journal of applied microbiology

Eating fermented foods might be the secret to a healthy and long-lived society

Researchers from Osaka City University find that when the larva nematode C. elegans is fed a diet of Bacillus subtilis var. natto, a bacteria used to ferment soy beans into the traditional Japanese food natto, upon reaching adulthood these worms are able to survive infections from the gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis longer than when fed a standard diet of non-pathogenic E. coli.