Can Vegans Eat Fermented Foods?

Much confusion exists as to what vegans can and can’t eat.

Can vegans eat fermented foods?

Yes. Yes they can.

Now let’s talk about why.

Dietary Differences

The first thing to understand is the big difference, and it is big, between vegetarianism and veganism.

Vegetarian Diet

Vegetarians do not eat meat. The reason can be religious, ethical, or health related. They will still eat eggs and dairy, including cheese and yogurt, however.

Religious Vegetarians

Many eastern religions are vegetarian because they practice something called “ahimsa.” It is an ancient Indian practice that means “do no harm.” Because eating meat requires an animal to be killed, Buddhists, Hindus, and Jainists are usually vegetarian.

Ethical

But you don’t have to be religious to practice ahimsa. You don’t even have to know about ahimsa to feel ethically like the killing of animals, even “humanely”, is against your belief system. Thus, many vegetarians simply don’t eat meat for their own personal belief against killing animals for human consumption.

Health

Then there’s the health aspect. Many people are put in vegetarian diets by their doctors to introduce more plants and get fatty red meats and pork out of their diets. A vegetarian diet has been shown to be hugely beneficial for people with heart disease, diabetes, and different kinds of cancers. Though whether this improvement is based on the absence of meat in their diets or simply a huge influx of a variety of plant is still up in the air.

Vegan Diet

Vegans take vegetarianism one step further, and it is usually ethically related. There is an argument that veganism is healthier for the human body than a diet that includes animal products, but, again, the science is still out on this debate, particularly because protein is such a critical component to all diets and getting enough protein without animal meat or byproducts is challenging and requires real dedication to paying attention to food and combinations of foods.

Ethical Vegans

Ethical vegans believe that all animal byproducts are unethical, from dairy to eggs. They see dairy as a form of forced production of milk and eggs as the destruction of the potential for life. All life is sacred in this belief system.

Health

In addition to the argument above about how veganism is simply better for you, some people are legitimately allergic or else highly sensitive to eggs and dairy, and therefore find it easier to eliminate all meat and animal byproducts whatsoever.

Fermented Foods

Thus, you can see how people may wonder if vegans can eat fermented foods with so many dietary restrictions. After all, yogurt is a fermented food, and it is dairy.

But it is important here to understand what fermented foods actually are.

The fermentation process, when it comes to food, merely involves introducing either yeast or bacteria, and usually both, to a food and allowing the yeast or bacteria to do its work.

Yeast

Yeast is simply a fungus that has been around for millions of years. Indeed, fungi were the first living organisms on earth, and have been doing their job quite well all this time.

Yeast are single celled, eukaryotic organisms that can reproduce both aerobically and anaerobically, can survive in virtually any environment, and are prevalent in almost all spaces.

Yeast, as we speak, are all around you, on every surface, including your skin, and inside of you.

To survive, yeast feeds on sugar and converts it to alcohol, carbon dioxide, and hundreds of other micronutrients that add flavor, aroma, and health to your food.

Bacteria

Bacteria are a lot like yeast in many ways in that they survive by feeding on other organisms, living and dead.

There is more bacteria on earth than there is yeast, but yeast are much larger and therefore take up more space.

What many people don’t realize is that there are good bacteria and bad bacteria, and we actually want the good bacteria in our bodies to fight the bad bacteria. This concept is related to your gut health, and good gut health makes for overall healthy bodies.

In a fermented food like yogurt, yeast and bacteria will be added and will undergo a fermentation process that creates live and active cultures called probiotics.

When you consume those probiotics, they go straight to your gut and keep it happy and healthy. Your gut is connected to most of the other functions in your body.

An unhealthy gut is connected to poor moods, low energy, and even diseases of all sorts.

When you consume probiotics in foods like sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, and even some kombucha, you are introducing all that beneficial bacteria to your gut, and you increase your chances of improving your overall health.

Probiotic foods and fermented drinks are good for everyone, and especially for vegans who miss out on a lot of nutrients they would be getting from meat.

Vegans Eat Fermented Foods

In the end, yes, of course vegans eat fermented foods. In fact, if you go into any health food store, you will see a ton of fermented foods specifically targeted to vegans specifically because the companies know that vegans tend to be very health conscious and will be paying attention to things like probiotics for a healthy gut.

Many fermented foods also offer an alternative source of protein to vegans.

Tempeh

Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It usually comes in cake form and employs a form of fungus called Rhizopus oryzae as its fermentation starter.

Miso

Miso is another fermented bean product, this one from Japan. It is produced by fermenting rice, barley, and soybeans with salt and a fungus known as kojikin. It is rich in phytonutrient antioxidants and phenolic acids as well as protein.

And those are only two examples of excellent fermented foods vegans can eat. There is a whole range, and just ask; vegans are certainly the first in line to tell you about them.

Cheers!

Passionate about yeast fermentation and all the wonders it can do? So are we! If you’re interested in finding out how you can use our technology to control fermentation and monitor your yeast, save work hours and improve the cost-efficiency of your business, drop us a line at [email protected]

Also, check out these product pages, if you’re into beer or wine making:

…or our custom solution page for other use cases (yours included):

Sources:

1.     https://myvegandreams.com/vegan-fermented-foods/

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