Fermented Foods: Benefits, Types, and How to Incorporate Them into Your Diet
Whether you realize it or not, fermentation is a process that’s used to produce some of the world’s favorite foods and beverages. What are some foods that are fermented? Popular fermented foods include things like wine, beer, yogurt, certain aged cheeses, and even chocolate and coffee.
What Are Fermented Foods?
When a food is fermented, it means that it’s left to sit and steep until the sugars and carbs that the food naturally contains interact with bacteria, yeast, and microbes to change the chemical structure of the food.
Definition of Fermentation
The definition of fermentation is “the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.” The process of fermentation converts compounds, such as a carbohydrate, including vegetables and sugar, to carbon dioxide and alcohol to an organic acid.
Best Fermented Foods
Below is a list of some of the best fermented foods to include in your diet:
1. Kefir
Kefir is a fermented milk product (made from cow, goat, or sheep’s milk) that tastes like a drinkable yogurt. Kefir benefits include providing high levels of vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, vitamin K2, biotin, folate, enzymes, and probiotics.
2. Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented drink made of black tea and sugar (from various sources like cane sugar, fruit, or honey). It contains a colony of bacteria and yeast that is responsible for initiating the fermentation process once combined with sugar.
3. Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is one of the oldest traditional foods, with very long roots in German, Russian, and Chinese cuisine, dating back 2,000 years or more. Sauerkraut means “sour cabbage” in German, although the Germans weren’t actually the first to make sauerkraut. (It’s believed the Chinese were.)
4. Pickles
Didn’t think that pickles had probiotics? Fermented pickles contain a ton of vitamins and minerals, plus antioxidants and gut-friendly probiotic bacteria.
5. Miso
Miso is created by fermenting soybeans, barley, or brown rice with koji, a type of fungus. It’s a traditional Japanese ingredient in recipes including miso soup.
6. Tempeh
Another beneficial fermented food made with soybeans is tempeh, a product that is created by combining soybeans with a tempeh starter (which is a mix of live mold). When it sits for a day or two, this results in it becoming a dense, cake-like product that contains both probiotics and a hefty dose of protein too.
7. Natto
Natto is a popular food in Japan consisting of fermented soybeans. It is sometimes even eaten for breakfast in Japan and commonly combined with soy sauce, karashi mustard, and Japanese bunching onion.
8. Kimchi
Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean dish that is made from vegetables, including cabbage, plus spices like ginger, garlic, pepper, and other seasoning. It’s often added to Korean recipes like rice bowls, ramen, or bibimbap.
9. Raw Cheese
Raw milk cheeses are made with milk that hasn’t been pasteurized. Goat milk, sheep milk, and A2 cows soft cheeses are particularly high in probiotics, including thermophillus, bifidus, bulgaricus, and acidophilus.
10. Yogurt
Is fermented milk the same as yogurt? Essentially, yes.
Benefits of Fermented Foods
Why are fermented foods good for you? The consumption of fermented, probiotic foods has many positive effects on not only the digestive system, but basically the whole body.
Probiotic Benefits
The microbes that we obtain from eating probiotic foods help create a protective lining in the intestines and shield against pathogenic factors, such as salmonella and E.coli. They may also represent a potential avenue to counter the pro-inflammatory effects of gut dysbiosis.
Enhanced Nutrient Content
Lacto-fermentation enhances the nutrient content of foods and makes the minerals in cultured foods more readily available. Bacteria in fermented foods also produce vitamins and enzymes that are beneficial for digestion/gut health.
How to Ferment Foods at Home
Fermenting vegetables is relatively easy, and you only need a jar with some salt and water. Salt and water combined make brine, which aids in the fermentation process.
Basic Steps for Fermenting Vegetables
- Use a regular wide-mouth mason jar. Prepare the vegetables for fermenting by grating, shredding, chopping, slicing, or leaving them whole.
- Once the vegetables have been prepared and placed in the chosen jar, cover them with brine, and weigh them down so they don’t float up. Thoroughly sprinkle the salt onto the veggies, and massage them a bit. Add any other ingredients, such as spices. If there’s not enough liquid released, add more salted water (brine).
- Most veggies need two to seven days to ferment. The longer you leave them to ferment, the stronger the taste will get. Once the vegetables are finished culturing, move them to cold storage.
How Often to Eat Fermented Foods
If you’re new to fermented foods, start by having about a half a cup per day, and build up gradually from there. This gives your gut time to adjust to the presence of new bacteria.
Fermented Foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda
A healthy Ayurvedic diet includes fermented foods, such as yogurt, amasai, and miso. Many different seasonal vegetables may be fermented to prolong how long they are edible, such as asparagus, beets, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, fennel root (anise), garlic, green beans, etc.
Fermented Foods in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented/pickled vegetables and fruits are utilized to help restore the healthy bacterial colonies found within the gastrointestinal tract. Soy sauce, black beans, radishes, and other foods are also commonly fermented in China and used in TCM.
These foods make it easier for the gut to allow nutrients to be absorbed during digestion and can build immune deficiencies.
Fermented Foods in Ayurveda
Ayurvedic and Indian fermented foods are often combined with anti-inflammatory herbs and spices. These include turmeric, cumin, fennel, ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, clove, rock salt, mint, black pepper, and oregano.
Fermented foods are especially encouraged for vata types, who can benefit from foods that have a natural sour and salty taste, rather than those that are bitter, pungent, and astringent.
Disclaimer: The above-mentioned information is for reference purposes only