By Dr. Mercola
Slowly but surely, consumer behavior is changing in regard to food.
Many have started embracing more traditional foods and are relearning
ancient culinary methods such as fermenting.1
This may be one of the most positive food trends we've seen in many decades, as fermented foods are really important for optimal gut health. In more recent years, scientists have discovered just how crucial a role your microbiome plays in your overall health and mental wellbeing.
Indeed, some have suggested your body can best be viewed as a "super
organism" composed of a diverse array of symbiotic microorganisms that
need to be kept in proper balance for optimal physical and psychological
functioning.
They've even realized your microbiome is one of the environmental
factors that drives genetic expression, turning genes on and off
depending on which microbes are present.
Research suggests many are deficient in beneficial gut bacteria,
making it a really important consideration if you're not feeling well,
physically or psychologically. Among the latest trends in fermentation
are beet kvass — a fermented beet juice beverage — and koji-fermented foods.2,3,4,5
Koji May Become Biggest Food Trend of 2017
Chefs around the world are now embracing koji (Aspergillus oryzae6), a type of fungus used for millennia in China and Japan.
To create koji, Aspergillus culture is added to cooked rice,
soybeans, potatoes or roasted, cracked wheat (depending on what it's
going to be used for). The mixture is then placed in a warm, humid place
for about 50 hours. The resulting koji is then added to the food being
fermented, often along with a brine solution.
As Aspergillus ferments, it produces a number of enzymes known to be
beneficial for animal and human health, including amylase, which aids
digestion and promotes a healthy gut. As explained by Clearspring:7
"The amino acids, fatty acids and simple sugars released by the
action of the koji add flavor, depth and, it has been argued, a number
of health benefits to foods.
For example, the fermentation of soya beans using koji to create
miso is known to increase the levels of isoflavones … compounds that are
said to be effective in the prevention of cancer.
One of the amino acids released by the action of koji is glutamate,
which imparts an intensely satisfying and delicious savory taste known
as umami. This, combined with the simple sugars also released, ensure
that foods made using koji have a uniquely rounded and deep flavor."
Sake, soy sauce, rice vinegar8 and miso soup9
are all traditional Asian foods and beverages made with koji.
Historically, koji has also been used to obtain protein substitutes from
soy or grains like wheat and rye.
In the West, chefs are experimenting and coming up with all sorts of
new koji-fermented products. As noted by David Zilber, a fermentation
sous chef at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark:10
"At Noma, we use koji for flavor. But the great thing about it is
that's it's both an ingredient and an instrument. It's delicious, but
you can also use it as a tool — the enzymes [the fungus produces] break
down proteins, so for example you can use it to tenderize meat."
Simple, Inexpensive Meat Tenderizing Hack
An article in Bon Appétit11
explains how koji is used to tenderize meats, cutting the time required
to "dry age" the meat down from 45 days to as little as 48 hours.
You can easily do this at home, using koji purchased online or from
your local Asian market. It's sometimes sold under the names kome-koji
(rice koji) or shio-koji (salt koji).
You can also make your own koji from scratch. Fermup.com's recipe12 calls for white rice and koji starter, and the whole process takes about 60 hours from start to finish.
Koji looks a bit like rice pudding, or little rice grains covered in
powder. To use it as a meat tenderizer, simply blend it smooth in a
blender and rub it onto your steak. Leave uncovered on a wire rack in
your refrigerator.
Over the course of 24 to 72 hours, the enzymes in the koji break down
the connective tissue in the steak and rid the meat of its moisture.
In other words, the meat is beginning to decompose — that's what
makes it so tender. Just don't let it sit too long. After about three
days, it begins to cure, which makes it tough. Before you cook the meat,
rinse it thoroughly in cold water to remove all of the koji rub. Pat
dry, then season and cook as usual. According to Bon Appétit:
"You will notice that the steak will caramelize and pick up color
much faster than a normal steak. The meat has a very distinct flavor
and picks up a slight miso sweetness.
That sweetness is the biggest difference between the real dry-aged meat
versus the koji hack, and that's likely what causes the meat to brown or
caramelize faster. The koji steak is also a little less tender than the
45-day one…"
Koji Can Be Used in Many Different Ways
You can also use koji as a marinade for fish, chicken and vegetables.
In this case, as little as 30 to 60 minutes may be enough. Also keep in
mind that the food may burn faster than normal, so keep a close eye on
it as it cooks.
Avoid adding extra salt when using koji, as it's already salty enough. In fact, koji is often used as a salt substitute.
Besides that, koji can be added to any number of dishes as a
seasoning, imparting a savory "umami" flavor cherished by chefs and food
connoisseurs everywhere. Or simply add it to your vinaigrette or berry
preserves to bring out the other flavors.
You can find a lot of different recipes using koji online. For
example, Superfoods for Super Health has a recipe for homemade miso soup
using garbanzo beans in lieu of soy.13
Why Ferment Foods?
When foods are fermented using either bacteria, yeast or, in this
case, a fungus, it boosts the nutritional content of the food. It also
preserves the food, allowing it to be stored for several weeks without
the addition of preservatives. The fermentation process also produces:
Beneficial healthy bacteria that promote gut health. Fermented milk
products also contain non-digestible carbohydrate
galacto-oligosaccharide, which acts as a prebiotic,14 and essential amino acids15
Beneficial enzymes
Certain nutrients, including B vitamins, biotin and folic acid.16 Fermented milk products also contain higher amounts of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)17
Short-chain fatty acids, which help improve your immune system function
While you can do wild fermentation (allowing whatever is naturally on
the vegetable to take hold), this method is more time consuming, and
the end product less certain. Inoculating the food with a starter
culture speeds up the fermentation process and helps to ensure you'll
end up with a consistent, high-quality end product.
Most Stand to Benefit From Fermented Foods
In my view, optimizing your gut health is a foundational step if you
seek to achieve good health. Addressing your gut flora is also important
for most health conditions, be they acute or chronic.
Considering current disease statistics, it seems clear that most
people have poor gut health and would benefit from eating more fermented
foods.19
Since different fermented foods will contain disparate bacteria, your
best bet is to eat a variety of fermented foods to optimize microbial
diversity. Fiber
serves as a prebiotic and is another important component, and may even
take precedence if you're already healthy, as fiber-rich foods provide
nourishment for the beneficial microbes already residing in your gut. By
strengthening their numbers, these beneficial microbes help keep
disease-causing microbes in check.
I recommend eating fermented and fiber-rich foods every day, as
research shows your microbiome can be very rapidly altered based on
factors such as diet, lifestyle and chemical exposures. This is a
double-edged sword, no doubt, considering how many of our modern
conveniences (such as processed foods, antibiotics and pesticides) turn
out to be extremely detrimental to our gut flora.
On the other hand, your diet is one of the easiest, fastest and most
effective ways to improve and optimize your microbiome, so the good news
is that you have a great degree of control over your health destiny.
How Probiotic Foods Influence Your Health and Well Being
Research shows fermented or cultured foods have a wide range of beneficial effects, including but not limited to the following:
Enhanced nutritional content of the food
Restoration of normal gut flora when taking antibiotics
Immune system enhancement
Improvement of symptoms of lactose intolerance
Reduced risk of infection from pathogenic microorganisms
Weight loss aid. Certain fermented foods, such as kimchi, have been shown to have anti-obesity effects in animals
Reduced constipation or diarrhea and improvement of
inflammatory bowel conditions such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative
colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and necrotizing enterocolitis
Can
help prevent allergies in children, including the alleviation of peanut
allergy if used in conjunction with oral immunotherapy20
Antioxidant21 and detoxifying effects (kimchi).
Kombucha also has antioxidant properties, thanks to a compound called D-saccharic acid-1,4-lactone (DSL)22
Reduced risk for Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacterial infection, which causes ulcers and chronic stomach inflammation
Improvement of leaky gut and associated health problems, including chronic fatigue
Reduced urinary and female genital tract infections
Improvement of premenstrual syndrome
Improvement of and reduced risk for atopic dermatitis (eczema) and acne
Fermenting Your Own Veggies Is Easy and Inexpensive
I recommend inoculating the food you're about to ferment using a
starter culture to speed up the fermentation process. In the video
above, Julie and I demonstrate how to make fermented vegetables at home.
You can find more advice on fermentation
in my previous interview with Caroline Barringer, a nutritional therapy
practitioner (NTP) and an expert in the preparation of the foods
prescribed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's Gut and Psychology Syndrome
(GAPS) Nutritional Program. Here's a simple recipe to get you started:
Shred and cut your chosen veggies. I strongly recommend using fresh
organic vegetables to avoid pesticide exposure. Also, when adding herbs,
only use fresh organic herbs, in small amounts. Tasty additions include
basil, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano.
Juice some celery. This is used as the brine, as it contains natural
sodium and keeps the vegetables anaerobic. This eliminates the need for
sea salt, which prevents growth of pathogenic bacteria.
Pack the veggies and celery juice along with the inoculants into a
32-ounce wide-mouthed canning jar. Starter culture, such as kefir
grains, whey or commercial starter powder can all be used for
vegetables. Use two packets of starter culture for a 12 to 14-jar batch
during summer season. In the winter, you'll need three packets for a
batch of this size. A kraut pounder tool can be helpful to pack the jar
and eliminate any air pockets.
Top with a cabbage leaf, tucking it down the sides. Make sure the
veggies are completely covered with celery juice and that the juice is
all the way to the top of the jar to eliminate trapped air.
Seal the jar and store in a warm, slightly moist place for 24 to 96
hours, depending on the food being cultured. Ideal temperature range is
68 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit; 85 degrees max. Remember, heat kills the
microbes!
When done, store in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process.
While some fermented foods contain vitamin K2,
most notably natto, a fermented soy product typically sold in Asian
grocery stores, you can create therapeutic levels of this vitamin in
fermented vegetables by using a special starter culture like Kinetic
Culture made with vitamin K2-producing bacteria.
(Please note that not every strain of bacteria makes K2, so not all
fermented foods will contain it. For example, most yogurts have almost
no vitamin K2. Certain types of cheeses, such as Gouda, Brie and Edam
are high in vitamin K2, while other cheeses are not.)
Our Kinetic Culture Jar Lids Help Cut Offensive Fermenting Odors
Besides a starter culture, other helpful tools include a shredding
disc, a kraut pounder/vegetable tamper tool, weights and kinetic culture
jar lids. Some people find the odor emitted by fermenting vegetables
objectionable, and the kinetic culture jar lids can help eliminate these
smells.
The lid has a one-way valve that allows the gases to be released
while preventing oxygen from entering the jar, which would stop the
fermentation process. A charcoal filter cuts the odors. Again, they're
by no means necessary, but can be useful if you or one of your family
members isn't thrilled with the smell of fermenting vegetables.
Optimizing Your Microbiome Is a Potent Disease Prevention Strategy
I believe optimizing your gut flora may be one of the most important
things you can do for your health, and here you can wield your personal
power to the fullest by making healthy food and medical choices. The
good news is that supporting your microbiome isn't very complicated. One
of the best ways to improve your gut health is through your diet.
Fermented foods are ideal, but dietary fiber is also important. Some
microbes ferment fiber and the byproducts nourish your colon. You'd also
be wise to take other proactive steps to support your gut health and
prevent damage to your microbiome. To optimize your microbiome, consider
the following recommendations:
Do:
Avoid:
Eat plenty of fermented foods. Healthy choices include lassi, fermented grass-fed organic milk such as kefir, natto (fermented soy) and fermented vegetables.
If you ferment your own, consider using a special starter culture
that has been optimized with bacterial strains that produce high levels
of vitamin K2.
This is an inexpensive way to optimize your vitamin K2, which is
particularly important if you're taking a vitamin D3 supplement.
Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods).
While researchers are looking into methods that might help ameliorate the destruction of beneficial bacteria by antibiotics,26,27 your best bet is likely always going to be reseeding your gut with probiotics from fermented and cultured foods.
Although I'm not a major proponent of taking
many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to
come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don't eat fermented
foods on a regular basis
Conventionally-raised
meats and other animal products, as animals raised in concentrated
animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are routinely fed low-dose
antibiotics, plus genetically engineered grains loaded with glyphosate, which is widely known to kill many bacteria.
Boost your soluble and insoluble fiber intake, focusing on vegetables, nuts and seeds, including sprouted seeds.
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water, especially in your bathing such as showers, which is worse than drinking it.
Get your hands dirty in the garden. Germ-free
living may not be in your best interest, as the loss of healthy
bacteria can have wide-ranging influence on your mental, emotional and
physical health.
Exposure to bacteria and viruses can help strengthen your immune system and provide long-lasting immunity against disease.
Getting your hands dirty in the garden can help reacquaint your immune system with beneficial microorganisms on the plants and in the soil.
According to a recent report,28 lack of exposure to the outdoors can in and of itself cause your microbiome to become "deficient."
Processed foods. Excessive sugars, along with otherwise "dead" nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria.
Food emulsifiers such as polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan,
polyglycerols, and xanthan gum also appear to have an adverse effect on
your gut flora.29
Unless 100 percent organic, they may also contain genetically
engineered (GE) ingredients that tend to be heavily contaminated with
pesticides such as glyphosate, a possibly carcinogenic pesticide.
Open your windows. For the vast majority of human
history the outside was always part of the inside, and at no moment
during our day were we ever really separated from nature. Today, we
spend 90 percent of our lives indoors.
And, although keeping the outside out does have its advantages, it has also changed the microbiome of your home.
Research30
shows that opening a window and increasing natural airflow can improve
the diversity and health of the microbes in your home, which in turn
benefits you.
Agricultural chemicals. Glyphosate
(Roundup) in particular is a known antibiotic and will actively kill
many of your beneficial gut microbes if you eat foods contaminated with
this broad-spectrum herbicide.
Wash your dishes by hand instead of in the dishwasher. Research has shown that washing your dishes by hand
leaves more bacteria on the dishes than dishwashers do, and that eating
off these less-than-sterile dishes may actually decrease your risk of
allergies by stimulating your immune system.
Antibacterial soap, as they too kill off both good and bad bacteria, and contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance.
No comments:
Post a Comment