muhammad was marked by loss: his father died before his birth, his mother when he was six. Raised by his grandfather, then his uncle Abu Talib, he became known for his honesty and concern for the discarded. At 25, he married Khadijah, a wealthy widow 15 years his senior. For 24 years, until her death, he remained devoted to her alone.

The Revelation and a Revolutionary Message

At 40, while meditating in a cave outside Mecca, Muhammad experienced something that changed everything. Muslims believe the Angel Gabriel appeared with the first words of the Qur’an. Terrified, Muhammad returned to Khadijah, who reassured him: this is real, and you can do what you’re being asked to do.

Over 23 years, revelations continued, creating the foundations of a new way of life. Muhammad’s message was startling: there is one God – Allah – and before this God, all people are absolutely equal. No intermediaries, no privileged class, no tribal advantages.

More than a theology, this was a blueprint for rebuilding society. The revelations created Islam’s comprehensive framework. By the end of Muhammad’s life, this would comprise, aside from the declaration that there is no God but Allah:

Salah – Five daily prayers, bringing the community together.

Zakat – Obligatory charity, ensuring wealth circulated and the vulnerable were protected.

Sawm – The Ramadan fast, reminding everyone what hunger felt like.

Hajj – The pilgrimage where all wore simple white garments, a show of their equality before God.

These were tools for building something new: a community united by shared purpose, bound by principles applying equally to everyone. As Muhammad taught the practices revealed to him, the slaves, merchants, women, and dispossessed who listened to him suddenly found themselves part of something that said their lives had equal worth and took real measures to make sure they were looked after.

Persecution and the Journey to Medina

Immediately seeing the threat posed to them by the ideas being put about by Muhammad, the Meccan elite started persecuting him and his followers. By 622 CE, some of them were plotting Muhammad’s assassination.

Meanwhile, to the north of Mecca, the city of Medina was beset by tribal conflicts. It invited Muhammad, by now something of a noted figure in the region if still an outsider, as a neutral arbiter. In the Hijra – the migration – Muhammad and his modest band of followers slipped away to Medina. This journey marks Year 1 of the Islamic calendar. Tellingly, Islam dates itself not from revelation but from community-building, from when ideals took concrete form.

In Medina, the impossible happened. Refugees, converts, and existing residents – Muslims, Jews, and pagans – came together under the Constitution of Medina, one of the world’s first written constitutions. It guaranteed rights for all residents and established due process for disputes. And local tribe by local tribe, the ranks of the Muslim community steadily grew.

An Improbable Victory

Eight years after fleeing as persecuted refugees, Muhammad marched back toward Mecca with 10 thousand followers.

Mecca surrendered without bloodshed. Muhammad entered the Kaaba, removed those 360 idols, and rededicated it to the one God. Then he granted general amnesty. Those who had persecuted him, driven him out, tried to kill him: forgiven.

This was confidence rather than weakness. Muhammad understood that breaking cycles of retaliation mattered more than revenge. Within a year, most of Arabia embraced Islam, drawn by the same vision that had won over Muhammad’s earliest followers.

The Elevation of Civilization

The foundation built on the principles Muhammad espoused proved remarkably durable. Within a century, Islamic civilization stretched from Spain to India and China.

The Islamic Golden Age, which ran from roughly the eighth to fourteenth centuries, set new civilizational standards. Islamic societies developed, among other things: regulated commerce built around the principle all parties to a contract must profit from it; due process in justice with courts accessible to all; and protection of personal rights, including property rights for women centuries before European women gained them.

These grew from Islam’s core principles: everyone is equal before God, learning is sacred, wealth should be both created and circulated. While Europe became adrift from much of the wisdom that had flourished in ancient Greece and Rome, Islamic cities bustled with trade, scholarship, and peace. And that’s because they were organized around the core insight of what Muhammad shared with the world: communities thrive when united by shared purpose, when principles apply equally to everyone, when law replaces arbitrary power. Today 1.9 billion Muslims live by these timeless principles – submission, compassion, and justice – while grappling with how to keep sacred texts from being weaponized.

A Modern Challenge

When Muhammad and his followers were in Medina, they had to turn to arms to fight off hostile tribes. It was at this point he received the so-called Sword Verses, which gave Muslims a mandate to engage in martial violence against these adversaries.

Islamic scholars continue to debate how best to apply the teachings of those verses in a modern and fundamentally different world. Many Muslims read these Medinan verses about war as specific to survival there and then in the seventh century, not as universal commands. A minority of Muslims, however, apply them literally as being universal, fueling global tensions. And in doing so, they ride roughshod over all the values that turned Islam into a force for civilization and community all those centuries ago.

For the sake of those values of classical Islam, the urgent task, then, is to amplify the context-sensitive reading worldwide.

Questions for Reflection

When have you been part of a community united by shared purpose and common values? What made that possible, and what did it enable you to accomplish together?

One thing’s for sure, damage is about to be done.

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Originally posted at: Lisa Barlow’s Season 6 After Show Look

In the realm of your being, where thoughts dance and play,
Lies the secret to health in a curious way.
For your mind and your body are partners, you see,
What one may believe, the other will be.

When illness comes knocking, don’t tremble or hide,
It’s a whisper within you, a teacher inside.
It says, “Dearest traveler, something’s amiss,
Look closer, look inward, there’s healing in this.”

Each ache has a reason, each fever a song,
A signal that tells you where balance’s gone wrong.
Instead of resisting, just listen and learn,
For health is a choice, one you daily earn.

Food is your friend when you know what you eat,
Some things will bless you, some others, defeat.
Not all are the same, we’re unique, through and through,
So discover the diet that’s perfect for you.

Some heal in the forest, some heal in the sun,
Some meditate quietly when the day’s nearly done.
Some find their renewal through sweat, steam, and fire
In saunas or lodges where spirits aspire.

So bless every sunrise, each dawn that appears,
Let go of old burdens, release ancient fears.
Your cells are all listening, your soul’s keeping score,
Each loving thought heals you a little bit more.

Healthy mind, healthy body, they’re one and the same,
Two sides of one candle, two sparks of one flame.
When you think with compassion and act with good cheer,
The song of your spirit grows blissfully clear.

Health is not luck, nor a mystical art,
It’s living with joy from the depths of your heart.
So honor your journey, each step that you take,
And marvel at all that your being can make.

Healthy mind, healthy body . . . this truth you shall find,
The body will follow the lead of the mind.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you found that your body follows the lead of your mind when it comes to health? How do you nourish your body and mind?