Can kimchi really help you lose weight? Hold your pickle. The evidence isn’t looking great

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Fermented foods have become popular in recent years, partly due to their perceived health benefits.

For instance, there is some evidence eating or drinking fermented foods can improve blood glucose control in people with diabetes. They can lower blood lipid (fats) levels and blood pressure in people with diabetes or obesity. Fermented foods can also improve diarrhoea symptoms.

But can they help you lose weight, as a recent study suggests? Let’s look at the evidence.

Remind me, what are fermented foods?

Fermented foods are ones prepared when microbes (bacteria and/or yeast) ferment (or digest) food components to form new foods. Examples include yoghurt, cheese, kefir, kombucha, wine, beer, sauerkraut and kimchi.

As a result of fermentation, the food becomes acidic, extending its shelf life (food-spoilage microbes are less likely to grow under these conditions). This makes fermentation one of the earliest forms of food processing.

Fermentation also leads to new nutrients being made. Beneficial microbes (probiotics) digest nutrients and components in the food to produce new bioactive components (postbiotics). These postbiotics are thought to contribute to the health benefits of the fermented foods, alongside the health benefits of the bacteria themselves.

What does the evidence say?

A study published last week has provided some preliminary evidence eating kimchi – the popular Korean fermented food – is associated with a lower risk of obesity in some instances. But there were mixed results.

The South Korean study involved 115,726 men and women aged 40-69 who reported how much kimchi they’d eaten over the previous year. The study was funded by the World Institute of Kimchi, which specialises in researching the country’s national dish.

Eating one to three servings of any type of kimchi a day was associated with a lower risk of obesity in men.

Men who ate more than three serves a day of cabbage kimchi (baechu) were less likely to have obesity and abdominal obesity (excess fat deposits around their middle). And women who ate two to three serves a day of baechu were less likely to have obesity and abdominal obesity.

Eating more radish kimchi (kkakdugi) was associated with less abdominal obesity in both men and women.

However, people who ate five or more serves of any type of kimchi weighed more, had a larger waist sizes and were more likely to be obese.

The study had limitations. The authors acknowledged the questionnaire they used may make it difficult to say exactly how much kimchi people actually ate.

The study also relied on people to report past eating habits. This may make it hard for them to accurately recall what they ate.

This study design can also only tell us if something is linked (kimchi and obesity), not if one thing causes another (if kimchi causes weight loss). So it is important to look at experimental studies where researchers make changes to people’s diets then look at the results.

How about evidence from experimental trials?

There have been several experimental studies looking at how much weight people lose after eating various types of fermented foods. Other studies looked at markers or measures of appetite, but not weight loss.

One study showed the stomach of men who drank 1.4 litres of fermented milk during a meal took longer to empty (compared to those who drank the same quantity of whole milk). This is related to feeling fuller for longer, potentially having less appetite for more food.

Another study showed drinking 200 millilitres of kefir (a small glass) reduced participants’ appetite after the meal, but only when the meal contained quickly-digested foods likely to make blood glucose levels rise rapidly. This study did not measure changes in weight.

Kefir in jar, with kefir grains on wood spoon
Kefir, a fermented milk drink, reduced people’s appetite.
Ildi Papp/Shutterstock

Another study looked at Indonesian young women with obesity. Eating tempeh (a fermented soybean product) led to changes in an appetite hormone. But this did not impact their appetite or whether they felt full. Weight was not measured in this study.

A study in South Korea asked people to eat about 70g a day of chungkookjang (fermented soybean). There were improvements in some measures of obesity, including percentage body fat, lean body mass, waist-to-hip ratio and waist circumference in women. However there were no changes in weight for men or women.

A systematic review of all studies that looked at the impact of fermented foods on satiety (feeling full) showed no effect.

What should I do?

The evidence so far is very weak to support or recommend fermented foods for weight loss. These experimental studies have been short in length, and many did not report weight changes.

To date, most of the studies have used different fermented foods, so it is difficult to generalise across them all.

Nevertheless, fermented foods are still useful as part of a healthy, varied and balanced diet, particularly if you enjoy them. They are rich in healthy bacteria, and nutrients.

Are there downsides?

Some fermented foods, such as kimchi and sauerkraut, have added salt. The latest kimchi study said the average amount of kimchi South Koreans eat provides about 490mg of salt a day. For an Australian, this would represent about 50% of the suggested dietary target for optimal health.

Eating too much salt increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. The Conversation

Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Querying Quercetin

    Quercetin is a flavonoid (and thus, antioxidant) pigment found in many plants. Capers, radishes, and coriander/cilantro score highly, but the list is large:

    USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods

    Indeed,

    ❝Their regular consumption is associated with reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and neurodegenerative disorders❞

    ~ Dr. Aleksandra Kozłpwsla & Dr. Dorota Szostak-Wegierek

    Read more: Flavonoids—food sources and health benefits

    For this reason, quercetin is often sold/consumed as a supplement on the strength of its health-giving properties.

    But what does the science say?

    Quercetin and inflammation

    In short, it helps:

    ❝500 mg per day quercetin supplementation for 8 weeks resulted in significant improvements in clinical symptoms, disease activity, hs-TNFα, and Health Assessment Questionnaire scores in women with rheumatoid athritis

    ~ Dr. Fatemeh Javadi et al.

    Read more: The Effect of Quercetin on Inflammatory Factors and Clinical Symptoms in Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

    Quercetin and blood pressure

    It works, if antihypertensive (i.e., blood pressure lowering) effect is what you want/need:

    ❝…significant effect of quercetin supplementation in the reduction of BP, possibly limited to, or greater with dosages of >500 mg/day.❞

    ~ Dr. Maria-Corina Serban et al.

    Read more: Effects of Quercetin on Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

    Quercetin and diabetes

    We’re less confident to claim this one, because (almost?) all of the research so far as been in non-human animals or in vitro. As one team of researchers put it:

    ❝Despite the wealth of in animal research results suggesting the anti-diabetic and its complications potential of quercetin, its efficacy in diabetic human subjects is yet to be explored❞

    ~ Dr. Guang-Jiang Shi et al.

    Read more: In vitro and in vivo evidence that quercetin protects against diabetes and its complications: A systematic review of the literature

    Quercetin and neuroprotection

    Research has been done into the effect of quercetin on the risk of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and they found…

    ❝The data indicate that quercetin is the major neuroprotective component in coffee against Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease❞

    ~ Dr. Moonhee Lee et al.

    Read more: Quercetin, not caffeine, is a major neuroprotective component in coffee

    Summary

    Quercetin is a wonderful flavonoid that can be enjoyed as part of one’s diet and by supplementation. In terms of its popular health claims:

    • It has been found very effective for lowering inflammation
    • It has a moderate blood pressure lowering effect
    • It may have anti-diabetes potential, but the science is young
    • It has been found to have a potent neuroprotective effect

    Want to get some?

    We don’t sell it, but for your convenience, here’s an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • The AFib Cure – by Dr. John Day & Dr. Jared Bunch

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The authors—cardiologists and AFib specialists—make the case that if you have atrial fibrillation, you do in fact have more options than “take these pills and suffer”.

    To be clear: they’re not anti-medication per se and they also acknowledge that for some people the meds may still have their place (safety first, and all), but they do fall on the side of “it would be nice to not have to, if possible, so let’s see what we can do”.

    Rather, they recommend lifestyle adjustments (no surprises there), and certain biomarker optimizations (this is where it gets more in-depth), which have a good record of reducing symptoms to the point of remission and freedom from medications.

    The book is first a primer on the topic of AFib, and then a how-to manual of fixing the problems that you now understand, by biomarker monitoring, lifestyle optimization, and if those things don’t work, ablative therapy which they argue is safer, easier, and more successful than you might think.

    The style is clear and easy to understand, with frequent scholarly citations throughout. On the downside, the tone can sometimes be a little on the pushy side for this reviewer’s tastes, but if one overlooks that, it doesn’t detract from the useful content.

    Bottom line: if you or a loved one have AFib and would like more treatment/management options than have hitherto been presented, this book will give you that.

    Click here to check out The AFib Cure, and look after your heart!

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  • Intermittent Fasting In Women

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝Does intermittent fasting differ for women, and if so, how?❞

    For the sake of layout, we’ve put a shortened version of this question here, but the actual wording was as below, and merits sharing in full for context

    Went down a rabbit hole on your site and now can’t remember how I got to the “Fasting Without Crashing” article on intermittent fasting so responding to this email lol, but was curious what you find/know about fasting for women specifically? It’s tough for me to sift through and find legitimate studies done on the results of fasting in women, knowing that our bodies are significantly different from men. This came up when discussing with my sister about how I’ve been enjoying fasting 1-2 days/week. She said she wanted more reliable sources of info that that’s good, since she’s read more about how temporary starvation can lead to long-term weight gain due to our bodies feeling the need to store fat. I’ve also read about that, but also that fasting enables more focused autophagy in our bodies, which helps with long-term staving off of diseases/ailments. Curious to know what you all think!

    ~ 10almonds subscriber

    So, first of all, great question! Thanks for asking it

    Next up, isn’t it strange? Books come in the format:

    • [title]
    • [title, for women]

    You would not think women are a little over half of the world’s population!

    Anyway, there has been some research done on the difference of intermittent fasting in women, but not much.

    For example, here’s a study that looked at 1–2 days/week IF, in other words, exactly what you’ve been doing. And, they did have an equal number of men and women in the study… And then didn’t write down whether this made a difference or not! They recorded a lot of data, but neglected to note down who got what per sex:

    Intermittent fasting two days versus one day per week, matched for total energy intake and expenditure, increases weight loss in overweight/obese men and women

    Here’s a more helpful study, that looked at just women, and concluded:

    ❝In conclusion, intermittent fasting could be a nutritional strategy to decrease fat mass and increase jumping performance.

    However, longer duration programs would be necessary to determine whether other parameters of muscle performance could be positively affected by IF. ❞

    ~ Dr. Martínez-Rodríguez et al.

    Read in full: Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training and Intermittent Fasting on Body Composition and Physical Performance in Active Women

    Those were “active women”; another study looked at just women who were overweight or obese (we realize that “active women” and “obese or overweight women” is a Venn diagram with some overlap, but still, the different focus is interesting), and concluded:

    ❝IER is as effective as CER with regard to weight loss, insulin sensitivity and other health biomarkers, and may be offered as an alternative equivalent to CER for weight loss and reducing disease risk.❞

    ~ Dr. Michelle Harvie et al.

    Read in full: The effects of intermittent or continuous energy restriction on weight loss and metabolic disease risk markers: a randomised trial in young overweight women

    As for your sister’s specific concern about yo-yoing, we couldn’t find studies for this yet, but anecdotally and based on books on Intermittent Fasting, this is not usually an issue people find with IF. This is assumed to be for exactly the reason you mention, the increased cellular apoptosis and autophagy—increasing cellular turnover is very much the opposite of storing fat!

    You might, by the way, like Dr. Mindy Pelz’s “Fast Like A Girl”, which we reviewed previously

    Take care!

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  • What’s behind rising heart attack rates in younger adults
  • Butternut Squash vs Pumpkin – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing butternut squash to pumpkin, we picked the butternut squash.

    Why?

    Both are great! But the butternut squash manages a moderate win in most categories.

    In terms of macros, butternut squash has more of everything except water. Most notably, it has more protein and more fiber. Yes, more carbs too, but the fiber content means that it also has the lower glycemic index, by quite a bit.

    When it comes to vitamins, pumpkin does have a little more of vitamin B1 and a lot more of vitamin E, while butternut squash has more of vitamins B3, B5, B9, C, K, and choline. They’re about equal in the other vitamins they both contain. A fair win for butternut squash.

    In the category of minerals, butternut squash has more calcium, magnesium, manganese, and selenium, while pumpkin has more copper, iron, and phosphorus. They’re about equal in potassium and zinc. A marginal win for butternut squash.

    Adding up the strong win, the fair win, and the marginal win, makes for an easy overall win for butternut squash!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Superfood-Stuffed Squash Recipe

    Take care!

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  • Is Dairy Scary?

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    Is Dairy Scary?

    Milk and milk products are popularly enjoyed as a good source of calcium and vitamin D.

    In contrast, critics of dairy products (for medical reasons, rather than ethical, which is another matter entirely and beyond the scope of this article) point to risks of cancer, heart disease, and—counterintuitively—osteoporosis. We’ll focus more on the former, but touch on the latter two before closing.

    Dairy & Cancer

    Evidence is highly conflicting. There are so many studies with so many different results. This is partially explicable by noting that not only is cancer a many-headed beast that comes in more than a hundred different forms and all or any of them may be affected one way or another by a given dietary element, but also… Not all milk is created equal, either!

    Joanna Lampe, of the Public Health Sciences division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, writes:

    ❝Dairy products are a complex group of foods and composition varies by region, which makes evaluation of their association with disease risk difficult. For most cancers, associations between cancer risk and intake of milk and dairy products have been examined only in a small number of cohort studies, and data are inconsistent or lacking❞

    In her systematic review of studies, she noted, for example, that:

    • Milk and dairy products contain micronutrients and several bioactive constituents that may influence cancer risk and progression
    • There’s probable association between milk intake and lower risk of colorectal cancer
    • There’s a probable association between diets high in calcium and increased risk of prostate cancer
    • Some studies show an inverse association between intake of cultured dairy products and bladder cancer (i.e., if you eat yogurt you’re less likely to get bladder cancer)

    Since that systemic review was undertaken, more research has been conducted, and the results are… Not conclusive, but converging towards a conclusion:

    • Dairy products can increase or decrease cancer risk
    • The increase in cancer risk seems strongest when milk is consumed in quantities that result in too much calcium. When it comes to calcium, you can absolutely have too much of a good thing—just ask your arteries!
    • The decrease in cancer seems to be mostly, if not exclusively, from fermented dairy products. This usually means yogurts. The benefit here is not from the milk itself, but rather from the gut-friendly bacteria.

    You may be wondering: “Hardened arteries, gut microbiome health? I thought we were talking about cancer?” and yes we are. No part of your health is an island unrelated to other parts of your health. One thing can lead to another. Sometimes we know how and why, sometimes we don’t, but it’s best to not ignore the data.

    The bottom line on dairy products and cancer is:

    • Consuming dairy products in general is probably fine
    • Yogurt, specifically, is probably beneficial

    Dairy and Heart Disease

    The reason for the concern is clear enough: it’s largely assumed to be a matter of saturated fat intake.

    The best combination of “large” and “recent” that we found was a three-cohort longitudinal study in 2019, which pretty much confirms what was found in smaller or less recent studies:

    • There is some evidence to suggest that consumption of dairy can increase all-cause mortality in general, and death from (cancer and) cardiovascular disease in particular
    • The evidence is not, however, overwhelming. It is marginal.

    Dairy and Osteoporosis

    Does dairy cause osteoporosis? Research here tends to fall into one of two categories when it comes to conclusions, so we’ll give an example of each:

    1. “Results are conflicting, saying yes/no/maybe, and basically we just don’t know”
    2. “Results are conflicting, but look: cross-sectional and case-control studies say yes; cohort studies say maybe or no; we prefer the cohort studies”

    See them for yourself:

    1. Osteoporosis: Is milk a kindness or a curse?
    2. Consumption of milk and dairy products and risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture

    Conclusion: really, the jury is very much still out on this one

    Summary:

    • Moderate consumption of dairy products is almost certainly fine
    • More specifically: it probably has some (small) pros and some (small) cons
    • Yogurt is almost certainly healthier than other dairy products, and is almost universally considered a healthy food (assuming not being full of added sugar etc, of course)
    • If you’re going to have non-dairy alternatives to milk, choose wisely!

    That’s all we have time for today, but perhaps in a future edition we’ll do a run-down of the pros and cons of various dairy alternatives!

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  • Which Magnesium? (And: When?)

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝Good morning! I have been waiting for this day to ask: the magnesium in my calcium supplement is neither of the two versions you mentioned in a recent email newsletter. Is this a good type of magnesium and is it efficiently bioavailable in this composition? I also take magnesium that says it is elemental (oxide, gluconate, and lactate). Are these absorbable and useful in these sources? I am not interested in taking things if they aren’t helping me or making me healthier. Thank you for your wonderful, informative newsletter. It’s so nice to get non-biased information❞

    Thank you for the kind words! We certainly do our best.

    For reference: the attached image showed a supplement containing “Magnesium (as Magnesium Oxide & AlgaeCal® l.superpositum)”

    Also for reference: the two versions we compared head-to-head were these very good options:

    Magnesium Glycinate vs Magnesium Citrate – Which is Healthier?

    Let’s first borrow from the above, where we mentioned: magnesium oxide is probably the most widely-sold magnesium supplement because it’s cheapest to make. It also has woeful bioavailability, to the point that there seems to be negligible benefit to taking it. So we don’t recommend that.

    As for magnesium gluconate and magnesium lactate:

    • Magnesium lactate has very good bioavailability and in cases where people have problems with other types (e.g. gastrointestinal side effects), this will probably not trigger those.
    • Magnesium gluconate has excellent bioavailability, probably coming second only to magnesium glycinate.

    The “AlgaeCal® l.superpositum” supplement is a little opaque (and we did ntoice they didn’t specify what percentage of the magnesium is magnesium oxide, and what percentage is from the algae, meaning it could be a 99:1 ratio split, just so that they can claim it’s in there), but we can say Lithothamnion superpositum is indeed an algae and magnesium from green things is usually good.

    Except…

    It’s generally best not to take magnesium and calcium together (as that supplement contains). While they do work synergistically once absorbed, they compete for absorption first so it’s best to take them separately. Because of magnesium’s sleep-improving qualities, many people take calcium in the morning, and magnesium in the evening, for this reason.

    Some previous articles you might enjoy meanwhile:

    Take care!

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