The Fermented Man, by Derek Dellinger
For one entire year, Derek Dellinger ate and drank nothing but fermented foods. Cheese, bread, beer, kombucha, fermented meats and veggies, eggs and fish - these products of one of the oldest methods of food preservation were all Dellinger consumed for 365 days, and The Fermented Man is both a journal of that time and an exploration of fermentation all around the world. Pretty much every culture uses fermentation in their diet because it's such an easy way of preserving something, not to mention the act of fermentation unlocks a lot of nutrients that we miss out on when food is eaten raw. For many of us, the most esoteric food we can think of that is fermented is sauerkraut, but Dellinger shows us that nearly everything can be fermented, if you use the right methods.
Dellinger is a brewmaster and enthusiastic homebrewer, so fermentation was no new concept to him. His interest in it, coupled with a concern for how much mass produced food and drink we consume in America, as well as a bit of a crazy streak, lead him to this complicated project. His goal wasn't to prove that we should be eating a diet of only fermented foods, but rather that we should all be eating more of them, incorporating them into our meals as products that are both delicious and very healthy for you. The fact that Dellinger suffered no ill effects from his extreme diet shows that fermented foods are safe and healthy.
There were really only two problems with Dellinger's diet, at least from his own perspective: while fermentation is more common than we think, it's not common enough to make it easy to compose entire meals out of only fermented foods. Like any restrictive diet, Dellinger missed the foods he used to love (guacamole comes up quite a bit, and who can blame him), and also missed the satisfaction that comes from cooking a meal; his mealtimes consisted far more often of simply assembling a variety of foods rather than anything that resembled cooking, aside from the occasional pizza. The other problem Dellinger faced was hunger. He just wasn't getting enough calories in order to feel full, partly because finding food he could eat while out and about was really difficult, and thus despite the massive amounts of cheese he ate, he didn't gain any weight and dealt with a near-constant low level of hunger. Despite that, however, he claims to have felt enormously energetic and clearheaded.
I'm convinced. I knew fermented food was good for you, as more and more research is being done on our microbiome, and I really like the stuff (both my dad and I will happily eat sauerkraut straight out of the bottle), but this will definitely spur me to seek out more fermented foods. And not just because it's good for me and yummy, but also because these foods are often locally produced rather than mass produced and shipped, and I'm always looking for ways to shop local.
Shop indie!
Dellinger is a brewmaster and enthusiastic homebrewer, so fermentation was no new concept to him. His interest in it, coupled with a concern for how much mass produced food and drink we consume in America, as well as a bit of a crazy streak, lead him to this complicated project. His goal wasn't to prove that we should be eating a diet of only fermented foods, but rather that we should all be eating more of them, incorporating them into our meals as products that are both delicious and very healthy for you. The fact that Dellinger suffered no ill effects from his extreme diet shows that fermented foods are safe and healthy.
There were really only two problems with Dellinger's diet, at least from his own perspective: while fermentation is more common than we think, it's not common enough to make it easy to compose entire meals out of only fermented foods. Like any restrictive diet, Dellinger missed the foods he used to love (guacamole comes up quite a bit, and who can blame him), and also missed the satisfaction that comes from cooking a meal; his mealtimes consisted far more often of simply assembling a variety of foods rather than anything that resembled cooking, aside from the occasional pizza. The other problem Dellinger faced was hunger. He just wasn't getting enough calories in order to feel full, partly because finding food he could eat while out and about was really difficult, and thus despite the massive amounts of cheese he ate, he didn't gain any weight and dealt with a near-constant low level of hunger. Despite that, however, he claims to have felt enormously energetic and clearheaded.
I'm convinced. I knew fermented food was good for you, as more and more research is being done on our microbiome, and I really like the stuff (both my dad and I will happily eat sauerkraut straight out of the bottle), but this will definitely spur me to seek out more fermented foods. And not just because it's good for me and yummy, but also because these foods are often locally produced rather than mass produced and shipped, and I'm always looking for ways to shop local.
Shop indie!
Comments
Post a Comment