22 Raw Sauerkraut Benefits That May Change Your Life

What is Raw Sauerkraut?

Raw sauerkraut is simply a type of fermented cabbage that has two ingredients: cabbage and salt. Fermentation of cabbage also requires just three little things: time, room temperature, and low light.

How can this two-ingredient food be so powerful? It’s all in the fermentation process!  When the natural microbes like bacteria on the cabbage begin to break down the cabbage, MANY beneficial compounds are formed.

Fermentation is the process where enzymes and microorganisms break down food into more digestible nutrients and compounds. The main microorganisms on cabbage are called lactobacilli bacteria, which are on the surface of all living things. These bacteria break the foods down into lactic acid, which helps preserve cabbage and provide the body with infinite benefits!

Many forms of sauerkraut are on the market today: raw sauerkraut is simply sauerkraut that fresh instead of canned. Kimchi is another name for sauerkraut and it’s usually a spicy version. The raw form of sauerkraut allows you to get the benefits of live probiotics.

Sauerkraut Benefits Overview

Sauerkraut greatly helps almost every step of digestion and nutrition, including:

• Increases the vitamin content of cabbage
• Enhances enzymes that aid digestion
• Improves nutrient absorption, including minerals
• Improves digestive pH
• Provides prebiotics and probiotics
• Is a natural antiviral

Fermented foods like sauerkraut may help with many digestive disorders. These include antibiotic-associated diarrhea, C. difficile infections, diarrhea, inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and irritable bowel syndrome, to name a few.

But, what is so special about raw sauerkraut? 

Here are some of the components that you won’t want to miss out on.

1. Sauerkraut Benefits: Probiotics

Beneficial probiotics are any living food or supplement that supports health, including beneficial bacteria, fungi, or other small microorganisms. Raw sauerkraut is full of a vast variety of probiotics!

Beneficial bacteria in raw sauerkraut

Most of the probiotic types found in the sauerkraut are of the Lactobacillus or lactic acid-producing type of bacteria. 

Lactobacillus bacteria have gotten a lot of research attention because it is so widely found in fermented foods.

You can find hundreds of studies showing the benefits of Lactobacillus in the National Library of Medicine.

Sauerkraut is also rich in Leuconostoc bacteria.

How much probiotic is in sauerkraut?

According to recent research published in PLOS One, sauerkraut has over 114 types of probiotics, which beats out any probiotic supplement on the market today.   

These probiotics from raw sauerkraut can survive the low acid content of the stomach, which makes sauerkraut an ideal form of probiotic.

Raw sauerkraut is also a very concentrated probiotic.  Research from Functional Foods in Health and Disease determined that a very small dose, 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut, contains over 1 million colony-forming units (CFUs) of healthy probiotics. And sauerkraut is SO much more than a probiotic.

For example, sauerkraut has anti-microbial effects too. The probiotic effects of sauerkraut help fight Listeria monocytogenes, a type of harmful bacteria. It may also reduce some strains of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, possibly even E. coli and salmonella.

Some health experts like Dr. Mercola have determined that the probiotic content of 4-6 oz of sauerkraut may contain trillions of healthy bacteria.  This is much more than a whole bottle of probiotic supplements!

Beneficial fungi

Probiotics in sauerkraut aren’t just beneficial bacteria; they are beneficial fungi too. Think mushrooms.  The mushrooms in sauerkraut are microscopic. The types of fungi in sauerkraut can include Actinomucor, Amylomyces, Aspergillus, Monascus, Mucor, Neurospora, and Rhizopus.  These little fungi produce digestive enzymes to aid our bodies in digestion.

These enzymes include:

• amylase
• amyloglucosidase
• maltase
• invertase
• pectinase
• ß-galactosidase
• cellulase
• hemicellulase
• acid and alkaline proteases
• lipases

By increasing enzymes in the digestive tract, your food will absorb better, which may give you more energy and resilience in the face of infections.

2. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Heartburn and Reflux

Heartburn and reflux are related and difficult to tease out.  Some people call the same symptoms dyspepsia.  Most digestive distress, heartburn, and reflux can be alleviated by a healthy gut-bacterial environment.

If you haven’t tried sauerkraut for heartburn yet, what do you have to lose? Adding a spoonful of sauerkraut is one of the most effective home remedies for heartburn in many cases.

One cause of heartburn is called autoimmune gastritis. Autoimmune gastritis is very common and presents with symptoms of heartburn, dyspepsia, as well as GERD. Autoimmune diseases are tightly linked with gut bacteria. By connecting the gut-immune system dots, it becomes clear that fermented foods like sauerkraut can help people tremendously with GI issues like heartburn and reflux.

3. Sauerkraut Benefits: Reduces Indigestion

Have you ever eaten a meal and felt like you kept burping the food all day long and passing gas? This burping and gas is also known as indigestion and it can also ironically cause heartburn and acid reflux symptoms.  

These are all signs of indigestion, meaning your food is not digesting well. Sauerkraut has built-in enzymes to help with your digestive processes.

Enjoying a couple of bites of raw sauerkraut may take away indigestion symptoms, such as belching, bloating, excess gas, gas pain, heartburn, and more.

Yes, heartburn is often a sign of indigestion instead of too much acid.

Another substance that enhances digestive enzymes is called fulvic acid.

4. Sauerkraut Benefits: Reduces Gas and bloating

If you don’t digest your foods well, you will get more gas and bloating than you want.

Many people are pleasantly surprised that when they make a few changes to their diet, they can eliminate these symptoms of excess gas and embarrassing flatulence.

Support your digestion by giving it enzyme-rich sauerkraut daily.

Tip: When incorporating sauerkraut into your routine, you may be less embarrassed by flatulence over time.

5. Sauerkraut Benefits: Improved Absorption

You will absorb your food better with sauerkraut because it has digestive enzymes and has also lactic acid. Both of these compounds help to break down anti-nutrients in foods like phytic acid and oxalates.

When you absorb your food better, you will have less gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, and heartburn. Win, win, and win!

Related post: Best Digestive Enzymes for Bloating and IBS

The following infographic shows the complexity of probiotic effects on the body. *Infographic used with permission from. M. Swain, Ph.D., at Biotechnology Research International [R].

Tip: We all can benefit from absorbing our food better.  Why not add a bit of sauerkraut to your salads or top your soup with a spoonful of sauerkraut?

6. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Candida and SIBO Gut Infections

Candida is a type of overgrowth of yeast or fungi that occurs when the immune system is out of balance. It can happen in the mouth, esophagus, and even further into the digestive tract, causing lots of pain and distress. Many studies show that lactobacillus probiotics like those in sauerkraut are effective against candida.

While some practitioners recommend avoiding fermented foods during gut infections, this goes against research.

SIBO stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.  Probiotic foods are instrumental to symptom relief.

In fact, a meta-analysis of research shows that probiotics reduce SIBO symptoms like pain and help destroy harmful bacteria.

Tip: You may reduce your chance of digestive infections such as yeast overgrowth by adding some sauerkraut into your daily routine.

7. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Depression and Mood Disorders

If you are looking to improve brain health, sauerkraut is for you.  Probiotic foods are getting a lot of attention for their beneficial effects related to gut and brain connections.

A review paper of 8 clinical studies in the journal Nutrients concluded that probiotics help improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression.

This is because probiotic bacteria signal to the brain to make happy chemicals and calm chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. For this reason, sauerkraut or other fermented foods should be part of your daily repertoire if you suffer from depression.

Tip: probiotic foods like raw sauerkraut may help improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression. 

8. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Anxiety

When you have probiotics, you are never alone. This is something I say to my patients and clients all the time; partly to cheer them up with a joke and partly to help them understand the significance of live cultures.

Consider the following studies we have so far:

• Pregnant women have less post-partem depression and anxiety when given a probiotic strain called  Lactobacillus rhamnosus; this was a robust and large clinical trial. *Lactobacillus rhamnosus is found in sauerkraut [R].
• An excellent review of probiotic foods and anxiety: 7 of 10 clinical studies show benefits for anxiety. This review was written by Psychology & Science.
• Review of research showed compelling data for the use of probiotic foods like sauerkraut for anxiety symptoms.

9. Sauerkraut benefits may extend to PTSD

Imbalances in gut bacteria may make people more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to highlights from research in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

“There is an urgent need for well-designed, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials aimed at determining the effect of bacterial supplements and controlled changes in diet on psychological symptoms and cognitive functions in patients with well-documented mental health problems. This particularly applies to PTSD patients characterized by long-lasting low cortisol levels.”

Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Why might probiotic foods like sauerkraut help with PTSD?

Probiotics are linked with improved mood, reduced anxiety symptoms, and reduced psychological stress.  Fermented foods help also affect and improve the processing of emotions in some clinical work.

Tip: While we don’t know for sure if sauerkraut specifically helps with PTSD, adding some to your daily routine won’t hurt and might help.

10. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Schizophrenia and Mania

While all mood disorders are disruptive to life, schizophrenia is the most disabling and costly condition because treatment options are very limited.

Over 50 million people worldwide suffer from this disorder, and they have frequent relapses, memory loss, reduced brain function, and emotional and functional disability.

While research is still early about probiotics like sauerkraut for schizophrenia, consider these two studies:

Another recent study even found that people with bipolar disorder who took probiotics were less likely to be re-hospitalized with symptoms of mania than those who did not get probiotics.

Tip: Raw sauerkraut was not specifically used in these studies, but one could assume that it would work even better than a probiotic supplement because it is highly concentrated in lactobacillus probiotics.

11. Sauerkraut Benefits: May Reduce Aging

Sauerkraut benefits our vitality because it is rich in antioxidants and anti-aging compounds like polyamines, including putrescine. Polyamines (putrescine, spermine, and spermidine) play an important role in cell health. These amines help with growth and repair.

Tip: While it is too soon to say that sauerkraut has the same effects in humans, it is well-established that antioxidant-rich foods like sauerkraut may delay aging processes.

12. Sauerkraut Benefits: Helps Reduce Allergic Symptoms

Another health benefit of sauerkraut may extend to your allergic symptoms. Many people rate sauerkraut at the top of the list for allergic symptom relief.

Immunologists have known that fermented foods help fight allergy symptoms for almost 20 years.

Polyamines that are present in sauerkraut reduce allergic lung and intestinal responses.  Food allergy rates are lower in children who have high polyamine intake from foods like sauerkraut in their diet in their first year of life.

Tip: Include fermented foods like sauerkraut daily in your diet if you suffer from allergies.

13. Sauerkraut Skin Benefits

Most people with skin conditions like acne or dermatitis of any kind are eager to do anything it takes to clear up their skin.  Some people need to look no further than their gut health.

Sauerkraut is an obvious choice of probiotic for skin conditions because it is such a diverse, broad-spectrum probiotic food! Recent research even shows that fermented foods and probiotics may be helpful in:

• acne
• dermatitis
• wound healing
• eczema
• skin cancer prevention.

Sauerkraut is a rich source of probiotics.  Numerous probiotic strains are helpful for acne, including those found in sauerkraut.

Tip: Adding sauerkraut to your diet may result in some surprising health benefits for your skin.

14. Sauerkraut Benefits the Immune System

Most of the conditions reviewed here so far deal with the gut-immune axis benefits of sauerkraut. 

After all, a huge portion of our immune system is dictated by our innate immunity. Innate immunity is largely controlled by the bacteria we have in our gut.

Experts in the field of immunity are very intrigued by fermented foods like sauerkraut. The benefits of probiotic immunity even extend to our metabolism of calcium and bone health.

Probiotic-rich sauerkraut may help improve bone density via immune system benefits, in other words.

Tip: Maybe we should have done what our grandparents did all along; ferment our foods.

15. Sauerkraut’s Potential Heart Benefits

Making sauerkraut part of your daily routine is also likely good for your heart. Heart disease is related to altered gut bacteria according to new research over the last few years.

A clinical study found that supplemental probiotics, which are found in sauerkraut, improve glucose control, HDL-cholesterol, and cholesterol ratios, and reduced inflammation markers in the body of people who have coronary heart disease and diabetes.

Our gut-derived immune system may dictate a lot about the health of the artery wall and how plaque builds up.

Tip: Including raw sauerkraut in your diet may help improve your heart health.

While it is early to tell if sauerkraut alone helps the heart, the rest of your body will still reap the benefits of eating sauerkraut.

16. Sauerkraut for Joint Health

Probiotic foods like sauerkraut are beneficial to joint health because they can help reduce inflammation in the body. Joint diseases are often linked to abnormal gut health too.  This is where sauerkraut can support both bone and joint health.

Lactobacillus probiotics may help even reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis according to research.

Don’t forget that sauerkraut is one of the richest lactobacillus probiotics out there.

Tip: Sauerkraut as part of a healthy diet may help reduce inflammation in your joints.

17. Sauerkraut Benefits for Weight loss

Kimchi and sauerkraut both show promise in helping people reduce their waistlines as shown in clinical studies. Sauerkraut benefits weight loss because it helps:

• Reduce inflammation
• Reduce abdominal fat
• Improve satisfaction from eating
• May prevent fat accumulation

Tip: While nothing alone works to keep us slender, fermented foods like sauerkraut likely do play an instrumental role in keeping us free from the diseases of obesity. By helping us stay lean, fermented foods also can help us prevent heart disease too.

18. Sauerkraut May Improve Energy

By improving your digestion and nutrient absorption, might sauerkraut also improve your energy?

A clinical study of chronic fatigue syndrome addressed this.  Supplements of lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, both found in sauerkraut, reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.  A major symptom of depression is fatigue, so by lifting these symptoms, energy can be improved.

Tip: You may get more out of your food for energy with probiotic foods. While no research has answered this question directly, intuitively, it is quite possible that your body’s energy stands to gain from sauerkraut.

19. Eating Sauerkraut Reduces Cancer Risk

Probiotics help the body clear out harmful toxins from the body.  Sauerkraut also contains a nutrient called s-methyl methionine, which may reduce stomach cancer risk. Weissella. cibaria, a type of probiotic in kimchi and sauerkraut, may have:

All of the above appear to reduce our risk of cancer.

Eating sauerkraut and cabbage is also associated with a large reduction in breast cancer risk too.

Tip: Although we can’t say that sauerkraut alone reduces cancer risk, it likely supports our ability to fight cancer when combined with a healthy diet.

20. Sauerkraut Benefits: Nutritious

Sauerkraut contains a good amount of vitamin C, vitamin K, and iron.  A half cup of sauerkraut has [R]:

• Calories: 14
• Carbohydrates: 3 grams
• Fat: 1 gram
• Fiber 2 grams
• Sodium 469 mg 19% DV
• Vitamin C 11 mg  18% DV
• Vitamin K1 5 mcg 5% DV
• Vitamin K2 5 mcg
• Vitamin B6 0.1 mg 5% DV
• Folate 17 mcg  5% DV
• Iron 1 mg 9% DV
• Manganese 0.1 mg 6% DV

A problem with plant forms of iron is that they often aren’t absorbed well. Not true for sauerkraut! Sauerkraut boasts include being the second-best absorbed plant source of iron.

Carbs in sauerkraut are almost all from fiber, so it is super helpful for people with diabetes.

Nutrient myths about sauerkraut

Vitamin K2-rich food: Some websites claim that sauerkraut has vitamin K2. However, it is such a minuscule amount compared to natto or even cheese, I don’t think it is fair to say that sauerkraut is a good vitamin K2 food source [R]. For example, the total vitamin K2 content of sauerkraut is less than 5 mcg per 100 ml and for natto, it is greater than 900 mcg.  Even an egg has over 3 times as much vitamin K2, while hard cheeses have 10 times as much.  Read all about vitamin K2 for more information.

High sodium food: Worried about sodium? Bear in mind, that’s a large serving of sauerkraut I listed here.  A realistic serving for many people is a couple of tablespoons, which only has 117 mg of sodium. *This is less salt than a typical slice of bread.

21. Sauerkraut Benefits: Inexpensive

Probiotic supplements can be expensive, but homemade sauerkraut only costs pennies a day.  All you need is a mason jar, a head of cabbage, and some non-iodized salt!

Tip: Food trends can drive up the price of foods, but there is also an inexpensive way to make fermented foods; by doing it yourself!

22. Sauerkraut Benefits: Easy to make

There are two ways to make sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is a vegan food too (although I don’t recommend this kind of diet for most people).

• Wild fermentation, aka Lacto-fermentation and Lactic-acid fermentation
• Cultured fermentation

The easiest and cheapest is wild fermentation as I described. It requires just salt and cabbage.  If you feel you are at risk for tyramine or histamine intolerance, I recommend using cultured fermentation by getting a lactobacillus culture.

Directions for Making Sauerkraut

I recommend checking out the Real Food Dietitians website for how to make good sauerkraut. Here is my simplified version:

• 1 head of red cabbage or green cabbage, preferably organic
• non-iodized salt, about 1 tbsp
• wide-mouth quart-size mason jar
• vegetable pounder*.

1. Peel off the outer leaves of a cabbage, then slice the cabbage finely with a sharp knife on a cutting board.*I prefer to use a slicing food processor to slice the cabbage because I don’t risk cutting my fingers!  You can find a food processor here.
2. Then, massage the chopped cabbage with salt, wait 45 minutes and massage the cabbage again. You can use a vegetable pounder for this task as well.
3. Next, tamp down the salted cabbage with a vegetable pounder in a large quart-size wide-mouth mason jar to release the cabbage juice. Make sure the liquid or brine covers all of the cabbage at this point.  I recommend using a vegetable pounder like the one you can find here*.
4. Place a cabbage leave cut to the size of the jar on top of the cabbage to help keep the sliced cabbage submerged.
5. Place a small glass weight on top to weigh it all down, such as a very small glass jar.
6. Loosely place a lid on top, making sure it is loose enough so gases can be released from the jar.
7. Store the brined cabbage in low light and at room temperature for 7-14 days, and make sure to check on it every day to make sure all the cabbage is covered by the liquid brine.

Buy Raw Sauerkraut

If you don’t want to wait for sauerkraut to ferment, you can always buy some high-quality raw sauerkraut brands at your local store.

• You might like Healing Sauerkraut that you can find here.
• You can find Superkraut Crispy Curry Raw Organic Sauerkraut here.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Ferment Foods

Here is a general overview of fermenting foods.  As you can see, fermenting fruits and vegetables can be quite easy once you get started.     *Image used with permission from M. Swain, Ph.D. from Biotechnology Research International [R].

How to Use Sauerkraut

An important note about raw sauerkraut use:  it is a very potent probiotic, so start slow when first introducing this food.

A teaspoon is plenty on the first few days of trying raw sauerkraut.  If all goes well, you can increase this amount to a tablespoon a day, and then gradually increase as desired.

My favorite way to eat sauerkraut is like a raw condiment with meals or simply on a fork straight from the jar. It doesn’t have to be complicated! Sauerkraut pairs nicely with meat dishes, salads, soups, and more.

Sauerkraut and sausage is a favorite German meal. Just be sure to eat it raw for beneficial probiotic and enzyme effects. Want more tips about how to use sauerkraut?  Check out 45+ Simple Uses for Sauerkraut.

Eating cooked sauerkraut is still very healthy. This is because it will contain some molecular mimicry of the probiotic; think of how the influenza vaccine is delivered; as a dead virus.  Our body recognizes immune particles from dead probiotics or bacteria even if they aren’t living.

Health risks

Precautions with sauerkraut are few and far between, but there are a few things to be aware of when adding sauerkraut or other probiotic-rich foods to your diet. Sauerkraut benefits and side effects can go hand in hand because it is a potent food.  It is unlikely to cause health problems, but be aware that anything so potent can also create temporary digestive discomfort in sensitive people.

Start with just a small spoonful a day to prevent and digestive distress.

Some people have a difficult time tolerating histamine and tyramine that is present in sauerkraut.  However, new data suggests that most sauerkraut is quite low in these compounds. Sauerkraut may be free of all histamine and tyramine content if it is first inoculated with lactobacillus.

Although probiotics foods are generally safe, be sure to check with your doctor before changing anything in your healthcare routine.  When used moderately, sauerkraut can even be eaten on a low sodium diet.

The information on this website is for informational purposes only and is not meant as medical advice. Have a digestive health question?  Reach out to me here.