Shariq’s Département

After enjoying Jerusalem artichokes recently, I decided to look into them, and found that they are excellent for restoring your gut’s health post-antibiotics.

Whenever you take antibiotics, the drugs essentially kill off healthy bacteria in your gut, including the kind known as acidophilus.  Jerusalem artichokes are a kind of antidote, because they provide nutrition for the “good” bacteria in your gut.  They have a high content of fructooligosaccharides, which good bacteria like to dine on, which helps to re-establish a balanced gut ecology (these nutrients contained in the Jerusalem artichokes are sometimes referred to as “prebiotics”).

A quick note on the origin of the name of these vegetables (they are actually a member of the sunflower family and are also referred to as sunchokes).  They probably got the name Jerusalem because it sounded like girasol, which is the Italian name for sunflower.

Note: This info is sourced from a great book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth by Jonny Bowden.  It’s easy to read and fascinating.  Buy it if you are into this kind of stuff.