However, most people do not have a comprehensive understanding of probiotic foods. They think that "as long as it is fermented food, it is good", "food with bacteria is fermented" and "the advantage of fermented food lies in whether there are live bacteria" and so on. Therefore, chasing sticks or even spending a lot of money on these foods will not only fail to achieve the ideal health care effect, but will destroy the body. This issue of Food and Heart will show you the common fermented foods and pseudo-fermented foods in our daily life, and provide scientific reference for you to understand and buy fermented foods.
1. The most popular fermented food-yogurt
Yogurt may be the favorite fermented food at present, and it was commercialized earlier. Eating yogurt even became a fashion. Yogurt is delicious and attractive in color, which is welcomed by people of all ages. Some people even give themselves or their children a lot of sweet and delicious yogurt every day, thinking that yogurt contains probiotics, which can promote health. The more you eat, the better, but the result is often counterproductive.
A large number of studies have found that active probiotics in yogurt can promote human health, and long-term consumption can improve intestinal barrier and enhance immunity. However, it should be emphasized that fermented yogurt containing active probiotics has such effects, while inactivated probiotics or probiotics destroyed by various food additives have been difficult to exert their health care effects, and these substances that harm probiotics (various food additives) will also destroy beneficial microorganisms that originally existed in the stomach after being imported. And those lactic acid bacteria drinks that contain no live bacteria and are blended are more harmful.
Therefore, when purchasing yogurt, the healthiest and safest order should be: yogurt without live bacteria (such as sugar-free plain yogurt) > yogurt without live bacteria (such as domestic plain yogurt) > yogurt with live bacteria (all kinds of delicious yogurt). Be especially wary of yogurt with a particularly good taste, because naturally fermented yogurt will not have such a taste.
At the same time, low-temperature yogurt is better than normal-temperature yogurt. Generally, yoghurts that need to be refrigerated at low temperature all contain live bacteria, while normal-temperature yoghurts basically contain no live bacteria, because yoghurts with live bacteria will continue to grow and produce acid at normal temperature, resulting in poor taste and can only be stored at low temperature, while yoghurts without live bacteria will be very stable at normal temperature.
2. The most expensive fermented food-cheese
Cheese, also known as cheese, is mainly fermented by lactic acid bacteria and white mold or Penicillium. It is very popular in Europe and West Asia and enjoys a high reputation all over the world. Although cheese is high in calories, it is rich in active metabolites of probiotics and bacteria, which is beneficial to human body. Scientists believe that although the diet contains a lot of saturated fatty acids, the habit of eating fermented cheese every day is one of the main reasons why their incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is lower than that of other countries.
Generally speaking, the better the fermentation, the more unique the taste and the higher the price, such as the French favorite blue cheese.
Unfortunately, this kind of fermented cheese containing probiotics is hard to buy in China, but there are many industrialized non-fermented cheeses (such as American cheese and cooked cheese), such as pizza cheese, bread cheese, and all kinds of delicious cheese sticks that are popular now.
In countries with developed dairy industry, fermented cheese is a traditional food that everyone is familiar with. In Holland, an ordinary person eats 30-50 kilograms of cheese a year. However, in China, which is not rich in dairy resources, most people first came into contact with American industrialized cheese. For example, the cheese in the pizza and hamburger you are familiar with is American cheese. This kind of cheese is really delicious, with high protein content, but high fat content and no probiotics at all. But contains a variety of food additives and trans fatty acids. It is harmless to eat this kind of delicious processed food with high calorie occasionally, but it is harmful to eat it in large quantities for a long time, which will not only disturb the intestinal flora, but also damage the bacteria.
Therefore, although cheese is strength, don't blindly supplement such cheese products to your family and children. You should first make sure whether there are probiotics and additives in it, and then decide how much to eat. European cheeses, such as those from Holland, Belgium, France and Denmark, are usually fermented cheeses (active cheeses, which are claimed to be soulful foods).
Milk tofu, which people often eat in nomadic areas of China, is made by boiling fresh milk (or goat's milk, camel milk's milk and yak's milk), removing the skin and butter (ghee), fermenting the rest, boiling to evaporate water, and finally forming. Milk bumps are naturally air-dried milk tofu residue. Milk tofu and milk bumps on Mongolian grassland basically contain no viable bacteria, and the fat content is extremely low, which are basically metabolites of lactic acid bacteria fermentation.
3. The most neglected fermented food-sour soybean milk
Bean is one of the most commonly used foods for fermentation, and it is also another food that can naturally enrich lactic acid bacteria besides milk. Sour soybean milk is made by natural inoculation or artificial inoculation of lactic acid bacteria to ferment cooked soybean milk. At present, there is no such product in China, but it is very popular among vegetarians as a substitute for yogurt in the United States and Japan. Friends who want to cook their own food can refer to the method of healthy breakfast for one week (49)-sour soybean milk/cereal pulp/rice pulp.
In many parts of China, beans are used to make sour juices and sauces. For example, the sour bean juice in old Beijing is made of mung beans. After the starch is filtered out and made into food such as vermicelli, the remaining residue is fermented and cooked like porridge. The paste noodles in Luoyang area are fermented green soybean milk or pea pulp, which is then used to cook noodles and even make hot pot bottom materials.
These traditional sour soymilk are heated and eaten after fermentation, which contains lactic acid bacteria metabolites, but no longer contains live bacteria. If you want to supplement active probiotics safely through sour soybean milk, it is best to make and eat yogurt in a way similar to yogurt, that is, add a clear type of lactic acid bacteria for fermentation, and do not eat it in heating, refrigeration or normal temperature.
4. Develop the most fully fermented food-natto.
Natto is a food fermented by Bacillus subtilis from cooked soybeans. It not only contains nutrients such as vitamins and lecithin from live bacteria and soybeans, but also contains active products of bacteria such as nattokinase. It is reported that it has certain thrombolytic, anti-tumor and antihypertensive effects. At present, there are many soybean health products for sale in Japan.
In Japan, the price of natto is very low, and the amount of a meal is 1-2 yuan RMB, which is the cheapest popular food. At present, it is also very convenient to buy natto in China, generally about 4 yuan 1 box. It's easy to do it yourself. There are special Bacillus natto and natto machine to choose from online, and many friends who love to eat and care like to make natto at home.
5. Fermented food-fermented bean curd, which is the most controversial taste.
Fermented bean curd, also known as bean curd brain, is a traditional folk food with characteristics that has been circulated in China for thousands of years. Usually divided into three categories: green formula, red formula and white formula. Among them, stinky tofu belongs to Fang Qing; "Big", "red and spicy", "rose" and "tea oil fermented bean curd" belong to "red square"; "Sweet and spicy", "osmanthus" and "spiced" belong to "white border"; There are also bad recipes with bad rice, drunken recipes with yellow wine, and colorful fermented bean curd with sesame seeds, roses, shrimps and sesame oil.
Fermented sufu is mainly fermented by Rhizopus or Mucor, and different varieties are fermented by adding monascus enzyme, yeast and Aspergillus oryzae. It not only contains a variety of microorganisms, but also contains a large number of microbial active metabolites, so it has a unique taste and fragrance.
Traditional fermented sufu is beneficial to people, but in order to prevent the growth of mold, manufacturers usually use high-concentration salt and even add preservatives, emulsifiers and flavoring agents, so it is not suitable to eat in large quantities.
Indonesia's douchi is also fermented by inoculating cooked soybeans with Rhizopus oligospora (a kind of Rhizopus). Because it is heated, it basically contains no live bacteria.
6. The most commonly eaten fermented foods-miso, lobster sauce, bean paste, yellow sauce, soy sauce, sweet noodle sauce, etc.
Miso (みそ), also known as Douchi sauce, is made of soybean, rice and wheat as main raw materials, added with salt, and fermented by lactic acid bacteria, yeast and Aspergillus. Miso is the most popular condiment in Japan and enjoys a long-standing reputation all over the world. Can be made into soup, can be cooked with meat, can be made into the soup base of hot pot.
Douchi is a traditional condiment for fermented bean products in China. It is made by using black beans or soybeans as the main raw materials, decomposing soybean protein with Mucor, Aspergillus or bacterial protease, adding salt, wine and drying to a certain extent, inhibiting the activity of enzymes and delaying the fermentation process. Soy sauce, commonly known as soy sauce, is mainly made of soybeans or black beans, wheat or bran, chaff and salt as raw materials, through oil making and fermentation.
Soybean paste, also known as yellow paste and soybean paste, is made of soybean and flour as the main raw materials, while soybean paste is made of broad bean and soybean as the main raw materials and fermented by mold (mainly Aspergillus).
Generally speaking, miso, lobster sauce, soy sauce, yellow sauce and bean paste are all fermented, and all contain active microbial fermentation ingredients, but they are all fermented to the stage where nutrients are exhausted and a large number of microorganisms die. Therefore, in addition to miso, the finished fermented lobster sauce, soy sauce, yellow sauce and bean paste we eat rarely contain live bacteria. The sweet noodle sauce in Peking man's favorite roast duck burrito is made of moldy steamed bread.
Generally speaking, there are fewer additives and live bacteria in miso that need to be refrigerated. Miso fermented for a long time also contains live bacteria, which can be preserved for a long time at room temperature, but there is no live bacteria when heated and eaten. It is suggested that most of douchi, soy sauce, yellow sauce and bean paste that need to be preserved at low temperature contain live bacteria, but those preserved at room temperature basically contain no live bacteria, and may also contain a variety of flavoring, flavoring and antiseptic additives to enhance the shelf life. Therefore, you must read the label before buying. The price difference between the brewed product and the prepared product may be 3-4 times, but it is still recommended to buy the brewed product.
7. Pickled vegetables (such as sauerkraut, pickles and spicy cabbage). )
Besides milk and bean products, vegetables are another most suitable food for fermentation. There are pickles with local characteristics all over the world, such as pickled olives in the Mediterranean, sauerkraut in Germany, pickles in East Asia, pickled cucumbers and pickles in various regions of China.
At present, pickled foods are mainly divided into pickled foods and fermented foods. Preservatives and seasonings are needed to prolong the preservation time of pickled foods, which are mainly seasonings such as vinegar, sugar water and soy sauce, and basically contain no live bacteria. The fermented types such as kimchi, Sichuan kimchi and Northeast kimchi are mainly preserved by lactic acid bacteria. Shi Xin also shared the practice of kimchi containing active probiotics. A week's healthy dinner (63)-How to capture probiotics in the air; One-week healthy dinner (66)- homemade probiotic pickles.
But it should be noted that:
In many places in China, people still have the habit of cooking noodles or shabu-shabu with kimchi, such as sour soup noodles with unique flavor. This way of eating is healthy, but there are no live bacteria when eating.
8. Fake fermented foods (such as mushrooms and cordyceps sinensis)
Most fungi belong to microorganisms, such as Rhizopus, Aspergillus and yeast, and are used for fermentation. Mushrooms and auricularia auricula, which we often eat, belong to large fungi, not fermentation products of bacteria, and their value to human health is mainly determined by their nutrients. As for Cordyceps sinensis, it is a complex of its daughter and larval corpse, and it is parasitic on the larvae of Batmoths by Cordyceps sinensis.
That is to say, although mushrooms and cordyceps sinensis are related to fungi, they are not fermented foods, and their effects on human body are completely different from those of probiotics, so they cannot be confused.
9. Controversial fermented food-alcohol
Wine, a unique alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting high-sugar foods such as rice, sorghum and fruit with lactic acid bacteria, yeast and yeast, is undoubtedly a fermented food and contains many microbial metabolites.
Some people think that "alcohol is the essence of food, and moderate drinking helps to prolong life", but more scientific research believes that alcohol causes cancer. The key to the dispute lies in alcohol, which is the main and key substance in wine. Although alcohol is produced by microbial fermentation, its harm to human body cannot be ignored, and small workshops and private breweries are technically unable to distill and separate harmful substances such as methanol. A large number of studies show that the safe dose of alcohol is zero.
From the point of view of physical and mental health, the suggestion of eating heart is: friends who don't like drinking should not drink. When they like to drink or have to drink, try to choose homemade wine, don't drink blended wine, and don't drink too much. For a deeper understanding, please refer to a healthy breakfast for one week (59)-Can moderate drinking prolong life?
10. Harmful fermented food-homemade enzyme
The word enzyme comes from Japanese, which means enzyme in Chinese, that is, protein with biological activity. However, the enzyme, which has been all the rage in recent years, has completely tampered with its original intention. They refer to products made from animals, plants, fungi, etc. with specific bioactive components (including polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, protein, peptides, amino acids and vitamins), with or without auxiliary materials.
From the definition of angle in the light industry standard issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it can be seen that the enzyme produced in industry is an enzyme product on the market, and its main functional component is the active metabolites of microorganisms, not active probiotics. The benefits of industrial edible and feed enzyme products are uncertain. As long as there is no clear toxic component, it can be passed and put on the market.
Eating heart does not recommend that you make enzymes at home and give them to your family or pets. Because most of the self-made enzymes are fermented in an environment rich in sugar, such as using various fruits and vegetables and adding sugar, these raw materials are usually suitable for the growth of various microorganisms (regardless of beneficial bacteria and harmful bacteria) and can produce various microbial metabolic components (although there may be beneficial components, harmful components are not excluded). Due to long-term fermentation, bacteria will inhibit each other after exhausting nutrients and release a large number of resistant substances. Cases of liver and kidney failure caused by long-term drinking of homemade enzymes occurred in China and Japan more than ten years ago.
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