- Eating fiber and fermented foods is good for your gut health and overall health.
- Fermented foods such as kimchi, yogurt, and cheese boost gut flora diversity and immunity.
- These foods can be incorporated into your diet in the form of salads, sauces, cheese boards, etc.
You may have already heard that eating lots of fiber and fermented foods is good for your gut health.
A growing body of research suggests that the state of a person’s gut can affect their overall health in a variety of ways, from their ability to fight viruses to how they feel emotionally.
While many of us already get plenty of fibre from plants like vegetables, beans and nuts, fermented foods like kimchi and kombucha aren’t as prominent in the average Western diet. A gut-health-conscious nutritionist shares some easy ways to incorporate more fermented foods into your diet.
Fermented foods are made by adding live bacteria or yeast to foods like tea, vegetables, or milk. This process produces a range of vitamins, organic acids, and compounds that promote health, Tanzil Miah, R.D., a gut health specialist and nutritionist at the Gut Health Clinic in London, UK, told Business Insider.
Your gut microbiome (the trillions of microorganisms that live in the lining of your large intestine) contains both “good” and “bad” microorganisms.
There’s evidence that eating fermented foods that contain probiotics (“good” microorganisms) leads to a healthier and more diverse gut microbiome, which can benefit digestion, immunity and overall health, Mia said.
“Basically, we know that the gut microbiome likes diversity,” she says, adding that fermented foods help the gut digest more food.
Mia shares three ways to ensure you’re eating at least two servings of fermented foods a day:
Add kimchi or sauerkraut to salads and sandwiches
Both kimchi and sauerkraut are made from fermented cabbage, sometimes mixed with other vegetables such as radishes and carrots.
Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made from fermented food in a tangy, spicy sauce, while sauerkraut is fermented with lactic acid bacteria.
Both contain probiotics, and kimchi may help lower cholesterol and reduce insulin resistance, according to Healthline.
Mia keeps them on hand all the time to add to salads and sandwiches, “or you can just mix them into a dish as a little garnish,” she said.
Using Yogurt as a Sauce or Marinade
Yogurt is made by adding bacteria to milk. It’s a popular fermented food that you may already be including in your diet, but if you’re only restricting it to breakfast time, you’re doing it wrong.
Mia incorporates yogurt with live cultures, such as Greek yogurt, into her meals as a dipping sauce or marinade.
She might marinate chicken in yogurt and spices, or use it as a dipping sauce when making chili or curry.
Not only does yogurt contain probiotics, it’s also a good source of protein, calcium, phosphorus, and B vitamins.
Build your own cheese board
Another easy and indulgent way to incorporate fermented foods into your diet is to enjoy a cheese board once every two weeks, says Mia.
Not all cheeses are fermented, but most aged cheeses are—Mia tends to favor Parmesan, Edam, and Gouda, but she says blue cheeses and aged cheddars are also delicious.
While there is some evidence that eating cheese can increase gut microbiome diversity, Mia recommends buying high-quality, locally produced cheese.
“In the fermented food sector, a lot of things are mass-produced at the moment but they’re not necessarily of good quality, so my advice is to buy locally produced products if possible,” she said.
