My adventures with tempeh.

I believe making tempeh from beans is tantamount to culturing milk into yogurt and other cultured-milk products. Culturing milk allows lactose-intolerant people access to dairy products. Likewise, tempeh allows people access to a high-protein, but difficult to digest food, namely beans.

A case can be made against eating soy beans, although culturing them negates a lot of those arguments, still, I don't know of any arguments against eating black beans.

In my latest Adventures of tempeh I thought I had found the perfect bean, black bean tempeh. After three perfect batches, it was failure from then on. So I tried chickpeas with great success. After eating chickpea tempeh for about a month, I developed a colon problem, watery, diarrhea -like stools that persisted for a month. I don't know what caused it, but I don't think it was tempeh- related.

I was really starting to get worried and even tried some cheap probiotics with no effect. Then I remembered that I had previously taken two courses of Keybiotics, a brand of probiotics that had helped me two years ago. I bought a bottle that was rather expensive at over $1 per capsule and within one day I noticed some improvement. After a little over a week I was back to normal. Now I'm sold on this stuff. It has 14 species of bacteria with 37.5 billion spores.

I'm rather hard-headed, and it took me two great successes with Keybiotics to realize the immense importance of the correct gut microorganisms. I now believe that my bout with diarrhea was the result of the loss of my gut bacteria somehow. The importance of these mutualistic bacteria are just beginning to be realized, and their relationship to obesity and diabetes is just becoming fully appreciated.

Now I have just recently completed a batch of chickpea tempeh with great success. This is my favorite tempeh so far, and it's easy to make.


This is what it looks like more or less, pretty stuff that reminds me of terrazzo.

I use colloidal silver for that sort of thing.

What do you mean? What is colloidal silver?

At one time there was a rather absurd estimation of the number of bacteria in our gut and elsewhere. It was estimated that the number of bacterial cells outnumbered human cells 10 to 1. Now that estimate has been greatly reduced to 53% bacteria and other microorganisms to 47% human cells. Most of these microorganisms reside in the colon and the mutualistic species are of great importance to our well-being. Prebiotics are food that we ingest to feed these mutualistic organisms. This consists mostly of soluble fiber, which must be taken daily otherwise the bacteria start feeding on the mucosal lining of the colon with many deleterious effects.

I now believe that tempeh made from beans other than soybeans is the answer for vegans, vegetarians, third world countries, and people seeking a very healthy and cheap source of protein.

There is much research going on now into the importance of the intestinal bacteria and the other microorganisms within our intestines. This is referred to as the microbiome and is composed ideally of mutualistic and commensal bacteria, that is bacteria that we need to be healthy. Research now indicates a link between the correct microbiome and obesity, diabetes, autism, and Parkinson's disease. It is now suggested that good mental health is linked with having the correct bacterial microorganisms.

Intestinal microorganisms need to be fed the correct diet in order to thrive, and this correct diet includes soluble fiber. When making tempeh the skin, which contains insoluble fiber, is stripped off leaving the soluble fiber from the inside of the bean. This provides a wonderful source of fiber for your intestinal Flora.

I haven't watched this video yet, but Dr. David Perlmutter is a neurologist who has appeared on PBS pledge break programs.

Dr. David Perlmutter: Autism, Alzheimer’s & The Gut Microbiome – #250

I had some chickpea tempeh recently in a meal prepared by a friend. I have to say I thought it looked really awful - but, it tasted good and didn't cause any gut troubles. The visuals of tempeh are still my problem.

Treating our intestinal bacteria as mutualists is a new field of research that promises many new discoveries in the field of research and disease. Nutrition is now seein as not just keeping a healthy body but keeping a healthy mind as well. The estimated number of intestinal bacteria varies hugely from the ratio of bacteria to human cells ranging from 10 to 1 to 57% to 43%. This is quite a difference. Of course the actual numbers wildly vary depending on the last time you used the bathroom. But one thing we have to bear in mind with this new information is that we are no longer just eating for one but eating for 1 + 10 trillion or so.

Food For Thought: how your belly controls your brain.

How to develop a healthy gut ecosystem. The advantage of a plant-based diet over a meat-based diet.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6JIy3q-8MQE

3 billion bacteria make your life better. A "Ted" talk in Russia. It is in Russian, but you can use the closed captioning to translate it.

A good point he makes is that we feed farm animals antibiotics to make them grow bigger and fatter. This is possibly because the antibiotics kill the normal bacterial biome in their intestines that regulate weight and fat. We want the farm animals to become bigger and fatter, and recent research indicates a link between a healthy intestinal biome and a healthy weight. If you have the wrong bacteria in your intestines you get obese and diabetic. When you eat the meat from these animals you're also ingesting the antibiotics and, therefore, killing off your intestinal bacteria. Thus, we get fat just like the farm animals do.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPci7a8l-oU

Speaker for the microbes: Emma Allen-Vercoe talks about your intestinal bacteria from their viewpoint and considers your microbiome as another organ equal to the liver.

More important than the exploration of outer space is the exploration of innerspace, that is the inner space of our microbiome, the ecology of microorganisms that inhabit our intestines and the rest of our body.

Huge amounts of money has been spent in the exploration of outer space, but the exploration of our inner space is a new field of research that promises immense revelations regarding our bacterial symbionts and their part in keeping our bodies and minds healthy.

We have to keep in mind that when we eat we're not just eating for one, but we're eating for one plus 100 trillion, for we are hosts to a vast array of mutualists.

What's healthier, chicken or pork?