ON FERMENTED FOODS bacteria populations + very high in enzymes +
reported to be pre-digested (by bacteria), hence
Alternate Title: On the Definition of easier for your digestion + most FF, except for Living Foods - Prelude rejuvelac, are considered tasty + seed cheeses and almond cream reportedly help underweight by Tom Billings raw-fooders gain and maintain body weight (see Ann Wigmore, "Rebuild Your Health", pg. 49, for This article deals specifically with the topic of almond cream recipe; her recipe is FF) + FF are fermented foods, and whether they are really a major part of Ann Wigmore's living foods living foods. The significance of this article is that program, which has been used by many people it was the spark that made me address the topic in healing and overcoming serious illness + raw of trying to develop an actual definition for the cabbage and cabbage family vegetables can term living foods (a term that means different cause severe flatulence if eaten unfermented. things to different people.) There are two more The same vegetables fermented do not cause articles, to be published in future, that will flatulence. address that topic more directly.
Negative: - most FF are very acid-forming foods;
Fermented raw foods, such as raw sauerkraut, ref: Gabriel Cousens, "Conscious Eating", pg. pickles, seed "cheese", rejuvelac, sprout milk 129. - soy sauce contains about 1% natural yogurt, and even raw miso, raw soy sauce, are MSG, mono-sodium glutamate; ref: Glutamic important foods for many raw fooders. On the Acid, Advances in Biochemistry and Physiology; other hand, some raw fooders refuse to eat L. J. Filer, Jr. et. al. eds., pg. 27. Soy sauce, and fermented foods, or limit their consumption of possibly miso also, can be 0.5-2% alcohol. The fermented foods to one or two specific food MSG and alcohol are products of natural items. fermentation. - except for yogurt (made from dry culture, not rejuvelac/seed cheese), FF are The object of this article is examine the topic of considered "tamasic" by yoga/Ayurveda. Here fermented foods, and their role in raw food tamasic means that in the long term, the food lifestyles. To save typing, will use FF as an has a depressing effect. Yoga recommends abbreviation for the term: fermented foods. Will avoiding tamasic food. - rejuvelac, if fermented a begin by specifying some of the positive and few more days with honey added, becomes negative points of FF, with questions noted. Note alcoholic; ref: Ann Wigmore, "Rebuild Your that only lacto-bacillus based FF are of interest; Health", pg. 52. - although often referred to as yeast based FF (e.g., alcoholic drinks) are ruled "living foods", FF can be seen as "dying foods". out and are not relevant. Fermentation is the process of bacterial growth in a base food that ultimately dies. For example, Positive: + most FF contain lacto-bacillus a pickled carrot or beet will not sprout if planted (Acidophilus) and promote good intestinal in the earth; a raw one will. Wheat sprouts that are decaying in water (rejuvelac) will not grow if overeat them, due to their taste. They also planted, but regular wheat sprouts will grow. In a stimulate digestion, which is a plus for many FF, the base food eventually dies; ultimately, the people, and a minus for others. Also, they are only living part is the bacteria culture that is some work to prepare. growing on the base food. It is thus reasonable to ask: does a living bacteria culture on a If one is not concerned with whether FF are dead/dying base qualify as a "living food"? living foods or not, then the most important factor in deciding whether to consume them, is Q: Is sprout milk yogurt different from other how you react to them when you eat them. If the fermented foods? reaction is bad, avoid them, if it is good then there is no problem. Here reaction refers to both A: Maybe: * yogurt (dairy yogurt) is considered the immediate effect and longer term effects, as "sattvic" - balancing, soothing, by yoga/ well as side effects Ayurveda. It is the only sattvic FF recognized in yoga/Ayurveda, all others are tamasic. P.S. those seeking recipes for raw FF are referred to books by Ann Wigmore, Viktoras * yogurt culture growth time very short; growth of Kulvinskas, Gabriel Cousens. culture normally stopped, by refrigeration, before culture growth by-products (i.e., acids) are at ON THE DEFINITION OF LIVING FOODS - level that is toxic to bacteria (that is how MOTIVATION fermentation serves as a natural preservative - e.g., sauerkraut, pickles). Yogurt has the What is the precise definition of the term "living shortest culture time of any FF. * also as a result food"? Apparently, there is no single, universally of short culture growth time, yogurt is very accepted answer to that question, as I have similar in nature to original base food - sprout heard raw fooders give sharply different answers milk. Indeed, the base food may still be "alive" to that question. A search for written definitions after only 6-10 hours of culture growth. For many of the term, living foods, did not yield an explicit other FF, base food is clearly dead. definition. The closest to a definition can be found in "Rebuild Your Health", by Ann Wigmore My personal evaluation of fermented foods is (pg. 28), where she says: "Living Foods consist that they can be useful in a raw/ living foods diet, of super nutritious young organic greens, power provided one uses them in modest quantities. packed sprouted nuts, seeds and grains, Their primary advantage is that they allow one to fabulous fermented preparations and exciting eat certain raw vegetables, like cabbage, and dehydrated foods." She specifically mentions avoid the painful flatulence that can otherwise rejuvelac, energy soup, and wheatgrass. occur. Additionally, they may be helpful to people with impaired digestion. Their biggest drawback However, with great respect, Dr. Ann has not is that they are acid-forming, and it is easy to given us a definition; instead she has basically said that "living foods are defined as the foods I soaking/sprouting. In the unsoaked form they eat". Such an approach does not provide an are in suspended animation, or "asleep". As informative definition, only a list of foods. A sleep can be considered philosophically a form precise definition would allow one to examine a of death, and they are not biologically active, food and determine if it qualifies as a "living they are clearly alive but probably not living food food". in the sense that most use the term. (The life force energy in them is dormant, until sprouted.) The problem in using a list, rather than a definition, is as follows. One can simply define * vegetables and fruits present some dilemmas. living foods as sprouts and fermented foods (in Most raw root vegetables, if planted in the which case there are questions about some ground, will grow hence are alive until they spoil fermented foods, per my previous article on in storage. If alive="living" they could qualify as fermented foods). On the other hand, if one living, though many raw fooders exclude them defines living foods as those foods with highest from the term. Things like baby lettuce, greens, life force energy in them (intuitively, a *very* are alive and actively growing at picking time, desirable definition), then sprouts qualify, and if eaten very soon thereafter might be fermented foods are again in question, and considered living; however if they are some fresh fruits/veggies consumed within a few refrigerated, shipped long distances, and eaten minutes of picking might qualify (but refrigerated, 2 weeks after picking (while still green, before shipped produce has lost energy and doesn't turning yellow or brown), it is unclear how much qualify). Of course, if one defines living foods as life energy is still in them. the foods with highest life force, then dehydrated foods would not qualify. To make life even more * the situation with most fruit is similar to lettuce, complicated, some people using the term living but with the additional complication that some foods, specifically exclude (some) raw fruits/ fruits must be picked and ripened off the tree, an veggies, even if picked only a few minutes example of which is avocados. Some people before eating. include raw fruits and veggies in the term "living foods", others specifically exclude them and Some brief thoughts on what constitutes a living refer to them only as raw foods. food are as follows. * when one considers liquids, such as honey, * clearly fresh, raw sprouts are alive and sprout milk, fruit and vegetable juices, the growing/active; hence they are living situation is very unclear. Probably the best guidance here is freshness of the materials used * cooked food is dead so it is not a living food in making the liquid, and also how long the liquid is stored. Enzymes - so long as one talks about * unsprouted raw seeds, nuts are alive in the original enzymes present in the food, not sense that one can activate them by enzymes added as a supplement - are a good measure of freshness. Some raw fooders think enzymes = life force; that is clearly not true; enzymes are an agent of the life force but are not the life force. (The life force is an energy; it cannot be powdered and sold in pill form, like enzymes are.) Getting back to liquids, if the liquid is made from living foods, and is only a few minutes old, then it should qualify as a living food itself.
* fermented foods present more definitional
problems, as the base food clearly decomposes (dies) in time, such that eventually only the bacteria of fermentation is alive (and in some fermented foods they produce so much acid that they literally die in their own acid "waste").
* one more complication - pollen. Is it alive? I
would argue that it is as one can remove pollen from plants, refrigerate it, then brush it on living flowers and it works. (Talking about fresh pollen, not freeze-dried). So, it is alive, but should it qualify as a living food?
The topic of the definition of the term, living
foods, will be discussed further in a future article.
Assessing The Management Operations, and The Role of The Trading Post (Taboan) at Mantalongon, Dalaguete, Cebu, As A Component in An Agricultural System, 2013