Adding a bit of kimchi to your winter meals could help stave off this season’s ‘super flu,’ experts have revealed.
A staple in Korean cooking, kimchi is a mix of salted and fermented vegetables like napa cabbage and radish, often eaten with rice and stews.
At about $2 per serving, kimchi has long been lauded for its vitamins and probiotics, healthy bacteria that aid digestion and immunity. Recent research, however, suggests it could prevent viruses like the flu.
In a recent study out of South Korea, researchers followed 13 overweight adults for three months as they either ate kimchi powder every day or were given a placebo.
Blood tests showed that people consuming the equivalent of one ounce of kimchi per day had higher levels of genes that push antigens, which the immune system recognizes as a threat, to the surface of cells.
This allows disease-fighting white blood cells to detect them and activate the rest of the immune system to drive the threat out, which could lower the chance of becoming ill.
The findings come as this season’s ‘super flu’ ravages the US. Though infections finally show signs of slowing, with 19 percent of tests coming back positive compared to 25 percent the week before, experts have warned flu season is far from over.
The CDC also reported 15 child deaths from the flu last week alone, with parents urging others to get their yearly vaccines to help slow the spread.
As the flu rages on in the US, experts have warned an unlikely fermented vegetable may reduce the risk of getting sick (stock image)
The study, published in November 2025 in the journal NPJ Science of Food, looked at 13 overweight but otherwise healthy adults. They were randomly assigned either to a placebo or kimchi group.
The average age was 48, and the majority of participants were women.
People in the kimchi group consumed about 3,000 milligrams of kimchi powder each day, the equivalent of one ounce of kimchi.
Using blood tests, researchers found people who ate kimchi had cells that expressed higher amounts of MHC class II genes, which prop antigens, molecules the immune system recognizes as abnormal, up to the surface of cells.
This allows white blood cells called helper T cells to detect the antigens and activate other immune cells to fight off infections.
This means participants who ate kimchi every day were more likely to have their immune systems recognize viruses, potentially leading to them recovering faster or avoiding illnesses altogether.
The team also suggested kimchi kept immune cells from becoming too active, lowering the risk of tissue damage caused by an excessive immune response.
Kimchi has long been touted for its gut benefits, but the new study suggests it may lower the risk of viruses (stock image)
Dr Wooje Lee, lead study author of the World Institute of Kimchi, a government-funded research organization that studies fermentation, said: ‘Our research has proven for the first time in the world that kimchi has two different simultaneous effects: activating defense cells and suppressing excessive response.’
Experts believe fermented foods such as kimchi introduce healthy probiotics that counteract pathogens, strengthen the lining of the gut and boost overall immune function.
In the study, kimchi powder was fermented with the healthy bacteria Leuconostoc mesenteroides, which has been shown to improve digestion, immune support and inflammation.
There were several limitations, however, such as the small sample size, so the researchers emphasized larger studies are still needed on the relationship between kimchi and immune health.
