Unless they are fermented with sugar, and contain alcohol, pretty much!
We are concerned with TWO kinds of pickles.
- Fresh brined pickles. Those oh-so-good crunchy complexly flavored tart and tangy pickled things that we fork out of the crock too soon because we can’t bear to wait any longer. Those things are the BEST and most healthy pickles. They have not just acids and enzymes, they have LIVE bacteria and fungus, of so many kinds we can’t enumerate them all, which help with digestion and metabolics.
- Canned pickles. Maybe brined that have been canned. Maybe just plain old vinegar pickles, canned up using the Ball Blue Book. Whatever. Those things are just pickles. And we want to know if they are just as good, even though we know they aren’t.
So canned pickles lack probiotics COMPLETELY. But they DO still have some very worthwhile benefits.
They have the same benefits that other condiments have.
They contain fruit acids, and acetic acid that help you break down and digest certain foods – most importantly, MEATS.
They also contain some enzymes which help with digestion, and they contain metabolic agents that help your body reform molecules, complete various necessary elements in your body, and which help you METABOLIZE some food better, again, most importantly, MEATS.
So back to condiments. This is one of the things that has made life much more comfortable for me. I’ll give you a few examples:
- Eggs, and ketchup – or Salsa. I don’t digest eggs well, but ketchup gets rid of the indigestion, sulphur burps, and diarrhea.
- Peanut butter needs either Jelly or Chocolate for many people. No more peanut butter heartburn, no more peanut buttery burps 4 hours later on a sullen stomach. Are you a chocolate and peanut butter sort of person, or do you go in for PB&J as your thing?
- Tunafish and Relish is another miracle combination. Mustard can also help. Put in a lot if you like a lot. Gets rid of that crampy stomach ache that some people get after eating tuna, and helps stop the diarrhea. Dill relish and sweet relish work the same. You can throw in bread and butter pickles if you like, and we’ve even chopped fresh kraut to stir into the tuna, and that’s REALLY good.
- Beans and Tomato, plus meat. So the magic with beans is tomato, and that’s not always condiment. But if you can’t digest beans even when you make the chili with about 1/3 beans, 1/2 meat, and the rest other ingredients, there’s one more thing you can do. Add 2-3 TBSP of Chutney. It is a super powerhouse where digestion is concerned.
- Hotdogs and ketchup or mustard. Some people like one, some people like the other.
- Shrimp and Cocktail sauce. There’s magic here too.
- Fish and Tartar sauce. The pickles in the tartar sauce help digest the fish, and help with metabolization of the proteins.
- Milk with Chocolate – also not exactly a condiment, but a companion. Many people who cannot digest milk can do so with chocolate in it.
- Chicken or Pork, and BBQ or Sweet and Sour Sauce. Again, the sauce doesn’t just TASTE good, it helps break down the food so you can use it better.
- Salad Dressing on Vegetables is another thing that aids in digesting foods that are kind of hard to move through the digestive tract for many people. Get the right kind. Don’t settle for less!
There’s just one key to this.
Eat your food in the way your body likes best. If it tastes THAT GOOD, with THAT SAUCE, then by all means, use that sauce.
Many things our stomachs rebel at, will be edible if we combine them with the right thing. Everything but tripe. Tripe doesn’t taste good with anything.