Health benefits of fermented foods

Fermented foods are a great supplement for ahealthy diet. They prevent cardiovascular diseases, regulate the cholesterollevels, improves digestive system and boost the immune system. Fermentation is not a simple and easy process andit can be rather inconsistent. Food industry generally ignores this processbecause it requires more work and resources. This, of course, does not mean that there are no fermented products sold in supermarkets/ many people enjoyunsweetened yogurt, kefir, natty, miss paste, fermented fruits and vegetables,sourdough bread and pastry and similar products. The most popular and widelyused fermented product is probably soy sauce and also tamarind, a wheat-freesauce similar to soy sauce that is used for cooking and seasoning. People often make mistake of foods soaked in salty stockor water for fermented food. This is not exactly right, as each food requires aunique and precise technique of fermentation. For example, most black olives that are soldcommercially are not fermented. They are simply treated with lye solution toextract the bitterness and then put in salty water and packaged. Yogurt is another example of how a food that couldbe much healthier and is practically destroyed with sweeteners like sugars orfructose from corn. Also, the manufacturing process destroys many beneficialingredients of yogurt, like bacteria that would be present in the lessprocessed yogurt and that are very good for the intestinal health. Kefir is a dairy product used for centuries insome countries as a drink that promises a long and healthy life. Some peopleseven call it “elixir of youth and immortality”. Kefir is a product of milkfermentation and can be made quite easily at home. All it takes is some boiledand cooled milk with addition of dried kefir mix. There has been much debate lately on whether soyis healthy or harmful for the health. It needs to be said that all thearguments against soy apply in fact only to non-fermented soy products, likewhole soy bean, soy milk and yogurt, tofu, soy sprouts, etc. Non-fermented soy products contain physic acid,which is believed to deprive the body of essential nutrients, like iron, bybinding them to it. Fermentation of soy inhibits the physic acid and fermentedproducts also contain more in flavours and robotics, or the “good” bacteria. Products that are made or fermented soy are miso,natto, tempeh, soy sauce, and also fermented to ferment soymilk. Many studies have shown that the use of fermentedsoy products helps prevent some diseases, including cardiovascular diseases andcancer.