Wait. Lab mice injected with the lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi had nanoplastic levels twice as high than those not injected... That's the opposite of the claim in the title.
I had to read this a couple of times.
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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The next paragraph in the article is:
The institute said those figures support the possibility that CBA3656 reacted with nanoplastics in the intestine and promoted their excretion from the body, thus exhibiting high nanoplastic biosorption efficiency.
Essentially "we see a lot more nanoplastics freely moving around instead of embedded where they're hard to measure."
Normal scientific asterisks are in play: this was bacteria isolated from kimchi, not kimchi itself. For all I know, kimchi could introduce more nanoplastics than the bacteria remove. The bacteria could also not have the same behavior when they're on kimchi and have other things to eat. There isn't much information on the process used, so it could be that the samples they used were contaminated with nanoplastic and that's why they saw more. This was also published by "The World Institute of Kimchi". Not that they couldn't find a real effect, just that this isn't remotely unbiased.
Does Korea still have a somewhat tainted rep of trustworthiness in research?
Having lived in Korea many moons ago, I recall the nationalism being absolutely bonkers in romanticising anything Korean being superior. I remember hearing many times that Korean scientists are better than anywhere else in the world because Korean children eat with metal chopsticks. Yep, this was considered a fact.
They're also safe from electric fans. Metal chopsticks + no fans stealing their souls while they sleep... Actually, I can't even finish my thought on this one. I'm a US citizen. South Korea is doing pretty well by my current standards.
Korean scientists are better than anywhere else in the world because Korean children eat with metal chopsticks.
Wait, does the superiority come from the shape or the material? Is there a hierarchy, with wood and fiberglass chopsticks also having different effects? How does it compare to eating with metal forks?
I'm morbidly curious about the exact contours of the nonsense.
It's harder to eat with metal chopsticks because they are more slippery than wooden ones.
I can confirm kimchi helps me poop, so I guess if I just got administered some nanoplastics there would be more nanoplastics in my poop.
The next paragraph says:
The institute said those figures support the possibility that CBA3656 reacted with nanoplastics in the intestine and promoted their excretion from the body, thus exhibiting high nanoplastic biosorption efficiency.
We are now quoting the world institute of Kimchi.
Eat kimchi, shit kimchi.
Wait So the kimchi company said kimchi is good for you? Is this surprising?
Eh. It's easy to be jaded about it, but that doesn't make the study bad.
You have a team of scientists who study kimchi for years and years. They tried it with Alzheimer's and it failed. They tried it got weight loss and it failed. Eventually they find something that works.
The real issue is that the group doesn't seem trustworthy because they don't publish their negative results. If they published both positive and negative, it'd be harder to claim they're simply shills.
The World Institute of Kimchi is an affiliate institution of Korea Food Research Institute, which is government-funded. (per Wikipedia)
I like the implication that this could just be the new Spinach
I'm still on the old micro plastic edition, will this still work, or do I need to upgrade to the nano plastic edition before seeing the benefits?
Now you need to pay for the Microplastic 365 aka Plastics as a Service.
Can I get the same bacteria from sauerkraut instead?
Stupid Kimchi and Its fishiness. Probably different bacteria
The fishiness is from fish sauce and salted/fermented shrimp. You can make kimchi without those, just use something else for umami.
The bacteria are basically the same.
The same as kraut? My guess would be no if the kimchi has ingredients the kraut doesn't (ie fish).
I'm going to read the paper, quite interested in the methodology.
They're all lactic acid bacteria. The exact species might vary in different regions, like yeast, so kimchi from Korea and sauerkraut made in Germany might have slightly different species, but if you were to get local cabbage and make them both at home, they would have essentially the same bacteria.
No link to the paper and a poorly translated article 😭
Oh crap. My hope was to read the paper as I'm quite intrigued.
Sigh.
the main problem i see here is that the bacteria is in kimchi, and the nanoplastics are in my body. The solution would be to put kimchi in my body? no fucking way!
I agree, but there's hope: It says they injected the mice, which implies that a hypodermic needle could be an option.
I have no love of needles, but given the alternative...
Also, bacteria in my body can eliminate kimchi from my body.
...in mice
The World Institute of Kimchi undertook a lab top exercise using mice and an exogenous chemical that is found I kimchi. I'm not holding my breath for this one.
Not sure I'd want to inject bacteria into myself, even if I were a mouse.
Not reversing the climate change yet?