Fermented foods are created through fermentation (duh), in which food components like natural sugars are broken down by yeast and bacteria, leaving the food chock-full of probiotics (aka “good bugs”). Some examples include kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut (Pedre’s personal favorite), miso and yogurt, among others.

Although we recommend that you include enough fiber in your diet, you may want to begin with fermented foods if you have inflammatory bowel disease. Link to Pedre research 2 in which researchers measured microbial diversity in people who ate five to eight servings of fiber per day compared to those who ate 6 cups of fermented foods per day.

“What [they found] is that a diet high in fermented foods increased microbial diversity in this group and decreased 19 markers of inflammation,” he explains. The high-fiber group did see positive effects on microbial function and immune response, but interestingly, fermented foods had such a significant effect on inflammation.

Both fiber-rich and fermented foods are necessary for the microbiome to thrive. However, if you have an unhealthy, inflamed gut (such as after a cycle of antibiotics), you may be particularly stressed by the latter.