Fermented and Cultured Foods The Basics

A Short History of Fermented Foods

Here’s a quick look at the history of fermenting foods:

Period	Food Fermenting Events
7,000 BC	The earliest evidence of food fermentation was during this period in the Neolithic Chinese village of Jiahu. Hardworking Chinese villagers started fermenting alcoholic beverages from rice, honey and fruit.
6,000 BC	Ancient people in Shulaveri (near the Armenian Highlands) made a form of wine. Scientists discovered an 8,000 year old ceramic jar containing wine residues.
3,000 BC to 1,500 BC	Babylon, Egypt, pre-Hispanic Mexico and Sudan all used food fermentation in their respective cultures.
1856	Louis Pasteur (Does the name ring a bell? It should!), a French chemist was the first known zymologist. He concluded that fermentation happens when yeast cells are present.
1907	Eduard Buchner in Berlin Germany, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research on cell-free fermentation. In contrary to what Louis Pasteur thought, he found that you don’t need live yeast cells for fermentation to occur. You just need yeast secretions which he called zymases (zymases are a group of enzymes).
Today	Fermented foods are becoming well recognised for their numerous health benefits. Some fermented foods are even being used medicinally.
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Now you know the basics of food fermentation, let’s look at the types of fermented foods.

Let’s Go Global: Examples of Fermented Foods from around the World

There are countless types fermented foods from around the globe. Nearly every country has its own version. We don’t have enough space to list each and every one of them so instead we’ll cover some of the more common fermented foods.

1. Dosa. Dosa is a fermented pancake made from a black lentil and rice batter. It’s famous among the south Indian states and is even a favorite for breakfast.
2. Maasa. This fried cake is made from fermented sorghum or millet. It’s very popular in Africa. There’s still much to find out about this fermented food. They don’t know exactly which microorganisms are actually in it…but it does taste great.
3. Kimchi. Kimchi has slowly risen up the ranks of Southeast Asian fermented foods and has proven itself a strong contender on a global scale. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made from vegetables with an army of seasonings. The main ingredients are Chinese cabbage, radish, cucumber and scallion. These are combined with spices and soured in jars stored underground for several months.
4. Sauerkraut. The direct translation for this fermented food is sour cabbage and is a well-known remedy for canker sores. More commonly, it’s added to food to create a sour taste. It’s also high in zeaxanthin and lutein, two powerful antioxidants that keep your eyes healthy.
5. Kefir. This fermented liquid can be used in various recipes or consumed as a beverage. If you want to ferment something, add kefir grains to it. Let the lactobacilli and yeast do the dirty work for you. Preliminary studies in mice have found that that the polysaccharide kefiran, possesses anti-inflammatory properties.

Fermented foods offer various benefits including:

Fermented foods improve your nutrition. Your optimal health and nutrition are highly dependent on a constant supply of nutrients from a balanced diet. When your diet is insufficient, your ability to work at maximum capacity is impaired and greatly reduced. Sadly, the most vulnerable groups of people are babies, children and women (including pregnant and lactating women).

Fermented foods improve your nutrition

by increasing the nutrient content of your food. During fermentation amino acids, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals are released from the foods and made more available for your body to use.

Another way by which fermented foods improve your nutrition is by increasing the digestibility of your food. Microorganisms responsible for the fermentation process also produce certain enzymes. An example of this are cellulases which digest cellulose into simple sugars that can be readily absorbed by your digestive tract. We humans, don't produce cellulase enzymes ourselves.

Another good example are pectinases which soften food texture and release sugars for digestion and absorption. Not surprisingly, foods that are fermented are more readily absorbed than unfermented foods. Again, we humans don't produce pectinases.

Fermented foods have medicinal properties too. Take a look at the list below as evidence that fermented foods offer medicinal benefits.

Lactic acid bacteria used in fermentation create an acidic environment which inhibits the growth of any pathogenic bacteria in the food.
Some molds and lactic acid bacteria produce bacteriocins and antibiotics. Bacteriocins are substances produced by good bacteria to prevent the growth of closely related bacteria that are harmful to us.
Lactic acid bacteria found in fermented foods promote optimal health and maintenance of your intestinal flora (the good microorganisms residing in your intestines). Our beneficial bacteria are crucial players in our immune defense system and they protects us from infections caused by harmful bacterial intruders.
Some fermented foods such as fermented dairy products like kefir have anticarcinogenic actions that may help protect you from certain cancers.

Fermented foods remove anti-nutritional factors. Some of the vegetables and fruits you eat, contain naturally occurring anti-nutritional compounds and toxins. One example is the removal of cyanogenic glycosides from raw cassava. If cassava is eaten raw it can be very poisonous. During the fermentation process the microorganisms Geotricum candida and Corynebacterium lactis remove this toxin making cassava safe for you to eat. Cassava cake anyone?

Fermentation can salvage your waste food, turning it into fermented foods. Sound too good to be true? Waste foods can be fermented to yield edible food products. Examples include fermented bones (in Sudan) and fermented pineapple peelings (in Latin America). Fermented foods have been around longer than you can imagine. However for a long time their vast health benefits were forgotten or ignored. Today they’re re-emerging to become a part of everyday diets in Australia and New Zealand. While some fermented foods may be an acquired taste, experiment with different types to find some you can enjoy. Why not take advantage of their many benefits to your health.

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References

https://nourishedkitchen.com/ferments-cultured-food/
http://foodandnutrition.org/Winter-2012/The-History-and-Health-Benefits-of-Fermented-Food/
https://www.superfoodevolution.com/fermentation.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713597000509
https://www.intechopen.com/books/mycotoxin-and-food-safety-in-developing-countries/nigerian-indigenous-fermented-foods-processes-and-prospects
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3833126/
https://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000498.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539767
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