Original title: Fermented Foods: Definitions and Characteristics, Impact on the Gut Microbiota and Effects on Gastrointestinal Health and Disease
Fermented foods are made when microbes grow in food and change its ingredients using enzymes. These changes may affect gut microbes, create useful compounds, or reduce substances that can interfere with nutrient use. The review looks at human evidence for several familiar foods. Kefir has trial evidence suggesting benefits for lactose malabsorption and clearing Helicobacter pylori, but many other foods have not been tested in gut-health trials.
When you bake bread, the dough changes as it sits and rises. The hard part is knowing whether those changes will help someone’s health, not just whether they happen in the dough. In this paper, the food changing during fermentation is the rising dough, while human trials are the test of whether those changes affect gut health.
People often choose fermented foods for their possible health benefits, but evidence in humans is thin for most kinds. The review finds trial evidence for only some foods, so it helps separate possible benefits from benefits that have actually been tested.
The review reports that clinical evidence for most fermented foods and gastrointestinal health is very limited. The abstract gives no trial counts, effect sizes, or details about study quality, and reports no relevant RCTs for kombucha, miso, kimchi, or tempeh. Lab findings alone do not establish health benefits in people.
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Fermented Foods: Definitions and Characteristics, Impact on the Gut Microbiota and Effects on Gastrointestinal Health and Disease — Eirini Dimidi, Selina R. Cox, Megan Rossi et al. — Nutrients — doi:10.3390/nu11081806
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.