Sauerkraut is the traditional fermented cabbage from Central and Eastern Europe, though its origins are said to be from China. Raw sauerkraut is how you used to get your “fresh” vegetables in the winter and in the springtime when there was nothing in your garden. It turns out that sauerkraut can be kept for a long time and offers significant gut health benefits.
While it’s kind of out of vogue (it’s been out of vogue for quite some time now), it’s making a comeback as a functional food with great benefits for gut health. In this article, I’m going to discuss the benefits of the prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics in raw sauerkraut.
What’s So Good About Raw Sauerkraut?
Sauerkraut is one of the simplest dishes to make. You literally shred the cabbage, massage it with salt, put it in a jar, and let it anaerobically ferment until it’s done. The lactic acid bacteria that naturally grow on cabbage take over, turning it into a superfood.
Prebiotics
The cabbage fibers remain crunchy when the cabbage is fully fermented. This fiber acts as a prebiotic. It feeds the beneficial bacteria in the sauerkraut itself, but also feeds the beneficial gut bacteria in your own colon. When you eat sauerkraut, you are feeding your own beneficial bacteria, causing them to multiply and give you even more benefits.
There are several benefits of prebiotic fibers in your food besides the obvious benefits of creating bulk to support regular bowel movements. Here is a short list:
- Short-chain Fatty Acids: The bacteria in your colon break down the fiber and produce short-chain fatty acids like acetate, butyrate, and propionate. The cells that make up the colon wall use these short-chain fatty acids as a source of energy.
- Mineral Absorption: As the short-chain fatty acids are produced, the pH drops in the colon, which enhances the solubility and absorption of essential minerals like calcium and magnesium.
- Intestinal Barrier Integrity: The colon cells function better when they’re provided with the energy from short-chain fatty acids, so they build a stronger mucosal barrier to pathogens and toxins entering the bloodstream.
- Immune System Modulation: Prebiotics feed and support a healthy gut microbiome, which is intrinsically linked to the immune system through direct interactions with immune cells in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). This interaction modulates immune responses to produce a more normal response (neither too much nor too little).
Probiotics
When you eat unpasteurized sauerkraut, you get live lactobacillus or lactic acid bacteria, which reach the gut and transiently interact with the microbiome that’s already there. These probiotic bacteria can outcompete potentially pathogenic bacteria and help with your digestion.
Although the bacteria provided by sauerkraut are transient, as long as you keep eating it, they will be in your GI system. This is true of all probiotic cultures. A large serving (1 cup or more) of raw sauerkraut can provide you with trillions of CFUs of beneficial bacteria, but start slow when beginning.
Postbiotics
Postbiotics are the metabolites produced by probiotic bacteria, such as lactic acid, organic acids, short-chain fatty acids, peptides, bacteriocidins, and other compounds. Postbiotics also include all the components of the dead cells. There are benefits from these compounds even without live bacteria being present.
Other Benefits
Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable, so you get benefits from the glucosinolates there as well. It’s a low-calorie, high-fiber food, so it helps fill you up.
The bacteria in sauerkraut also produce vitamin C, vitamin K, and some B vitamins. These will benefit you beyond just gut health.
You could call sauerkraut a “synbiotic” whole food because it has all three components of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics all in one package. So in some ways, they offer a lot more than an isolated probiotic supplement.
Studies of People Eating Sauerkraut
Clinical trials indicate that sauerkraut, whether raw/unpasteurized or pasteurized, provides notable gut health benefits:
- For Healthy Individuals (2025 Trial): A randomized crossover trial with 87 people showed that daily consumption of 100 grams either fresh or pasteurized sauerkraut for 4 weeks led to modest, positive shifts in the gut microbiome and metabolome (including SCFAs). Pasteurized sauerkraut had superior effects, showing that even though it is cooked, some goodness remains in the form of fiber and postbiotics. The study also found that healthy people have a very stable microbiome that is not easily disrupted by a little bit of sauerkraut.
- For IBS Patients (2018 Trial): A 6-week pilot study with 34 IBS patients found that a daily serving of 75 grams of either unpasteurized or pasteurized sauerkraut significantly reduced common IBS symptoms like abdominal pain, bloating, and irregular bowel habits. Both the unpasteurized and pasteurized sauerkraut gave good benefits, with slightly better results from the raw sauerkraut. So it looks like most of the results may have been due to prebiotic fibers and postbiotics rather than just to the live probiotics alone.
Practical Tips and Considerations
Not too many years ago, the only option to get fresh sauerkraut was to make it yourself. Now, you can purchase raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut from local stores. Our local Costco even carries one brand. There are a few brands that are marketed nationally, so chances are you can get some, too.
I have made my own, but the flavor is better and more consistent in what I have purchased. At least we have options now.
You don’t need much sauerkraut to reap its benefits. Just 1-2 tablespoons a day is a great maintenance dose. Even a bite or a teaspoonful is enough for kids to get some benefit, which is good news for them (if they are like mine at least), since they often don’t like it very much.
Don’t fret if someone gives you some cooked sauerkraut. It still has the fibers and postbiotics in it. Just like in the clinical trials, there are benefits even to cooked sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut isn’t a miracle cure, but it’s a good thing to put on your plate on a daily basis. The prebiotic fibers, probiotic bacteria, and the postbiotics make it a great way to boost your gut health.
Thanks to a few ambitious entrepreneurs, we can now get raw sauerkraut in local grocery stores across the country. Maybe this is the next step in your health journey: add some sauerkraut to your daily diet.
