Food & Nutrition Education

Contributed By Nancy Lee Bentley

The Incredible Health Benefits to You of Traditionally Fermented Foods

Balancing Out the "Raw versus Cooked" Food Debate

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The Incredible Health Benefits to You of Traditionally Fermented Foods By Nancy Lee Bentley

Self-serve olive bars are becoming so popular in many Washington supermarkets that storeowners are now offering expanded "antipasto" bars, heaped high with pickles, pickled peppers, mushrooms, artichokes and other tangy pickled and marinated foods, according to The Seattle Times.

This growing trend in both health/natural and regular commercial supermarkets across the country is theoretically good news for health-conscious consumers looking to increase their digestive, cardiovascular and immune health, since these traditionally lacto-fermented foods are some of the oldest and healthiest on the planet. Yet, the key phrase you absolutely must watch for if you want to achieve the amazing health benefits is traditionally lacto-fermented, as not all of these tasty condiments are created equal.

The Wonderful Health Benefits of Traditionally Lacto-Fermented Foods

Olives, pickles, grass-fed cheese, wine, yogurt, sauerkraut and the seasoned, aged sausages the French call charcuterie are some of this category's most popular delicacies.

Though the term fermented sounds vaguely distasteful, the results of this ancient preparation and preservation technique -- produced through the breakdown of carbohydrates and proteins by microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts and molds -- are actually delicious. Even more so, they are so beneficial to overall health that some of these functional foods are now considered to be probiotics, increasing your overall nutrition, promoting the growth of friendly intestinal bacteria, and aiding digestion and supporting immune function, including an increase in B vitamins (even Vitamin B12), omega-3 fatty acids, digestive enzymes, lactase and lactic acid, and other immune chemicals that fight off harmful bacteria and even cancer cells.

Beware the BIG Difference Between Healthy Fermented Foods Versus Commercially Processed

Fermentation is an inconsistent process --almost more of an art than a science -- so commercial food processors developed techniques to help standardize more consistent yields. Technically, anything that is brined in a salt stock is fermented, but thats where the similarity ends, as each type of fermented food has specific, unique requirements and production methods.

Refrigeration, high-heat pasteurization and vinegars acidic pH all slow or halt the fermentation and enzymatic processes. If you leave a jar of pickles that is still fermenting at room temperature on the kitchen counter, they will continue to ferment and produce CO2, possibly blowing off the lid or exploding the jar, explains Richard Henschel of Pickle Packers International, which is why, of course, all shelf-stable pickles are pasteurized.

Its probably not surprising that our culture has traded many of the benefits of these healthy foods for the convenience of mass-produced pickles and other cultured foods. Some olives, such as most canned California-style black olives, for instance, are not generally fermented, but are simply treated with lye to remove the bitterness, packed in salt and canned. Olive producers can now hold olives in salt-free brines by using an acidic solution of lactic acid, acetic acid, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, a long way off from the old time natural lactic-acid fermenting method of salt alone.

Some pickles are simply packed in salt, vinegar and pasteurized. Many yogurts are so laden with sugar that they are little more than puddings. Unfortunately, these modern techniques effectively kill off all the lactic acid producing bacteria and short-circuit their important and traditional contribution to intestinal and overall health.

How to Make Sure You are Getting the Incredible Health Benefits of Lacto-Fermented Foods

As fermented foods expert Sally Fallon asks in Nourishing Traditions, with the proliferation of all these new mysterious viruses, intestinal parasites and chronic health problems, despite ubiquitous sanitation, "Could it be that by abandoning the ancient practice of lacto-fermentation, and insisting on a diet in which everything has been pasteurized, we have compromised the health of our intestinal flora and made ourselves vulnerable to legions of pathogenic microorganisims?" Like the $2.97 gallon jars of dill pickles Vlasic sells at a loss at Walmart, are we undermining our health and even economic well-being by our insistence on "more, faster and cheaper?"

You can still find some healthy traditional varieties. The stronger-flavored, traditional Greek olives you are most likely to find on olive bars are not lye-treated and are still alive with active cultures. So are "overnights," the locally-crocked fresh pickling cukes made in local delis every few days, as well as the pickles, sauekraut and other fermented foods you make yourself at home. Generally, the more tangy and stronger the flavor (not counting any added jalapeo or other hot pepper flavorings), the more likely that the food will still have active and beneficial lactobacteria.

So how can you be sure if you are getting the benefits of these active, fermentation cultures? For one thing, you can make your own. Olives, sauerkraut, miso, creme fraiche -- these are some of the recipes and ingredients I created to be right in line with Dr. Mercola's dietary program that you will find in his new book, Dr. Mercola's TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook and Program.

In addition to being good for individual metabolic types, reducing carbohydrates and cholesterol, strengthening digestion and immune systems, and even proactively helping us fight off and prevent disease, these foods are a lot simpler, easier to prepare and enjoy than you might think.

So in Dr. Mercola's TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook & Program, we've demystified the process for you, providing an entire chapter, in fact, devoted to simple, health-enhancing Raw, Sprouted and Fermented Foods. This means double dividends for you: foods that taste good and are actually incredibly good for you, as well.

Check out Dr. Mercola's TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook & Program, including the Table of Contents and List of Recipes, as it is a sure way to make your New Year a happy and healthy one. Dr. Mercola guarantees the book or your money back for the rest of your life for a reason -- it WILL improve your health while pleasing your taste buds. Now, please pass that relish tray!

By NancyLeeBentley

website: www.nancyleebentley.com

email Nancy: Nancy@NancyLeeBentley.com

Co-Author of Dr. Mercola's TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook & Program

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Balancing Out the "Raw versus Cooked" Food Debate By Nancy Lee Bentley

Raw or Cooked?
 
The age-old debate still rages, peppered with a wide diversity of opinions and philosophies across the contemporary rainbow of healthy diets.  What, in the final analysis, really is the best, healthiest diet for us to consume  --- a predominantly raw or a cooked food diet?   This is a dynamic subject, but the evidence may surprise you. 
 
To shed some light on this debate, we can take a look at some common food facts from history. While there is a growing consensus today that eating raw food is healthier, the fact is, throughout history all cultures have modified, cooked or altered the energy field of their foods in some way. This is one of the 11 fundamental Characteristics of Traditional Diets, based on extensive research on so-called primitive cultures throughout the world by Dr. Weston Price in the 1930s. Even the most primitive tribe discovered in our time, The Tasaday of the Philippines, who had no wheel or weapons, did have fire, which they started with wooden sticks and used to roast wild yams and other foods.
 
This makes sense from a functional standpoint.  Warmth, moisture, darkness, time -- these are the elements of cooking.  Whether through the application of heat (boiling, baking, frying, etc.), microorganisms (fermenting or pickling), mechanics  (juicing, chopping), activation  (sprouting) or preservation  (canning, freezing, salting or drying, milling or other processing), cooking or altering foods is invariably a form of predigestion.
 
This applies, as well, to the human body itself.  For whether its accomplished outside the body by chopping or processing before eating ---- or through the bodys own warmth, moisture, darkness and digestive processes after eating, the fact is we have to break down and cook or process our food in some way in order to be able to absorb and assimilate it.
 
Cooking contracts vegetable foods, concentrating more nutrients with less bulk. Bitter greens like turnip greens and collards, traditionally prepared by lengthy stewing, are generally more edible when cooked.  Cooking also eliminates the oxalic acid, which binds and interferes with calcium absorption.
 
Cookings Metabolic and Psycho-Spiritual Effects
 
Beyond simple preservation, cooking has a variety of profound metabolic, as well as psycho-spiritual effects on humans.  Fire equals warmth for survival, protection, community, socializing, togetherness, as well as for making foods more ready for digestion. Its application depends on a host of factors, including season, locality, heritage, genetics and customs. 
 
In Food and Healing, Anne Marie Colbin points out that for most people cooking supports mental concentration better than expansive salads with many different ingredients.  The advantage of fire may have resulted in the development of civilization by mental focus and concentration.  Cooking food for eating obviously has a long history in the annals of human existence. 
 
There is no question that cooking deactivates some vital nutrients, including enzymes, but cooking also makes digestion less stressful.  Many people with poor digestion dont handle raw foods or beans very well, which is in part why macrobiotic diets  may have worked for some people recovering from various maladies.  The higher proportion of nutrients in raw food is useless if the food cant be digested, absorbed and assimilated.
 
Good Nutrition is a Matter of Balance
 
So there are tradeoffs in each case.  Ultimately it comes down to the individual situation and a matter of balance.
 
Thats ostensibly why dieticians have been saying eat a balanced diet with a variety of foods.  Yet, this is only a partial truth, too often typical of standard scientific fact.  Its not only the total quantity, but also the quality of the food that is critically important, along with how its grown, treated, processed, and handled.  How its stored and packaged, prepared, cooked, overcooked or denatured.  And how our own bodies individually process and handle it. 
 
As Dr. Gabriel Cousins says,  There is so much we do not understand about the subtleties of nutrition that we are essentially shooting in the dark when we start to alter and process our foods. 
 
Its actually ironic that we should even have to engage in an intellectual debate about this subject, since ostensibly we should KNOW, without having to think about it, what the optimum fuel for our personal vehicle -- our body -- is.  This just shows us how far OFF we are, how out of tune and out of touch we are with our own bodies.  
 
Animals, for example, dont read articles or have to study about what to eat.  They are instinctually attuned to their own needs without having the gift of being able to intellectualize about it.  They eat only when hungry.  When theyre sick, they dont eat, or eat grasses, even if they are omnivores like dogs.  While we smart humans who know so much, usually end up being forced to listen to our bodies only when theyre shouting with pain or discomfort.
 
Even then, we just want to stop the pain as fast as possible.  And without training in biochemistry or medicine, we tend to fall back on following the advice of outside experts, instead of listening to the messages our bodies are continually trying to give us.
 
Are Modern Foods Shortening Our Lives?
 
While nutritional science is complex and admittedly complicated, its not rocket science. The bottom line is that we really dont need to be a food company biochemist or a medical specialist, to know what works best for our own systems, especially when it comes to what we eat.  The fact is, all too often, the messages from the so-called experts are confusing, conflicting, and often counterproductive, end up pointing us the wrong way  -- usually in the direction of their bottom line. To say nothing of the current political reality involved in the revolving door between industry and government. 
 
As Cousens says,  There is no necessity to sell out our health and shorten our lives so that someone else can profit from marketing so-called longer shelf life, modern, convenient foods.  Ironically, it appears that the more tinkering and altering done to extend the shelf life of our food, the shorter our own lives. So one has to ask, are we giving our modern foods a longer shelf life and shortening our own?    Dr. Janet Starr Hull puts it rather curtly, but succinctly, when she says,  People need to stop searching for excuses to eat all the junk food they want without penalty. In the long run, no one benefits from this product but the corporations.
 
Thats whats exciting about the new, Dr. Mercolas TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook and Program, which we just co-authored.  Much more than just a cookbook, this food and lifestyle guide recommends all the real, whole, healthiest foods both lightly cooked and raw --- from the right sources,  in the right proportions,  in a comprehensive program that is all about balance from the physical to the mental to the spiritual.  This is a straight-shooting, cut-to-the-chase compendium of key information, tools and recipes  that allow people to be able to access and identify their own personal metabolic profile.  It helps people learn how to listen to their body to fine-tune their diet to the foods and macronutrient ratios the ratios of fat, protein and carbohydrates --- that are precisely what they need, once and for all, permanently and by themselves.  Then the book offers simple lifestyle choices that can help anyone deal with their emotional issues, attitudes and even spiritual aspects to move toward a healthy, balanced life.

Read about Part II of this debate at Dr. Joseph Mercola's site.
 
By Nancy Lee Bentley

website: www.nancyleebentley.com

email Nancy: Nancy@NancyLeeBentley.com

Co-Author, Dr. Mercolas TOTAL HEALTH Cookbook & Program

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