One of the best kept secrets of Japanese cuisine is a range of side dishes known as tsukemono 漬物.
Their preparation makes use of one or more conservation techniques, involving ingredients such as salt,sugar, vinegar, alcohol and herbs in combination with methods including dehydration, marinating, pickling, fermentation and curing.
A part from the nutritional value they stimulate appetite and improve digestion. This implies also an increase of the microbiome diversity.
While the human genome is fixed at birth, the gut microbiome is dynamic.
By manipulating and utilising the diverse genetic pool of the gut microbiome with targeted dietary interventions, there is an untapped potential to complement and modify otherwise fixed host functions (Front Microbiol. 2021; 12: 659465.).
What is the next step to develop a next generation of dietary interventions for prolonged healthspan ? System biology, AI? I think that by merging different fields together a lot can be done to improve human health