By Kelsey Felter, Dietetic Intern It’s flu season! Bacteria is always the enemy right? Not always! There are trillions of good bacteria living in your gut. It is estimated that together, gut bacteria add to about two to three pounds of our weight! These bacteria are essential to our health and we can help promote this healthy environment of bacteria in our gut by taking probiotics and eating foods containing probiotics. The promotion of probiotics has been highly praised and advised in the world of nutrition. So, is this just another nutrition fad, or is this a nutritional tip that we should be following? Let’s take a look at why probiotic supplements and foods with natural prebiotics and probiotics are good for us! What is the difference between a probiotic and a prebiotic? Probiotics are bacteria that are similar to or the same as the healthy bacteria living in your gut. These probiotics are consumed through supplements or foods. Prebiotics are the non-digestible food ingredients that feed probiotic bacteria. In other words, prebiotics are food for probiotics! What makes these bacteria so good for me? Our bodies have bacteria everywhere – our mouth, gut and skin! There are both good and bad bacteria. The goal is to have more good bacteria than bad bacteria in our body to promote overall health, more specifically gut health! Conditions such as diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease, or being on antibiotics may bad bacteria outnumbering good bacteria. To help promote gut health with these conditions, consuming probiotics may be the right move for you! If you do not experience these conditions, probiotics can still stimulate health in the following ways:
So what foods have probiotics? Probiotics are most often found in fermented or cultured foods such as Greek yogurt, fermented milk and kombucha (fermented tea). They can also be found in:
Are there any negative side effects from probiotics? Probiotics are constantly being researched in the scientific community, but there is a lot more to learn about these healthy bacteria! What we know for sure:
While probiotics may not be the “cure-all” to gut health, they can be a step in the right direction in strengthening the immune system, protecting against infection, and improving digestion and absorption of nutrients!
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