Often l come across people who tell me that they avoid eating fermented foods as it has bacteria.
I have to explain, time and again, that it contains the ‘good bacterias’ and that fermented foods should be on the top of their super food list.
For ages, bacteria have been feared and shunned for causing diseases. But these are the ‘bad bacteria’ in the layman’s vocabulary.
Research has shown that friendly bacteria that colonise our gut interact with our gut immune mucosa, thereby playing a huge role in making us fat or thin, happy or sad, diseased or healthy. A majority of the microbial population, about 90 per cent, reside in our gut and hold the key to human immunity.
These microbes, primarily bacteria, break down the food we eat, release the by-products into our system, produce vitamins, and set off complex processes in our body that help us stay healthy, or make us diseased.
A team of Indian doctors and researchers found that the Indian gut flora is more diverse than, say, that of the Americans or even the Europeans. Indian gut has close to 500 species of bacteria, while the Americans have about 400 species.
It also reinforced the fact that urban lifestyles of eating processed foods
upsets the crucial and delicate balance of healthy bacteria and microbes in the
gut. The urban gut flora samples were less diverse in their bacterial
population than the rural ones.
“We also found that the gut flora of vegetarians was more diverse when compared to that of the meat-eating populations,” says Dr Bhabatosh Das, a microbiologist with Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad.
Instead of individual or just one type of bacteria, it is the
“optimal balance” of bacteria that defines a healthy gut. The practice of
eating a diverse diet, based on season and location, increases our friendly gut
bacteria and thereby also increases our immunity levels.
In India we have a wonderful tradition of eating fermented foods. Dahi or fresh home yogurt is a must along with at least one meal in the most Indian households. South Indians have idli and dosa. Panta rice in Eastern India. Kanji is popular in Northern states. Gujrati have dhoklas. Accompaniments like papad and pickles are fermented preparations which are popular all over India.
Urban Indians should stop running after kale, quinoa etc and return to their
roots.