Abstract / Summary
Korean Buddhist temple food represents a traditional plant-based dietary practice rooted in Korean Buddhist monastic traditions and characterized by an emphasis on seasonal and minimally processed plant foods. Traditional temple-food practices generally exclude pungent vegetables—such as garlic, green onion, chives, wild garlic, and asafoetida—and incorporate a variety of plant-based ingredients and fermented foods, such as fermented soybean paste (doenjang), soy sauce (ganjang), fermented red chili paste (gochujang), fermented soybean paste (cheonggukjang), and fermented vegetables (kimchi). This dietary pattern provides dietary fiber and diverse plant-based phytochemicals, while fermented foods may contain fermentation-associated microorganisms depending on their ingredients, production processes, and storage conditions. These characteristics distinguish Korean Buddhist temple food from dietary patterns dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs). This narrative review synthesizes evidence regarding the nutritional characteristics of Korean Buddhist temple food, its potential relevance to gut microbiome ecology and microbial metabolism, and the cultural and contemplative practices associated with its consumption, including ritual communal eating (baru gongyang), seated meditation (chamseon), and walking meditation (pohaeng). Available evidence indicates that several features of temple food, including high intake of plant-based foods, dietary fiber, and fermented foods, provide biologically plausible pathways through which the dietary pattern may influence gut microbial composition and host metabolism. However, direct human evidence linking long-term adherence to Korean Buddhist temple food with gut microbiome composition, microbial function, or microbiota–gut–brain outcomes remains limited. Therefore, the potential health implications of Korean Buddhist temple food should be interpreted in the context of heterogeneous dietary practices and the distinction between direct human evidence and indirect or mechanistic evidence. Further longitudinal and controlled studies are needed to clarify the relationships among temple-food consumption, gut microbiota, microbial metabolites, host physiology, and associated lifestyle practices.