FROM THE DAWN OF RECORDED HISTORY, humans have been fermenting foods—meat, milk, wheat, fruits, and vegetables. Many, perhaps all, civilizations have harnessed fermentation to reliably and safely preserve foods. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest ferments were alcoholic beverages: Neolithic peoples in China made alcoholic beverages from rice, fruit, and honey, and ceramic vases from around 5000 BC found in modern-day Iran show traces of wine.
A fermented food is one whose taste and texture have been transformed by the introduction of beneficial bacteria or yeast. If you’ve eaten yogurt, salami, cheese, chocolate, or kimchi, or drunk coffee, wine, whiskey, or beer, you’ve enjoyed the edible pleasures of fermentation.
Of course, fermented foods taste great—vibrant, with heady aromas, extraordinary flavors, and appealing textures—but they also play an important role in our bodies. Fermentation partially breaks down food, making the nutrients easier for our bodies to assimilate and the vitamins, enzymes, and minerals more available for us to digest. Fermented foods supply vitamin C and help produce essential vitamins that our bodies cannot make, such as vitamin K and B-complex vitamins. Fermentation also defends our digestive system against harmful bacteria by creating an environment that’s too acidic for their survival.
Fermentation is initiated in one of two ways: either by introducing yeast or bacteria into the food to be fermented through a starter culture (such as whey) or naturally, by microorganisms in the environment or already on the food (the Firefly Kitchens approach).
CAN PEOPLE WHO ARE LACTOSE INTOLERANT EAT FOODS THAT RESULT FROM LACTO-FERMENTATION?
Lacto-fermentation takes its name from lactic acid bacteria that produce lactic acid as a by-product of digesting the sugar in vegetables. Don’t confuse it with lactose, which is found in milk. Any vegetables fermented with salt won’t give you digestive problems resulting from lactose intolerance.
Bacteria convert starches, sugars, and other nutrients into alcohols or acids—one of those being lactic acid. Fermentation that produces lactic acid is called lactic acid fermentation (or lacto-fermentation). The main player in lactic acid fermentation is a group of bacteria called lactic acid bacteria (or lactobacilli). They’re present on the surface of living things—in fact, almost all vegetables are naturally endowed with a plentiful supply of these bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria are not the only bacteria that can create fermentation; they’re just the ones most commonly found on cabbage and the other vegetables that we ferment at Firefly Kitchens and that are the subject of this book.
The lactic acid bacteria that ferment food are also present in, and interact with, the bacteria in our bodies.
Our bodies are alive with bacteria, bacteria that have been with us from the moment we were born. For every cell in our bodies, there are ten indigenous bacteria: the body is made up of about 10 trillion cells, but the bacteria there number more than 100 trillion. Our bodies are hosts to hundreds of species of these bacteria, giving them a home, an environment in which to thrive. At the same time we are completely dependent on bacteria to sustain essential processes, in particular those of the digestive and immune systems. We are, in effect, codependent species.
Bacteria are found outside and inside our bodies, but 80 percent of them (by some estimates, two to three pounds) live in the gastrointestinal tract, particularly the large intestine.
Bacteria and the digestive system
A properly functioning digestive system is the bedrock of good health. The digestive system extracts nutrients from the food we eat by breaking it down, both mechanically and chemically, ultimately reducing food to its essential nutrients—molecules small enough to be absorbed by our cells to nourish our bodies. We nourish ourselves, then, not so much by what we eat, but by what our bodies can absorb and use as nutrients. The best diet in the world won’t help if our bodies can’t digest what we eat.
So how does digestion work? The digestive system is a complex ecosystem that involves interplay between the organs (such as the stomach and intestines) and bacteria in our bodies.
When we take the first bite, the teeth and tongue mechanically break down the food while taste and smell trigger salivary glands to produce enzymes that start the digestion of starches. When we swallow, the partially digested food goes into the stomach, where highly acidic gastric juices further break down the food, the main function of the stomach.
Lactic acid bacteria help regulate the acidity of the stomach, stimulating production when levels drop, and suppressing production when they’re elevated. Lactic acid bacteria also produce acetylcholine, which stimulates the stomach’s digestive muscles to push the food into the intestines (or gut). The gut is where our bodies absorb most of the food’s nutrients, including vitamins and minerals.
There are hundreds of species of bacteria in the gut, including lactic acid bacteria, which are vital to good digestion. It’s bacteria that break down complex carbohydrates into digestible sugars and starches. Bacteria synthesize vitamins such as vitamin A, B-complex vitamins, and vitamin K, and secrete compounds that may help in the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron. Without this bacterial activity, these nutrients would go undigested—and unused. Bacteria also break down fiber (which we cannot digest) and use it to fuel their own growth.
Bacteria and the immune system
Beyond the influence of bacteria in nutrition, a substantive body of research points to the critical and integral role that intestinal bacteria play in the immune system, the bulk of which resides in the gut. Recent studies have shown that the state of our gut bacteria has a profound effect on the active states of the immune cells in our intestinal lining.
There are two parts to the immune system. The protective component (the innate immune system) is a physical barrier that prevents pathogens and other harmful elements from entering the body. The responsive component (the selective immune system) goes into action when the protective defenses fail. The lining of the digestive tract plays a role in both parts.
In its protective role, the digestive tract lining works like the walls guarding a medieval city. The defensive power of the walls depends on how many gates and other openings there are (its permeability), and how many sentinels the city has to defend those openings (the immune response). Studies have shown that having a healthy array of gut bacteria can reduce intestinal permeability (the number of gates) and increase immune cell function (the guards) in the gut lining.
The lining of the digestive tract also plays a responsive role in the immune system. Recent studies show that the makeup of the bacterial community in the gut can activate the immune cells in the intestinal walls. Researchers in Japan, for example, recently discovered that Clostridium bacteria release an acid that activates white blood cells in the lining of the intestine, alerting the body to prepare its defenses against pathogens.
The bacterial community in our bodies is essential to life. However, the research into the fundamental part that bacteria play is relatively recent, and we live in a society that has taught us to believe that bacteria are uniformly “bad,” and that has waged a decades-long war to eliminate them.
Daily, we hear messages from the medical profession, government agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), pharmaceutical companies, and food manufacturers warning us about the dangers of bacteria. We listen to ads for antibacterial room fresheners, mouthwashes, and household cleaning products that promise to destroy bacteria (99.9 percent!).
Antibiotics are pervasive. Our children take courses of antibiotics to clear up ear infections or acne. If we eat meat or drink cow’s milk, we may consume antibiotics because they’re mixed into the food of commercially bred animals. Fruits and vegetables may absorb antibiotics if they’re fertilized with manure from cows fed antibiotics. Antibiotics are even found in our water supply.
Of course, antibiotics (and other germicidal measures) were developed to protect us from harmful bacteria, and they have saved the lives of millions. But there is a dark side to the story. Antibiotics are often indiscriminate, destroying not only pathogens, but beneficial bacteria in our bodies as well. Research has also shown that the use of antibiotics can cause bacteria to mutate so they become resistant to antibiotics. Some antibiotics lead to the growth of yeasts (like Candida albicans) that suppress the immune system.
Anything that destroys bacteria can compromise the ability of the beneficial bacteria in our bodies to help us absorb the food we eat, and can throw off the balance of our immune systems. Without a lively environment of beneficial bacteria, harmful species can proliferate, further weakening the body.
EATING FERMENTED FOODS CAN IMPROVE DIGESTION
“I have suffered from poor digestion my whole life, and several autoimmune diseases had wiped out my gut to an extreme. When I began eating Firefly raw kraut, I noticed an immediate difference. If I go several days without kraut, my system is not happy!”
—BETSY POWER
“I have always had a sensitive stomach—kind of a drag as a chef. No disease or condition, just touchy. From the first time I tried the naturally fermented Firefly krauts, I noticed a relaxing feeling in my gut. Like a fist unclenching. Like my stomach was going ahhhhhh! This soothed and eased feeling has made me an ardent fan. I try to eat Firefly krauts several times a day and always drink all of the brine, as well.”
—NICOLE ALONI
Fermented foods can temper the negative effects of these stresses on our native bacterial community, blunting the attack on our bacteria and bolstering our defenses against disease.
The Benefits of Lacto-Fermented Foods
People have long believed in the health advantages of eating fermented foods. For example, it’s thought that Tiberius, one of Rome’s greatest generals and emperor from AD 14 to 37, traveled with salted cabbage to protect his soldiers from disease. The American Civil War physician John Jay Terrell, who treated prisoners of war, credited his success in lowering his patients’ death rate to the raw sauerkraut that he added to their diets. Dr. Élie Metchnikoff, a Russian biologist who won the Nobel Prize in 1908 for his pioneering research on the immune system, identified the potential of lactic acid bacteria to lengthen life.
Today, research shows that lacto-fermented foods alive with lactic acid bacteria bestow many health benefits on us. You’ll hear these bacteria referred to as probiotics, microbes that benefit us when we eat them. Probiotics predigest nutrients, manufacture and supply us with vitamins, and may be used to cure specific illnesses.
PROBIOTICS PREDIGEST NUTRIENTS. Lactic acid bacteria in fermented foods, as a result of their own digestive activity, break down the carbohydrates and other nutrients we eat into simpler components. The bacteria work like biological food processors, breaking down the cell walls of our food so the body doesn’t have to work as hard to digest it. This is particularly beneficial to those with impaired digestive systems or those who suffer from digestive problems.
PROBIOTICS MANUFACTURE AND SUPPLY US WITH VITAMINS. Lactic acid bacteria, one kind of probiotics, manufacture the full complex of B vitamins, including thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), and niacin (B3). B-complex vitamins are essential to the body for many reasons, such as fighting infection, reducing anemia, lowering the risk of heart disease, and supporting nervous system function.
Fermented foods contain copious amounts of vitamin C, which our bodies cannot synthesize. Vitamin C plays an essential role in hundreds of metabolic functions: it metabolizes cholesterol, acts as an antioxidant that helps slow aging in cells, and helps boost the immune system. Deirdre Rawlings, a widely published naturopath, maintains that, as opposed to cooked or raw cabbage, cabbage as sauer kraut enables us to absorb three to four hundred times more vitamin C.
Fermented cabbage also contains vitamin K, which helps regulate calcium and blood sugar levels.
PROBIOTICS HAVE HEALING POWERS. While scientists do not fully understand the mechanisms of how bacteria work in our bodies, and how the bacteria we eat support our native bacteria, hundreds of studies have been published documenting the role that specific probiotics play in preventing disease. In his book The Art of Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz notes that “the array of conditions for which probiotic therapy has been found to have some documented and quantifiable measure of success is quite staggering.” He cites many studies that document the benefits of probiotic therapies for treating digestive-tract conditions such as diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and even colon cancer. Probiotics can lessen the frequency and length of common colds and upper respiratory symptoms, lower high blood pressure and reduce cholesterol, and reduce anxiety. Leading researchers also believe probiotics might prove effective against new pathogens that doctors have so far not found a way to treat.
Lacto-fermented foods replenish and diversify the bacteria in our bodies and help restore the balance of our good bacteria. Research has shown that the types of bacteria that live in our intestines are largely determined by our dietary habits. Our gut bacteria are a dynamically changing community, so by supplying gut flora with fermented foods, we augment our intestinal communities.
An Easy Solution: Eat Fermented Foods
In other words, eating fermented foods is good for you. Scientists who specialize in research on the human microbiome—the community of microbes within the gut—report that, as a result of what they’ve learned about bacteria in the body, they’ve added fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and yogurt to their diets for the large number of probiotic bacteria in those foods.
Our own anecdotal evidence certainly supports this. Since we’ve been in business, we’ve heard literally hundreds of testimonials about the good effects of eating Firefly Kitchens’ fermented foods, particularly about the benefits to digestion.
Although probiotics found in lacto-fermented foods are not a panacea, they can be an essential part of a varied healthy diet—and that healthy diet is what we want to help you create. This book gives you recipes that will help you eat fermented foods every day and teaches you approaches for integrating these foods into your diet without a lot of extra work.
So turn the page and learn how to feed your gut and help your gut feed you!
HOW MUCH CAN I EAT IN A DAY?
Some people eat as little as a tablespoon a day and enjoy improved digestion, while others eat as much as half a cup with every meal. Everybody processes foods differently; learn to listen to your body to know how much to eat.
When you’re introducing fermented foods to your diet, start with just a tablespoon at a time. You may experience a bit of gas and bloating at first, but these side effects should diminish as you continue eating them.
1. Enjoy each meal sitting down
Movement signals your body to put energy elsewhere. Digestion requires focused energy.
2. Avoid eating when angry, upset, or under stress
Highly emotional states inhibit proper digestion by activating the “fight or flight” response in the nervous system. This phase prepares the body for action and inhibits the processes necessary for digestion.
3. Avoid screens while eating
Computers, phones, and TVs are a distraction and will zap the true enjoyment out of any meal. Mindless eating means you’re not paying attention to how much you are consuming, how fast you’re taking it in, or how well you’re chewing it.
4. Chew your food!
Think about chewing your food twice as long as you normally do. Digestion is already in progress once your food reaches your mouth. Thorough chewing equals a happy belly.
5. Practice not overeating
Eat until 80 percent full and leave the rest. This may very well be one of the greatest secrets to longevity and vibrant health!
6. Eat early, not late
Make the first meal of the day nourishing one, and avoid eating late at night. We are not designed to digest while we sleep!
7. Move your body every day
Exercise helps digestion by increasing blood flow and oxygen to all of your organs, while strengthening the intestinal muscles. This helps to more efficiently move food through the entire GI system.
8. Get adequate fiber
Fiber is the broom that moves foods through our system. Fruits, veggies, whole grains, and ferments ensure your body is getting what it needs to function properly.
9. Consume healthy fats at every meal
Healthy fats such as coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, and butter from grass-fed cows are satisfying and decrease levels of inflammation within the gut.
10. Eat ferments at every meal!
Fermented foods are rich in lactic acid and digestive enzymes, so eating them equals optimal digestion and optimal health.
