This is an excellent article. Currently fermented foods are fashionable amongst those that care for such things, and this article spares the reader of the hype, hype which could be horse manure.

The Yakult company of Japan make these fermented foods things, calling the yogurts is a joke considering the ingredients. For decades they have been getting themselves banned by advertising standards for claims regarding beneficial bacteria that can't be backed up with science. Their product is marketing, yet millions believe their product works wonders - a placebo, if ever there was one.

I have an ongoing nutrition experiment, to cut processed foods and animal products from my diet. As a result, I cook from scratch at all times, even making my own bread. I don't use a fridge or a freezer since I don't buy anything that needs to be kept that cold.

What has surprised me is the absence of mold and decay. Before my experiment, I would regularly have to throw out lots of food that had gone bad, but now I don't have these problems. I thought modern preservation techniques made food last for longer, however, this has not been the case and I simply don't waste food.

In the article much is written about inflammation. Allegedly fermented foods help with that. But so does removing free sugar from the diet, along with processed foods and animal products. Therefore, before worrying about fermented foods, it is worth considering removing the junk first, as in all of it, to not eat HFSS (High Fat, Sugar and Salt).

A healthy gut is a huge upgrade to life and I don't think mine was healthy before my little experiment, but I knew nothing different, so I was not to know.

My advice for getting there is to cut the junk and cook from scratch, mostly, if not all, plants. Order should be restored to the gut microbiome with such a move, in a matter of days, no fermented foods needed.

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manmal 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The Yakult strain (L shirota) has solid research behind it. And tbh I feel a real difference when drinking them.

	▲	Theodores 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Please tell me why your anecdotal opinion backed up with no provided evidence counts for anything? If I could see your totally lean, Tarzan-esque physique, I might be persuaded. If I had known you for decades, then I might be persuaded. But, as a random internet user, your opinion counts for nothing compared to my evidence. In the UK we have a health service that needs to provide a service to the people at a minimal cost to the taxpayer. It is not like America where the goal is to maximise revenue for shareholders. Therefore, anything that is science and comes out of the NHS is going to make sense. Let me present to you this study, where they tried to improve matters for people with diseased kidneys, by giving them that disgusting potion you believe in. How did the potion compare with the placebo? Read for yourself: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/appli... To quote the NHS on probiotics: Probiotics are thought to help restore the natural balance of bacteria in your gut when it's been disrupted by an illness or treatment. Notice the phrase 'thought to help'. This is not the same as 'helps'. I hope this helps. What you have with this L Shirota nonsense, is something some Japanese bloke picked out of his arse many decades ago. Since then they have had regular run-ins with advertising standards in the UK, with their health claims always ruled as utter bullshit. However, in 2013, when the Yakult marketing people begged to have their claim that their probiotic magic bacteria make it through the acid bath that is the stomach, the ASA let them have that one, but they still had to drop their stupid adverts for their stupid product. As for that stupid product, it is made from skimmed milk powder and sugar in an industrial unit somewhere in the Netherlands for distribution across Europe. It is just plastic waste the world doesn't need and a not-even-placebo product that arguably is worse for you than water. I mean, what are you getting with your microplastics? My suggestion is that you ditch the snake oil and go for 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Try that and you will get all kinds of antioxidants, vitamins and fibre that does have solid research behind it, rather than marketing claims by some stupid Japanese yoghurt company. Apart from anything else, aren't Japanese people lactose intolerant, making the Yakult snake oil pretty toxic in the Japanese home market? Yet you want to believe them?