Mindfulness Month: Fermenting Foods to Flavor the Day
by the Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center Dietetics and Healthy Living Team
Food as medicine but with a twist!
Fermented food is food that has undergone fermentation, a series of chemical reactions where bacteria or yeasts break down sugars in food. Fermenting food results in new flavors and textures, and provides friendly gut bacteria, known as “probiotics.”
Fermentation is a process of preserving food, allowing you to keep fresh food available year-round, even during the winter months. Common fermented foods include yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, and miso. By making these foods at home, you can control the flavor and texture of the product. Prefer a mild kombucha? Ferment the food for less time. Prefer a sourer yogurt? Ferment the food for more time. You can even add spices, herbs and garlic to your ferment, creating unique blends, like spicy, garlic pickles.
Fermenting food is an artisan craft, inherently based in mindfulness. The process is a slow one; the opposite of “fast food.” It requires patience, presence, and curiosity, and engages the basic senses, through smell, sight, touch and sound. Creating a ferment involves manipulating an environment with salt, acid, heat and oxygen, to help friendly bacteria culture and proliferate. After a few days of fermenting, notice how the ferment develops in texture, smell, and taste. It may even become effervescent.
Indicators of a successful fermentation
- Pleasant, tangy, possibly sour smell
- Taste is pleasant, possibly tangy
- Clear liquid and brine
- No signs of mold growth
- Bubbling or fizzing sound
Indicators of a failed fermentation
- Off-putting, putrid smell
- Unpleasant and rancid taste
- Cloudy or slimy liquid
- Mold growth
- No bubbling or fizzing
Most may be aware that probiotics help build and maintain a healthy gut microbiome. But did you know, a daily “dose” of fermented food can benefit mental health? It’s true! By eating fermented food frequently, we may be able to reduce stress, improve our mood, improve our brain performance, and reduce anxiety and depression. Fermented food can be easier to digest, increasing the amount and types of nutrients available to our body.
If you’re interested in learning more about making your own fermented products, join the Healthy Living and Dietetics Team for a Class on Fermentation on April 24th from 5:00-6:30 PM. At the end of the class, you will have created a project to begin fermenting at home!
This article comes to you from the Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center Dietetics and Healthy Living Team
Please reach out to one of our Lifestyle Coaches for lifestyle and nutrition support, or join one of the Diabetes Prevention Program groups! (541) 672-8533
