The myth of David and Goliath, found in the Hebrew Bible, is an unlikely story of someone small and overlooked defeating a nine foot tall warrior with a slingshot and a stone. If the exciting research emerging from the World Institute of Kimchi continues to show promise, my hope is that the small, often overlooked beneficial bacterium in kimchi may help us reduce the harm caused by the menacing, omnipresent threat of microplastics.
Are you excited to learn more? Check out my musings and links below to understand this fabulous development in the world of healing ourselves with food.
I love doing the Farmers’ Market in Montpelier. It is a lot of work. A lot of schlepping, which can sometimes be overwhelming. And still I love being there with our products.
This past Saturday, one of the great parts of being at the Capital City Farmers’ Market came into sharp focus.
- First, an important person in the community mentioned, as she was buying a quart of our Spicy Kimchi Rampage—get them while you can, dear friends, the annual batch is almost gone—that she had read an article about the beneficial bacteria in kimchi showing promise as a method for removing microplastics from our bodies. Huh? This is super interesting.
- Later, a great friend of the ferments and great supporter of the Fermenter in Chief, stopped by for her 1/2 gallon of Simply Sauerkraut—yes. She’s special. No one else get these, unless you, of course, would also like to pre-order one—sent me the link to the same article in ScienceDaily. This is super awesome and helpful and also typical of this amazing human. Here’s a link to that article: This popular fermented food may help flush microplastics from the body
- In case you need more prompting, here’s the summary from the May 18th article: Scientists in South Korea have discovered that a probiotic bacterium found in kimchi may help the body flush out tiny plastic particles before they can build up in organs. In lab tests, the kimchi-derived microbe clung tightly to nanoplastics even under conditions designed to mimic the human intestine, where other bacteria quickly lost their grip.
- The beneficial bacterium—or probiotic—in kimchi doing the heavy lifting in the nanoplastics removal struggle is our local, friendly Leuconostoc mesenteroides. I’m positive that I can’t say that ten times fast.
- Finally, in the evening, after I’d reconciled the market—another banger! Thank you, Montpelier community— done my lessons on DuoLingo and was chillaxing on the couch, I read the not-too-long article. This was super exciting.
Friends, you may already know that I’m no lover of plastics in anything, especially in our food. You can read here, in Plastics at VFA, about how we work to reduce the contact that our ferments make with plastics in our production, fermentation and packaging. I am bummed about how pervasive plastic has become in our world and the ways that we are harming the environment and all living creatures with our use and disposal of them.
I strive to be a good steward of the food that we make for you and to create it in a way that is most healthful for everyone and everything involved. I never imagined though, that I might be creating something that might actually provide a bulwark for us, that might be healing if we add it to our lives on the regular. Wow!
What can you do after you check out the article and are ready to get your kimchi on?
Come find us on a Saturday at the Capital City Farmers’ Market. Check out our awesome retail partners and add some Spicy Kimchi and other wonderful foods to your shopping basket. Order online, and come by the Fermentery in Moretown to pick up your treasures. If kimchi is not your jam, checkout our online order form for the most current list of our products. If our Spicy Kimchi is one of your favorites, don’t forget about the Spicy Kimchi Shot . Maybe now is the time that we all start our days with a shot of this wonderful, delicious, prebiotic- and probiotic-rich health tonic. I’m going to wait for this storm to pass, and head over to the Fermentery to pour myself a bottle today.
If you’re still not feeling the kimchi love, come by an in-store demo or the Farmers’ Market and have a taste of our Kimchi Hot Sauce. Made with hot peppers, garlic, cilantro and other great ingredients, our hot sauce is fermented in an equal amount of Spicy Kimchi Shot for three or four months. When it is ready, this raw, probiotic and prebiotic hot sauce is a wonderful way to add healthful goodness and delicious flavor to any of your favorite foods.
Please let me know if there’s some way I can support you and your health and wellness goals.
Your Friend in the Ferments,
