How fermented foods help your gut

Indoor air quality alert

View this email online August 20, 2023 by Carmel Wroth This week, we take a deep dive into the wonders of fermentation, specifically exploring how some very tasty kimchi is made. And we have an eye-opening look at the pollutants that could be contaminating your indoor air. Plus: Tips for writing your life story. Enjoy! Explore the wonder of fermentation and how it helps your gut Meredith Rizzo for NPR Fermentation has always intrigued NPR health reporter Pien Huang. "I love that you can leave something out on the counter, in the refrigerator — forget about it, even — and it just gets better," she writes. But why do some foods improve with age, while others spoil? And what about fermented foods makes them boost our gut health? Huang went on an urban food adventure to find out how it happens. Here's an excerpt from her report: "So early one morning, I met Chef Patrice Cunningham at Tastemakers, a shared commercial kitchen in northeast Washington, D.C. She owns a small business, making and selling a deliciously fresh, spicy, fermented Korean condiment – kimchi. Cunningham welcomes me with a handshake and a hairnet, and leads me to a large, steel prep table covered with about a dozen crates of Napa cabbage. She and her three assistant chefs chopped each leafy head down into bite-sized pieces. It's the first step in transforming the raw and humble cabbage into bright-red, funky kimchi. "I'm turning cabbage into gold," Cunningham says, "We're in here, busting our butts every day to provide good food to folks." Over the course of two days, Cunningham will walk me through the steps of making kimchi – and help me understand how an age-old food processing technique enables the microbial magic of fermentation... It turns out the key to a fermentation is getting the right microbes to show up at the right time. "It comes down to our ability to use salt or other factors to herd these microbial populations," says Elisa Caffrey, a graduate student studying fermentation in Sonnenburg's lab at Stanford." Read on for the rest of the story and to find out how fermented foods like kimchi help our health. For one thing, they appear to increase the diversity of our gut microbiota and that's linked to better health -- and they may help reduce the risk of diseases related to inflammation.  Plus: Studying the link between the gut and mental health is personal for this scientist Newsletter continues after sponsor message Indoor pollution can make you sick. Here's how to keep your home's air clean skaman306/Getty Images This summer, with wildfire smoke suffocating swaths of North America, we've been warned to stay indoors to avoid poor-quality air. But there are things inside your home you don't necessarily want to be inhaling either. Once you start learning about possible indoor air pollutants, it may be difficult to stop noticing them, warns Katherine Pruitt, national senior director for policy at the American Lung Association. These include moisture stemming from flooding, leaks, or even just high humidity, which can "support the proliferation of germs, pathogens, mold, dust mites, allergens or actual toxins," says Pruitt. Certain gases can be dangerous too, like those coming from gas stoves or space heaters.  And consumer goods and cleaning supplies can release pollutants like formaldehyde, benzene and other volatile organic compounds.  It's a lot to keep track of. "Actually, working on indoor air quality makes you kind of crazy!" exclaims Pruitt. And poor indoor air quality has been linked with a lot of bad health effects, including respiratory and heart disease. But Pruitt and other experts we spoke to have some common-sense advice about how to protect yourself.  Read more about the three keys to clean indoor air: fresh air circulation, source control and purification. Black Stories, Black Truths: NPR's New Campaign Celebrates the Black Experience Turn on NPR today and you’ll hear a range of voices as varied, nuanced, and Black as the country we reflect. That’s because NPR sounds like whichever one of our hosts is at the mic, and all the passions, quirks, and lived experiences they bring with them. Introducing Black Stories, Black Truths: a video series, a collection of podcast episodes, and—most importantly—a celebration of Black voices in journalism. Our voices aren’t a monolith, and neither is public media. Welcome to NPR, noir. Click here to check out the feed, or search “NPR Black Stories, Black Truths” wherever you get podcasts. Tell your story -- tips to get started documenting your life experiences Shannon Wright for NPR Documenting your memories in writing can be a way to preserve and revisit milestones from your life. And writing memoir has been shown to have mental and cognitive health benefits. Maybe you've lived through and conquered some major feats, and your story can inspire others. Or maybe you care less about publishing a book and simply want to document your memories as a written history for yourself or your family. While memoirs are a collection of personal stories, you decide how personal you want to get. As an author, you have agency—just because you're writing a memoir doesn't mean you must share all of the details of your life, especially if you're not quite ready. Regardless of why you want to start writing your own story, NPR's Life Kit has tips from four memoirists to help you get started. PLUS: What happens in your brain when you make art Before you go Erin Kenney/NPR The latest in pickle ball: The game is heading indoors, to empty stores and malls. Male mosquitos have ears. And they use them to find mates. Scientists want to interfere with their match-making. Call it 'stealth mental health' — some care for elders helps more without the label. We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots. All best, Carmel Wroth Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: shots@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Goats & Soda, Up First, Life Kit and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Health emails. 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