Our health starts in the gut! With a healthy and robust gut microbiome our other systems are more likely to be in harmony with one another and balanced. When we look at both prebiotics and probiotics combined, this is called the gut microbiota.
Prebiotics the food that out friendly gut bacteria use a food. Prebiotic food generally come from carb sources, mostly fiber, that humans are unable to digest. Out beneficial bacteria in our gut eat this fiber as their source of fuel. These are non-living and non- digestible by humans alone.
Foods that are high in prebiotics:
- Oats
- Bananas
- Berries
- Beans & legumes
- Asparagus
- Garlic
- Leeks
- Soy
- Whole grains
Probiotics in contrast are the live bacteria found in food. Prebiotics are the food that they need to survive and stay healthy. Just like us, the right diet is key to keeping them strong and healthy. If our gut bacteria are constantly fed the wrong type of foods, beneficial bacteria won’t be able to grow and the wrong bacteria will colonize too fast. Diets that are high in sugar and processed foods favor the growth harmful bacteria. In addition, food treated with pesticides may have negative effects of gut bacteria. Antibiotics, additionally throw off the balance of gut microbiome by killing beneficial bacteria along with the harmful bacteria causing infection.
The role of good bacteria in your digestive tract is to help protect you from harmful bacteria and fungi that can make you sick. Additionally, a wide variety of good bacterial have numerous benefits such as aiding a healthy immune function, improve symptoms of depression, and managing obesity.
Foods’s high in probiotic include: (typically fermented foods)
- Yogurt
- Sauerkraut
- Kimchi
- Kombucha
- Kefir
- Pickles & other pickles vegetables
- Miso soup
- Aged cheese
- Bitter chocolate
- Apple cider vinegar
- Sourdough
Keeping your gut bacteria balance is an important aspect of health. This can be done through eating plenty of both prebiotic and probiotic foods. Sticking to a whole foods diet, adding fermented foods, and eliminating sugars, processed foods, pesticides, and chemicals is the way to start to balance your gut.