| Quick! Name a fermented food. | | | | content availability by 300-500%. |
| What did you pick? Sourkraut? Kimchi? Chutney? Did | | | | That's quite the nutritional kick! |
| you even think of cheese, sour cream, yogurt, | | | | And whatever happened to preserving food using |
| sourdough bread or buttermilk pancakes? | | | | lacto-fermentation? Before the modern era of hot |
| Now, try your hand at naming a popular raw meat. | | | | water bath canning and vinegar brines, people used to |
| Don't get all squeamish on me. Think. | | | | preserve vegetables and fruits in cans and other air |
| How about pastrami? Corned beef? Ceviche? Sushi? | | | | tight containers using lactic-acid fermentation. The |
| Every culture has a long tradition of fermented and | | | | lactic-acid caused the food to pleasantly sour (think: |
| raw foods -- foods that provide for healthy intestinal | | | | pickles), increased the vitamin & mineral content of |
| flora and decrease the load on your pancreas and | | | | the food, provided a rich source of valuable digestive |
| liver. | | | | enzymes, and preserved the food for months at a |
| Sadly, because of today's industrial food model, these | | | | time. |
| traditional foods have morphed into something | | | | We need to get over our prejudices. Cooked and |
| unrecognizable. Corned beef is no longer raw and | | | | over-processed to the extreme, the average |
| preserved with salt and spices. Cheese is made from | | | | American diet lacks the vitamins, minerals and |
| devitalized pasteurized milk. Bread makers rarely use | | | | enzymes natural to fermented and raw foods. |
| real fermented sourdough starters in their so-called | | | | Compare this to traditional diets around the world |
| sourdough loafs. And homemakers hardly ever soak | | | | where raw and fermented foods make up 60-80% of |
| their freshly ground whole wheat flour overnight in | | | | their food intake. |
| buttermilk to create the light and fluffy pancakes and | | | | While science debates the ins and outs of exactly |
| biscuits we love to love. | | | | why raw and fermented foods are so much healthier |
| The modern equivalents of age-old fermented foods | | | | for us (living enzyme content? more available |
| are nutritionally empty when compared to their | | | | nutrients?), anecdotal evidence makes the benefits |
| historical counterparts. | | | | clear. |
| Take grains, for example. Did you know that traditional | | | | People who start eating a diet high in raw & |
| societies either soaked, sprouted, or fermented their | | | | fermented foods reverse the course of cancer, stop |
| grains prior to consuming them? While the reasons our | | | | diabetes in its tracks, and notice an increased level of |
| ancestors practiced this level of grain preparation are | | | | heart fitness. |
| debatable, we do know that sprouting, fermenting, and | | | | So, what are you waiting for? |
| soaking grains can increase vitamin and mineral | | | | |