THE FERMENTED FOOD DIET
Can eating pre-digested food from civet cats really make you thinner?
It is a diet that might, quite literally, leave a strange taste in your mouth.
Among the foods it advocates are such love-or-hate dishes as sauerkraut, finely chopped cabbage fermented in vinegar; kimchi, a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings; and hongeo – a fish delicacy once famously described by a Korean newspaper as smelling ‘reminiscent of an outhouse’. Veiny cheeses, tea that takes seven days to brew, and coffee made from beans predigested by civet cats are also on the menu.
Even its advocates say it can sound unappealing. ‘There’s an element of the gross-out factor,’ admits Dubai-based dietitian Christopher James Clark.
Yet a fermented foods diet is fast becoming all the rage, with health fanatics across the globe – and right here in the UAE, it seems.
More and more eating plans are promoting the perks of the likes of pickled vegetables, sour cabbage, cultured yogurts and sourdough bread. Fans reckon that filling your meal times with such stuff has a range of benefits, including boosting the immune system, improving energy levels, brightening skin, combating mood swings and reducing the chances of diabetes, cancers and heart disease.
‘The science is very simple,’ says Chris, 38, a nutritionist who worked across the US and Europe before arriving in Dubai in 2013. ‘The body is home to 100 trillion bacterial cells; some are good for you and others less so. To be at the peak of your health it’s vital to ensure you have an optimum number of good bacteria in there.
‘That’s where fermented foods – those that are chock-full of probiotics or good bacteria – come in. They are pretty much the ultimate super-food. They are packed with probiotics, the good stuff, so eating things like sauerkraut and kimchi boosts the number of good bacteria in your body. And that’s important because those bacteria help improve pretty much every aspect of your health from your weight to your immune system, from your heart to your state of mind. They essentially help your body to run itself better.’
And, he adds, it’s all relatively easy – and cheap – to get into your diet. More of which shortly.
For now, though, the obvious question: is it really possible that a diet consisting of foods where the taste, texture and smell are often politely described as ‘distinct’, ‘acquired’ and ‘potent’ – but very rarely as, say, ‘delicious’ – can catch on? It appears so. Arguably, this goes back to 2004, when American nutritionist Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride released the ground-breaking book Gut and
Psycholog y Syndrome (available on Amazon.com). In her text, she explained her theories – gathered over years treating real patients – that a good diet was one of the most effective ways to treat and prevent a range of severe and unlikely conditions including obesity, mood disorders, autism, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and coeliac disease.
Her ideas were relatively simple: refined products and sugars – bad; fresh fruit and white meat – good. But key to the treatise was the standout idea that daily consumption of fermented foods would be beneficial to everyone.
The good bacteria inherent in such edibles, noted Dr Campbell-McBride, strengthen our immune system by creating more antibodies and pathogens. Just as importantly, perhaps, they improve our ability to digest, meaning they
give our body a greater capacity for extracting more nutrients, minerals and vitamins from other food. In short, fermented dishes are not only good in and of themselves – they also allow us to get the best out of other foods.
‘Just one serving of fermented vegetables is equal to an entire bottle of a high-potency probiotic,’ she said. ‘So, clearly, this diet is good.’
Eating such stuff isn’t a new thing, of course.
Different peoples across the globe have been doing it for centuries. The Tatars – a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe – and the Romans loved their sauerkraut long before it became associated with eastern Europe; lassi was and still is a favourite yogurt drink of Indians; and pickling has been a way of preparing food in the Far East for time immemorial.
But what appears to be new in these early years of the 21st century is the growing use of fermented foods as a health tonic.
Because of the difficult nature of monitoring food trends, proof of this rise is, at this stage, more anecdotal than statistical. But there seems to be little doubt that it exists, with various global supermarkets reporting an increased interest.
One of those is the American chain ShopRite. ‘Our retail dietitians are seeing an increase in interest in products containing probiotic qualities, such as yogurt; kefir, a fermented milk drink; and tempeh, a naturally cultured soy product,’ says Natalie Menza, the company’s corporate dietitian. ‘Some of these customers are looking to manage specific health issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal distress, while others are simply looking to improve overall health.’
Here in Dubai, meanwhile, restaurants like Tomo – a traditional Japanese restaurant in Raffles hotel, – and the chain Organic Foods and Café have reported a greater interest in their fermented products. ‘Obviously, our most popular dishes are still our sushi and Wagyu beef,’ says Nikolas Margaritis, spokesman for Tomo. ‘But there’s no doubt that the last two or three years there’s been a small surge in people ordering things like the maguro natto [diced raw tuna and fermented soybeans], the Japanese pickles and the hiyayakko [bean curd topped with dry fish flakes]. Our miso [a traditional fermented seasoning] has never been more popular.
‘I think that’s a result of two things: Dubai is becoming more cosmopolitan and more willing to experiment with food, and people here are becoming more health-conscious.’
One of those people is Helena Andersal. The 26-year-old finance worker, originally from the Netherlands, has been eating fermented for 18 months now.
‘A fitness instructor was telling me about the benefits and I’ve always enjoyed sauerkraut so I thought I’d give it a go,’ she explains. ‘And it works. I’ve never been unhealthy but within a couple of weeks I felt so much more energised.
‘Some customers are looking to MANAGE specific health ISSUES, like IRRITABLE BOWEL syndrome and other gastrointestinal DISTRESS, while others are simply looking to IMPROVE overall health’
I stopped getting mid-afternoon slumps and my skin felt cleaner and fresher than ever before.’
So, how do you easily and affordably go about introducing this into your daily diet? Probably more easily and affordably than you might think.
‘This isn’t a diet that needs a huge change in lifestyle,’ says Chris. ‘It’s genuinely simple stuff.’
Indeed, a lot of fermented foods could probably be locked into your meals today without much of a shop search at all.
A cultured yogurt as a midmorning snack; a goat’s cheese salad for lunch; a slice of sourdough bread with an egg for breakfast; a glass of Kombucha – fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea. These are all products that are available from most supermarkets in Dubai, and at the very least from any organic shop.
More exotic fermented foods, meanwhile, tend to work best as side portions, additional servings and seasonings, so there is no need to massively alter your eating habits.
‘If you’re the kind of person who already eats relatively healthy,’ says Chris, ‘it’s just a case of adding a couple of things in here and there. Try a portion of suan cai [pickled cabbage] on the side of grilled chicken perhaps; or use atchara [a Filipino pickle] to flavour some poached fish.’
Such specialised stuff – also including bagoong (a South East Asian condiment), brem (Indonesian fermented rice), and douchi (a Chinese dish of soybeans) – is readily available at the city’s Korean, Chinese and Japanese supermarkets. They tend to go with a wide range of meals, are inexpensive and keep a long time.
And buying isn’t the only option. Plenty of fermented foods are easy to make. Like, really easy. Sauerkraut, for instance, requires only cabbage, salt and time (roughly two weeks). No specialist equipment is needed, other than a jar and a cloth. Kimchi is similarly simple.
‘These are foods that literally a child could make,’ says Chris. ‘And if you make a big batch, they can last for months. With sauerkraut all you do is massage in some salt into a cabbage until the juices start to come out and then store it in a jar with a cloth covering it for a fortnight. Then it’s job done – it’s ready to eat.’
While most meats don’t ferment, fish is a dish that does. Examples that are relatively popular include fesikh, an Egyptian way of preparing grey mullet; hongeohoe, which comes from skate; and ngari, an Indian creation featuring freshwater fish.
Just one warning, though: introduce these foods gradually. As with most things, too much too soon can overwhelm the body and leave you feeling initially uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, it seems that for many, fermentation is the future. If, that is, they can only overcome that occasionally strange taste in the mouth.
‘This isn’t a diet that needs a HUGE CHANGE in LIFESTYLE. It’s genuinely SIMPLE stuff.’ These products are AVAILABLE in most supermarkets in Dubai, or at the very least in ORGANIC SHOPS