New report urges Canada to take a closer look at the benefits of fermented foods

The Canadian Fermented Foods Initiative aims to boost awareness of the benefits of foods like sauerkraut and kimchi.

A new national report is urging Canada to take a closer look at fermented foods, saying growing evidence suggests they may help reduce the risk of chronic disease.

The Canadian Fermented Food Initiative reviewed existing research and found people who regularly consume fermented foods tend to have lower risks of conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, some cancers and neurological diseases.

Most of that evidence comes from large population studies rather than clinical trials, but the authors say the overall trend points to meaningful health benefits with few downsides.

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One of the report’s authors, Raylene Reimer, a professor of nutrition in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary, said fermented foods help restore exposure to beneficial microbes that have largely disappeared from modern diets.

“Fermented foods are when you take a starting ingredient and you add a bacterial culture to it, and you change the texture and the taste of that product,” Reimer said.

She said the loss of microbial exposure is increasingly being linked to chronic health conditions.

“What we’re finding is that our environment that we live in and the foods that we eat [have] become very sterile, and we don’t get the exposure to bacteria or microbes that we used to, and that has led to chronic health conditions,” she said.

Reimer says most bacteria associated with fermented foods is beneficial and plays an important role in maintaining gut health.

“The bacteria that live in and on our body, we have mostly good bacteria,” she said. “When you have a healthy microbiome, or all these bacteria and microbes that live in the body, they can actually help keep those pathogens at bay.”

As part of the initiative, researchers surveyed 4,045 Canadians and found fermented foods are already widely consumed, though mostly for taste rather than health.

Yogurt and cheese were the most commonly eaten, followed by foods such as soy sauce, sauerkraut and vinegar.

On average, Canadians regularly consume about 11 of the 18 most common fermented food types.

Nearly 90 per cent of respondents said they do not make fermented foods at home. Those who do tend to be younger, male and more highly educated.

About two thirds of Canadians said they would be open to trying new fermented foods, but taste and smell were cited as major barriers.

Only about one third said they believe fermented foods are beneficial to health.

The report found older Canadians, women and longer-established generations, meaning people whose families have lived in Canada for several generations, tend to consume fewer fermented foods, despite potentially standing to benefit most from increased intake.

Reimer says the strongest evidence for health benefits currently exist in the area of Type 2 diabetes, driven largely by studies of fermented dairy products.

“It’s your yogurt and your cheese that they have looked at most thoroughly, and that’s where we see the benefits in terms of reducing diabetes risk.”

The initiative deliberately excluded alcoholic fermented beverages such as beer and wine.

“We made a very conscious decision that we would not be focusing on the alcoholic fermented beverages,” Reimer said.

Reimer says the known health risks associated with alcohol outweigh any potential benefits from the fermentation process used to produce those beverages.

The authors argue Canada needs clearer regulations and more coordinated research around fermented foods.

Current rules focus mainly on safety, while products marketed for probiotic benefits require Natural Health Product approval.

An analysis of kombucha products found large differences in microbial content between brands, particularly between small batch and mass-produced products, raising questions about whether broad health claims can be applied without clearer production standards.

Reimer says she would ultimately like to see fermented foods more clearly reflected in Canada’s Food Guide, but acknowledged that goal is still a long way off and will require significantly more research.

“The goal of our Canadian fermented food initiative is to hopefully start to produce the interest in conducting those research studies and eventually generate enough evidence,” she said.

Fermented foods highlighted in the Canadian Fermented Food Initiative

The report notes Canadians regularly consume an average of nearly 11 of the 18 most common fermented food types.

While it does not publish a ranked list, the initiative highlights a range of commonly consumed fermented foods through its research and public education materials, including:

• Yogurt;
• Cheese;
• Kefir;
• Sauerkraut;
• Kimchi;
• Soy sauce;
• Vinegar;
• Fermented vegetables;
• Kombucha;
• Sourdough bread;
• Miso;
• Tempeh;
• Fermented meats;
• Pickled vegetables;
• Fermented dairy drinks;
• Fermented soy products;
• Cultured butter; and,
• Fermented grain products.

Researchers note many Canadians regularly consume fermented foods without recognizing them as such, and that consumption varies widely by age, cultural background and familiarity with fermentation.