Fermenting

Aajonus was explicit that fermentation is primarily a detoxification tool, not a general digestive aid. He stated plainly: "just remember that fermentation is for detoxification. Fermentation causes lots of soaps and detoxification." When people assumed that eating fermented vegetables would improve their digestion of meat or dairy, he corrected this directly. The bacteria produced in vegetable fermentation are specific to decomposing vegetable material. They do not cross over to assist in digesting animal proteins or fats. A person eating sauerkraut, he said, is not going to digest their meat better. The fermented bacteria from vegetables can create alcohols that clean the body a little, but they do not improve any other digestive process.

The reason fermented vegetables have any value at all, in his view, is that they supply the bacteria and enzymes needed to detoxify and eliminate old cooked vegetable residues stored in the body. Cooking vegetables destroys all natural fermentation bacteria present in them. The higher the cooking temperature and the longer the cooking time, the more completely that bacterial population is destroyed. His own mother had overcooked everything, and as a result, he had consumed large quantities of cooked vegetables with no fermentation bacteria to help break down the compounds they left behind. Those compounds remained in his body, inert, with no ecological mechanism to process them. Drinking fermented vegetable juice periodically would introduce the right bacteria to target those specific stored compounds and help move them out.

He said he drank fermented vegetable juice once a week for this purpose. He did not recommend it more frequently than that on a raw food diet, because the highly acidic and alcoholic nature of fermented vegetable juice would destroy beneficial bacteria in the body, disrupt the bacterial balance needed for meat and dairy digestion, and was incompatible with the overall framework. "If you want to use that fermentation process, it's good to do with your vegetable juice once in a while to help detoxify the old cooked nutrients, the old cooked substances of vegetation that you've had throughout your life. So once in a while let a juice go five to ten days, terrible tasting, but I know it's going to go in and act as a soap and clean out some of that old stuff in the body."

Aajonus's position on fermented vegetables reflected a consistent tension between their occasional utility and their fundamental inappropriateness as a regular food. He acknowledged that advocates like Sally Fallon promoted fermented vegetables widely and that ancestral cultures fermented cabbage and other vegetables extensively. His response was that those cultures were fermenting vegetable-based diets and the bacteria produced were appropriate to decomposing that food, which he did not consider optimal for human beings regardless of whether it was fermented or raw.

He stated in his newsletter that vegetation contains little protein or fat, making it not part of an optimal diet whether fermented, raw, or cooked. The occasional use of fermented vegetables supplies bacteria and enzymes to help the body detoxify and eliminate old cooked vegetable residues, "including all of the crystallized vegetable oils" stored in tissue. But eating fermented vegetables regularly was, in his view, unbalanced.

For people eating cooked food, fermented vegetables held more value. They help rebalance the digestive environment and provide enzymes and lactic acids to assist with digesting cooked food. "Fermented vegetables are fine if you're eating cooked food. They help rebalance. They help provide enzymes and lactate acids to help you digest the foods that are cooked." This concession was specific to people not yet on a fully raw diet.

He also noted that the fermented bacteria from vegetable fermentation, specifically the alcohol it creates, is designed to digest vegetables, not meat and not dairy. "If you want something to digest meat and dairy, you get the bacteria growing in the meat and you get the bacteria growing in the fermentation, in the dairy products. That's what's fit for it. Not sauerkraut or any other."

Fermented dairy was the category Aajonus discussed most extensively and most favorably. He viewed kefir and yogurt as pre-digested milk, meaning that bacteria had already consumed much of the milk's components and their byproducts, specifically their feces, urine, and perspiration, were what nourished the drinker. He described this directly: "kefir and yogurt are milk thick with bacterial feces, urine and perspiration that will nutrify the drinker quickly and efficiently with little or no work for the drinkers digestive bacteria." The bacteria in fermented dairy consumed the milk similarly to how intestinal bacteria consume food in the intestines, sparing the body the energy cost of digestion.

He gave a specific recipe for making kefir at home. Take raw milk, add two tablespoons of honey per half gallon of milk (he had previously used two tablespoons per quart but found that too sweet over time), blend the honey with about six ounces of milk first because honey does not mix into cold milk directly, pour it into the remaining milk, place it in a cupboard at room temperature, and in approximately 24 to 36 hours it will have thickened into kefir. It can then be refrigerated. Because it is pre-digested, refrigeration is not a concern for its digestibility.

For subsequent batches, a portion of the previous batch can be used as a starter. The fermentation environment mattered significantly. He observed that kefir fermented faster and tasted better when placed on wood surfaces, whether a wood floor or a wood table. On formica, plastic, concrete, or tile, the bacteria multiplied more slowly and the product was inferior in taste. "I put it on wood, wood floor, wood tables. It goes faster. I put it on formica, plastic. It's a cold energy. Bacteria won't multiply." He drew an analogy to wine makers and vinegar makers who age their products in wood barrels for precisely this reason.

He described an ideal but rarely achieved method: making yogurt using one's own saliva rather than a commercial starter or even a previous batch of fermented milk. His reasoning was that commercially fermented dairy and dairy fermented with another animal's bacteria are useful but not optimal, because the bacteria producing them come from outside the person's own body. "If you want to make your own yogurt, do it with your own saliva, with all your own bacteria." The procedure was to take some milk, put it in the mouth, swish it around until thoroughly mixed with saliva, and return it to a quart of milk. The resulting ferment would be produced by bacteria unique to that individual's body, making it the most appropriate culture for that specific person.

He emphasized that kefir and yogurt made from another animal's bacteria are still good and a good source of nutrients. "Don't share with anybody. That's for you specifically." This referred to the personally cultured version. Sharing another person's fermented dairy was unnecessary; commercially sourced fermented dairy was appropriate as a general food.

For people making cheese from raw milk, he noted that curds form naturally without added bacteria and produce a cheese. If curds and whey separate, they should be eaten together rather than separated, because the cheese that results from separation would not be well digested. To accelerate culture formation in cheese-making, a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice could be added. Vinegar produces a more tart cheese; lemon produces a slightly sweeter and saltier flavor.

He also noted that the acidophilus bacteria commonly associated with fermented dairy primarily pre-digest the sugar in milk, which he considered a relatively unimportant function since sugar is not a major component of what the body needs from milk. He instead emphasized the Bulgaricus bacteria, which he referred to as the organisms that digest fat and protein, as the more important culture. People's preference for sweet foods had led them to favor acidophilus-dominant products, which he considered "not necessary and inappropriate."

Aajonus described multiple occasions on which he fermented milk to exceptionally high alcohol concentrations as part of deliberate detoxification protocols aimed at purging the residues of pasteurized milk and cereal grains stored in his own tissues. These accounts were presented not as protocols others should follow but as demonstrations of the power and danger of aggressive fermentation.

In one account, he took maca powder, a Peruvian root herb with a chemical structure similar to cereal grains, and fermented it in raw milk for approximately ten to fourteen days in a sealed bottle. When he opened the bottle, the alcohol was so concentrated that it burned his sinuses immediately upon smelling it, made his eyes water and turn red, and gave him a headache. He described this as the deliberate outcome he was seeking, since his goal was to create a fermentation so potent that it would force detoxification of the cereal and pasteurized milk residues stored in his bones and blood, which he believed were contributing to his history of blood and bone cancer.

Rather than beginning cautiously with a small amount, he drank three cups in a single 24-hour period. He broke out in hives, huge welts across his body, and was due to board a plane to Hanoi within two days. He spent the flight going to the toilet every hour. Upon arriving in Vietnam, he obtained tomatoes and cucumbers, refrigerated them, and used cold cucumber and tomato slices externally to soothe the hives and the skin reactions from the toxins being expelled. He also took vinegar with him. He bathed in a mixture of blended tomato juice and vinegar to settle the poison coming out through his skin. The poison, he clarified, was not coming from the fermented maca itself but from his intestines and body tissues discharging accumulated residues.

In a separate but closely related account, he fermented mocha powder in raw milk for approximately six days during summertime. Again the fermentation reached an alcohol concentration strong enough to burn his sinuses. Again he consumed three cups in a single day. Again he broke out in severe hives covering large areas of his body.

A third account involved sugarcane juice. After discovering that raw sugarcane juice, unlike refined sugar, produced no blood sugar reaction even at 16 ounces consumed at once, he decided to ferment it to force detoxification of the enormous quantities of refined sugar he had consumed throughout his childhood and young adulthood. He let the juice ferment for approximately five days, drank it, and immediately developed severe hives.

A fourth account, involving kombucha-style fermentation of sugarcane juice or similar substances, resulted in being on the toilet every 20 minutes for the first 36 hours, then every hour for an additional 24 hours, then every four hours for three weeks. He lost 20 pounds in six days. The discharge burned and smelled of metallic sugar.

He presented all of these accounts as warnings. He explicitly stated that the fermented maca and milk protocols were not to be done at home by others until he published a dedicated detoxification book that would walk through the steps incrementally. "Something I don't suggest anybody do until I put out the detoxification book. It takes you step by step to do it. So this is something you don't do at home yet. Because it is not enjoyable. And it can be dangerous for somebody. It's dangerous for me."

His consistent error in his own experiments, which he acknowledged openly, was drinking too much too quickly. He described himself as thinking he was "infallible" and acting like "Superman." The principle he drew from these experiences was that fermented foods targeted at specific toxic residues should be introduced gradually, in small amounts, beginning with perhaps half a cup to assess the reaction before proceeding.

The governing logic of Aajonus's personal use of fermentation was that the body stores the toxic byproducts of cooked foods indefinitely when there is no bacterial mechanism to recycle them. The bacteria destroyed by cooking are precisely the bacteria needed to decompose the residues that cooking created. Raw food alone does not supply this, because the bacteria in raw food are alive and appropriate for that raw food but do not necessarily target old cooked residues from a different class of food.

His solution was to ferment the same foods, or their closest raw equivalents, that he had consumed in cooked or processed form. By doing so, he produced the specific bacteria that would recognize and target the chemically similar residues stored in his tissues. "The byproducts of that food are still in your body. Because there's no way to recycle. There's no bacteria. There's no fermentation bacteria. Nothing. No molds. No bacteria. No anything will go in there and eat up that byproduct and recycle it. Get it out of the body. So I realized this back in about 1979 when I started fermenting foods that I used to eat. And I would ferment them and drink the fermented juices from them."

He applied this logic across multiple food categories: pasteurized milk fermented to high alcohol to purge pasteurized milk residues from bone; maca powder fermented in milk to purge cereal grain residues; sugarcane juice fermented to purge refined sugar residues. In each case the severity of the detoxification reaction, the hives, the diarrhea, the sweating, was interpreted as evidence that the fermented product was doing what it was supposed to do.

Aajonus discussed fermented raw meat, which he called high meat, as a category entirely separate from fermented dairy or fermented vegetables, with its own protocols, bacterial stages, and intended effects. He noted that fermenting meat does not produce the same level of carbohydrate fermentation as fermenting dairy or vegetables, since meat has very little carbohydrate content. The result is predigested protein rather than significant alcohol production.

The basic procedure for making high meat involved placing raw meat of any kind, including beef, chicken, lamb, or glandular tissue, in a jar with a lid, then taking it out every third to fourth day to expose it briefly to air and allow the bacterial cycle to continue. The reason for this cycling was that bacteria in meat go through approximately 14 to 15 basic stages, several of which have A and B substages, for a total of approximately 17 distinct forms the bacteria take through their cycles. Different bacterial forms at different stages provide different benefits.

If the meat is refrigerated, it passes through only one stage per week. If cycled at room temperature every three to four days, because it takes approximately three and a half days for the oxygen in the jar to be consumed, the bacterial progression moves faster and the full range of stages can be experienced. After completing all 17 stages, the cycle restarts. He described eating high meat aged up to certain lengths of time without issue.

The meat should be taken outside to open, not opened indoors, because of the intensity of the odor. He described his own first encounter with the practice during a visit to a tribe in the Arctic where children were excited and running around enjoying the smell of high meat aging, while he found himself unable to approach within five feet of it without wanting to vomit. He used cotton balls soaked in musk oil stuffed into his nostrils to be able to eat it. He described its texture as pleasant and slightly fermented, "like if you've ever had meat that was braised in brandy, you know, coat it with brandy and light it on fire, you know, it causes the alcohol to go in and soften the meat. So that's what it's like, it's effervescent." The odor, however, he described as horrific.

For those new to it, he noted that the food starts smelling good and tasting good after doing it frequently enough. The pre-digested nature of the meat means the nutrients are immediately available to the body with minimal work. He described the effect as producing emotional ease and wellbeing, referring to it as making people "high," hence the name. He attributed this to the specific bacteria in their later stages feeding the brain and nervous system.

One person at a workshop described feeling that fermented meat provided better digestion, more easily absorbed nutrition, and no emotional volatility or hyperactivity compared to fresh raw meat. Aajonus responded that on a fully raw diet, results tend to be more homogenous and consistent, but that people who are not strictly on the diet and are also consuming cooked foods may have more variable responses.

Regarding meat preservation without fermentation, he described a separate method of sealing raw meat in jars submerged in olive oil or coconut oil to prevent fermentation entirely. Jars prepared in 2000 were still in perfect condition nine years later, kept at room temperature and never refrigerated. He confirmed that "not even the center has been slightly fermented." Coconut oil allowed some fermentation and developed a strong smell, while the olive oil jars remained free of fermentation and in good condition.

He described a specific technique for storing raw meat indefinitely without fermentation. The jar is coated with coconut oil or olive oil on the bottom, the meat is packed in tightly with no air space, and the oil fills all remaining gaps completely, leaving no air. Sealed jars prepared this way in the year 2000 were still good nine years later when he checked the last remaining jar annually. This was explicitly not high meat and not fermented at all, not even slightly in the center. The coconut oil versions did develop fermentation and a strong odor, while olive oil versions did not.

In written correspondence, Aajonus described a specific fermentation formula using egg shell powder and raw milk. Equal portions of powdered egg shells and raw milk are combined and fermented for seven days outside of refrigeration. After fermenting, one tablespoon of the completed fermented shell-and-milk mixture is taken with two ounces of fresh or fermented milk (kefir or yogurt) once or twice daily. The one tablespoon refers to the whole fermented mixture, not just the shell powder. He specified that when extracting the tablespoon, the spoon should begin at the bottom of the jar.

Aajonus discussed apple cider vinegar primarily in terms of its fermentation biology, specifically explaining the mother. The mother is the core of the fermentation process in apple cider vinegar. It forms at the bottom of the juice, resembling a filmy membrane, and is analogous to a mycelium in mold, forming a center and membrane that keeps the bacteria active and the vinegar alive. Once the mother is removed, the vinegar goes flat. Most commercial vinegars are filtered, removing the mother, and many are also distilled, meaning heated. Acceptable apple cider vinegar must be raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized. He referenced Bragg's apple cider vinegar as generally acceptable.

He noted that raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar is alive and active, meaning it continues changing the other foods it contacts. A dressing made with pasteurized vinegar does not change much over several days, while the same dressing made with unpasteurized vinegar will intensify and transform noticeably because the living enzymes continue to work.

In the context of candida, he stated that raw apple cider vinegar would not feed candida and would instead help eliminate the pockets and pools that candida was attempting to break down, on the principle of "like attracts like." Cooked or pasteurized honey could feed candida; raw honey could not, because honey's enzymatic activity sends bacteria and yeast dormant. Raw apple cider vinegar operated in a similar favorable direction for candida conditions.

Aajonus dismissed rejuvelac specifically and grain-based ferments generally. His objection to rejuvelac was that the bacteria in it are oriented toward decomposition rather than disassembly and reconstruction. Fermentation of grains produces bacteria that dissolve food toward fertilizer use rather than reassembling molecular components for living metabolism. "All of that bacteria is to help something decompose rather to help it disassemble and be re-utilized. It's there to melt it down to be used as fertilizer basically for plants and the earth." People without raw food in their diet and without adequate digestive enzymes might derive some benefit from rejuvelac because they have nothing else producing digestive enzymes, but it was not appropriate within the raw food framework.

Similarly, kefir grains made from grains were not a good option. Making kefir grain starters from grains was possible but inferior. He noted that germinating or sprouting grains is sometimes promoted as destroying phytic acid, but three other enzymes act the same way as phytic acid and increase proportionally, making sprouts potentially more problematic than unsprouted grains despite common belief otherwise.

Fermentation was inseparable, in Aajonus's thinking, from his broader view of bacteria as the foundation of all biological function. He stated that 90 percent of digestion is bacterial. According to the research he cited, there are 150 to 360 bacterial genes for every one human gene, making the human organism effectively 99.5 to 99.997 percent bacterial by gene count. Bacteria perform all functions of the body: cleansing, building, disassembly, digestion, energy production, and cellular maintenance. Without bacteria, no cellular production would occur and no physiological process would function.

Fermented foods are valuable precisely because they are dense with bacterial life and bacterial byproducts. Kefir and yogurt are essentially thick bacterial feces, urine, and perspiration from the bacteria that consumed the milk. Those byproducts become nutrients for the person who drinks them, absorbed with minimal additional digestive work. All raw food contains bacteria by nature, and it is those bacteria that make raw food nutritionally functional.

Cooking at even modest temperatures destroys bacteria. He noted that bacterial destruction begins at temperatures as low as 105 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Without bacteria in food, enzymes may remain partially intact but have no bacterial infrastructure to make them utilizable in the body's systems. This is why cooked food, even when it contains some surviving enzymes or nutrients, cannot provide the same nutritional effect as raw food: the bacterial component necessary to actually transfer and assemble those nutrients is absent.

Fermentation, then, is not just about pre-digesting a single food item. It is about reintroducing bacterial life into a body and an ecosystem from which cooking has stripped it, and using that bacterial life to accomplish the ecological recycling of stored toxic residues that raw food alone cannot address once those residues have been present in tissue for years or decades.

Several practical conditions for successful fermentation appeared across the source material. Warmth was consistently emphasized. "Always leave it in a warm place. This applies to all ferments." Room temperature fermentation proceeds at a natural pace and through the full bacterial cycle. Refrigeration slows fermentation dramatically, reducing bacterial progression to approximately one stage per week for meat and inhibiting it almost entirely for dairy and vegetable ferments.

Wood surfaces accelerate fermentation and improve flavor, while formica, plastic, concrete, and tile slow it because they are energetically cold and do not support rapid bacterial multiplication.

Air exposure matters differently for different ferments. For high meat, air cycling every three to four days is essential to move the bacteria through their various stages. For fecal matter used medicinally, the jar should be kept sealed in a warm cupboard without refrigeration, because E. coli is destroyed by air. For vegetable ferments used as detoxification juices, the juice is allowed to ferment for five to ten days at room temperature.

Tight sealing was used for the maca-in-milk ferment and for the long-term milk fermentations Aajonus used for his personal detoxification protocols. A popped cork or sudden opening of a tightly sealed, highly fermented liquid could release alcohol vapors concentrated enough to burn the sinuses immediately on contact.