Raw vs. Cooked vs. Fermented Vegetables

[Durgan]

http://www.cookinggodsway.com/raw-vs-cooked-vs-fermented-vegetables-the-winner/

Fermented Vegetables

Want to have your cake and eat it too, then fermented foods maybe for you. Most lacto-fermented foods are made from raw vegetables, without heat. These raw vegetables are allowed to culture over a few days in an anaerobic enviroment with a salt-water brine, during which the lacto-bacilli grow and culture the food. This type of food preparation is nothing new and has been done since the time of the building of the Great Wall of China. Some of the first original lacto-fermented foods were sauerkraut and pickles.

Lacto-fermented foods have the great benefits of both raw and cooked vegetables. During the lacto-fermenting process the tough cellular walls of vegetables are broken down, allowing for a much easier level of absorption by the body. A plus is that during the lacto-fermentation process the vitamin levels actually increase along with enzyme levels, often by 2 to 3 times.

One last plus that lacto-fermented foods have over raw or cooked vegetables is their pro-biotic count. During the lacto-fermenting process the levels of beneficial pro-biotics can climb to easily pass the numbers of any pro-biotic supplement. These great lacto-bacilli help to build the flora (good bacteria) in the digestive tract, which in turn builds and supports the immune system. Our ancestors knew this fact and often consumed lacto-fermented foods daily to help maintain their health.

There is only one catch when dealing with lacto-fermented foods. You will have to make them yourself. Since they are alive they keep maturing until you eat them. If they were in the stores they would cause jars to leak or break on the shelves since there is no way around this other than by pasteurizing the foods, which would destroy the pro-biotic count of the food along with most of the enzymes and many of the vitamins. Yes, there are some foods labeled as fermented that are sold in stores, but as you see this is marketing and not true.

 

[Trellum]

I am actually planning to make my own sauerkraut for the same reason, it might be tricky at first, but I will find my way eventually, because the health benefits are many. Plus I think we really need probiotics in our diets, specially if you have had several antibiotic treatments over the years, just like did.

 

[Durgan]

I am actually planning to make my own sauerkraut for the same reason, it might be tricky at first, but I will find my way eventually, because the health benefits are many. Plus I think we really need probiotics in our diets, specially if you have had several antibiotic treatments over the years, just like did.

The more I get exposed to the subject, the more intriguing it becomes. Apparently the probiotics are available in your own garden vegetables from the soil but store bought are often treated with chlorine, which removes most if not all bacteria. Hence it may be necessary to use a starter, either from a home batch of say sauerkraut or filtering yogurt through a coffee filter. The natural route is best by just adding two tablespoons,20 grams, of salt to a liter of water.

I went to Goodness Me me a sort of health food expensive store. I got a very expensive jar of sauerkraut which states that it is Naturally Fermented and not pasteurized. It was in the refrigeration section. The run of the mill supermarkets do not have this naturally fermented but they have pickled, hence no probiotics. All supermarket sauerkraut is also pasteurized even tho some is kept in the refrigeration section- a scam. I wanted the juice to kick start a jar of pressure canned tomato juice to see if it would lacto ferment.

 

[IcyBC]

I like Kim Chi and sauerkraut as fermented vegetables! I made Kim Chi once but my ration was off and it was many years ago. It is time to retry

 

[djordjem87]

I like veggies so any would do the trick. However, if organic, raw food in general terms is much better then any other because you do not kill the good stuff with heat or fermentation. Nevertheless, since organic food is very expensive I really do not care much about this but still I even like the taste of some veggies raw more than prepared in any way.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

@Durgan , Thanks much for this information.