> Some researchers now believe that many if not most of the benefits come from all of the microbial action prior to consumption. That seems counter to the whol

> Some researchers now believe that many if not most of the benefits come from all of the microbial action prior to consumption. That seems counter to the whole idea behind modern research on the importance of the gut microbiome and a throwback to the thinking of the previous century. Certainly some of the work of bacteria is done before but that’s well known as many foods are fermented but the cultures are killed or pasteurized afterwards. Classic American yoghurt was like this, but there’s clear benefits to yoghurt with live cultures. Even if many bacteria don’t colonize the gut their presence in the food or taken separately appears important. In my opinion the evidence is overwhelming that actual probiotic bacteria themselves are important, not just their by products in the food. Our immune system detects healthy bacteria both living and dead and lowers inflammation in response, etc. There’s a lot of research on the topic and good summary research (1, 2). The presence of the bacteria also change the gene regulation in the intestines. Fecal transplants can directly treat diseases, or trigger diseases with maladaptive bacteria (3). 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8512487/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8512487/ 2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772502222001457 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277250222... 3: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.991788/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.9917...