Guest blog by Michal Ofer
‘Bacteria in our gut enable us to live. We could not survive without bacteria. … They allow us to digest food, to assimilate the nutrients in our food; and they play a huge role, just beginning to be understood, in our immune functioning and in many other processes in our bodies. All life has evolved from bacteria and no other form of life has lived without bacteria. … Our bacteria perform all sorts of essential functions for us, and because we are continually attacking them effectively with all of these chemicals in our lives, simply replenishing and diversifying these populations has a benefit for us.’ Sandor Katz
Not all of us walk around aware that there is a living, thriving, non-human colony of organisms that resides in our digestive tract. Your large intestine is home to approximately 4 pounds of beneficial bacteria, collectively known as the microbiome. This microbiome consists of thousands of different strains of bacteria, totaling up at around one hundred trillion cells.
In fact, bacterial cells outnumber human cells by a ratio of around 10:1. They provide innumerable functions for us, many of which are probably still unknown, but include digestive, absorptive and assimilation functions. The microbiome influences the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular systems.
Fermented foods are foods that have been through a process of lacto-fermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates beneficial enzymes, B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics (beneficial bacteria). The proliferation of lactobacilli in fer