There are an enormous quantity of bacteria living on and in us. In fact, bacterial cells vastly outnumber bodily cells – and yet these bacteria are critical to our day-to-day functioning.
Bacteria, especially the good bacteria that live within the digestive system, play an important role in regulating health, mood, and behavior. When your gut microbiome is out of balance, it can result in all types of problems, including difficulty regulating blood sugar levels, absorbing needed nutrients, and signaling when you're full.
There are numerous reasons the balance of good vs. bad bacteria in your gut may become unbalanced. This includes mostly inevitable challenges, such as aging, antibiotics use, toxin exposure, and more.
The easiest way to keep your gut bacterial levels in balance are with lifestyle changes. There are two main ways to do this:
· Consuming foods that fuel our existing gut bacteria (prebiotics)
· Consuming foods that add living microbes to our existing gut bacteria (probiotics)
In our last post, we discussed how resistant starches act as a prebiotic to fuel good bacteria in the gut. Now, we'll discuss adding probiotics to our system.
Probiotics can easily be consumed as supplements or foods. Yogurt is probably the most common probiotic foot. Other common probiotic foods include:
· Buttermilk
· Cottage cheese
· Kefir
· Kimchi
· Kombucha
· Miso
· Pickles
· Sauerkraut
· Sourdough bread
· Tempeh
However, not all foods marketed as probiotics are created equal. Choosing the right probiotics for you will depend on the quality of the probiotic, as well as your overall health and any immediate symptoms or concerns you may have.
The good news is you don’t have to go it alone or simply rely on trial and error. A registered dietitian, like Jamie Schlifstein in Boca Raton, Florida, can expertly guide you toward the type of probiotic most beneficial for you. Call Jamie today to find out more: (561) 558-7786.