Kimchi, kefir, kombucha, ’kraut. Mention the words “gut health” to anyone these days and the “four Ks” will spring to mind. Yet there are other ways to support your gut microbiome, many of which are cheaper and more readily available.
Sometimes they are better for you, too. “Many of those flavoured kombuchas and kefirs you find in the shops – they might have something notionally good, like fibre and culture, but these ingredients are often there simply to allow health claims to be put on products which are high in sugar and engineered to drive excess consumption,” says Chris van Tulleken, doctor and author of Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? “You can’t have food that’s good and bad.”
