Get Your Vitality Back

HOLLY DAVIS TELLS HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR INNER HEALTH WITH FERMENTED FOODS

- Holly Davis

Traditional approaches to health are increasingly popular, yet they’re rarely as fun as the latest revival fizzing over with interest.

Yes, fermented foods can provide better nourishment by introducing good bacteria to your gastrointestinal system, but they’re also such a joy to make, eat and share.

Australian wholefood pioneer Holly Davis has been a huge advocate for fermented foods for the past 40 years. Here, in an exclusive extract from her book Ferment: A Guide to the Ancient Art of Culturing Foods, she shares her advice and recipes to get you sparkling with better health from the inside out.

“Since fermented foods are shown to do their most valuable work beyond our highly acidic stomach, eating small amounts of sour ferments on a regular basis may be useful,” tells Holly.

Why ferment?

When food is fermented, it is pre-digested by microorganisms. The texture and flavour are transformed, and nutrients that might otherwise have been unavailable are made useful. And, where possible, fermentation can detoxify the ingredients being fermented. 

Many of the foods we might ferment contain various anti-nutrient compounds, making them hard to digest and their minerals difficult to extract. The process of fermentation preserves ingredients, making them safe to eat for weeks, months or in some cases years beyond their fresh state. 

This is a massive benefit if you live without refrigeration, but in this day and age, why bother to ferment foods? Variety, complex flavours and textures or to preserve an excess of seasonal produce may all be reason enough. But there are other benefits that might encourage you to join the fast-growing band of fermentation revivalists who recognise that fermentation improves food and that it can restore life to denatured foodstuffs, such as culturing pasteurised milk.

Insider knowledge