I have read many books and articles that have blamed the advent of agriculture as the cause of many, if not all, of our modern health problems. The argument is that the human species used to roam the Earth hunting for meat and gathering nuts, fruits, vegetables and berries. Once we introduced agriculture into the mix, the problems started. We stopped hunting and gathering and began to divide into classes of farming, manufacturing and whatever else- because ultimately once we had a set system for food, we could settle down and start a more organized society.
At some point, grains entered the scene, and the downfall of the health of our species began. My counterpoint to this is that agriculture has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but our current health crisis has only really been around for the last hundred or so years.
My argument is that our current health crises derived, not from agriculture, but from a system of "enhancing" our agriculture in order to produce more food with a consistent and predicable product. This requires a strict regiment of processed ingredients- derived from agriculture- but not ingredients that occur naturally in our environment or in our bodies.
Enter... or shall I say, exit... the bacteria.
There are two types of bacteria- the good kind, and the bad kind. When these two meet, they compete and, more often than not, the good ones win. However, if you want a consistent and predicable product, this is the very last thing you want- because, sometimes the good bacteria loses. So, considering all this, food manufactures have developed preservatives and alternative methods (alternative to what was established thousands of years ago) in order to make food faster and last longer- thus making it cheaper. This, I believe, is a large part of our problem.
Flashback... the original process of fermentation.
Thousands of years ago, a regular dish consumed by the ancient Egyptians was called "Wheat Mash". It was simply wheat and water mashed together and eaten. Not that difficult a concept. Somewhere down the line, someone must have left the mash out too long and noticed something quite unusual. From that potentially simple mistake was born, quite possibly, beer, wine, and bread... and would be the advent of pickles, cheese, kimchi, etc.
Essentially, it comes down to the competition of good verses bad bacteria. The process of fermenting grains, fruits and vegetables by making the environment conducive for good bacteria to prevail. Why all this? It's simple- thousands of years ago, there were no refrigerators or freezers. There was no such thing as harvesting your crop, eating some of it and then freezing whatever you needed for the winter... you needed to can it through the process of pickling it. In addition, water was not all that safe to drink, so fermenting grapes or grains would produce a low level of alcohol which would kill any bad bacteria that existed in the drink.
What all this did was to help human beings develop gut bacteria that was conducive to processing all this fermented food. If nothing else, it kept us alive as a species... however, in the modern era, we have developed processes that no longer need all that unpredictable fermentation. Instead, we have introduced a lot of chemicals and ingredients into "food" and water in the name of health... but we have a higher cancer rate, heart disease rate, and obesity rate than any of our ancestors ever had.
Why?
Agriculture?
Grain?
I do the best I can to stay away from fad dieting, artificial sweeteners, and any other kind of processed food. But it's hard to avoid. I started this blog a few years ago when I overheard a teacher in the teacher's lounge during lunch explaining that it was "impossible" to not consume high fructose corn syrup... I wanted people to know that it was more than possible, that I had been doing it for years, and I wanted people to know how much simpler it was that they were lead to believe.
I wanted to rise above the standard, climb to the top of the mountain of truth and scream, "We can do better!" It's takes time, and the Lord is well aware that I am not completely there yet, but I am trying. I encourage you to try, too.
This part two is more on my rationale for attempting to make my own sourdough starter... stay with me for part 3, because I am going to give you step by step instructions on how to make your own sourdough culture with wild-caught yeast and then, hopefully, to develop your own bread using only 4 ingredients- flour, water, salt, wild-caught yeast... it's a start- and well worth it.
God Bless!
Paul
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