Improve Your Health with Prebiotics

Incorperate whole foods into your diet for pre and probiotic rich foods.

You've probably heard about the importance of maintaining gut health with a balance of probiotics.  But you may be asking yourself why do you need them to keep yourself healthy and happy and how do you do so?!

Put simply, probiotics are living microorganisms (commonly referred to  as friendly, good, or healthy bacteria) that support good health and may be able to help prevent some illnesses.  These microorganisms are first picked up as we travel through the birth canal.  We then pick up more good bacteria through our mothers breast milk and then later on through the foods we eat and through interaction with the world, for example playing in the dirt or petting animals.  

These friendly bacteria play a role in maintaining good health; promoting a healthy digestive tract and boosting immune system are their most widely touted benefits.  Probiotics have also been used to help bring relief to conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, balance mood, reduce symptoms of anxiety and maintain healthy weight.  There is lots of ongoing research into the role of different strains of probiotics in just about every health condition you can think of!  

You may have also heard, that certain lifestyle factors such as poor diet choices, environmental exposure to toxins such as alcohol and smoking and medications (such as over-use of antibiotics) can negatively affect our gut flora and therefor our health.  

So what can you do to help yourself maintain and/or rebuild, improve your gut flora and repopulate your gut with probiotic goodness?

Start by trying to incorporate PROBIOTIC FOODS into your daily diet.  These include foods such as;  Sauerkraut, kimchi, yoghurts, kefir (milk or water).  You want about 1-3 serves daily, however, it is best to start small with servings and build your way up to avoid digestive upsets. 

You could also start taking a good quality probiotic supplement.  You could take one that contains multiple strains or choose a strain that specifically helps support any health concerns you may have.  

For example; Research has been done which shows that the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei Shirota, prevented increases in salivary cortisol levels when subjects were under stress, as well as  helping reduced the incidence of stress-related physical symptoms (Takada et al, 2016).  This would suggest this would be a good strain to take if you experience stress and anxiety.

However if you're looking to restore your gut flora after a course of antibiotics, the strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae variety boulardii would be a good choice.

No matter what your health condition or concern theres a probiotic for you!  It's also important to note that if you are taking a certain strain of probiotic to help a health concern/condition that you will need to take this probiotic for as long a you wish to see the results, unfortunately its not a take  one time thing.  You will need to keep taking your probiotic strain daily to keep the population of that particular microorganism plentiful and out-supplying the bad bacteria that is also trying to colonise your gut flora. When bad bacteria out supples the good, you will experience what is known as gut dysbiosis.  The main signs and symptoms of dysbiosis are digestive disturbances, such as frequent gas, bloating, abdominal cramping, diarrhoea, and/or constipation.

Now that you've got your probiotic supplement and probiotic rich foods on board, how do you continue to keep these helpful microorganisms happy and continuing to colonise your gut?  Just like you feed your dog or cat to keep them heathy, it's important we feed our good gut bacteria too.  We can easily do this by ingesting prebiotic rich foods.  

Prebiotics, are fibres and natural sugars that stimulate the good bacteria in the gut.  They are found in foods such as chicory root, yacon, asparagus, dandelion greens, onions, leeks, bananas, apples, Jerusalem artichoke, oats, barley, flaxseeds and wheat bran.  

With a few tweaks to your diet to include more of these pre and probiotic foods, you can help keep your gut flora happy and healthy and start reaping  the health benefits.

Need more information on what probiotic strains might be right for you and where to find them?  Use the book now link to arrange a consult to find out more.