DON’T OVERCOOK, FERMENT
By going to such an extreme, we have destroyed a lot of nutrients, vitamins and proteins (including enzymes) that are essential to optimal health. When spinach is overcooked, it loses its bright green color and turns pale forest green. The color change indicates that the wonderful chlorophyll molecules that provide blood-building nutrients have lost their effective magnesium centerpiece.
Consuming foods raw or fermented is highly recommended Viagra online. Prior to the widespread manufacturing of refrigerators in the 1940s, nearly everybody fermented or pickled vegetables and meats as a method of preserving. Cultures all over the world ferment grapes for wine and dairy for kefir, whey and cheese. Soybeans were fermented for tempeh and miso, bok choy for kimchi, cabbage for sauerkraut, wheat for beer or sourdough. In the south, Polynesians ferment taro for poi. In the north, Eskimos ferment meats, cod liver, and fish to produce “high meat”. The Swedish ferment Baltic herring to make “Surstrdm-ming”. The Koreans ferment skate, a cartilaginous fish, for “Hongeohoe” and the Japanese ferment mackerel and exocoetidae, also known as flying fish, to produce the odorous dish called “Kusaya”.
The process of fermentation allows strains of beneficial bacteria that are probiotic (pro means “for” and biotic means “life”) to thrive in our foods. Besides being an excellent method of preserving foods, fermentation replenishes the healthy bacteria (gut flora) in our digestive tracts. Vegetable-based ferments are mainly anaerobic lacto-fermented while high meats are primarily aerobically fermented, so the presence of a constant oxygen supply is integral.
Scientists have found that bacterial cells in the human body outnumber human cells ten to one. Commonly researched strains of beneficial bacteria include Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus paracasei and Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii. The mixed community of these bacterial cells does not threaten us but instead offers vital help with basic physiological processes, including immune self-defense. For example Saccharomyces boulardii is effective in preventing and treating patients who have develop diarrhea and colitis due to antibiotic resistant Clostridium difficile.
In addition to fighting antibiotic induced infections, these beneficial bacteria help digest foods during the fermentation process, then release those nutrients that we ourselves cannot manufacture directly from the foods. They support the further breakdown of foods, enhance the body’s ability to absorb essential dietary minerals, help produce specific nutrients (such as Vitamin K), and improve the absorption of water and lipids in the gastrointestinal tract. Fermentation enables preparation and storage of foods to retain and, in many cases, augment nutritional value. I recommend Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz as your first guide in learning how to ferment. You will have a lifetime of recipes to explore in just that one book alone.