Fermented foods: From traditional diets to clinical trials

This chapter serves as a pun on the concept of “culture” and its relevance to complementary and alternative medicine. It summarizes clinical research literature about the use of fermented foods for health benefits. Fermented foods are very common throughout the world in all cultures and are believed to contribute to health, by supplying “good bacteria” to the digestive system, helping to preserve foods, and breaking them down to promote the release of particular nutrients. This chapter focuses on widely used examples of fermented foods including yoghurt and fermented milk, kimchi, fermented grains including rice and millet, beer, kombucha tea and a fermented papaya product.