Get Your Gut in Check with Fermentality

When you hear the word “clean eating” you probably think of meal plans, calorie counting, and juicing. However, one word you might not often associate with clean eating is pickles. While your mind may go straight to the pickles you know -- the ones on a sandwich or a charcuterie board -- the pickles we’re talking about include sauerkraut, kimchi, and kvass products sold at your local farmer’s market, provided, of course, that your farmer’s market carries Fermentality. 

Fermentality is one of the only companies in Orange County that offer locally-sourced and ethically-made fermented food products. Damian Ross, one of the brand’s founders, says that after years in the food service industry, he and his wife-slash-business partner, Ilkay Basugur, needed a change. Around the same time, the health benefits of fermented foods were starting to make their way into mainstream culture, and this timing couldn’t have been more perfect. 

Seeing an opportunity to bring something new and healthy to their community, the couple started making their products by hand. “We wanted to provide our community with small-batch, locally-sourced alternatives to the mass-produced krauts and kimchi found in grocery stores,” says Ross. 

“Our customers see Fermentality as the gold-standard of locally fermented probiotic food and beverages. Our products taste fantastic and look pretty, but the most important reason is that they make people feel better, too.” 

They don’t mass produce anything, and nothing is pre-cut or processed through any kind of industrial strength machine. This care even extends to how they package food. Everything is packed in glass jars and bottles in order to ensure that no harmful chemicals leach into the food. 

But it’s not just the how that the Fermentality team is focused on; the what of their products is incredibly important as well. They source their ingredients from the same farmer’s markets that they sell their products. 

“Everything we use is grown within a four-hour drive of our kitchen in Garden Grove and comes from family-operated farms that practice sustainable agriculture, free of pesticides and GMO seeds,” says Ross. “It’s extremely important for us to use freshly harvested produce when fermenting.”

Up until a few years ago, not many people understood just how essential fermented foods could be in someone’s diet. Foods like kimchi or sauerkraut might have been considered nothing more than cold, funny-smelling bites that people sometimes put in non-American dishes. Now, people know that fermented foods are packed with the probiotics we need to keep our guts in balance. 

“About 2 tablespoons of properly fermented veggies will provide 1.5 trillion CFU’s (colony forming units) of lactic acid bacteria, which is all we need to maintain balance,” explains Ross. “These beneficial bacteria are found in our digestive tract, and they help strengthen the intestinal walls and facilitate the proper elimination of toxins.” 

While taking probiotics in a pill form is also one way to get essential bacteria, it can be expensive and there’s no way to know if the bacteria in the pill is still living -- something that’s vital for the bacteria to work in your gut. “With sauerkraut, kimchi, and beet kvass, you can identify it as a living food by the aroma, taste, and color,” Ross shares. “Probiotic veggies give you higher levels of micronutrients, fiber, enzymes, and antioxidants, and if kept refrigerated with a tight-fitting lid, they will keep for several months... possibly years.” 

Ross believes there are certain illnesses that are caused by long-term damage to the digestive system and regularly eating fermented foods (like Fermentality’s Longevity Sauerkraut) will keep you healthy in the long run.

“The irresponsible addition of refined sugars and hydrogenated fats, combined with the loss of essential nutrients during industrial food processing has positioned the Western diet as the human body's strongest enemy,” Ross warns. “Open your mind, work probiotics into your diet and your overall well-being and mental clarity will improve... and soon you’ll realize that it’s actually junk food that makes you sick.” 

Logan Cross is a writer, editor, and dancer based in Los Angeles. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter, or listening to every fictional podcast her phone allows her to download.