Sauerkraut: Getting My Probiotics

For the past couple weeks, my lower tummy has felt bloated & sore, like there's a brick sitting in the bottom of it. Cutting back on nuts & seeds and eating pretty much just fruit & veggies thinking that might help, I've been feeling really miserable and anti-social. I mean really, who wants to go out and visit people when they feel like crap?
I finally realized what I was doing to help the situation obviously wasn't working, so I talked to J, a nutritionist (and fellow raw foodie) that I work with. Her suggestion was probiotics. While she also gave them to me in a natural pill form, I was wondering about foods that I could be eating on a regular basis. Miso, I knew, is one of them, but she told me sauerkraut is another. I had honestly never tried the pickled cabbage before. We sell it at work, in its "live" (raw) state, so I bought some. I went home and was starting to feel better from my probiotic pill, but got late-night munchies at around 10. Usually, I'm wanting fruit or some sort of fat (nuts or chocolate), but all I wanted was veggies & sauerkraut. I hadn't even tried it yet, but I was craving it.
I started prepping my salad; mixed greens, sesame seeds for added calcium, beets, and carrots. All I wanted pretty much were root veggies. For a dressing, I used 2 tsp Vega Antioxidant Oil Blend and 2 tsp balsamic vinegar.
I opened my jar of sauerkraut. Sniffed it. Poked it. Tasted it. Died and went to heaven. I have been living under a rock. I loooooooove sauerkraut!! I put liberal amounts of it in my salad (though it's hidden under the beets and carrots in the picture), and have been devouring it for days. Because I eat in my room, it smells strongly of pickled cabbage. I don't even care.
So while there is no recipe to post for this (as I have yet to learn the art of pickling veggies), I thought it would be important to point out the importance of probiotics. These friendly bacteria help keep your digestive system clean and happy, which is something we all need.