Fight The Fevers and Build Your Immune Response With Fermented Foods!
The current food production system is negatively impacting the planet and human health. A transition to a sustainable and fair food system is urgently needed. Microorganisms that cause fermentation are likely enablers of this process, as they can produce delicious and healthy foods with low environmental footprints. Black Coral Inc reviews traditional and current approaches to microbial foods, such as fermented foods, microbial biomass, and food ingredients derived from microbial fermentations.
Let's explore how future advances in science-driven fermentation, synthetic biology, and sustainable feedstocks can enable a new generation of foods, that potentially impact the sustainability, resilience, and health effects of our food and farming systems.
Food production is the single most important driver for climate change and biodiversity loss. The environmental damage is exacerbated by the inefficiency of the food production system, resulting in enormous quantities of waste. Simultaneously, a significant part of the world's population remains malnourished, while others suffer from non-communicable diseases triggered, in part, by processed, sugar and salt filled calorie-dense diets with low nutritional value. These challenges require immediate actions across different disciplines and sectors like manufacturing and medical and at different scales. Microorganisms will be key ingredients in the recipe for change.
Although microbial food production currently takes place on both artisanal and industrial scales, realizing the full potential of the next generation of microbial foods will require innovation in several areas. These areas include the need to understand and harness microbial biodiversity for food production for improved human and planetary health; employ science-driven fermentation and tools, for improved production of microbial foods; and increase the efficiency of the food system. Fermented foods are packed with probiotics—the good bacteria grow during the fermentation process—and eating them is one way to boost your gut health (eating more foods that are high in fiber, particularly prebiotic-rich foods, is important for gut health, too).
A huge range of fermented foods exist, from chocolate and coffee to yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Fermented foods are always made with microorganisms, but not all fermented foods retain live microorganisms when consumed.
Naturally fermented foods are getting a lot of attention from health experts these days because they may help strengthen your gut microbiome—the 100 trillion or so bacteria and microorganisms that live in your digestive tract. The popularity of fermented foods and beverages is due to their enhanced shelf-life, safety, functionality, sensory, and nutritional properties. The latter includes the presence of bioactive molecules, vitamins, and other constituents with increased availability due to the process of fermentation. Many fermented foods also contain live microorganisms that may improve gastrointestinal health and provide other health benefits, including lowering the risk of type two diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The number of organisms in fermented foods can vary significantly, depending on how products were manufactured and processed, as well as conditions and duration of storage.
That a particular food or beverage is produced by fermentation does not necessarily indicate that it contains live microorganisms. Bread, beer, wine, and distilled alcoholic beverages require yeasts for fermentation, but the production organisms are either inactivated by heat (in the case of bread and some beers) or are physically removed by filtration or other means (in the case of wine and beer). Moreover, many fermented foods are heat-treated after fermentation to enhance food safety or to extend shelf-life.
Thus, fermented sausages are often cooked after fermentation, and soy sauce and sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables are made shelf-stable by thermal processing. Some products, such as many of the commercial pickles and olives, are not fermented at all, but rather are placed into brines containing salt and organic acids. Even non-thermally processed fermented foods may yet contain low levels of live or viable organisms simply due to inhospitable environmental conditions that reduce microbial populations over time. It is important to note, however, that the absence of live microbes in the final product does not preclude a positive functional role. For example, food fermentation microbes may produce vitamins or other bioactive molecules in situ or inactivate anti-nutritional factors and yet be absent at the time of consumption.
While adding foods high in bacteria might not seem like the best plan when you're sick, the good bacteria found in fermented foods can help eliminate the harmful bacteria causing your symptoms. Every day, you swallow a bit of bad bacteria through the foods you eat and the pathogens that enter your mouth. Probiotics are digestive-friendly bacteria found in fermented foods and drinks, such as sauerkraut, kombucha, and kefir. Studies suggest that a probiotic-rich diet may reduce the risk of coming down with the sniffles. And if you do catch a cold, probiotics may help reduce the severity and duration of symptoms.
Many individuals with lactose intolerance are able to tolerate fermented dairy foods only. In the process of making yogurt and kefir, microbes feed on lactose (the carbohydrate in milk), lowering the foods’ lactose content. Many individuals with lactose intolerance are then able to enjoy these foods without experiencing digestive symptoms.
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