Posted on 01/28/2022 2:43:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
Even the most fervent germaphobes among us will agree that not all bacteria are worthy of a glob of Purell. Still, just the word “bacteria” is enough to bring a grimace to someone’s face. And why not? Popular culture has made countless movies about worlds where tiny microbes exterminate humans, and the list of infamous bacteria is formidable — tuberculosis, salmonella and Clostridium, to name a few. But behind the fear and disease, there’s a duality. Bacteria sicken yet protect our bodies. They can topple civilizations but can nourish our food. We actively try to avoid them, yet microbes permeate every inch of the world. Bacteria get a bad rap, but despite common misconception, they’re not the villains we’ve made them out to be.
Every day, we walk around with 1.5 trillion bacteria on our skin and 100 trillion in our gut. For reference, there are about 30 trillion cells in our body. By that logic, it’s almost as if we’re more bacteria than human. If we think of ourselves as bacterial colonies, we have to ask how to sustain the members of the colony. Importantly, the flora that we have in our gut are directly related to the food we eat. In turn, the flora regulate our immune systems, mental health and digestive health. Quite literally, these bacteria help us fight other bacteria. A key to understanding how we can use these microbes and enrich our own microbiomes lies in fermented foods: food that has been made with live bacteria. Not to be confused with spoiled foods, fermented foods are preserved by bacteria that have used the food’s nutrients to sustain themselves. Although, sometimes it’s hard to tell the two apart just by smell.
While they may not be staples in the American diet, we can find fermented foods across cultures and throughout history. Even before our favorite fermented beverage, alcohol, was first created around 7000 B.C. in China, people would ferment camel, sheep and goat milk as a means of preserving dairy in the Middle East. Egyptians and Europeans teamed up with bacteria to produce yogurt, cheese and beer. While Europe exported sauerkraut and pickles, Asia produced fish paste, tempeh, soy sauce, kimchi and miso. The heat of North Africa provided an ideal environment for fermenting camel milk to yogurt, sustaining desert travelers. Today, we can find kombucha, a drink from ancient China, on the shelves of most grocery stores.
Fermented foods have remained a staple throughout history for good reason. The bacteria we ingest through food become part of our microbiomes, delivering several health benefits. A recent Stanford study revealed that a diet rich in fermented foods has immune benefits, reducing inflammation associated with disease and stress. What’s even more interesting is that fiber, the dietary component we’ve all been taught is incredibly important for healthy digestions, is not as effective in balancing and promoting our microbiome health compared to fermented foods. The old adage rings true in the case of bacteria: You are what you eat, and eating more microbes helps those inside of you flourish.
For those wanting to dip their toes into the world of fermented foods, the Ithaca Wegmans has a corner packed with these fermented goodies, and kombucha can easily be found around campus. And for those who are more adventurous, it’s pretty easy to ferment your own vegetables. Cucumbers, carrots, onions, asparagus, tomatoes and even watermelon are great for pickling.
Our natural aversion to bacteria is understandable and, in many cases, rightful, but our bodies require these microbes. Our relationship to bacteria is as old as our species, and we are finally beginning to understand that connection. In the coming years, we’ll have more knowledge on how to tailor our diets to enrich our microbiomes and a deeper understanding of the role fermented foods have in supporting health. So next time you eat a pickle or sip a beer, don’t forget the little organisms that made it for you.
Peter Kaplinsky is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at pk445@cornell.edu
Yeah but beer and cheese are fermented by fungi also bread.
Written like a high school term paper.
I’ve made kimchee and currently have a jar of habaneros, fresno chiles, garlic & onion fermenting for a hotsauce. I’ll add grilled pineapple to the hot sauce once it is done fermenting. Have also made gallons and gallons of beer, mead & wine. It’s all really easy to do. The hardest part of all of it is waiting for the ferment to be done!
Wow! I would like to do that. Very interesting
Baechu-kimchi (배추김치) spicy napa cabbage kimchi, made from whole cabbage leaves
Baechu-geotjeori (배추겉절이) unfermented napa cabbage kimchi
Bossam-kimchi (보쌈김치) wrapped kimchi
Baek-kimchi (백김치) white kimchi, made without chili pepper
Dongchimi (동치미) a non-spicy watery kimchi
Nabak-kimchi (나박김치) a mildly spicy watery kimchi
Chonggak-kimchi (총각김치) cubed chonggak “ponytail” radish, a popular spicy kimchi
Kkakdugi (깍두기) spicy cubed Korean radish strongly-scented kimchi containing fermented shrimp
Oi-sobagi (오이소박이) cucumber kimchi that can be stuffed with seafood and chili paste, and is a popular choice during the spring and summer seasons
Pa-kimchi (파김치) spicy green onion kimchi
Yeolmu-kimchi (열무김치) is also a popular choice during the spring and summer, and is made with yeolmu radishes, and does not necessarily have to be fermented.
Gat-kimchi (갓김치), made with Indian mustard
Yangbaechu-kimchi (양배추 김치) spicy cabbage kimchi, made from “headed” cabbage leaves (as opposed to napa cabbage)
Have also made gallons and gallons of beer, mead & wine.
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“Mead” is one of those terms I’ve seen forever and never really thought about what it was. I knew it was a drink, it sounds like something from medieval times, but that’s about it. Fermented honey water! Wild.
Yeast is not bacteria. They’re different kingdoms. But plants cannot live without bacteria, and animals cannot live without plants. And while plants use bacteria in the soil to break it down into nutrients, animals have learned to trap bacteria in their guts and use it to digest food.
natural remedies, rather than Activia that is flying of the shelves because of its claims. I love pickled anything. Except Biden.
I do sauerkraut regularly. How hard is kimchi?
My son took a college class in fermentation. He liked the subject so well his career shifted to micro-biology/food science. This summer he will intern at a cheese factory. It’s really interesting, but having toured his food science lab, I must say there are some really bad smells that can happen.
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You’d have no problem making kimchee.
Here is the book for you on the beer brewing thing:
And I would suggest, after you buy the equipment, to use
this malt extract as your first batch:
"Cooper's Special Bitter" from Adelaide, Australia.
The first batch of that stuff I brewed was the best
beer/ale I have as of yet drank. Beginner's luck I guess.
You can thank me later.
Thank You!
You are most welcome!
In winemaking, adding bacteria after primary fermentation (with yeast) is often called a "secondary" fermentation or malolactic fermentation and is most often done with Red wine and not White wine (Chardonnay being the biggest exception with white wine).
Although, no fermentation takes places, it's actually the process of the bacteria converting the more tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, into softer-tasting lactic acid (aka Milk acid) without alcohol being produced.
As a hobby I'm a bit of a vigneron and garagiste.
I make kombucha (fermented tea) which is enabled by a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) which presents itself as a rather large jellyfish-like mass. Easy, tasty, and probiotic.
Correct. Yeast is not bacteria. I have good sanitation practices to keep bacteria OUT of my beer when brewing. For that matter, hops themselves have anti-bacterial properties.
That said, there are a few beers that use bacteria (e.g., lactobacillus) in a controlled way to produce specific styles.
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