Vintage Food Hack: Fermenting (Part 1)

Ever kept a book around forever unopened? Then you finally crack it open and realize you have been missing out?I recently had this experience with The Art of Fermentation by Katz. I loved the idea of this book, (and of having time to read all its 438 pages) but I just never did. In fact, I didn’t even open it, not once!

That is, until I had to write an article on lacto-fermentation. I opened “the book” to see if it would be useful and credible as a reference. Wow, was it ever! If I didn’t have a deadline, I would have sat down and read the entire thing cover to cover then and there!

Side note: In the category of things you should know about me. I love to read, and I am a procrastinate-until-the-last-minute-but-somehow-get-it-done kind of person. Hence, my situation. Okay, back to the point.

I wrote a pretty good article, if I do say so myself. It was informative and official and all that jazz (and you can read it here). But what I want to share with you, my readers, is the joy and excitement I get when I learn about and think about fermenting!

Why, you ask?

Well let me tell you...

• I LOVE learning to do things that our ancestors knew how to do. I am an Old Soul, and I try to make the most of every opportunity I have to do things the old-fashioned way.

• I HATE throwing food away. It comes from growing up in a large family, I suppose. Or perhaps my Hungarian ancestry. But fermenting allow me to preserve food longer.

• I LOVE using fermenting as a hack! I can get more out of my vegetables by fermenting them because it increases the nutritional availability of what is present in the vegetable naturally, without adding anything else!

• I CAN buy vegetables in season, and locally!

• I GET probiotic benefit from the vegetables, and variety matters.

• I KNOW what I am eating in my sauerkraut, banana peppers, etc because I added the ingredients.

• I SAVE money by making my own ferments.

• I GET to know and connect with what I am consuming, which is an important part of thoughtful eating.

Does that jazz you up at all?

Can’t wait to get started, you say?

Keep calm and hold on.

Soon we will talk a little more about what fermenting is and how to get started.

Stay tuned!

And Onward!

The One About Fat

Do you know what makes food delicious and nutritious?

Today we are going to breech a taboo subject. Today we are talking about fat!

Did you know that fat is good for you? That’s right, good ol’ fashioned animal fat--butter, lard, cream, bacon grease--yum!!!

I know I know, I just opened up a can of worms… well, since it’s open, let’s do a little fishing!

How can I possibly say fat is healthy? Low-fat diets are preached everywhere--school, friends, doctors, television! Isn’t it a know fact that fat is clogging our arteries and causing heart attacks and strokes? Everyone knows that low-fat is the healthy way to go.

But what if fat is not bad for us?

In my family, we tell the story of my great-grandmother, who lived into her nineties DESPITE the fact that she would eat the gristle off everyone’s plates. But maybe she lived so long BECAUSE she ate that gristle? How can I say that? Because we NEED fat!

It is an important building block in every one of our cells, and is necessary for many body systems to even function.

What if fat is good for us?

How can I say that? Let’s look at that together.

It is important to eat fat with any food that we eat--let’s talk about why.

Carbs and Sugars:

When we eat simple carbs and sugars (even natural ones), the sugar is quickly absorbed, causing the blood sugar to spike. The body then releases lots of insulin to bring the blood sugar back down. Often, the blood sugar drops back down too quickly and triggers hunger a couple hours later. Then this whole cycle repeats. When eaten with these foods, fat slows the absorption of sugar, leading to a slow and gentle rise in blood sugar, and avoiding the insulin drop and the “blood sugar roller coaster.”

Vegetables:

We are told to eat a lot of vegetables because they are full of vitamins and minerals that we need. This is true, but those great vitamins and minerals are not very easily absorbed by us because we lack something cows have-extra stomachs. We need help to extract even a little of the nutrition available in a vegetable. Enter fat! When eaten with vegetables, fat provides carriers for many vitamins and minerals, allowing us to reap the benefit of plants beyond the fiber.

Protein:

Protein, too, needs to be eaten with fat. When protein is absorbed from our intestines, the body needs to pair it with vitamin A (a fat-soluble vitamin) before using it. When we don’t eat fat along with our protein (think boneless, skinless chicken breasts), the body steals vitamin A from its storage place in the liver. If this happens regularly, we can become vitamin A deficient. Aside from causing vitamin A deficiency symptoms (night-blindness and immune suppression), it can lead to vitamin D deficiency. And because these two are linked, you will not be able to correct a vitamin D deficiency (no matter how much you supplement) unless you correct the vitamin A deficiency as well. Fortunately, both are present in animal fat!

So when do we eat fat? All the time! With everything!

Fat makes our food taste good! Low fat=low taste. In processed food, the taste void is often made up by increasing sugar or non-food substances like MSG. Adding fat back into your diet adds back natural flavor. Hello, delicious food!

About eating fat:

If you have been following a low-fat diet for a while, you can’t just start eating tons of fat--you will likely feel nauseous and may get loose stools. Instead, gradually increase your fat. Eating fermented foods or raw apple cider vinegar can help too. I recommend trying to add just ½ cup of added animal fat a day at first. Once your body is used to fat, try increasing the amount to 3-4 TBS of fat with each meal, or 1 ½ cups of added animal fat per day. After a while, your daily intake will likely settle between these amounts, varying based on your body’s needs. Listen to your body and eat as much as you are wanting. Once your body knows it has the option to eat fat when needed, it will be able to tell you how much it needs.

Here are some ideas to increasing your dietary fat:

• add a couple TBS of butter to your steamed vegetables (per serving)!

• add creme fraiche (sour cream) to everything!

• fry up your vegetables, meat or eggs in several TBS of butter, lard (learn to make your own) or bacon grease!

• have a little bread with your butter!

• eat your gristle!

What creative and delicious ideas do you have about how to eat more fat? Share them here!

Onward!

Say No to Bone Broth!

Bone broth! It’s all the rage right now! But I don’t recommend it for most people. Find out why, and what I recommend doing instead.

Why avoid bone broth? Bone broth is good, and contains high levels of minerals and amino acids, including glutamic acid.

But large amounts of glutamic acid can be a problem for some people, especially those who have a leaky gut. Although some people can tolerate bone broth right away, it is advisable for everyone to start with meat stock, and then slowly add bone broth.

If you want more details about the differences between stock and broth, and what things like glutamic acid are, Biodynamic Wellness wrote a wonderful article that you can read for more information!

Important note: you can get a die-off reaction from both meat stock and bone broth. This is a sign of healing, but care should be taken to slowly increase the amount as the person is tolerating. You should always discuss issues with the practitioner you are working with.

How to make Meat Stock:

Ingredients:

• Meat (80%) and bones with joint(s) (20%)

• Organ meats (optional, but recommended)

• 2-3 carrots

• 1-2 celery stalks (on early GAPS, remove the celery before eating)

• 1 onion

• 4-6 whole peppercorns

• 3-4 quarts filtered water (approximately)

• 1 bunch of fresh parsley

Directions:

• Prepare your meat

  • cut up chicken to expose the joints

  • braise or roast the beef/buffalo/pork meat briefly (for added flavor)

• Add meat and bones to stockpot or dutch oven

• Add filtered water, enough to just cover the meat (3-4 quarts)

• Turn on the heat, bring to a boil

• Cut up onion, carrot and celery

• When water comes to a boil, reduce the heat and skim the scum (foam)

• the scum is impurities, dirt, blood, bacteria, etc

• if you miss this, it's ok but it does make it taste better!

• Add chopped vegetables and peppercorns

• Simmer for 1.5-3 hrs (chicken) 2-4 hrs (lamb & pork), 3-5 hrs (beef, etc). Do not cook longer than 6 hrs, this will increase the glutamic acid

• Add the parsley to the simmering stock 10 minutes before it's done

• Allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge

• Enjoy the delicious and nutritious stock that you made yourself!

• If you are new to this, start by making a pot of stock every week, consuming a little of it daily. You could make different soups with it, or just drink some stock (hot or cold) as a beverage or snack.

Extra Tips:

• Meat stock should be a meal--eat it as a basic soup, or add other vegetables and spices to change it into something completely different.

• Don't throw out the best parts! If you are dealing with picky eaters (including yourself), you can blend the parts of the meat you don't want to eat (skin, joint cartilages, organ meats) with a little stock liquid. It will make your stock slightly thicker, but it will also increase the nutrition--meaning you will heal faster!

• DO NOT THROW OUT THE FAT! This is a vital food for healing. You can keep it on your stock and mix it in as you consume it, or put it aside in the refrigerator and add it to your food one serving at at time.

• Most people debone the meat after the stock is cooked. When you do this, you should be left with just a pile of bones--everything else is considered meat.

• Store the bones in a freezer bag and when you have a full bag, you can use them to make bone broth later--when you are ready for it!

• You can strain the stock into jars (it’s easiest to do this when it is warm) and use it as a base for other soups. Eat or freeze the meat. Again, meat stock is a meal, all the components can and should be eaten.

• If you want to freeze meals ahead of time, it's easier to freeze soup instead of stock. Stock tends to expand and can crack the container it is frozen. Soup is less likely to harm the container it is frozen in.

• This is only the basic recipe. Use other vegetables and fresh herbs to make a variety of different soups.

• It is best to add salt to each serving of soup or stock, instead of salting the entire pot. Salt should be consumed as desired. Always use a whole sea salt (Celtic, Real Salt, or Himalayan).

And after you make your nourishing stock, then you can make a soup! You can read more about how to make soup without a recipe here.

Beneficial Bacteria: Why Lacto-ferment?

Fair warning: the following post was originally written as an article. It is longer and more technical than a normal blog post. It contains great information, including the history of fermentation and some basic fermentation chemistry, but may be more than you need to know. Feel free to read (or not) accordingly!

The Benefits of Bacteria: How Lacto-fermentation is Good for You

The history of lacto-fermentation is rich and alive. There are signs of people groups fermenting their food as far back as we have found artifacts in various archaeological digs. It remains a mystery how the first people discovered fermentation.

However, as science has discovered now, a large part of “our” body’s makeup is not our own DNA, but rather a body-shaped shell containing a symbiotic environment teeming with bacteria, yeast, protozoa, and other microbes. Therefore, consuming probiotic foods is not only beneficial, but it is vital to our very life. Without the symbiotic relationships working in our body, we would be unable to function.

We often use the word “culture” to describe the ideals held in common by a group of people. In the same way, when we use “culture” to describe food preservation, we are also recognizing the grouping of different organisms, working together in symbiosis. This relationship, both inside the body, as well as out, demonstrates a beauty that not only brings tactile benefit, but is in many ways soul-soothing. You cannot ferment without paying attention to, and giving credit and help to the beneficial microbes that will, in turn, help to bring health and balance to your own body.

So what is lacto-fermentation?

Lacto-fermentation is one of the ways humans have used (for centuries) to preserve food. It does not necessarily involve milk, as the lacto-  prefix seems to suggest, but it involves creating an environment that encourages the growth of lactic acid producing bacteria. These type of bacteria work symbiotically with our bodies, and have been shown in research to be helpful in metabolism, detoxification,  immunity and allergies, preventing dental caries, kidney stones and cancer, and in reducing anxiety, cholesterol and blood pressure.If that list doesn’t convince you that you need to be consuming probiotic foods daily, scientists have also found that the nutritional value of most foods is increased through the fermentation process. An additional benefit, which is decidedly less important in the American culture, is food preservation without refrigeration.

How does lacto-fermentation work?

The concept of lacto-fermentation are simple. An environment needs to be created that promotes the growth of lactic-acid producing bacteria (LABs).  Many harmful and pathogenic bacteria and viruses are unable to live in the presence of lactic acid, so in this situation the body is working symbiotically with the LABs to control the environment of the body to be hostile to unwanted microbes. When we create a correctly hostile environment, beneficial flora are allowed to flourish, and unwanted flora moves on. It is very simple to create this desired environment, at it’s most basic, it only takes salt and water. The purpose of the salt is to create an environment that the LABs, and only the LABs, can thrive in. Other bacterial growth is stunted by contact with salt, allowing the LABs to flourish, eventually producing enough lactic acid that the salt is then unnecessary. In addition to preserving the food, the lactic acid helps with other aspects of fermentation, such as pre-digesting our food (starting the digestion process before it even enters our body) and nutritional enhancement.

Why have we moved away from lacto-fermented foods?

There are several reasons why we stopped fermenting our foods, the two main reasons being refrigeration and the “sterilization” or pasteurization movement. The first is simple to explain and understand, with refrigerators, we began to have the luxury of keeping food longer by keeping it cold. Previously, with only a few exceptions, people had two options--eat the food they hunted or gathered very quickly, or find some way to preserve the food. With the advent of electricity, refrigeration became available to almost everyone in a developed country, and with it the ability to store fresh food for a longer amount of time. Spoilage happens at a much slower temperature, so even fresh meat will keep for about a week. Because of this, and the accessibility of grocery stores, we can buy our refrigerated food, bring it home to our own refrigerator, and eat at our convenience throughout the week. No need for preservation here.Secondly, since 1857 when Louis Pasteur discovered that heating (killing) bacteria created more control over the process of alcoholic fermentation, we have been using heat to sterilize, or pasteurize, allowing us to store food, even at room temperature, for longer periods of time. However, because pasteurization kills the LABs as well as harmful microbes, there is a risk of spoilage, rancidity or putrefaction associated with any pasteurized food if contamination occurs. 

Can you learn to ferment?

Anyone can ferment--the process is very simple, almost foolproof, and safe. It is also fun, relaxing, grounding, adventurous, and sometimes exciting! Even if food prep is not exciting to you, the process is fulfilling and satisfying. And when you know that you have prepared food that has numerous health benefits, costing very little money or effort, you can sit back and feel accomplished at a job well done. And as you grow more comfortable with the process, you can experiment with different recipes--some in a book, some made up on the spot. That is the beauty of fermentation! You can ferment anything! And by following some basic principles, it’s really rather difficult to mess up!

How do I get started in fermenting?

There are several good resources available as you start on your fermentation journey. Books, like Sandor Ellix Katz’s The Art of Fermentation, will give you comprehensive instruction on this subject. There are website such as Cultures for Health, and various YouTube channels that will give written and video instructions on different ferments. Finally, there are various people (including myself) who teach the basics of fermentation in a classroom setting. Search these people out and sign up for a class--the information you will learn is invaluable to your health!

I like to call my ferments my children--because they need to be taken care of in the same way--you need to create a safe environment for them, feed them, keep them clean, and most of all, love them!

Part of the art of fermentation is the intention you put into them. When you are grateful for the health and support they are going to bring you, it will fill your soul (and usually makes them taste better). While, at times, the weight of responsibility for making ferments is heavy, it is always overshadowed by the benefits--physically and spiritually. So what are you waiting for--start on this journey today!

Citations:

• Katz, Sandor. 2012. The Art of Fermentation: An in-depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT.

• Katz, Sandor. 2003. Wild Fermentation: the Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT.

When the Sheets Get Washed Every Day...

Science-y article ahead... readers, ye be warned!

"Don't drink toomuch before bed..."

"Did you go to the bathroom? Well, try again..."

"You should go to that sleep-over. You can go in the bathroom to put on your pull-up, your friends won't know."

For many parents, these are everyday conversations in their house... with their 10 year old (or older) child. According to Up-To-Date, a resource that gives current, evidence-based practice treatment guidelines, bed-wetting occurs in 16% of 5 year olds, and 1-2% of children will still be wetting the bed at age 15!

Bottom line, if your child is under the age of 6, mainstream medicine has no concern about bedwetting. It is common enough, even through middle school, that many providers reassure parents that it can still be normal.

But is it?

Bed-wetting, or nocturnal enuresis, has happened through recorded history, earliestreports in 1550 BC. Various methods have been used to "cure" the person of this problem--from boiled mice to electric shocktherapy. You can see more about the old and recent treatments here. Aren't you glad we no longer use most of these methods?

An article by Michael Salmon, published in 1975, walks us through the reasoning, knowledge, and treatments used in various places in history. If one reads closely, you will notice that there are two main areas of discussion. The first is the debate between laziness and pathology--meaning is the child 1) doing this to be defiant, or 2) is there an underlyingproblem that is causing this? The second area of discussion is the link between mental and physical health, and bed-wetting. In 1870, a link between incontinence and epilepsy was suggested. In the late 1800's, two separate articles found a probablelink that children who struggled with late bed-wetting had a higher risk of developing a form of "insanity" (mental health issues, severe depression or anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, etc.) later on.

Adams addresses laziness versus physical condition in 1844, saying:

None of the brute creation will lie in their urine if they are not tied or penned; then why do we attribute this practice in the rational being to mere laziness? Simply because some physicians are not able, by a careless or superficial examination, to find the cause, and well knowing that their reputations will be at stake if they do not account for the act, they too often condemn the helpless child to daily floggings.

So if there is a cause to this, what's the link?

According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the link is unhealthy gut flora. This is consistent with the link suggested of bed-wetting to mental illness, epilepsy and insanity. When the gut flora is abnormal, the flora of the entire body becomes abnormal--including the groin and bladder flora. In bed-wetting, cystitis, frequent UTIs, urge incontinence, and other similar conditions, the root of the problem appears to be the same. Healthy flora makes the pH of the bladder low, keeping pathogens from adhering to the gut wall. Unhealthy flora allows an overgrowth or bad flora, leading to urinary tract infections. The leaky, damagedgut allows a build up of irritating toxins, which often accumulate in the bladder. As the toxicity in the bladder increases, the bladder is stimulated to empty. While awake the person will usually be able to answer the sudden urge, but when in deep sleep the bladder dumps the toxic urine, whether the person awakens or not. So she suggests that the cause of mental illness is not bed-wetting, but rather, both are caused by abnormal gut flora (Gut and Psychology Syndrome, 2011, p. 102-103).

If this is true, then there is a hope of curing bed-wetting, cystitis--and preventing or treating many other possible illnesses that are worse.And it is for this reason it is so important to address the root of this and other health problems. Putting a band-aid on it will not make it better, or make it go away. To enact lasting change we must fix the problem.

Congratulations! You made it through this technical article! I hope you learned some helpful things! I am so excited each time I learn another symptom or problem that will be helped from addressing unhealthy gut flora!

And we learn, and continue...

Onward!

References:

• Campbell-McBride, Natasha. (2011). GAPS Practitioner Training Manual. Medinform Publishing, Soham, Cambridge.

• Salmon, Michael, A. (1975, July). An Historical Account of Nocturnal Enuresis and its Treatment. Section of the History of Medicine, 68, pp 443-445.

• http://www.uptodate.com/contents/bedwetting-in-children-beyond-the-basics