Fermented Foods
Pickled vegetables have always been one of my favorite foods but it was only recently that I found out how beneficial these fermented vegetables are. In fact, fermented food is enjoyed in many different ways in different cultures. Not only are they delicious and healthy but they are also a good time saver for busy people as they can be prepared in bulk.
I wanted to blog briefly about the benefits of fermented food and how we can easily make them at home. I hope everyone will read and share this, and perhaps even incorporate it into your diet too!
So which are your favorite fermented foods?
Tsem Rinpoche
The Benefits of Fermented Foods
There is much benefit to be gained from incorporating fermented food into your diet. Some are related to health while others are more general in nature.
General Benefits of Fermented Foods
- Budget friendly: While increasing the amount of healthy foods in your diet can be expensive, fermented foods are actually budget friendly. In fact, you can make many fermented foods at home for just pennies per serving. By including these foods in your diet, you can also reduce the number of purchased supplements you require, thus stretching your budget even further.
- Reduces wastage: Fermenting vegetables increases their shelf life, thus preventing them from going to waste.
- Changes taste: It can make food pleasantly sour or tangy, and develops flavor.
- Eliminates anti-nutrients: Natural or synthetic compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients, called anti-nutrients, can be destroyed by fermentation. Phytic acid, for example, which is found in legumes and seeds, binds minerals such as iron and zinc, reducing their absorption when eaten. However, phytic acid can be broken down during fermentation, so the minerals become available.
Health Benefits of Fermented Foods
- Probiotics: By eating fermented foods on a regular basis, you can benefit from the introduction of beneficial bacteria into your digestive tract. Along with being shown to slow down or possibly even reverse some diseases, probiotics also assist in proper digestion, improve bowel health, and improve immunity.
- Better absorption: When you are able to maintain a proper balance of bacteria in your digestive tract and possess a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes, you will be better able to absorb more nutrients in the foods you consume. When combined with a healthy diet, you may find that you no longer need as many vitamins and supplements.
- Their contribution of live microbes – ostensibly “good” microbes – to the existing colonies in our gut: Collectively called the microbiome, these microbes exert powerful effects on our body; when they’re out of whack they have been linked with intestinal and bowel conditions such as ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome, immune disorders such as allergies and type 1 diabetes and metabolism and metabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and obesity. They’ve even been linked with mental health disorders.
- Beneficial for people with diabetes: In addition to improving pancreatic function, which is of great benefit to diabetics, the carbohydrates in lactic acid–fermented foods have been broken down or “pre-digested.” As a result, they do not place an extra burden on the pancreas, unlike ordinary carbohydrates.
- Helps the body produce acetylcholine: Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter. In simple terms, it facilitates the transmission of nerve impulses. In practical terms, it helps increase the movement of the bowel, and can alleviate constipation problems. It also helps improve the release of digestive juices and enzymes from the stomach, the pancreas, and the gallbladder. So by helping your body produce acetylcholine, fermented foods act as potent digestive aids.
- Balances the production of stomach acid: Fermented foods have the unique ability to ease digestive discomfort related to having either too much or too little stomach acid. When the production of hydrochloric acid by the stomach is low, fermented foods help increase the acidity of gastric juices. On the other hand, when the stomach produces too much acid, fermented foods help protect the stomach and intestinal lining.
Dr Mercola Interviews Sandor Katz about Fermentation
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/fermented-vege-video.mp4
How to Make Fermented Vegetables
Here’s how to get started.
What Type of Container Should You Use?
There’s no need to over-think or spend large amounts of money on containers. The material they’re made of is important however. You do NOT want to use plastic or metal. Plastics are loaded with chemicals you don’t want leaching into your food, such as bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthlalates. Metal is also inadvisable as salts can corrode the metal. Even if you don’t add salt, most vegetables have some natural salts in them. Good options include:
- Glass jars (wide-mouthed Mason jars are ideal, so that you can get your whole hand in there to press down the vegetables)
- Ceramic crocks
- Wooden barrels
To Salt or Not to Salt?
Whether or not to use salt also largely comes down to personal preference. While it’s not a necessity, Sandor does provide some compelling reasons for adding a small amount of natural, unprocessed salt — such as Himalayan salt — to your vegetables. For example, salt:
- Strengthens the ferment’s ability to eliminate any potential pathogenic bacteria present
- Adds to the flavor
- Acts as a natural preservative, which may be necessary if you’re making large batches that need to last for a larger portion of the year
- Slows the enzymatic digestion of the vegetables, leaving them crunchier
- Inhibits surface molds
What You Need
- Fresh vegetables
- A knife or grater
- A glass or ceramic jar for fermentation (quart sized, wide-mouthed canning jars work well)
- A smaller jar that fits inside the fermentation jar (small jelly jars work great)
- Salt
- Clean water
- A clean towel
- Rubber band to fit over the mouth of the fermentation jar
- Herbs and spices (optional)
What To Do
- Chop/shred/grate vegetables, salting lightly as you go. You want to get all of the vegetables as uniform in size as possible. This way, they ferment at the same rate. Vegetables like carrots and radishes do well grated, while it’s best to slice up that cabbage or onion. As you chop or grate the vegetables, add small pinches of salt. But not too much — fermentation only needs a little. Try tasting as you go. The vegetables should taste only slightly salty.
- Mix the veggies well. You want to make sure that the salt is spread out evenly throughout all the vegetables. Taste the veggies, and add more salt to taste if needed. If you are going to add any herbs or spices, add them now.
- Let the vegetables sit for 5 to 10 minutes. As they sit, the salt will start to draw the liquid out of the vegetables.
- Squeeze the vegetables to release their juices. Take handfuls of vegetables and squeeze as hard as you can, keeping the juice that comes out. You want to get as much juice out of them as possible.
- Tightly pack the vegetables into the fermenting jar and cover with collected juice. As you fill the jar with the vegetables, be sure to pack them down tightly to the bottom of the jar. This will help release more juice, and remove any air bubbles that get stuck in the vegetables. Add any remaining juice once the jar is filled. Be sure there is enough liquid to completely cover the vegetables. If you need to, use a mixture of salt and water to bring the juice level up over the vegetables. You don’t need too much salt for the water, just enough to make it taste like seawater.
- Fill the smaller jar with salt water, then place it on top of the vegetables in the fermenting jar. The purpose of the second jar is to hold the vegetables under the liquid in the jar. This will help the fermentation process by preventing “scum” from forming on the top of the ferment.
- Cover the fermenting jar with a clean towel, and secure it with the rubber band. Using a towel to cover the jar ensures that gases can escape, without letting any dirt or bugs get in.
- Let it ferment! Put the jar in an easily accessible area, and keep an eye on it. In about 24 hours, you will begin to see air bubbles in the vegetables. This is how you know it’s working. After a few days, the ferment will start to smell sour. Taste it at every stage. This will help you determine how fermented you like your vegetables. Some people like “young” ferments that have only fermented a few days, while others like “mature” ferments that have been fermenting for months. If there is a white layer of “scum” that forms, just scrape it off. It’s ok if you don’t get it all. When you like the flavor, remove the towel and smaller jar, put a lid on the fermentation jar and put it in your refrigerator. When the ferment cools down, the fermentation process rapidly slows, and you will be able to enjoy your fermented foods for several weeks or longer.
Sources:
1. https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/unlock-true-potential-vegetables
2. http://www.drdavidwilliams.com/traditional-fermented-foods-benefits/
3. http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/food-and-health/food-and-drink/nutrition/fermented-foods.aspx
4. http://www.med-health.net/Fermented-Vegetables.html
5. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2014/01/the-health-benefits-of-naturally-fermented-foods.html
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Not only fermented food is good for our health, it is also a very good way to preserve the vegetables. For busy people, fermented vegetables are very convenient as they are ready to be eaten without needing much preparation time.
Wow! Very interesting sharing and full of information on preparing home made fermentation food. Most importantly this food preparing need to be closely monitor the recipes and to ensure proper materials are used for safety. Well, had a great knowledge from this article and wish to try to do one soon.
Thank you for giving the various benefit of fermented food.
Pickled papaya is my most favourite fermented foods as compared others.
I feel grateful that as Kechara Oasis prepares and selling pickled papaya now. This is very convenient for those who are busy and have no time to make the pickled papaya.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this benefits of fermented foods and the process to make it.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing this article. Didn’t know there are so many benefits of fermented food. This is indeed a very good article to know about the general benefits of the fermented food and the health benefits. And through this article we can learn how to ferment our own food. The recipe or method to do our own fermentation looks easy and simple. It will be an encouragement for us to start our supply and save money too.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing this article. This is indeed a very good article to know about the general benefits of the fermented food and the health benefits. And through this article we can learn how to ferment our own food. This is a good article to share with those who are sick. May they benefit from it and help to improve their health.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Interesting article. Didn’t know there are so many benefits of fermented food. So glad that Rinpoche also provided many tips on how to make fermented food with right ingredients and method
Oh this is interesting. I had known that Kim Chi and Sauerkraut are good for us but never quite knew in what way. It is quite enlightening that the fermented foods can actually be helpful in retaining iron and zinc (minerals) for better absorption. It will certainly be good for those who are deficient in these minerals. The recipe or method to do our own fermentation looks easy and simple. It will be an encouragement for us to start our supply and save money too.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article and your constant care for our health.
After reading this article, I am all for fermented food, I love things like tempe, kimchi and natto. Having a healthy gut promotes mental well being etc.
Many thanks for sharing this amazing article.
This is really awesome! I never knew pickled vegetables has so many health benefits and good nutrients our body needs! I like how the post has listed down so many of its benefits. One particular one that I found interesting is that it balances the production of stomach acid as I have gastric!
I certainly did not know this till I read this. Now I know that fermented foods have the unique ability to ease digestive discomfort because of our unstable acidity in our stomachs. I shall try my hands in making the pickled ginger especially using the local Bentong ginger which is supposedly very good 🙂
This is a very interesting article for preparing healthy food, budget friendly, expiring time is a few months and the food is ready to be eaten.
There are many vegetables we can use to ferment. In my country, we did ferment cabbage, pickles and beet root. The recipes in the article are a really good way to increase our health.
Instead of snacking unhealthy why not take a jar with fermented beetroot or carrots.
Thank You for sharing so much good information on how to improve our health.
Humbly,
Pastor Antoinette
It would be so nice if I had some people who can make these fermented vegetables on a regular basis to supply us in Kechara Forest Retreat. I like fermented vegetables very much and did know there were so many benefits till researching for this blog post.
it is an eye opener to learn that fermented vegetables can be so beneficial to the health, add flavor to the menu and help stretch our hard earned money by prolonging the life span of our food.
I had the misconception the fermented food was bad for the health and some of the elderly link them to cancer. From this article I understand that it is not fermentation that is bad but the ingredients used for this process. Traditionally, natural ingredients like salt is used but for mass production, synthetic chemicals are replacing their organic counterparts.
Fermented food is very common in Malaysia cuisine and I am looking forward to enjoying more of them in my menu 🙂
I think learning to make fermented food is getting much more important today as it reduce wastage and not to mention with our daily life being more hectic, it is actually a huge time saver to have a condiment prepared, ready to be taken with your meals anytime. People from the past have used and perfected this techniques through centuries, at one point of time, it is most probably that every household would do some kind of fermentation process for home use. But ever since the refrigerator have been invented, I suppose this practice has died down a little, despite the benefits from keeping up with it.
There are possibly some sayings that fermented food is not as healthy as eating freshly cooked food, but there are people that swear by the health benefits of fermented food, and one of such healthy fermented food that I know of is Kimchi! I must admit that it is one of my favourites, not only because it can be used as an ingredient in many recipes, but because it is easy to make lol.
I myself am not such a big fan of fermented vegetables but I am quite surprised at the may Health and general benefits it has.
Many people have the misconception that fermented vegetables are not good for health but this post should clarify and change their perceptions on fermented vegetables as it can help us be healthier in ways such as helping our body absurd nutrients better and etc.
What I like most is it’s general benefits such as lesser wastage as the fermentation process enables it to have a longer shelf life.
It is also good to know that is is budget friendly.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article!
When I think of fermented food, kimchi usually comes to mind. I mean we have a whole country, an entire nation that has this fermented dish as daily diet. In South Korea many credit their industrious energy as a people, and its impact on their nation’s rapid economic growth, in part to eating the dish.
Historically and in some harsh environment, fermenting is common as a method of food preservation. It is not a surprise our ancestors know more about benefits of food than we do. Traditionally man are farmers, we work with nature and we grow our own food. Food doesn’t just appear in supermarkets and restaurants like in today’s world. So it is possible that our ancestors appreciated and understood the nature of food more than we do.
This knowledge allowed them to harness the most benefit out of food provided by nature. Mankind today takes food mostly for granted. United Nations report stated that roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted. This amounts to almost USD$1 trillion in food losses and waste. It’s nothing short of appalling.
I’ve always loved fermented foods but I didn’t know they have so many benefits. It’s good to know that fermented vegetables are good for our digestive system and our immune system. For people who do not have time to make their own fermented foods, they can always buy them from the shops. There are so many varieties, both Asian and European. My favourites are Indian chutney, kimchi and Penang achar (nyonya style).
感恩仁波切的分享 ！
发酵的食物在营养上已经是证实对我们的身体有益 ！
在市场上已经含有各式各样的酵素，针对不同的体质来发酵出不同的酵素如药材酵素针对保健，调理和益补，lemon和山楂酵素针对消脂和抗氧化，蔬菜酵素针对排毒和清肠，水果酵素针对抗氧化和抗老等等。。。非常高的营养价值。
现在的人们生活方式不像以前一天三餐烹饪，大多以快食解决三餐，营养摄取不平衡，大家都可以很方便的从有机店，超市，药材店购买所需要的酵素。
自制的酵素还可以达到环保的作用，省钱又环保，还可以确保身体健康，非常有价值 ！
感恩 合十
YEO KWAI GIN
I have heard similar reports as well that fermented food is very good for our health. The Eskimos eat fermented animal parts when they fall sick and are said to have amazing healing benefits as well.
Many cuisines from all over the world have some sort of fermented dishes from cheese to pickles to stinky tofu. They are usually highly sort after as diners love the taste.
I usually eat a pickled cucumber or cabbage when I feel nauseous. Somehow it works and now I know why based on the above article.