STUDENTS' HEALTH SCIENCES : WORLD ESSAY

SCIENTISTS study health effects of fermented foods. Researchers are gauging the benefits of eating things such as kimchi and yogurt.

Breweries sell craft kombucha on tap. Fruit vinegars and cultured chile pastes are featured on five-star restaurant menus. Walmart and Target stock kimchi and kefir.

Fermented foods have been popular in the United States for decades, but more recently, they are in the national spotlight.

In January, the Trump administration issued new dietary guidelines that recommended, for the first time, that Americans eat sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and miso for better gut health.

And Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, often promotes the benefits of sauerkraut and yogurt, saying that they helped him lose weight and sharpen his thinking.

Humans have been fermenting foods for thousands of years. What does the science show now about how they may affect our health? We asked experts to explain.

WHAT are fermented foods?

They're defined as any foods or drinks that have been transformed by microbes like yeast, bacteria, and fungi in ways that preserve and infuse them with tangy, savory, fruity or funki flavors, said Robert Hutkins, an emeritus professor of food science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Milk can turn into yogurt and kefir; vegetables become sauerkraut and kimchi, fruit is transformed into sourdough and beer. 

Even chocolate and some coffee is fermented, said Maria Marco, a professor of food science at the University of California, Davis.

This important and Master research publishing continues to part [2]. !WOW! thanks Alice Callahan.