Gut health gets a lot of attention these days. And for good reason. As scientists discover more and more about just how important gut health is, lots of terms have entered the wellness discourse: gut flora, microbiome, prebiotics, probiotics, healthy bacteria – to name just a few. 

Long before gut health became the wellness topic du jour, ancient cultures and cuisines across the globe stumbled upon something wonderful: fermented foods. Either by accident due to a lack of refrigeration or on purpose in order to preserve food, fermented foods made their way into their human diet. Thank you, ancestors!

While it wasn’t known at the time – thousands of years ago – just how beneficial fermented foods are, there’s plenty of evidence today that eating them is one of the best ways to enhance your gut health. Let’s explore why gut health is so important and learn the role fermented foods can play in nurturing your gut.

What is Gut Health?

In this context, the “gut” is your ever-so-important intestines. Meanwhile “gut health” refers to the overall well-being and function of the gut-portion of your digestive tract, which includes small and large intestines and the bacteria that thrive within.

Why is Gut Health Important?

Several aspects of gut health are less about the digestive organs themselves but more about the bacteria and immune cells within. The amount of bacteria in your gut alone is ten times that of human cells in your entire body. Meanwhile, 70% of your body’s immune cells live in your gut. 

Without the right amount and right balance of bacteria and without properly-modulated immune cells in your gut, far more than your digestion will be disrupted. Emerging research suggests the bacteria and immune cells in your gut impact mental and emotional health, chronic illness risk, and even cancer risk.

A healthy gut has plenty of probiotics – live beneficial microorganisms like bacteria and yeasts. Eating fermented foods adds to the number of probiotics that naturally exist in your body. But don’t stop there. Like any living thing, probiotics get hungry; they need a food source; they need energy. 

In order to thrive and multiply, probiotics require prebiotics, which are found in foods with lots of soluble fiber, such as whole oats, asparagus, leeks, bananas, garlic, onions, apples, flaxseed, and cocoa. When you eat plenty of prebiotic foods alongside lots of fermented foods, your gut health gets the royal treatment. 

The right ratio and variety of probiotics (also known as beneficial bacteria) in your gut is important. Too much bad bacteria and too little diversity in your microbiome can compromise your gut health, leading to diarrhea and other digestive upsets and illnesses. Poor gut health is also linked to other health challenges like mental illness, chronic inflammation, and eczema.

Bottom line: good gut health contributes to healthier digestion, better mental health, lower risk of disease, and a boosted immune system. It’s so important!

Gut Friendly Foods

Fermented foods add healthy bacteria to your gut. Plus they’re delicious! If you’re a fan of all things umami, salty, tangy, spicy, and pungent – gut friendly foods are the ones for you. By regularly eating a wide variety of tasty fermented foods, you nurture your gut and please your palate. Check out these favorite fermented foods for gut health. They make for easy and enjoyable add-ons to your diet.

Tip: in order to keep all the healthy bacteria found in fermented foods alive and able to survive a trip to your intestines so it can improve your gut health, it’s important to eat them raw. If you add any of the following foods to a cooked dish, don’t do so until you take it off the heat and it’s ready to serve.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Made with crushed apples, yeast, and healthy bacteria, apple cider vinegar is wonderfully zingy and great for gut health. Most of apple cider vinegar’s health benefits – namely its antimicrobial properties and ability to lower blood sugar – are thanks to the probiotics and acetic acid that develop during the fermentation process. Don’t be put off by apple cider vinegar’s cloudy appearance or the presence of the blob-like “the mother” – that’s visual evidence of all the pro-gut health probiotics!

Serving Suggestions:

• Use it as the acid in salad dressings and vinaigrettes.
• Add a tablespoon or two to soup when you take it off the heat. 
• Try it in beverage form: drinks known as “shrubs” or “drinking vinegar” are super refreshing and typically made with equal parts apple cider vinegar, sweetener, and fruit. Thistle’s Boost shot on our cold-pressed juices menu is another option.
• Add some tang to dips like this Smoky Pub Cheese.

Kimchi & Kraut

Kimchi is a staple Korean fermented food that’s usually made with napa cabbage, radish, garlic, ginger, and more. It’s spicy, complex in flavor, and goes great in many savory dishes. Sauerkraut, which originated in China over 2,000 years ago, has a much simpler ingredient list – cabbage and salt – and is common across several European cuisines. 

What’s the source of all the healthy bacteria found in kimchi and kraut? Lactic acid bacteria; one strain particularly great for gut health is lactobacillus, also known as l-acidophilus. For the sake of your gut health and to tantalize your taste buds, find some fermented cabbage and eat it on the regular.

Serving Suggestions:

• Kimchi: it can go from centerpiece to condiment in almost any Korean or Korean-inspired savory dish: bibimbap, fried rice, savory pancakes, and noodle bowls,
• Sauerkraut: put some on plant-based burgers, hot dogs, add to sandwiches and wraps, place atop a salad, or mix it into potatoes.

Kombucha

Let’s raise a toast to kombucha, a fizzy fermented tea that’s full of probiotics that are great for gut health. Its flavor is similar to beer and other fermented alcoholic beverages. With additional ingredients like fruit – strawberry, mango, or lemon are great – and aromatics like ginger, the flavor gets even better. Cheers!

Serving Suggestions:

• Drink it straight
• Mix with sparkling water
• Add it to sour cocktails

Lacto-fermented Veggies

Who says kimchi and kraut have all the lacto-fermented fun? This fermentation method turns practically any vegetable into a gut health hero. Think: beets, bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, chile peppers, cucumbers, garlic, and radishes. Choose your own adventure!

Serving Suggestions:

• Atop sandwiches and salads
• In Middle Eastern dishes like falafel bowls
• On their own as a tasty, super low-calorie snack
• Consume as a beverage; try Thistle’s Probiotic shot
  

Note: Quick-pickled veggies, made with vinegar and heat, may last a while in your fridge, but they don’t have the same gut health benefits as lacto-fermented veggies because their method of production doesn’t allow for any fermentation to take place. To reap optimal gut health benefits, an actual fermentation process is required. This means submerging the veggies in a bad-bacteria-killing salt brine for at least a week at cool room temperature.

Miso & Tempeh

Fermented soy is another food that promotes good gut health. It typically comes in two forms: miso and tempeh. Miso is a fermented soybean paste that’s available in three varieties. White miso is mellow and sweet. Yellow miso has a slightly stronger flavor. And red miso, fermented the longest, has the most robust taste.

With 20 grams of protein per serving, Tempeh is a plant-based protein powerhouse. A high-protein plant-based food that also promotes good gut health? Sign us up! Native to Indonesia, it’s made with fermented soybeans that are pressed into cake form. You can steam it, slice it, crumble it, and fry it.

Serving Suggestions:

• Miso: Add a tablespoon or two of this umami bomb to salad dressings, sauces (like this plant-based mac & cheese sauce), gravies, and soups for a gut health boost. At Thistle, we use chickpea miso in many of our recipes. It’s delicious!
• Tempeh: Steamed and lightly fried or grilled, it goes great in Buddha bowls. Marinated in ingredients like tamari and liquid smoke, you’ve got a bacon substitute for breakfast, burgers, and BLTs. It also adds interesting texture and great flavor when crumbled over a salad or when used as a plant-based taco filling.

Yogurt & Kefir

Dairy products like yogurt and kefir provide creamy, tangy flavor and tons of gut health benefits. And for those on a dairy-free diet, don’t worry. There are tons of plant-based alternatives. Coconut milk-based products are a Thistle favorite.

Yogurt and kefir derive gut health benefits and tangy flavor from beneficial bacteria that’s added during the fermentation process. These bacteria strains include:

• Lactobacillus bulgaricus: This bacteria is associated with decreased risk of lactose intolerance, colon cancer, diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease, and bacterial infection.
• Streptococcus thermophilus: It alleviates lactose intolerance, prevents chronic gastritis, and prevents diarrhea.

Kefir is likely the winner here, as it contains a wider variety of healthy microorganisms. 

Serving Suggestions:

• Yogurt: Eat it for breakfast or as a snack with fruit, nuts, and a drizzle of honey; add to smoothies; make a salad dressing or sauce; cut the heat in spicy Indian and Middle Eastern dishes; make this Banana-Coconut Cream Pudding from Thistle’s Recipe + Meal Hacks collection.
• Kefir: Enjoy as a beverage or add it to smoothies.

The flavor of fermented foods can’t be beat. Nor can their gut health benefits be beat. Enjoy some today. And everyday!