Ten Reasons to Learn to Love Natto

Natto is a fermented soya bean product which is popular in its homeland Japan but due to its unique flavor and texture it has not yet caught on in North America. The flavor is much like strong cheese with a stringy coating, kind of like okra, which gives it its texture.

This may not sound very appealing but if you have developed a taste for coffee, beer or cigarettes you know that developing a taste for anything is possible! The difference between natto and the other three is that natto has a surprising number of health benefits. Whereas the other three are not known for their health producing effects.

Here are ten reasons why you should learn to love natto.

It helps develop strong bones and teeth

In the past we were led to believe that calcium availability is the most important factor in having strong bones. The logic seemed to be that our bones are made up of mostly calcium therefor if there isn’t calcium available we would have weak bones.

Unfortunately this is not the case. The availability of calcium is only half the battle in maintaining strong bones and teeth. The other part if it is to transport the calcium into the bones.

There are two vitamins which are vital to this process. The first Vitamin D which our skin can produce with exposure to sunlight and is also added to milk in North America.

The other is vitamin K2. This means that if you do not have enough K2 all the calcium supplements you take will literally go down the drain.

Vitamin K2 helps proteins in your body to deposit calcium into your bones.

Natto is the highest known food source of vitamin K2 along with its high levels of calcium and magnesium. When eaten regularly it will have positive effects on your bones and teeth.

It helps to reduce blood clots which can cause heart attacks and strokes

The ability of our body to produce blood clots is a wonderful thing when you have injuries but if those clots are not broken down and remain in our systems then they can be dangerous. Blood clots in the cardiovascular system can lead to blocking important arteries which feed the heart and brain. Therefore it is important that those clots are broken down and the components reused in our systems when the work they needed to do is complete.

Natto has an enzyme in it which helps our systems to break down these leftover clots reducing our risk of having a cardiovascular incident (heart attack) or a stroke. This enzyme called nattokinase and it dissolves blood clots as well as arterial plaque which leads to narrowing of the arteries and high blood pressure.

It has positive effects on Alzheimer’s patients

Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease which robs sufferers of their ability to take care of themselves. The causes of it are still under investigation but the results on the brain are readily apparent.

Parts of the brain atrophy as a form of plaque develops within the brain. It is this plaque that seems to cause the damage to the brain which effects the short term memory and eventually longer term memory.

Not only is nattokinase a powerful enzyme for the breaking down of blood clots but it also helps to break down the amyloid fibrils (the plaque) which form in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. This can have a positive effect on those suffering from this debilitating disease.

It is high in B vitamins

This family of vitamins are known for their energy producing benefits. They help your body convert the food you eat into energy. They are building blocks of some hormones, help in production of red blood cells and improve cognition.

B vitamins are not made by humans and must be consumed in the diet, which in North America is sadly lacking in nutritional value.

Our diet is full of over processed factory farmed food which is grown for profit rather than nutritional value. Farmers are not paid for the vitamins and minerals in the food they produce but by weight and volume.

Besides that the food which is produced is then denatured through processing which destroys most of the food value it had in the first place.

Natto does not require high heat, drying or any other process which destroys the vitamin content of the food.

It is essentially soaked steamed and fermented under warm temperatures for 16-24 hours. Producing a product which has high nutritional value and is easy to digest.

The nutritional profile of natto includes several of the sought after B vitamins.

Pantothenic acid
Riboflavin
Thiamin
Pyridoxine (vitamin B6)

Is a good source of iron

Iron is a valuable mineral which is used in the production of red blood cells. These cells transport oxygen to all the cells on your body. A lack of iron hinders the amount of red blood cells your body can make.

If you are low in iron then consuming foods which are high in iron is the best way of improving your iron count. Natto is a good source of iron and since it is a whole food it also contains the needed vitamins and enzymes to make it available to our bodies.

One serving of natto (100g) contains 48% of the RDI of iron. This makes it one of the best vegetable sources of iron available.

Is high in protein

Protein is another nutritional additive which is big today. Health advocates all promote protein shakes and other concentrated forms of protein. Most have been made from residues remaining after other commercial food products have been made (like whey from cheese making).

They are a way for the commercial food manufacturers to make money on a waste product. They are highly commercial products which need added colors, flavors and sweeteners to make them palatable. They add calories (mostly empty) to the diet and the worst part is that along with the unnatural ingredients comes toxic chemicals which are concentrated by the manufacturing process.

Samples of protein powders have been found to contain high levels of heavy metals in them as well as pesticide residues leftover from the original substrate which was used to refine the protein.

Rather than consuming another denatured “health” food try having a serving of natto. One serving contains 18 grams or so of protein in a food which is easily digested and assimilated. Not something which the commercialized protein powders can promote.

Is the highest known source of PQQ

What the heck is PQQ? PYRROLOQUINOLINE QUINONE or PQQ is a not really a vitamin or an enzyme but it has positive effects on the number and efficiency of your mitochondria. This gives you more energy on a cellular level.

Mitochondria are the power houses of the cells. They help to ensure the DNA is replicated properly when the cell duplicates itself and provides energy to power the cell. It also has positive effects on memory and sleep by reducing stress from too much cortisol.

Natto is a good source of PQQ with 61 ng/g making it a great addition to your health regimen.

Has a high probiotic count

Probiotics are all the rage now, and for good reason since they help to maintain your gut health and support the immune system. The research is just starting and it has a positive trend.

Probiotics seem to have positive effects on mood, gut health, cancer risk and cardiovascular health.

Of course you can get your probiotics in a pill but history has shown that this method may not be the best value for your money (or health).

It is much better if you can get your probiotics with your food. This is why the more probiotic rich foods you can consume the better. Now I don’t mean you should overdose on any one fermented food but instead have a wide variety of fermented foods throughout the day.

One of which is natto. It contains anywhere between 50,000,000 to 50,000,000,000 colony forming units (CFU’s) per serving.

Natto being a traditional Japanese breakfast could be one of the first fermented foods of the day. You could try it the traditional way with warm rice, an egg yolk, and some rice vinegar and mustard for flavoring.

If you are not feeling that adventurous you could have it in a smoothie or the way I like it simply with some kefir and mustard (fermented of course). This makes a power packed probiotic start to the day.

Is great for the kidneys

Anyone who has experienced passing a kidney stone will attest that the wrong place to have excess calcium is in the kidneys. Too much calcium in the kidneys can produce crystals which form in the ducts of the kidney and eventually stones which block proper kidney function. This slowly hinders the kidney’s ability to filter out toxins from the blood.

The worst part is that it happens slowly and the kidneys do not have any sense of pain, only when a stone is dislodged and starts to move towards the bladder does the pain start.

Something no one wants to feel.

Vitamin K2 helps to regulate where calcium is deposited in the body. It prevents calcium from being deposited on arterial walls and in the kidneys and promotes depositing it in the bones.

In clinical studies it was found that people with chronic kidney disease are also low in vitamin K2. Since we cannot make enough of this vital vitamin ourselves it seems logical that the reason for this deficiency is from a lack of it in our diets.

One sure way to ensure that you get enough vitamin K2 is to eat foods which contain it, and you guessed it natto is high in vitamin K2. It can supply 22% of the RDI of K2 in one 100g serving.

It also comes packaged up by nature to aid in the absorption of the K2.

It actually tastes good

Now there are some things which taste good to you the first time you have them. Like strawberries, cherries and ice cream, but some of the best flavors are ones which are cultivated.

Wine, coffee and cheese are good examples of this. It is not until you have developed a palette for good coffee that you can taste the variation in crema of different coffee beans and coffee making techniques.

You have probably done the same thing with coffee and alcohol. The first time you tried them you probably didn’t like them. In fact you most likely had to have some peer pressure to try it the first and several subsequent times until you learned to like the effects they had on your system.

The thing about natto is we are not used to it. Just like anything we are not used to it seems strange and unpleasant. But if you give it a chance and try it a few different ways you are sure to begin to tolerate and then enjoy it.

Natto is grown for the supplement market. Large amounts of it are needed to produce nattokinase supplements which are promoted for its plaque and blood clot busting ability. The natto is then processes and the nattokinase is isolated from the natto and concentrated into a pill.

Coffee gives you energy. Alcohol can improve your mood.

Well, natto can make you healthy so why not start developing a taste for it now?

What’s So Great About Kefir

Kefir is a fermented milk product similar to yogurt. It is fermented using kefir grains, a collection of bacteria and yeasts which cooperate to produce an environment conducive to their mutual survival. The grains which convert milk to kefir are a collection of some 50 different strains of yeast and bacteria, most of which are beneficial to your digestive system.

Depending on the type of milk used it can be a low fat runny texture or have a thick high fat consistency. It can be made using any type of milk so depending on your tastes you can use low fat milk, goat milk sheep milk even nut milks if you are lactose intolerant.

Health Benefits of kefir

Better digestion

Kefir has a wide variety of beneficial probiotics which help to fight or crowd out pathogenic organisms in the gut. It is one of the few fermentations which contains probiotic cultures which can colonize the gut for a longer period of time. This protects the gut from invading pathogens and makes the environment inhospitable for pathogenic organisms (1).

Greater bone density

Milk is one of the most concentrated sources of calcium available to us but that calcium is bound up in casein, a protein useful to a growing calf. Since we do not have the digestive system of cattle we need help in unlocking the calcium in the casein. This is where kefir comes in. It uses the sugars and proteins in the milk for food which makes the calcium more bio-available to us.

Vitamin D is also valuable to the formation of bone. Although it is not a natural vitamin found in milk it has been added to store bought. Not all milk products have added vitamin D, these include kefir, yogurt, sour cream and hard cheeses.

This makes the kefir you make at home have more bone building potential then that of store bought.

Kefir also produces a wide variety of the B spectrum vitamins including vitamin B12 and vitamin K2. Both these vitamins are integral to the bone building process (2).

Improved cardiovascular health

Kefir helps to improve the bacterial balance in the digestive system. It does this by changing the environment of the gut to accommodate the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). This environment kills off pathogenic bacteria.

The LAB then inhabit the mucous which lines the digestive system and further protects it from unwanted micro-organism overgrowth. It takes about a month or so for the effects of regular consumption of kefir to appear. This is due to the unhealthy balance which exists in the gut brought on by the typical first world diet.

Once the LAB in the kefir has changed the environment in the gut you will begin to reap the benefits such as:

Lower bad cholesterol absorption
Improved brain-gut communication
Improved brain heart communication
Less arterial plaque
Better insulin levels and lower diabetic symptoms
Lower blood pressure

Kefir is not a one shot health pill which will solve all your health ills. It is a solid healthy lifestyle choice which can benefit your overall health (3)

Reduced cancer risk

In animal studies kefir has a significant effect on the inhibition of tumor growth. It has been tested against breast and prostate cancer making it a good choice for both sexes. Since these are animal studies they are not definitive but since kefir is a safe and tasty drink why not start drinking it now?

With the improvements of probiotics colonizing the gut and the associated reduction of inflammation also comes a lower risk of digestive system cancers (4).

Improved cognition

Probiotic treatments have been shown to improve the effects of Alzheimer’s. In this randomized study 60 patients were given either a probiotic or a placebo. Of the patients which received the probiotic there cognition improved on a standard cognition test. Whereas the ones receiving the placebo continued to decline (5).

Kefir is a great source of probiotics. Supplying anywhere between 30 and 50 different species of probiotic bacteria.

Smoother younger looking skin

First you have to understand that skin problems are not always caused by outside forces. Of course things like sunburn or poor hygiene have an effect on the skin but most skin problems are a result of poor inside health.

Therefor to improve your skin it is important to improve your insides. Kefir is a great start to improving gut health. It is full of probiotics which reduce inflammation. This gives your body a chance to deal with the cause of the skin problems. This includes acne, eczema and dry or oily skin (6).

Kefir is also a great addition to skin care products as it contains lactic acid which is used in exfoliating scrubs. It also has probiotics in it which fights the bacteria on your face which can cause skin rashes and imperfections.

Improves the digestion of milk

Kefir grains consume the lactose in milk. This makes it more digestible to those who are lactose intolerant. Not only is the lactose consumed outside the body but also once the milk has made it to the small intestine the probiotic culture continues to work (7).

Kefir is one of a few probiotic rich foods which can recolonize the digestive system. This means that the probiotics in kefir stick around for a while. This can improve the digestion of other products which have lactose in them. This is great for those times when milk products are hidden in consumer goods or restaurant meals.

If you are lactose intolerant and do not want to risk consuming kefir made with milk it can also be made using nut milks, seeds or coconut water. This gives you the benefits of the probiotics in the kefir without the use of any milk ingredients.

Helps withdrawal symptoms from nicotine

A study on depression and anxiety during withdrawal from nicotine in rats shows that kefir made from soymilk has positive effects on feelings of depression and anxiety (8).

This being an animal study may not have any bearing on human subjects but if you are trying to quit smoking why not give it a try. If it helps then great if not then at least you have benefited in other ways.

Improves symptoms of depression and anxiety

The mechanism in which the probiotics in kefir reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety is still unknown but some studies have shown that the consumption of kefir reduces anxiety levels (9).

To the scientific community what mechanizims cause this effect is important but to someone who suffers from depression and/or anxiety it doesn’t matter, just as long as it works.

It could be the probiotic effect kefir has on your digestive system which makes the difference. Kefir has a large number of probiotic strains which help produce vitamin K and several B vitamins.

It also helps to reduce the number of harmful bacteria. Reducing inflammation and improving the brain-gut communication. In short when your stomach feels good so do you.

Has positive effects on diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a condition which has many negative health effects. It can cause blindness, poor circulation and cardiovascular disease.

There are many things you can do to reduce your risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes, one of which is start to consume kefir.

Consuming kefir for a minimum of 30 days improves the body’s ability to maintain a healthy insulin balance(10). It seems to improve our ability to deal with excess sugars. It may be due to the additional probiotics which can use the extra sugar in our systems for energy.

Helps fight candida overgrowth

Candida is a yeast which is ever present in your lower intestine. It does not cause problems until it expands its territory. This causes bloating, cramping and an overload of toxic compounds which over the long term can have serious health problems.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (one of the probiotics found in kefir) is effective in combatting this condition and has been found to slow the growth of candida (11). It does this by changing the PH of the environment and colonizing the habitat where the candida lives. This essentially crowds out the candida and relegates it back to where it belongs.

Has positive effects on asthma

Kefir appears to have anti-inflammatory effects on the lungs and air pathways. This action is beneficial for those who have allergic reactions which cause asthma attacks. It appears that kefir helps the lungs to not over-react to particles in the lungs (12).

If you are sensitive to air-born particulates you could try adding kefir to your diet. Since kefir is non-toxic it can be added safely to most diets.

Other benefits of Kefir

Taste

If the only reason you eat something is because it is good for you then it will not be long before you stop eating it.

Take for example cod liver oil. Here is a product which has been around forever. It is good for you. It is known to improve heart health, cognition, fight cancer and on and on. So when was the last time you added cod liver oil to your salad dressing, or into a smoothie? Can I hear you say never? If you have cod liver oil it will most likely be in the form of a gel cap so you can’t taste it.

Kefir on the other hand tastes great. It has a nice tangy slightly fizzy taste which adds complexity to your milk drinking habit.

Can be used in a variety of recipes

In the morning you can use it in your smoothie, pour it onto your cereal or make this kefir turmeric shake.

For lunch you can make sandwiches with kefir cream cheese, have it with a little honey as a midmorning drink or make a cream of carrot soup with kefir made with high fat cream.

Supper can include tacos with kefir cream cheese, salad with hard kefir cheese crumbled over top or roast beef with gravy made with kefir as a thickening agent rather than white flour or cornstarch.

For a sweet treat try making kefir ice-cream or add a dollop of whipped kefir cream to any sweet snack.

As you can see kefir is very versatile.

Easy to make

Kefir is the easiest fermentation to make. Once you have the grains activated you can make more than enough kefir then you could ever use and it takes less than 5 minutes. In fact the challenge seems to be how to slow the kefir grains down to produce less kefir.

Can be used to replace milk in many recipes

Kefir is not as thick as yogurt especially if it is only fermented for 24 hours. This makes it a great substitute for milk in recipes for those of us which can’t digest lactose but still like to have cream soups, cream sauce and other milk based foods.

Try this waffle recipe made from almonds and kefir. It makes for a healthy, hearty breakfast (or lunch or supper).

Can be made with non-dairy milks

Kefir grains can be used to make coconut kefir, cashew nut kefir or several other types of nut or seed milks. This is great for those who are dairy free for one reason or another.

The resulting kefir gives a drink which still has all the probiotic benefits, although some may be in greater or lesser amounts.

It also helps to digest the hard to digest elements of the nut or seed. These elements are meant to protect the nut or seed from degrading. It prevents breakdown until the conditions are right for sprouting.

This is beneficial for you as it keeps the nutrients in the nut or seed viable for a longer period of time but it also makes it hard to digest. The fermentation action of the kefir helps to neutralize these anti-nutrients and make the milk much more digestible.

Kefir is cost effective

Kefir bought from the store premade can be expensive, but if you make your own it costs as much as the milk you use to make it.

This makes it very cost effective. It can be made from any type of milk including premade nut and soya milks.

Kefir is one of the best fermentations to have on hand in your kitchen. It is healthy for you, tastes great and can be used in a variety of ways.

7 Ways Fermentation is Environmentally Friendly

In some places in the world it is not necessary to consider food storage. There is an abundance of food growing fresh throughout the seasons. But in most of the world we have a time of springtime and harvest.

You no longer have to worry about not having access to food because your food is now imported from all over the world. You probably don’t know where most of the food you eat is grown.

Grocery stores provide fresh produce, fresh and frozen meat and prepared meals of all kinds. Canned goods line their shelves, all with a little tiny expiry date stamped on them which is rarely read and not considered once the can makes it to a pantry.

The problem with this mentality is that you don’t even know where our food comes from anymore. You have to trust others to provide you with it and as a result end up eating high sugar, mechanically processed, nutrient deficient foods.

The choices of fresh fruit and vegetables is limited to the varieties which transport well, keep their color and can be made to look good on a store shelf. It has nothing to do with its nutrient content.

The great book “The hundred Mile Diet” brought this point into focus.

When you purchase your food at a grocery store you are paying for the foods transportation, storage and overhead costs of the store. This is not a bad thing necessarily but you should be cognizant of the costs both to our bank account as well as the environment.

The thing is that in the summer there is lots of surplus food available. There are tomatoes of all varieties squash, carrots, beets, cabbage and all varieties of potatoes.

There are fruit trees dripping with excess fruit from fruit trees which were planted by someone long forgotten but yearly cursed as the house owner has to clean it all up.

This excess is great if it can be preserved for later but in this day when energy is expensive and the environment is of concern how do you convert fresh food into shelf stable food in the most environmentally friendly manor?

Fermentation!

Does not require high temperatures

Most other forms of food preservation requires heating the food to destroy the spoilage bacteria present in the food. This uses energy. Some methods are more or less energy intensive like canning or pressure treating as is used in most cereals.

Canning requires pasteurizing the food to a high level this requires high temperatures and long hot cycles. Besides this the cans are usually one time use containers which then (if they are lucky) are recycled into new cans or disposed of into land fill sites.

Cereals are heated, rolled with high pressure rollers, dried and then packaged. Since most of the food value which was in the original grain will have been lost additional synthetic vitamins are added. The production of synthetic vitamins also takes energy.

Dehydrating food can be an energy efficient method of food preservation if it is sun dried but most commercial food producers use heat produced by electricity rather than the sun directly.

Fermentation does not need high heat but rather a warm environment where the probiotic bacteria can bubble away producing an environment which is not conducive for the growth of spoilage bacteria. The heat requirements of different fermentation methods and food sources vary from 7 degrees to 35 degrees depending on the type of ferment you are doing.

Most fermentation can be done at room temperature. These include pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, olives and kefir. Lager and sake require low temperatures to produce the best taste while some yogurts and chutneys need 25-30 degrees to be successful.

Does not need refrigeration

To keep most fresh fruits and vegetables from spoiling we place them in a fridge. This cooling of the food slows down the decomposition of the food and therefore keeping it fresh for longer. Refrigerators are one of the largest power suckers in our houses. They also need a coolant which does not last forever and eventually leaks into the atmosphere.

Although the coolant in most refrigerators being manufactured today do not use Freon, the gas they do use still needs to be concentrated and refined (which takes energy).

Most fermented food only requires placing the food in a cool location for long term storage such as a cool basement room (otherwise known as a cellar).

There is an added benefit of using fermentation as a method of food storage.

It won’t last forever! Yes it is true this is a benefit.

If something sits for months untouched in your basement while others get used it is a sure bet it isn’t a favorite. Since it will eventually go off it can be thrown away with no regret.

Not so with canned goods. It seems canned goods hang around forever, even if everyone knows they will never be eaten. They end up cluttering up storage space and gathering dust.

Uses reusable containers

One of the greatest environmental tragedies has to be the damage one time use packaging has done. Your food is packaged in plastic film for transport, repackaged into individual plastic containers. Then it is sold to us and put into another plastic bag. All of these steps use a plastic container once which then gets thrown away.

The challenge here is that these one- time use plastic containers go on to persist in our environment for years. They kill birds and marine life which further reduces our environments ability to remain balanced.

We believe that our garbage will be taken away and someone else will deal with it. Even if we recycle there is no guaranty that it will be dealt with responsibly. There is too much evidence to the contrary.

The only way to ensure it will not get into our environment is to not use it at all.

This is where fermentation comes in. The containers used to ferment are reusable. In this research paper it was found that glass mason jars need to be reused only 7-9 times before the environmental cost per use is lower than plastic or paper containers.

Remember the three tenants of being environmentally friendly “reduce, reuse, recycle”. This is the reuse part. The more times a jar is used before it is recycled the better it is for the environment.

Once they break they can be either recycled into new jars or can be reincorporated into the environment with little damage to the wildlife. Plastic on the other hand ends up in land fill sites and ultimately the oceans killing wildlife as it continues to recirculate through the food chain. Plastic “rocks” have been found on the beaches on the UK () which have the potential to leak lead into the environment, are resistant to decomposition, and continue to disrupt marine life indefinably.

Fermentation mitigates harmful environmental chemical effects on human health

The amount of pesticides used to protect our crops is astronomical and still growing. In the U.S. alone over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used on our food every year . And because some pesticides are persistent in our environment the amount multiplies rapidly. This has a negative effect on wild plant pollination as these residues reduce the population of pollenating insects. This lowers the number of young plants which reduces the amount of carbon captured from the atmosphere.

With a reduction of carbon capturing plants the amount of free carbon in our atmosphere and as a result our oceans increases.

Besides that it is unhealthy to be consuming fruits and vegetables which have pesticide residues on them.

Fermentation methods using LAB bacterial strains (sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, vinegar) has the ability to reduce the amount of absorbable chemical pesticides in our food by breaking some down and binding to others and carrying them out of your body.

Helps decompose organic waste with a minimum of greenhouse gas emissions

It is true that fermentation produces CO2, which is one of the gasses which contribute to the greenhouse effect. This may seem like a contradiction to my statement that fermentation is good for the environment.

Well it is. There are two main gasses which are the main contributors to global warming. The first is CO2 which is now being released into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates through fossil fuel burning. The other one which has 23 times the negative effect on our atmosphere is methane. Methane is produced by livestock mostly from cattle and pigs. Methane is also produced when livestock dung is mixed with compostable material. A great way to produce fertile soil.

Well another way is to use the dregs found in the bottom of fermentation containers as a composting kick starter. It produces great soil while reducing the amount of methane produced. The key here is to aerate the compost, otherwise known as turning it, and use it to grow all those nice vegetables which make great fermentations.

Can be produced locally

One of the reasons your food source is so expensive to the environment is transportation. Often our food comes fresh from distant locations. To make this possible it must be harvested fast and under ripe. Cooled quickly to optimum storage temperature and then packaged, shipped and displayed for sale at our local markets.

Every one of these steps takes energy. Energy which is produced by either burning fossil fuels, damming rivers or from wind farms which kill thousands of endangered birds every year indiscriminately. The amount of environmental damage is unprecedented.

Instead if you were to plant a garden of your own or support an organic farm in your area. Harvest throughout the summer and eat clean, fresh, safe vegetables. Then in the fall harvest all the fall growth and ferment it into sauerkraut, salsa, pickles or all types, tonics, relish, chutneys and whatever else you can find.

You now have an environmentally friendly stocked cellar.

Reduces the amount of pharmaceutical drugs needed

You have been lead to believe that fresh fruits and vegetables are the gold star winners when it comes to healthy eating. That was true when the food was grown in our own backyards or at least close. Now your food is grown in foreign countries using unknown agricultural practices, on over farmed soil which is artificially fertilized or fertilized using contaminated animal sewage.

Food which is produced industrially is grown in the most profitable way possible. This does not include the most healthy or nutritious way. Farmers get paid on volume not on vitamin content.

This process causes sickness. In fact fresh vegetables are the number one cause of food borne illness in the U.S. Leading to prescriptions. Which is a growing problem in your water.

Not only that but it can lead to death.

Fermenting your vegetables is safer then eating them fresh. The fermentation process produces an environment which the pathogenic bacteria which cause disease cannot grow in. It also makes some vitamins and helps absorb hard to digest minerals which support your health.

Now who would have thought that leaving your vegetables on the counter in a jar would be healthier than putting them in the fridge?

Its time to start fermenting

As I read it everyone in the modern world wants to save the planet. But only if it does not inconvenience them. Just as long as it will not affect their lifestyle then the changes are okay but the moment it gets uncomfortable all bets are off.

That is why I think adapting a fermented lifestyle is a good move for us planet loving members of modern society. It reduces our carbon footprint, does not inconvenience us and adds new and delicious flavors to our meals.

If we take it a step further and start to use locally produced organic produce we can make a real dent in our personal carbon footprint while promoting our health.

Urban Fermentation

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