Eating cultured

When reading the above title, one of two images will be conjured up: eating with high etiquette, very refined, expensive foods with a particular pomp; or eating foods that have been lacto-fermented (aka: "cultured").

When first addressing "fermented" foods, you might think eeewwwww! But we eat fermented foods quite often, such as beer, wine, cheese, yogurt, vinegar, sourdough bread, pickles, sauerkraut, tamari, etc. However, the methods often used today to mass produce them, aren't what they used to be. Moreover, we don't eat enough of the healthy ferments.

Traditional lacto-fermented foods (I will use the more friendly verbiage "cultured" from now on), dates back thousands of years all over the world. But it was done differently until very recently. For instance, pickles were cultured using salt and/or whey, not vinegar. The term "cultured" used today, in times past, was called "pickling". Today, "pickling" is used more for vinegar preparations.

Our condiments such as mustard, mayonnaise, catsup, relishes, and salsa, all used to be cultured products. They rarely are today, unless you do it yourself (and it is quite good!). Most of the other cultured foods listed above, are still done using ancient lacto-fermenting principles, however, done at home, you preserve many more of the health qualities. This is because in order to have shelf-life, commercial ferments are pasteurized. This destroys much of the healthy bacteria and nutrients that are so sought after by the cultured food advocates.

According to Sandor Katz, author of "Wild Fermentation" and "The Art of Fermentation" (both must-have books for culturing foods), "In the normal scheme of things, we'd never have to think twice about replenishing the bacteria that allow us to digest food. But since we're living with antibiotic drugs and chlorinated water and antibacterial soap and all these factors in our contemporary lives that I'd group together as a 'war on bacteria,' if we fail to replenish [good bacteria], we won't effectively get nutrients out of the food we're eating."

Culturing foods render them more easily digestible, because the food is essentially pre-digested. This is perfect for anyone suffering from gluten or lactose intolerance, constipation, irritable bowel, yeast infections, or allergies. Very often people who are lactose intolerant, for example, can tolerate cheese and yogurt because they're cultured, where they get sick drinking milk alone.

Because of the imbalance of healthy bacteria in our gut (referred to as "gut flora"), many people flock to probiotics by the bottles from health food stores. We also now see the need for pre-biotics in order for the probiotics to colonize properly in our gut. With fermented foods, all elements are present in perfect proportions, with no mental gyrations to figure it all out. Eating cultured foods as part of a normal diet is how it's been done for thousands of years before bottled probiotics hit the shelf.

Learn more by attending our upcoming health class, Lacto-Fermentation: What, Why and How, on Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at Vital Health in CDA. Fee: $10. RSVP: 208-765-1994.

Dr. Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with over 34 years of experience. Dr. Carling is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d' Alene clinic. Visit Dr. Carling's website at www.vitalhealthandfitness.com to learn more about Dr. Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Dr. Carling can be reached at 208-765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.