Kimchi is one of the most powerful probiotic foods you can eat

Kimchi, the spicy, salted and fermented vegetables staple in Korean cuisine, is so much more than a side dish. In a comprehensive review of 130 studies, researchers in Korea looked at its health benefits as a probiotic. Probiotics in general are the good bacteria populating the gut. The human gut has more than 400 strains of bacteria, with different mixes of various strains in each person.

In the Korean review of studies, research showed that kimchi offers various health benefits. Most of these are due to the probiotics in kimchi that help the body flush out toxins, such as bisphenol A, heavy metals, perchlorate, and organophosphorus pesticides. The lactic acid bacteria are the most prominent bacteria involved in the fermentation of kimchi, as most of the health benefits of kimchi are attributed to these bacteria. These bacteria have shown various probiotic properties. In addition, all other traditional ingredients of kimchi are health foods, such as cruciferous vegetables, garlic, ginger, and red pepper. Kimchi is also rich in vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibers.

In one of the studies, Korean researchers developed a kimchi recipe to enhance the anticancer effects of the side dish. They added mustard leaf, Chinese pepper, and Korean mistletoe extract. Based on lab tests on human colon cancer cells, the mistletoe extract improved inhibition rate from 62 percent to 80 percent. Animal studies also suggested that kimchi suppresses tumor action. Researchers believed that the regulation of apoptosis of cancer cells and the inhibition of inflammation are mostly responsible for kimchi’s anticancer effects.