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Harlan Jacobsen. Copyright © 2009 |
Every indigenous society, they discovered had the own version of some fermented food as a key member of their diet.
Most well known fermented food in the U.S. is Yogurt. The diets of these societies that had dairy had apparently been aware that man was not adopted to dairy but thrived on Yogurt made very simply from fermented milk.
The using low fat milk, (butterfat is valuable, and can be sold for more money elsewhere) and adding cheap calorie sweeteners and flavorings instead, are strictly an American twist.
Add the starter bacteria to fresh whole milk at the right temperature, it is overnight converted to Yogurt. This milk has in less then 12 hours been PRE-digested by bacteria so man does not need the enzymes to digest the milk (which he lacks after the age of two). He gets the full benefit of the predigested milk and gets the intestinal bacteria balance supplement he needs to keep friendly intestinal bacteria manufacturing vitamin K etc. The yogurt bacteria culture overwhelm and keep the intestinal bacteria balance favorable.
The roman army and others of the period had to be on lengthy battles etc and expeditions for weeks and could not carry fresh food. They carried a fermented fish it was called fish paste and was of course made from fish specially fermented. Highly concentrated, it could not spoil, it was already fermented and needed no refrigeration.
A small amount of weight of the substance carried a lot of available nutrients because it had not been destroyed by heat,
It carried its own enzymes, like fresh food and was not lost in some preserving method, the bacteria actually predigested it so it was fully available. Without it the roman army would have gone nowhere.
It is still served and eaten today in places like Thailand, Burma etc.
The Japanese have since ancient times eaten a fermented soy called Natto, and/or another version called Miso. Both are soybeans fermented with a specified bacillus.
Many claim the reason Japanese currently hold the record for longevity in the western world is because they eat lots of soy beans. What they fail to note is that almost all of the soy beans eaten as human food in Japan are "fermented." That is the beneficial bacteria entered daily into the system keeping a friendly bacteria balance that turns out to be the key.
This is another example like yogurt and milk, not compatible with mans health
except when dairy product milk, is transformed into a health food by the addition of bacteria, and allowed to move into the fermented state. Soybeans fall into the same category with Natto and Miso in Japan as milk and yogurt relationship in most of the western world.
Asian people have almost no adjustment to dairy whatsoever so you will never find cheeses in a Chinese buffet.
The Germans had fermented cabbage which is known here as sauerkraut. The canned version you buy in the grocery chain is not it. Sauerkraut system kept cabbage edible all winter since it was fermented and not subject to spoiling, and provided a source of vitamin C in the season when it was badly needed and had no other ready source.
Again, it carried tremendous food value because it was not cooked, enzymes etc NOT destroyed, and the pre digestion by the bacteria made all the many nutrients in the cabbage even more readily available.
What is not realized is this continued addition daily of friendly bacteria into the digestion system by the regular consumption of a fermented food, thus overwhelming unfriendly bacteria by shear numbers, in this food, was a large key to health for these people, and still is today to those continuing it.
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