Can Kimchi Boost Your Gut Health?
From kefir to kombucha, the craze for fermented foods and superfood has been inescapable in recent years. Kimchi, in particular, has gone from being South Korea’s national dish to something of an international phenomenon. With attention focused firmly on gut health in 2024, the fermented cabbage dish is back in the spotlight as an excellent example of a gut-boosting ingredient. Yet to be tempted? Discover all the reasons you should be adding this fermented superfood to your diet, below.
What is kimchi? Kimchi has been integral to Korean food culture for thousands of years. Composed of cabbage that’s left at room temperature to ferment in salted brine over a couple of days, kimchi also incorporates radishes, celery, carrot, garlic, ginger, and chili, “which further amplifies its gut health benefits,” explains naturopathic nutritionist Jessica Shand. “If you’ve tried kimchi, you will recognize its distinctive sour, salty, and zingy taste—it’s the live bacteria responsible for the zingy sensation you feel on your tongue when you put it in your mouth.”
Why has kimchi become popular? Not only is it delicious, but it also contains natural probiotic bacteria, which appeals to the vast numbers of people becoming increasingly aware of the associated benefits for their gut health. “Probiotic-rich foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, live yogurt, and kefir support our gut health, which has been made much more mainstream recently thanks to resources and experts in the field such Tim Spector, the cofounder of Zoe,” says Shand.
Excerpted from Glamour
