Fermented Foods for Gut Health: Which Ones Actually Make a Difference?
The short answer: live yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and miso are the fermented foods that genuinely make a difference to gut health, because they deliver live bacterial cultures in numbers large enough to actually shift what's living in your gut. A lot of what's sold as ‘fermented’ doesn't count — most bread, beer, wine, soy sauce and shop-bought pickles have been heated, pasteurised or made with vinegar rather than live culture, which means any bacteria that were once there are long gone by the time the jar reaches your fridge. If you've stood in a supermarket aisle wondering whether that jar of sauerkraut is worth the extra pound, or whether kombucha is doing anything at all, this article walks through exactly which fermented foods earn their...