“Fermentation is the transformation of food by various bacteria, fungi, and the enzymes they produce. People harness this transformative power in order to produce alcohol, to preserve food, and to make it more digestible, less toxic, and/or more delicious. By some estimates, more than 1/3 of all food eaten by human beings worldwide is fermented … Fermentation has played an instrumental role in human cultural evolution.” - Sandor Katz, The Art of Fermentation

Let’s take a step back from your modern life and move back in time—before canned foods or refrigerators became the norm for storage, and gas stoves or microwaves for cooking. This would be about 100 years ago which sound like a long time, but is only 1/10,000th of our human existence! A drop in the pond, so-to-speak. So what did we do to store fresh food before these modern conveniences, and when we had to collect tons of firewood to cook? We fermented.

preserving like our ancestors: with salt and time

Fermentation Preserves Food

Fermentation is the original “refrigerator.” Get enough beneficial bacteria in something and it will ward off the bad bacteria until you’re ready to eat it (within reason of course).

Meat was stuffed into sausage casings, cured (i.e. fermented), and smoked to keep without rot. Fresh milk was clabbered (fermented), turned into kefir or yogurt, strained into sour cream, or made into cheese for long journeys. Vegetables were pickled into anything from kraut to kimchee. These could provide ample vitamin C all winter long.

Fermentation Makes Foods Easier to Digest

Besides storage, fermentation made foods easier to digest, and nutrients easier to absorb. Fermenting beans and grains is an important technique since the fermentation of these foods pre-digests the phytic acid inherent in all grains, beans, seeds, and nuts. It additionally eats the excess starches, keeping blood sugar and pathogenic gut overgrowths at bay.

Fermentation: Killed by Convenience

Nowadays, most of these arts are dead—killed by the convenience of prepackaged foods and quick-cooked grains. How many of us grew up with mom (or dad) soaking and sprouting their rice, quinoa, beans, or oatmeal overnight before throwing it in a pot? How many of us preserve a garden bounty by traditional fermentation (rather than dousing with vinegar, sugar, and salt)? These methods are old fashioned, yet ingrained in every culture across the globe for a reason: health and prosperity.

And in reality, we were eating a lot of fermented foods before these modern conveniences. Sandor Katz, international fermentor educator extraordinaire, writes in his book, The Art of Fermentation, “By some estimates, more than 1/3 of all food eaten by human beings worldwide is fermented.”

Think of everything we used to eat that was alive and fermented: cheese, bread, wine, beer, soy, sparkling beverages, salsa, grains, ketchup, mustard, pickles, olives, vinegar, etc. All of these were properly fermented not too long ago. Without all of this amazing lactic acid, microbial communities, beneficial yeasts and more, our guts are suffering. In fact, if you have endometriosis I know your gut is suffering (read about that here).

Fermentation To Heal The Endometriosis Gut

So how do we heal thy gut and begin to re-seed the microbiome?? You aim to eat fermented foods for probiotics and veggies for prebiotics. And you also eat a variety of them. Luckily for the time-starved, more and more awesome companies are selling actually fermented products in the grocery store refrigerated sections, and lucky for the foodies, making ferments at home is freaking easy and really cheap.

For most people, fermentation is really intimidating at first. We’re all really scared of doing it wrong and dying from bad bacteria! I was … I think it took me about a year to build up the courage to try fermenting my first batch of cabbage. That’s when I discovered that fermentation is really easy, like really-really easy. Often the first few times will take longer as you figure it out, but then it becomes second nature.

That’s why I recommend that everyone just start with one thing, one ferment to wrap your head around and get the hang of it. After you master one, your confidence will build, and you can try another. For me, I usually stick with three ferments that I make consistently (mine are kefir, lacto-fermented vegetables, and beet kvass), then add in extras when I feel like it (like ketchup, kombucha, soda, mead, or whatever else).

Oh, and always soak your grains before you cook them (12-24 hours is best).

Want to learn more? Get ready to delve into the beauty of ferments! Learning how to prepare grains properly will greatly improve your health, especially if you eat grains regularly. Adding fermented veggies to your meals, making your own fermented condiments, and drinking new fermented beverages will start to repopulate your gut the way you imagined that super-expensive little-bitty-probiotic-pill was supposed to do.

And if you take my advice and make this a hobby, you’ll find yourself more connected to your food sources and health than ever before. These are the big guns of nutrition, and they’re here to save your gut, your health, and your life.