Kleindain

The hype around fermented foods are a mix between solid evidence, great marketing, and a move towards traditional foods while the research tries to play catchup.

Yoghurt and Keffir are probably one of the more well studied fermented products with reasonably good evidence. I’d imagine the fermentation process of vegetables are also going to be somewhat good, but I should also note that pickling usually involves plenty of salt. Excess salt intake probably isn’t what a lot of people are going for.

My personal take is enjoy it as part of a more varied diet, but I wouldn’t depend on it as a source of pre and probiotics alone.

I’m curious on how your IP is shared/managed between your institution and yourself (given you mentioned entrepreneurship). How close is your PhD work and your own work? Presumably there is some form of contract in place?

If you’re interested on the research side of things, Deakin University in Melbourne has a Food and Mood centre which focuses their work in this space. They recently published a solid paper on one of their projects titled the SMILES trial.

I’d love to see some evidence for it being debunked. I know of a certain Nephrologist that’s a proponent for that, but the general consensus remains the same.

There was a trial if other nutrients influenced how we use salt in the body (since a lot of people talk about ratios to Potassium being important), and they found that the changes were modest at best and salt reduction is still a sensible recommendation for most people. Especially in our current food environment.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09928

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5098396/

Gastro psychology is an emerging area of work/research and glad to hear you found something that works for you. We’ve known how frequently mental health is associated with GI symptoms, shame that it’s not often considered in supportive strategies offered. Heck even nutrition/dietetic referrals are rarely done.