The word fermented describes how a food was made. The word probiotic, as NCCIH defines it, describes live microorganisms intended to have a health benefit, and that benefit is specific to the strain that was studied (NCCIH). Neither word tells you the figure that will actually change your week, which is sodium: a cup of kimchi weighs 150 grams and carries 747 milligrams of sodium, 32 percent of the FDA's 2,300-milligram Daily Value, calculated from USDA's kimchi entry. The condition that changes the reading: a ferment eaten by the tablespoon rather than the cup lands somewhere else entirely.
The sodium is on the label; the strain usually is not
Three ferments most US refrigerators hold, at one cup, with the percentage of the 2,300-milligram Daily Value the FDA prints on the Nutrition Facts label.
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| Ferment (1 cup) | Weight | Sodium | Share of the 2,300 mg DV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sauerkraut, drained | 142 g | 939 mg | 41% |
| Kimchi | 150 g | 747 mg | 32% |
| Yogurt, plain, low fat | 245 g | 172 mg | 7% |
The FDA's own shorthand puts 20 percent of a Daily Value or more at high and 5 percent or less at low. By that measure a cup of sauerkraut is a high-sodium food and a cup of plain yogurt is not, and both were made by fermentation. The word on the front did not predict the row on the back.
That same cup of plain low-fat yogurt carries 448 milligrams of calcium, 12.9 grams of protein and 17.2 grams of total sugars, all of it lactose rather than added sugar. Total sugars and added sugars are different rows on the label; the FDA gives added sugars a Daily Value of 50 grams and gives total sugars none.
Three sentences, three different kinds of answer
Sort the sentence before you judge it.
- "Made using fermentation." A production description. What settles it is the producer's account of ingredients and process. It says nothing about live organisms surviving in the jar on your shelf.
- "Contains live cultures." A statement about the finished food. What settles it is the organism named and the amount, and neither is required to appear.
- "Supports a named outcome." A claim about a body. What settles it is the specific strain or product, the population studied, the comparison and the result measured.
The rows cannot stand in for one another. FDA sorts label statements into health claims, nutrient content claims and structure/function claims, and only the second kind has a numeric threshold behind it (FDA). A supplement carrying a structure/function claim must also carry the disclaimer that FDA has not evaluated the statement and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. That disclaimer is information: it marks the boundary of what was reviewed.
What a complete probiotic claim contains, and what to write when it is missing
NCCIH is direct about the limit of the evidence: different probiotics have different effects, and for most uses it is still not known which ones help. Its page notes that the strongest findings cluster around a few specific conditions, and that a result for one Lactobacillus does not transfer to another Lactobacillus, let alone to a Bifidobacterium.
The size of the market is not the size of the evidence. NCCIH cites the 2012 National Health Interview Survey, in which about 4 million US adults — 1.6 percent — had used probiotics or prebiotics in the past 30 days, four times the 2007 figure. A category can grow that fast on a word.
So a complete claim names four things: the organism down to the strain, the amount, the people studied, and the outcome measured. When one is absent, write the gap rather than filling it — "product not identified", "population unclear" — the same habit that keeps an origin note honest when you explore a food's origins without calling it a superfood.
Then go back to the ordinary decision. Buy the kimchi because you want kimchi with rice, and put it beside the meal the way a vegetable side sits beside the dish rather than replacing it. Check the sodium row at the amount you will actually eat, which is the same arithmetic as reading a sauce label in the portion you use. Two tablespoons of sauerkraut, at about 18 grams, carry 119 milligrams of sodium — 5 percent of the Daily Value, and a different food decision from the cup.
Sources and further reading
- Probiotics: What You Need To KnowAccessed 2026-09-17
- Cabbage, kimchi (FDC 170392)Accessed 2026-09-17
- How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts LabelAccessed 2026-09-17
- Sauerkraut, canned, solids and liquids (FDC 169279)Accessed 2026-09-17
- Yogurt, plain, low fat (FDC 170886)Accessed 2026-09-17
- Label Claims for Conventional Foods and Dietary SupplementsAccessed 2026-09-17