Traditionally, foods get fermented when we allow helpful bacteria to break down food in a controlled environment. This fermentation process allows a diverse collection of helpful bacteria to grow on the food. When we eat these foods, those helpful bacteria begin living in our gut where they help us digest foods, unlock nutrients in foods, and maintain a healthy immune system.

The process of industrially producing fermented foods reduces the diversity and number of helpful bacteria in those foods. In this industrialized process, foods are first fermented then heated up to kill all the helpful bacteria in the food (aka pasteurized) and then packaged. These steps are taken to increase shelf life. Sometimes after heating, the foods are injected with a selection of a couple helpful bacteria for health benefits. However, using only a couple of different types of helpful bacteria means those foods have less diversity of helpful bacteria than traditionally fermented foods. This reduction in diversity makes industrially produced fermented foods less effective in restoring balance to the helpful bacteria in your gut and, ultimately, less effective in easing your gut symptoms.

Fermented products at the grocery store that are unpasteurized, that do not use preservatives, that use a SCOBY, and/or that list the many helpful bacteria in the product are more likely to contain a large diversity of helpful bacteria. Even better, foods fermented at home or by your local farmers contain a huge diversity of helpful bacteria.