With fermented foods, you can maintain a healthy gut microbiome. Different kinds of bacteria in your intestinal tract improve your digestion process, make your mood fresh, and control your blood sugar level. They also lower the allergic risks by improving the immune system's functioning.

Fermented foods either contain or are manufactured with active and live bacteria. In such foods, fermentation happens when bacteria or yeast break the complex natural sugars in food. It then forms lactic acid, carbon dioxide, and alcohol. This process also impacts the foods' flavors, textures, and nutritional profiles. This article helps you explore the six best foods for gut health.

List of Best Fermented Foods for Gut Health

According to the researchers, it is suggested that including fermented foods as part of your regular diet enhances the number of healthy bacteria in your gut. The following are some of the best fermented foods you can add to your diet:

Natto

It is one of the fermented foods for gut health improvement made of soybean. Usually, people have it for breakfast with rice. It is a staple food with probiotic characteristics, a strong flavor, and a slimy texture. Natto also contains many fibers that support the digestive system by passing through the human body, leading to bulk stool production.

Having natto assists in promoting regularity and alleviating constipation. It also contains Vitamin K, which is crucial for metabolizing calcium and improving bone health. Upon fermentation, natto produces an enzyme, nattokinase, suitable for treating blood clots and lowering blood pressure.

Kefir

It is a fermented dairy product made with kefir grains and milk from buffaloes, cows, goats, or sheep. Kefir grains are the starter cultures containing bacteria and yeast, the chief fermenting agents. It has probiotic solid characteristic properties, due to which it improves the microbial variety in the gut and also lowers body inflammation.

Regular intake of kefir enhances the level of ApoA1 in the body, a chief protein in healthy HDL cholesterol. It also helps reduce the inflammatory markers in the blood. Kefir contains proteins, calcium, potassium, and lower amounts of lactose. You can make it a part of your everyday meals by making smoothies or using it for marinating chicken.

Kimchi

It is a staple food of Korean cuisine, which contains fermented cabbage. It contains several ingredients: cabbage, fish, garlic, ginger, radish, and water. Moreover, the seasonings include salt and red pepper. Including Kimchi in your diet has many advantages, as it contains several healthy bacterial species. It also has dietary fibers and other beneficial antioxidant compounds that lower the body's cholesterol level, with enhanced immune system functioning.

According to the expert’s research, Kimchi is an anti-carcinogenic and helps fight against fatal cancer disease. You can start by taking a small amount of Kimchi with your everyday meals to assess your body's tolerance level for the fermented foods. Then, you can enhance its amount gradually based on your body's requirements.

Sauerkraut

It is a traditional food that different people belonging to different cultures and countries consume. Unpasteurized sauerkraut is usually refrigerated and is one of the best sources of active and live bacterial cultures. It also has Vitamin C and K, which help boost the gut's anti-inflammatory properties. It also contains cabbage, a source of sulforaphane, which helps fight cancer.

This food may not suit some people's gut as everyone cannot tolerate it. People with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) may feel that fermented foods may worsen their health. It is because of fermentable carbohydrates in sauerkraut as it contains white cabbage. But you can make your body habitual of this fermented food by adding a small amount of sauerkraut. You can start by taking one spoon with each meal and feel the change in your gut health.

Tempeh

It is a plant-based protein food made up of fermented soybeans. It is usually pasteurized and cooked before eating, due to which active bacterial cultures die. But it is one of the good sources of para probiotics, which are inactive microbes but provide several health-related advantages.

It contains a significant number of plant-based proteins and dietary fibers. A cup of tempeh contains 35g and 6g of proteins and fibers, respectively.

Yogurt

It contains live and active microbial cultures, making it one of the excellent sources of probiotics that are good for your gut health. Bacteria are present in yogurt, which even survives during the transit through the gastrointestinal tract. In this way, they successfully reach the intestinal tract and improve the gut health. Moreover, it is also one of the rich sources of high-quality proteins, Vitamin B12, Calcium, Phosphorous, and Potassium.

Yogurt is probiotic and also improves cardiovascular health. Regular yogurt intake with your diet also helps in efficient weight management, improves bone health, balances sugar levels in the blood, and regulates blood pressure effectively. You should see the ingredients list to check if it contains live and active microbial cultures when purchasing yogurt.

Additionally, you should prefer an unsweetened yogurt in which you can add any fruit to control the artificial sugar content in your food for health improvement.

Conclusion

Active and live bacterial cultures are present in fermented foods, which enhance the number of various healthy bacteria in the gut. Moreover, fermented foods also come with other health-improving substances, such as fibers, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and antioxidants.

If you have never consumed fermented foods, you should slowly incorporate these into your daily diet. It will help assess your body's tolerance level against these foods. Fermented foods for gut health improvement also help fight against inflammation. Furthermore, the vitamins and minerals in these foods improve your entire body's health. Therefore, you should try to have some fermented food in your daily diet.