What are everyone's thoughts and/or experiences with eating and/or eliminating fermented foods?
Currently, I eat miso and fermented veggies. I haven't eaten tempeh since before I was raw.
I generally just go with my body and what feels good to me, and so far I've found that miso seems pretty innocuous to slightly helpful, and fermented veggies seem beneficial. However, you never know. This could just be my taste buds talking!
Also, what's the deal with Bragg's Aminos? I've heard so many conflicting things that I do use them, but I do like the taste. Are they worth avoiding? Nutritional yeast and mushrooms are other contreversal foods, but I've been using them.

Although miso has plenty of enzymes due to the fermenting process (and of course those enzymes are raw), the miso itself is not a raw food. Miso comes from soybeans (and some grains) that are thoroughly cooked and then fermented. You can go to www.soya.be/make-miso.php for a description of how to make miso.

My understanding is that nutritional yeast is cooked in the processing. I read about that recently in a raw foods cookbook, but I can't remember the name of the book. I will try to give you that reference later today or by tomorrow.

I don't know if those foods are good for you or not. My experience has been that nutritional yeast gives me heartburn, but my husband eats it all the time.

-Ally



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2006 08:13PM by Ally.

I personally love raw tempeh in salads. I asked someone at the health food store if it was raw and he said "Yes, they do nothing to it but ferment it."

But I would like to hear other opinions on this as well.

Dear Mallow and Jen Rose,

First, about the nutritional yeast. I went to the bookstore where I had seen the book that said the yeast was cooked in processing. Unfortunately, it must have been sold. The closest thing I could find was another raw foods book that described it this way: "Brewers yeast (nutritional yeast) is a good source of B vitamins for raw fooders. Because the yeast cells have been destroyed, it is not considered raw." I'm not quite sure how to interpret that, but for me, I wouldn't consider it raw.

About tempeh. I googled "making tempeh" and came up with a site called "How to make tempeh" (www.tempeh.info/maketempeh/how-to-make-tempeh.html). The instructions for making tempeh include cooking them in a cooking pot for 30 minutes with water and a little vinegar. So I would not say they are raw.

However, there is a possibility that your health food store may carry some tempeh that is made in some less traditional way. Check the wrapper. If it is really raw, it should say so, since the only reason it would not be made traditionally would be to attract the raw fooder. If it doesn't say "raw", then you could correctly assume it is not.

If you don't want to eat a cooked thing with your salads, but you liked the tempeh, you might see if you like raw wheat germ instead. If you buy some, make sure it is prepackaged, NOT the bulk stuff which is often rancid. Then keep it refrigerated.

Love, Ally

bummer....I really enjoyed tempeh

Found this on the web:

I've eaten tempeh, raw, just recently.

I sliced it finely and marinaded it in cold pressed olive oil, crushed garlic, celtic salt and crushed peppercorns for a couple of hours, came out wonderfully and I put it in a green salad. It's very filling!

I gues the deinition of raw is that a food (or any of it's components), haven't been cooked at any stage.

Tempeh is a soybean food cultured with the fungus Rhizopus oligosporus.

I've found a webpage that show how tempeh is made at home and the soybeans require cooking, see the webpage below:

[www.tempeh.info]

As for eating tempeh raw, the FAQ on this page says there is not danger in eating raw tempeh:

[www.tempeh.info]

The culture of Rhizopus would be raw, but the beans themselves are not, so I guess tempeh isn't raw, but it woudl containe many active enzymes (from the fungus) so may give the same benefits as a raw food.

when I'm off the 100%, I'll be finishing off the tempeh raw!

Cheers!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2006 05:17AM by Jen Rose.

my girlfriend likes miso, I personally don't enjoy it. I love kimchi and kraut though!

Folks,

Brewers Yeast is a bitter by product of the brewing industry. Nutritional Yeast is grown on molasses. They are two very different products. Both are cooked but many of us use NY because of all the b vitamins.

As for miso, yes, I use it. South River Miso is the brand I use and they have some of the best around. Yes, it's not a true raw product but it's loaded with healthy culture that is good for the digestive system. Also, South River Miso has three varieties of miso that are soy free. I posted this info on another thread and can't remember the three products but I have the chickpea miso that is quite yummy.


Peace,

Marcos

Go Vegan for your life, your health, the planet and, most importantly, the animals that we share this wonderful world with!

Rawmark,

I just looked up Red Star's site on nutritional yeast. You are right about brewer's yeast being different from nutritional yeast. I don't eat either, so I'm not familiar with it.

The book I got that information from was "The Complete Book of Raw Food, by Baird Rodwell. I looked up "nutritional yeast" in the index first, and it only said, "see brewer's yeast". I assumed they were to same thing. Just goes to show what happens when you "assume".

Thanks for setting the record straight.

-Ally

Okay, sorry. I guess that I wasn't clear.
I know a decent bit about the foods that I was asking about, including their rawness or lack there of.
I was actually only asking for information and experience as to whether or not they were useful additions to a healthy diet.
-mallow

But thank you all, I am grateful for the responses.