The benefits of fermented foods consumed on a regular basis are many. The principle is so fundamental to ancestral diets that over one-quarter of the 100+ videos on this site specifically address the topic of fermented foods and beverages.
The video below covers all the reasons why you should be fermenting foods and beverages in your home on a regular basis. This ancestral practice was key to the extraordinary health of indigenous cultures.
It’s key to your health as well.
If you are like most Westerners, the concept of home fermentation may seem a bit crazy at first. This is because it involves the cultivation of microbial life in your own kitchen!
How can this possibly be safe let alone beneficial to health?
You need to get over that feeling immediately if this is your mindset. Avoidance of all the microbes in nature will get you nothing but sick and riddled with autoimmune problems over time. For example, children who consume raw dairy (loaded with beneficial bacteria called probiotics), suffer from significantly fewer allergies and other autoimmunity issues than children who drink sterilized (pasteurized) milk. This is one of many examples of how beneficial microbes boost health.
Cultivation of well known fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut encourages the same type of microbial life. There are so many more delicious options for fermented fruits, veggies, drinks, and even meat, dozens of which are covered on this blog. So even if you don’t drink raw milk, you can enjoy similar health benefits.
These microscopic creatures are, in fact, the ultimate gatekeepers of our health. There is no need to fear them. Consumption of fermented foods helps encourage these beneficial strains to flourish within our GI tract. Their presence strengthens our resistance to the occasional pathogens that cross our path.
Your Body is Crawling with Bacteria All the Time!
In short, being a germaphobe is a surefire way to put a pathogenic bacterial bulls-eye on your forehead.
I’m not in any way saying don’t wash your hands or maintain a clean atmosphere in your home!
I’m simply trying to drive home the point that bacteria, like everything else, come in a good and a bad variety. The good news is that most of them are good.
Home fermentation involves the cultivation of these many strains of good bacteria and yeasts, also called probiotics. When consumed, these foods will encourage your gut lining to be home to these amazing little critters. Some strains have the ability to aggressively fight and reduce levels of any pathogenic strains like candida that inappropriately reside there. Bad microbes typically gain ground in our digestive tract when antibiotics or other meds like the birth control pill are taken. A nutrient-poor diet high in processed foods high in refined flour and sugar cause imbalances too.
Without the beneficial guys to fight back, you are at the mercy of any pathogen that comes your way. Trying to avoid them by being addicted to hand sanitizer won’t work either.
Bacterial Cells Outnumber Human Cells
There are actually 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells! Our skin and every tissue of the body is crawling with bacteria all the time. Of course, bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, which is how this fact generally goes unnoticed.
Learning to cultivate the bacteria that are beneficial to your health by regularly eating fermented foods that encourage their growth is absolutely essential to keeping disease and infections at bay. It is also crucial to recovering quickly when you do fall ill.
Every tissue of your body both inside and out is going to be dominated by bacteria one way or the other.
The question is, do you want your body to be dominated by good bacteria or bad bacteria?
If you want it to be good bacteria, then Welcome to the Wild and Crazy World of Lacto-Fermentation! It’s a Fun Ride, so hop on board!
For a complete transcript of this fermented foods and beverages video, click here.
Sources
Humans Carry More Bacterial Cells Than Human Ones, Scientific American
The Microbiome Diet (book)
Hi, just wondered whether you had any thoughts on the claim that fermented foods are linked to the high incidence of throat cancer in Asia? Love to know if any research has been done that counters this – I have always thought fermented veg to be so healthful! Thanks
Sarah,
I’m just starting on this process and very excited. My husband and I make this amazing roasted tomato salsa. Would you be able to do this with cooked veggies?
Thanks
Oh Sarah, this video it is awesome and I love the way you explained it, it is 11.00pm here in ormond beach, sunday, I just finish my raw goat milk kefir and i separate already my whey,the thing that I don’t know was that I can use that whey in my lactofermentation for my cabbage,i put a whole cabbagewith carrots and zuchini and yellow squash but I only used celtic sea salt, but I think it not work this time, ( I don’t like the texture and smell a little ) tomorrow i will put it in the garbage,i think was the yellow squash and zuchini,couples weeks ago I did the sauerkraut and it was perfect,but the whey I use it to drink before I eat, but now after your awesome video I will used it for all that, I’m exited to do it, specially now the gingerale, my sixteen old son love juices I never buy it, only Org apple juice,I do ferment the skin of my pineapple a liitle maple syrup he love it, but uuh,wait that when I make this new one,thank you so much you are awesome, I though I know a lot,but you are ahead of me,thanks a milllon,maggie
I am very interested in starting to ferment my own foods. I have made sauerkraut already once but with out using whey. I have dairy goats and make vinegar cheese once a week. I bring a gallon and a half of milk to 186 and then take off from heat and add white vinegar to it. It clabbers right away. I then strain thru cheese cloth and use the vinegar cheese as ricotta in casseroles. But I always have a half gallon of whey left over. I give it to the chickens or pour it on my rose bush roots once cooled. Even though this whey has vinegar in it….could it be used as the whey to lacto-ferment the foods just as you say in your videos. Thank you for your time, and for all the helpful and encouraging videos. I am tired of buying expensive enzymes and probiotics. And feel confident enough to try some of these recipes now.
Susan,
Once you heat the milk to such a high temp (186) it kills all the good bacteria. So your whey left from that is great for feeding the rose bushes and chickens, but not so much for fermenting. What happens when you add vinegar to hot milk is more of a curdling than clabbering as clabbering happens at low temps due to bacteria growth.
Try some low temp cheeses and use that whey.
I have a following up question about temperature. I make lebneh (which is just strained yogurt) at home and I always have a lot of whey left over. But, the yogurt I make is pasteurized boiled milk cooled down to lukewarm to which the yogurt culture is added. The culture I use has “thermophilic bacteria” …meaning it requires warm temperatures to grow. Everyone says that you can use the whey from strained yogurt to ferment veggies, and the recipes usually involve leaving the foods out at room temperature to ferment. If the bacteria in the whey are thermophilic, don’t I have to keep the foods I want to ferment warm for the bacteria to grow?
I’m sold on the benefits of fermenting foods and beverages, but I’m allergic to milk and milk products. Is there something I can use as a substitute for the whey?
we too have milk (and milk product allergies) where you able to find an alternative? we’ve yet to begin fermenting in our house because whey is the only thing i’ve seen.
I LOVE your blog and I get a ton of useful information from you. Could you clarify one thing that you said for me?
“Every tissue of your body both inside and out is going to be dominated by bacteria one way or the other.”
This is not true to my understanding. I understand that bacteria is very important and that we have a ton of it (etc…) but I don’t think it’s in every tissue of your body, unless I am misunderstanding something. There are places in our body where we should have bacteria (GI tract (mouth, stomach, gut, etc), skin) but there are also places that we should definitely not have bacteria, of any kind. The brain and CSF come to mind, as well as other muscle tissues (such as heart) and bones.
Do you have other information about this?
Thank you so much for all of the information that you share!
Hi Sarah,
I am really enjoying learning on your blog! I separated the cream cheese and whey, but I am concerned because the whey still has a thin white layer on top that I have not been able to get rid of. Is the whey still safe to use? Thanks for sharing your time and talents with us!
I made kimchi and sauerkraut from the recipes in Nourishing Traditions. I did not know that dried whey is not good, until I watched your video. Should I throw out the stuff I fermented with dried whey from the store? (I’m headed out tomorrow to get raw milk and do it right)
Question on fermenting – if I ferment salsa, pickles, sourkraut, etc does that mean it does not need to be canned in a hot water bath? I tried sourkraut and it they never sealed .
thanks!