Five Facts About Fermented Foods
Hey peeps. It’s possible you’ve heard (and also totally cool if you haven’t) that fermented foods are the cat’s meow when it comes to our gut health. They help promote a healthy, diverse ecosystem of bacteria in our microbiome and this is a #majorkey to our overall state of health. But hold on - what is a fermented food and what exactly is our microbiome? What does this mean and why should I start eating sauerkraut, kimchi, and yogurt? (not combined… don’t do that). I’m going to break it down for you.
Before we get into it, there are five big benefits to fermented foods that I want you to know about and remember:
They’re easy to digest
They contain higher levels of nutrients than the original, non-fermented food
They contain probiotics and prebiotics, both which strengthen our digestive health
They last longer because fermentation safely preserves food which otherwise would go bad
They contain new, fun and sometimes funky flavors brought forth by the fermentation process
Now that we’ve got those five benefits down, let’s get into it.
First - what is our microbiome, actually? Well, think of our microbiome as a little universe made up of trillions of micro-organisms that are on a mission to keep our hormones happy. Micro-organisms are beneficial species of three things: bacteria, viruses and yeasts. There are up to a thousand different species hanging out in our microbiome, and these micro-organisms are so abundant that they actually outnumber our own cells ten to one! A healthy, well-functioning microbiome is made up of a wide variety of beneficial micro-organisms in the appropriate amounts, and in the appropriate physical location. Kind of like a right place, right people, right time type of situation.
For this post, we’ll keep it focused on the human gut microbiome which consists of three organs: the small intestine, large intestine, and the colon. Our microbiome is really, really important for detoxification. In fact, it’s just as important as our liver is for detoxification. Many of the environmental exposures that happen to us come through the food and beverages we consume, and the nutrients and toxins in those foods and beverages get broken down in our small intestine. If we have a diverse, healthy, well-functioning microbiome (remember, tons of those micro-organisms in just the right amounts and in just the right places working together) then we can sift out the good from the bad from the food and beverages we consume. The good is then shuttled along to other organs, tissues and cells in our body to utilize and keep us humming about our day with ease, and the bad is safely taken through the rest of our digestive system and out of our body. Smell ya later!
Second - what are fermented foods? Simply put, they are foods that still contain live bacterial cultures and have gone through controlled microbial growth and fermentation. Fermentation is when micro-organisms break down simple nutrients in foods into other products (remember micro-organisms are primarily species of bacteria, viruses and yeast).
Let’s use sourdough, a safe-to-assume fan favorite, as an example of fermentation. The sourdough starter is what’s actually fermented by micro-organisms (in this case, yeast and lactic acid bacteria). Just like a witch stirring a cauldron, they double, double, toil and… turn the sugar from the sourdough starter into carbon dioxide, acid, and ethanol. This is the process of breaking down simple nutrients (sugar) into other products (carbon dioxide, acid, ethanol). This happens in all fermented foods, but the simple nutrients and products produced just vary based on what’s available in the original food. The end magic just depends on what the witch drops in the cauldron.
Third - why are fermented foods so great for the health of our microbiome? As we now know, additional products are produced from the simple nutrients in the food, so when we eat the fermented food we’re introducing those beneficial products into our microbiome when we wouldn’t have if we ate the food in it's non-fermented form. Also, most fermented foods contain probiotics, which are “good life forms” aka beneficial bacteria that keep our gut microbiome diverse. Probiotics help our overall immune response by fighting off pathogenic bacteria (the bad kind) and help prevent a wide range of infections.
To recap, fermented foods contain beneficial bacteria that turn simple nutrients into other beneficial products, which enhances the availability of the nutrients found in the OG form of the food. Cool. And fermented foods are beneficial to our microbiome because they provide us with more diverse, beneficial kinds of micro-organisms in the appropriate amounts and in the right places. Sweet!
Most foods can be fermented from whole foods like vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, meat, fish, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Here are some common types of fermented foods that are pretty widely available in the US:
Sauerkraut
Kimchi
Cultured yogurt
Cultured milk
Miso
Tempeh
Sprouted bread
Sourdough
Kombucha
Beer
Wine
Cider
If you’re interested in how to ferment foods, leave a comment below with what you’d like to try out. In the meantime, eat up!