That's right, -phile, not -phobe. I love germs. As I'm cleaning up from dinner tonight, I survey the jars of cucumbers and beans that are sitting covered in germy water, turning into ever-so-juicy, crunchy garlic dill pickles. Jars of milk sit out at room temperature - oh, definitely not Pasteurized milk. And in the basement, shredded cabbage sits in crocks filled with germy liquid. Mmmmm.
Of all the germs out there, my absolute favorite is l. acidophilus. That's lactobacillus acidophilus. Boy, if you want to talk germs, man, this one has a rap sheet a mile long! It's been blamed for good health, robust digestion, regularity, healing from many diseases, preservation of foods, and the death of many pathogens (oh, yeah, those are the few germs that give germs a bad name - kind of like those ambulence chasers they call lawyers). So, good old l.a. is hard at work for me, culturing milk, pickling vegetables, making kvass from beets (an acquired taste, believe me), breaking down the enzyme inhibitors in my oats so the oat meal is oh so good and doesn't sit like a rock in our tummies, and so on. I mean, this little germ is the workhorse.
I think a close second place would have to go to yeast. What a beast, that yeast - man, such delicious breads, beers, and boy, the kombucha we make I am totally addicted to.
I think because I eat so many lactofermented foods, any bout of diarrhea that lasts more than once is now considered a "major" bout - the worst I've been sick in a long time is a bit of a sniffle. Ask Sander Ellix Katz - his book Wild Fermentation is chock full of stories.
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