We don’t usually get sick from eating fermented foods like kefir and Kimchi, and it is known that there are some health benefits from eating them for our gut health. BUT we often get sick from drinking spoiled milk or eating rotting meat and vegetables. What is the difference between food being “fermented” and food being “spoiled”?
In: Biology
The difference between “fermented” and “spoiled” is similar to the difference between a salad bed in a garden, versus a wild meadow.
In a garden, we plant specific species of crop plants that we know are edible and taste good. We know that there’s nothing poisonous there because we planted them all ourselves.
Whereas, if you just wandered into a random meadow, grabbed a handful of leaves and started chomping on them, some of them might be poisonous and even if they aren’t, they will still almost certainly not taste good.
Spoiled food is like the wild meadow. It’s when the random set of microbes that live wild in the world, start growing in our food. Fermenting food is when you plant specific microbes, and let those grow. *Those* can make tasty things.
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