Last Words
Why fermentation is a kind of magic
SANDOR ELLIX KATZ is a worldrenowned fermenting teacher and author. He describes the fermentation process as: “… the transformative action of microorganisms.” But he says biologists roll their eyes at it. “For a biologist, it’s a little bit more specific… fermentation means anaerobic metabolism, the production of energy without oxygen.”
Sauerkraut is a good example of an anaerobic process. Cabbage is forced down into a brine and submerged in it. During the fermentation process, the sugars in the leaves are eaten up by a lactic acid bacteriarich environment. These are the ‘good’ bacteria, which live on the surface of vegetables and on your hands, creating the unique sour flavours. Pathogenic (‘bad’) micro-organisms cannot survive, which is why fermentation was the first method of food preservation humans used, thousands of years ago. It’s still considered to be the safest.
Some ‘ fermented’ foods like kombucha, vinegar, tempeh, and cheese require oxygen. Technically, these aren’t ferments, says Katz.
“I think of these as oxymoronic ferments. We (laypeople) reserve the word fermentation to describe something desirable, an intentional microbial transformation,” he says. “A manipulation of certain micro-organisms, and simultaneously discouraging the growth of undesirable organisms.”
Not every transformation by microbes is something good. For example, when you find something rotting in the back of the fridge, that’s micro-organisms in action, but not a ‘ ferment’ you’d want to eat.
The practical benefits of ‘good’ fermentation include: preservation of food, extending its useful life;
• making food more digestible;
• making food taste more delicious.
Katz talks about the microbial world as a fundamental part of what makes us human. That resonated with NZ fermentation producer Kelli Walker (see page 16). She spent a week training with Katz at his Tennessee home in 2018.
“Sandor describes this microbial world as being our ancestors and our allies. We consume them in our food and they pass through our bodies, they become us and they also reconnect us to nature. It’s this beautiful way of re-wilding our bodies; we can add more diversity into our diets.
“I think it comes from us not realising how powerful and how beneficial these microbes are. We’ve seen a war on bacteria with our sanitising sprays, hand sanitisers, mouth rinses… without realising how valuable and necessary these bacteria are for us. We’ve coexisted with microbes for as long as we’ve been on the planet.”
Science tells us gut microbes make an enormous contribution to our physical health and emotional wellbeing. A poor gut microbiome is linked to obesity, liver and heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and depression.
NZ scientist Rob Knight is a co-founder of The American Gut Project, which has found:
• each person is made up of about 10 trillion human cells, but we harbor as many as 100 trillion microbial cells;
• fermented foods all have species of helpful bacteria, most commonly Lactobacillus;
• people who eat fermented foods tend to have a higher diversity in their gut microbes;
• the more plant types you eat, the more diverse your gut bacteria;
• exercise may foster beneficial gut bacteria.
“Fermentation is the transformative action of microorganisms.”