Fermented Foods for Gut Health — Benefits Backed by Science and 10 Years of Personal Experience My grandmother made kimchi every autumn without thinking twice about it. She didn't talk about probiotics or gut microbiome diversity or healthy gut bacteria. She just made kimchi, packed it into ceramic pots, and said it was good for you. I grew up eating it at every single meal without ever questioning why. Then I moved to Europe, and I found out what happened when I stopped. The first few months in Rome, I was eating pasta and bread and genuinely loving every bite. Then around the two-month mark, something felt off. My digestion was sluggish in a way it had never been before. My energy was inconsistent. My skin was breaking out more than usual. I was using the same skincare products and sleeping the same hours. The one thing that had changed was what I was eating. Over ten years living across six countries — Rome, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, and Amsterdam — I had eno...
What Koreans Eat for Clear Skin — And What Happened When I Stopped When I was living in Korea, I never thought about eating for my skin. I just ate. Doenjang jjigae in the morning, kimchi with every meal, different vegetable side dishes, grilled fish a few times a week. That was just what food looked like. Whether my skin was good because of skincare or because of what I ate — I never thought to separate the two. Then I moved to Rome, and within two months something had shifted. I was eating pasta and pizza and loving every bite of it. But when I looked in the mirror one morning, my skin looked different. Duller. Breaking out more than usual. I was using the exact same skincare products I'd brought from Korea. Nothing about my routine had changed. That was the first time I thought — maybe it's the food. Over ten years and six countries, I've had enough chances to test this. When I eat close to a Korean diet, my skin tends to behave. When I drift far from it for long...