There is no health shop or pharmacy nowadays where you can’t see a full shelf with probiotics. When I started my journey in the field of natural health and nutrition, back in 2010, the term of probiotics was at the very beginning of its journey, and it was very little scientific evidence for showing the relevance a balanced microbiome and the potential benefits of probiotics for our health. Fast forward, 5 years later, probiotic supplement sales worldwide, exceeded $35 billion in 2015, with a projected increase to $65 billion by 2024.
Whether you believe their health claims or think they are yet another snake oil scam, they make up a multi-billion-dollar industry that is evolving in tandem with quickly emerging research. So, it’s worthy knowing the truth based on the scientific evidence.
Today we are talking very much about how our gut health impacts pretty much every single system in our body and very much our brains.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that are intended to have health benefits when consumed or applied to the body. Probiotics may contain a variety of microorganisms. The most common are bacteria that belong to groups called Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Other bacteria may also be used as probiotics, and so may yeasts such as Saccharomyces boulardii. Different types of probiotics may have different effects. For example, if a specific kind of Lactobacillus helps prevent an illness, that doesn’t necessarily mean that another kind of Lactobacillus or any of the Bifidobacterium probiotics would do the same thing.
Probiotics, along with the prebiotics and symbiotics, are part of what the medical field calls MICROBIOME or MICROBIOTA. Too much biology? Let me help you to get your head around it.
Can you imagine one busy town like Ennis, in a weekday morning, during the rush hour, where some of the roads are blocked by the workers who resurface the roads, children are dropped off to school, adults are going to work, driving or walking or cycling? Picture the same action multiplied by 10 in your tummy, and everyone knows exactly what road to take and where to go, and what is the role they play for your body. That is your microbiome.
Probiotics are part of this detailed picture, and they play a vital role in your immune system, and brain-gut axis.
If they are so important for our overall health, we need to answer two questions: how do we know if we have enough and where do we get them from?
How do we know if we have enough probiotics in your microbiome? The most relevant indicator is your general health and how often do you catch a cold, a flu or any infection. If you are a person who is getting colds and flus all the time and very easily and you feel very sluggish and tired no matter how much you sleep, that is a clear sign that you could increase your probiotics intake.
Where do we get them? The chemist or health shop shelves is not the only place where you get probiotics from. If you are going back in time and look at our evolution as human beings, less than a century ago probiotics as a tablet didn’t exist, and still people did manage to have healthy immune systems and resistance to infections. The answer is in FOODS.
There is an array of foods that are high in probiotics, and they do support our gut microbiome by either adding good bacteria to our gut or feeding the existent microbes and increasing their potential in defending our immune system. Those are fermented foods and drinks. For being easier to remember them I split them in two categories: 3K: Kombucha, Kimchi, Kefir and 2S: Sauerkraut and Sourdough.
Finding a way to incorporate them in your daily life is the best way to ensure that your microbiome is working properly by doing its job of defending your body from viruses and bacteria that can affect your health. Consuming those foods on a regular basis, you don’t need a supplement unless you can’t have them because of your personal health. Always consult with a trusty medical practitioner or a nutritionist or a health coach before you approach any dietary change. And if you want to learn more about how to incorporate those foods into your diet, please get in touch because I will be more than happy to offer you guidance.
