It’s a huge subject, so let’s cut to the chase. Is food fermentation helpful or harmful, beneficial or bad?

It depends on what is fermented and what bacteria and/or yeasts are used to activate the fermentation process.

That’s the big issue. There are bacteria that will transform a certain substance into poison, an example being fusel alcohol. Other bacteria will transform the food value of a medium such as cow’s milk or soy milk into a food that is much more valuable for health restoration and maintenance than the original raw food.

If you allow fruits to sit around at room temperature, most will ferment naturally and you’ll toss them out. Natural fermentation has been happening as long as man has inhabited Planet Earth. Seven thousand years ago foods were being fermented naturally in Babylon, China and India.

At some point in time it was discovered that certain naturally fermented foods actually appealed to the taste buds and were preserved longer. It became popular to allow fermentation, but nobody knew about bacteria, yeasts or their role in causing fermentation, which just "happened to happen."

In modern times food fermentation processes have become both a highly developed science and a far reaching global industry producing billions of tons of fermented foods and beverages such as yogurt, kefir, beer, pickles, kimchi, natto, salami, wine, bread, cheese, tofu, soy sauce, etc etc.

And now there’s something new under the sun. Nutritional scientists have discovered some ancient formulas and turned the light of modern research methods on them. Out of this research has come a growing wealth of literature revealing the benefits of fermentation for human health.

Hundreds of different bacteria have been isolated, characterized and named. Classes or categories of bacteria have been broken down into "strains" and their identification has been reduced to jaw-breaking words like lactobacillus rhamnosus, L. reuteri, L. delbrueckii, L. casei, L. helveticus, bifidobacteria, etc. The number of scientific papers based on laboratory studies has quadrupled in a few years.

Leading scientists in Japan have been in the forefront of microbiological research, and have coined the term "biofermentics" to name a burgeoning field of science which has given birth to a production process called Biofermentics.

One scientific paper from Japan, 36 pages in length, lays out in impressive detail the verified functions and health benefits of Biofermentics. This blog can’t name all of them, but following are just ten of the named benefits:

• Reinforcement of immune response
• Improved metabolism and digestion
• Better absorption of nutrients
• Restraint of harmful bacteria
• Activation of natural Killer cells
• Facilitation of neurotransmitters in the brain
• Promotion of insulin secretion
• Anti cholesterol and anti aging effect
• Nourishment of hair
• Detoxification of the body

Biofermentics is an elaborate fermentation process which includes a dozen scientifically selected strains of lactobacillus bacteria and 4 different strains of yeast, and is backed by 70 years of research.

NOTE: Including excellent Probiotic supplements in your health maintenance program is a very good idea, because it has been proven that Probiotics strongly support digestion, absorption, detoxification, the immune system and internal cleanliness.

Dr. H. Edward Rowe Green Valley, Nevada 702-454-0015