Professor Tim Spector

products like kombuchas that you would see in in stores in america that say lightly pasteurized and i'd say well that's a load of rubbish be nothing good about that but it turns out that even dead microbes when you do a randomized trial have some benefit for the host you're looking a bit skeptical but i these against placebo uh studies and there's enough of them now that you you

I definitely believe it.

I know some of the researchers.

They were surprised, but it's genuine.

We think, again, if you go back to the vaccine discussion we were having yesterday,

It looks like, although it's not alive, the microbe still has a cell wall and it has proteins in the cell wall.

So it's like the debris of these dead bodies that you're ingesting.

We think they're tickling your immune cells as they go through the small intestine.

And it's giving a signal to your immune system to calm down, reduce inflammation.

That's our best understanding of what this phenomenon is about.

So...

Live microbes are best, but it looks like dead microbes, which are called postbiotics or zombie biotics, are probably also good for you.

So I think all fermented foods, even those that I would have dismissed three years ago, are probably good for us.

And that's really the best way to reduce your inflammation levels.

We did a big study in Zoe of – we asked 9,000 people –

who were Zoe members, who weren't taking ferments, to try and see how they'd get on taking three ferments a day.

How did they feel?

I think about 3,000 dropped out, didn't fancy it.

But nearly 6,000 continued and did the two weeks, taking it after a one-week run-in period.

And around half of them noticed improvements in mood, energy, and had less hunger.