The finest protection in the realm of microbiomes is your gut’s probiotics. These are the “good” bacteria that strengthen your immunity and combat inflammation and illness. But are you familiar with prebiotics?
I’m dissecting the relationship between probiotics and prebiotics today. You’ll have a thorough understanding of prebiotics’ function and how to take use of them after reading this.
WHAT ARE PREBIOTICS?
Prebiotics are indigestible fibers or carbohydrates that support the growth and nourishment of probiotics. Consider them as the sunshine and water that plants and flowers require to thrive. Probiotics need prebiotics to function properly. They provide probiotics with the energy they need to create and preserve a balanced gut flora.
Let’s examine how precisely they accomplish that.
Prebiotic food sources aren’t immediately broken down because they contain starchy carbs with high fiber content. Thus, the gut microbiota (or the probiotics that are present) ferments them when they eventually get to the colon. This is the location of the magic!
HOW PREBIOTICS AND PROBIOTICS COLLABORATE TO IMPROVE HEALTH
Maintaining the health of your gut and assisting it in performing its numerous vital biological tasks requires a community. Everything from digestion and sleep to managing weight depends on a healthy gut.
Probiotics have been demonstrated through time to aid in the prevention of age-related illnesses. Furthermore, a growing corpus of studies indicates that consuming adequate prebiotics in your diet is equally as crucial as consuming probiotics (1).
As a result, prebiotics need to be taken and given equal priority to probiotics. Here are some particular ways that probiotics and prebiotics combine to enhance your general health!
1. Enhances Sleep and Lowers Stress
Research indicates that your body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm, is influenced by your microbiome. As a result, eating a diet high in probiotics and prebiotics may help you sleep better.
Additionally, because the health of your gut is closely related to your mood, prebiotics can help lower stress and alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, which in turn can improve sleep patterns.
2. Regulate Hunger Hormones
Just as they sound, hunger hormones let us know when it’s time to eat something because the body needs energy. Like a bad chain reaction, lack of sleep actually causes the hunger hormone, ghrelin, to send signals to your brain that you need to eat more food and to stop using residual energy . This leads to the unintentional storage of energy.
Consuming prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods contributes to a good night’s sleep, s0 you can prevent this chain reaction. Incorporating more fiber-rich prebiotic foods can also help you feel fuller longer and keep your blood sugar levels stabilized, which prevents spikes and drops in blood sugar. Spikes and drops in blood sugar lead to spikes and drops in your hunger hormones as well.
3. Guard Your Bones
Foods high in prebiotics are great sources of magnesium, which has been found to support better bone health. Probiotics like Bifidobacterium longum may also aid enhance bone growth, decrease bone loss, and improve bone density, according to recent studies.
As a result, by including both prebiotic and probiotic foods in your diet, you’re protecting the health of your bones and joints in addition to your digestive system!
PREBIOTICS MAINTAIN THE BALANCED GUT MICROBIOME
Let’s imagine you haven’t been eating a diet high in prebiotics and haven’t been getting enough sleep. Alternatively, you might have been under a lot of stress or be on an antibiotic to treat an infection. An imbalance between “good” and “bad” bacteria in your gut can develop over time as a result of various causes acting alone or in combination.
Probiotics, or those “good” bacteria, begin to decrease. Gastrointestinal problems such as indigestion, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation could occur.
What should we do now? We can employ prebiotics to restore the integrity of the gut microbiome and repopulate those healthy probiotics since we now understand how important they are to the development and upkeep of probiotics.
The several categories of prebiotics
Prebiotics often come in four different varieties that you might find in your meals. oligosaccharides generated from starch and/or glucose, fructans, galactooligosaccharides, and non-carbohydrate oligosaccharides.
Oligosaccharide prebiotics are the most prevalent type. Here are some excellent examples of probiotic and prebiotic-rich meal combinations to consider if you ever find yourself with an unbalanced gut flora or if you just want to intentionally improve your intake of prebiotics.
Greek Yogurt with Banana
Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus are the probiotics most frequently found in Greek yogurt. The fiber and carbs in bananas are fermented by your intestines to produce prebiotics when they get to your colon. Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thremophilus are two types of beneficial bacteria that the prebiotics support in order for them to proliferate and balance the microbiome.
When it comes to treating digestive problems, such as lactose intolerance, constipation, nausea, leaky gut syndrome, and diarrhea, Lactobacillus bulgaricus is especially helpful.
Artichokes with Tempeh Sautéed
Research has indicated that tempeh made from soy contributes to the formation of Bifidobacterium, a probiotic that strengthens immunity and combats illness. In addition to the prebiotic oligosaccharides found in artichokes, Bifidobacterium can aid in lowering the quantity of harmful bacteria in the stomach, including as enterococci and E. coli.
Sautéed asparagus, cashew cheese, and sourdough toast
Sourdough bread is typically made using fermented buckwheat. It has been demonstrated that fermented buckwheat aids in the delivery of beneficial bacteria to the gut microbiota. For instance, a 2013 study discovered that the beneficial bacteria were strengthened and their survival rate increased when buckwheat and oat bran were paired with probiotic-enriched milk.
Savor some sautéed asparagus and creamy cashew cheese on sourdough toast. Asparagus’s prebiotic fiber will aid in transferring beneficial bacteria from the buckwheat in sourdough bread to your stomach!
Bowls of Grain with Pickled Vegetables
Probiotic-rich foods include sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and other pickled vegetables. You get the advantages when you top your grain bowls with pickled vegetables of prebiotics and probiotics alike. Prebiotics from the whole grains and vegetables high in fiber in your bowl help to support and enhance the probiotics found in kimchi, pickles, and other pickled vegetables.
IMPORTANT LESSONS
Together, prebiotics and probiotics can help your gut microbiome receive the care it needs. A good place to start if you’re feeling a little uncomfortable in your stomach is by gradually increasing the amount of prebiotic meals you eat!
Having said that, if your symptoms continue over time, you should always remember that seeing a specialist is the best course of action. To make sure you’re eating a balanced diet that supports the health of your unique digestive system, you can consult with a registered dietitian.
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