Eaten Alive Kimchi

Eaten Alive is the product of two chefs who bonded over shared passions of food, travel and fermentation. Glyn and Pat spent more than 20 years in some of the country’s finest and most fun restaurants before setting out to bring fermented pickles to the people.

Eaten Alive has collaborated with LEON to create an amazing ‘White Cabbage Kimchi’ for the Crispy Chicken Korean burger that is exclusive to LEON restaurants.

What is Kimchi?

Kimchi transforms the humble cabbage through fermentation with salt, and a few carefully selected aromatics and ingredients.The Eaten Alive White cabbage Kimchi is handmade from beautiful British cabbages, it’s 100% natural, raw, vegan and teeming with good bacteria - a delicious option for those who want to eat their way to a healthier gut and support their immune system.

As well as preserving, and creating an amazing taste, the fermentation process brings a wealth of health benefits – it improves the bioavailability of many vitamins and nutrients by producing foods the body finds easier to digest. Having a healthy gut is thought to boost immunity, improve mental wellbeing as well as help manage IBS and eczema.

Kimchi is a high-fibre, low-calorie powerhouse of micronutrients, including iron, calcium, selenium, vitamins A, B1, B2 and C, and phytonutrients, plus it’s teeming with good lactobacillus bacteria. The Eaten Alive kimchi contains seven different vegetables prepared fresh from the best growers.

Pat Bingley, comments, “we started Eaten Alive because we wanted people to eat not only the most deliciously addictive kimchi and hot sauces, but also to enjoy the benefits that fermented foods can bring to our health. We don’t pasteurize or heat our products – we ferment naturally, which means they are teeming with good bacteria - the perfect ingredients for supporting a healthy and happy gut.”

Lacto-fermentation is the preservation of produce using lactobacillus bacteria to acidify and pickle foods. This kind of fermentation plays a key role in the preparation of many much-loved traditional foods such as cheese, chocolate, sauerkraut and sourdough bread.

Eaten Alive has assembled its favourite tips and tricks to keep those microbes happy. While these tips are widely supported by respectable medical and dietary professionals, nutrition is a highly personal thing; not everything is for everybody, and so if you have a pre-existing condition or sensitivity, please check in with your doctor or dietician if you’re thinking about making significant changes to your diet.

1. Eat as many different (edible) plants as possible

Diversity in the plant types you consume typically leads to diversity in the gut, as the mix of micronutrients and polyphenols is great the more species of plant you consume. Dr Megan Rossi, The Gut Health Doctor, encourages people to aim for 30 different species a week (our kimchi contains 7, so that’s a great start!).

2. Load up on prebiotic-rich foods

Prebiotics are specific types of fibre that cannot be digested by your small intestine, therefore making it to your large intestine where they are thought to act as fuel for your gut bacteria, which in turn extracts valuable nutrients from these foods. Prebiotic-rich foods include chicory root, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, asparagus, bananas, rye and wheat.

3...and fibre in general

For a while fibre was the unsexiest nutrient, but it’s so important to many facets of health.Most of us do not eat enough fibre, eating on average 18g a day of the 30-50g recommended by nutrition professionals.

4. Eat absolutely loads of kimchi and sauerkraut (obviously).

Joking aside, as well as being teeming with live lactobacillus cultures, kimchi alone contains heaps of micronutrients, including vitamins A, B1, B2 and C, and phytonutrients. Other great sources of good bacteria include kefir, live yoghurt and kombucha.

5. Don’t overload on meat, saturated fats or booze

As delicious and fun as these foods can be, they’re best enjoyed in moderation as gut health experts believe that large quantities can damage your microbiome and lead to various health problems such as inflammation, heart and bowel disease.

6. Take a break from eating (occasionally, for a few hours).

There’s a post-meal cleaning job that your body can only perform after it has been fasted for 2-4 hours. After this short fasting period, the small intestine produces a muscular ‘wave’ motion, which, among other things, prevents excess bacteria from settling down in the small intestine. Persistent grazing prevents the body from getting on with this housekeeping.

7. Probiotic supplements

While we (obviously) prefer to consume foods rich in beneficial live bacteria, there are probiotic supplements available that can be helpful if you feel you may need to ‘restore’ your microbiome in some way, for example, after a course of antibiotics.

8. Get a good night’s sleep
Your microbiome is thought to be regulated by your body’s circadian rhythms, so regular sleep disruption can have a negative effect on the gut quite quickly. What’s more, many people crave highly processed, high sugar and convenience foods when overtired, which can further throw your microbiome out of whack.

9. Try to avoid or reduce stress

There’s a reason we have a lot of phrases like ‘gut wrenching’ or ‘stomach’ churning when talking about fear or discomfort - the direct link between the brain and the gut means that your digestive system often feels stress before you do.

10. Stay hydrated

Water is essential to the body in so many ways and, in terms of digestion, it helps to keep everything moving along nicely!

Eaten Alive really do know a thing or two about good-for-your-gut food that treats your taste buds, hence why we take such pride in our partnership with them. To find out more about them or to buy yourself some bio-live kimchi, head to their website here.

*puts kimchi on everything.