Prebiotics and Probiotics bring health

by Elizabeth Walling, citizen journalist

(NaturalNews) Probiotics are friendly bacteria that live in your digestive tract and essentially influence every aspect of health, from neurotransmitter production to immunity to digestion. But these beneficial little microflora must eat in order to survive and thrive. What is their food of choice? Prebiotics!

What Are Prebiotics?

Donna Gates, author of The Body Ecology Diet, explains: "Prebiotics are derived from insoluble fiber and fructooligosaccharides or FOS (carbohydrate molecules made up of a relatively small number of simple sugars)."

These prebiotics are the ideal nourishment for beneficial bacteria living in the digestive tract. By feeding them well, you give friendly microorganisms the chance to establish a viable population that can not only perform important tasks in the digestive system, but also keep pathogenic bacteria like yeast under control.

Prebiotics Benefits

The benefits of prebiotics are far-reaching. While directly affecting gut flora balance and digestive health, prebiotics have also been shown to have beneficial affects on:

- Heart health
- Triglyceride levels
- Cholesterol levels
- Immunity to common illnesses
- Osteoporosis
- Diabetes

One particular advantage of prebiotics is that they do not need special care. Probiotics, on the other hand, have to be carefully handled to ensure the organisms stay alive through packaging, shipment and storage. This does not always happen, and it's difficult to tell if a probiotic supplement or food contains live cultures or not. Prebiotics, however, are carbohydrates that do not need any special care to remain effective.

Foods that Contain Prebiotics

There are many foods that contain one or more of the various prebiotics. Here is a partial list:

- oats
- wheat
- garlic
- onions
- Jerusalem artichoke
- leeks
- asparagus
- chicory
- milk (organic raw certified)
- bananas

There may be particular advantages to eating probiotics and prebiotics together so the two can work synergistically. Yogurt with bananas or onions and live sauerkraut are excellent options for pairing these two beneficial substances in an appealing way.

Prebiotics for Infants

Breastmilk is also a good source of prebiotics, which is yet another reason why breastfeeding is such a healthy choice for infants. Establishing a healthy colony of gut flora as early as possible is essential for healthy growth and development. Studies also indicate that formula-fed infants benefit from prebiotic supplementation.

Prebiotics Supplements

The most popular prebiotics supplements usually contain fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which is a form of inulin typically derived from chicory. These supplements may be beneficial to those looking to increase their intake of prebiotics. However, they lack the synergy of choosing whole foods that naturally contain prebiotics. A prebiotics supplement cannot replace a wholesome, balanced diet.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

Taking inulin with probiotics will magnify their effectiveness.
NOW products makes a chicory based inulin... one of the better choices.

VSL#3 is the strongest probiotic on the market with 450 billion microbes per dose.
In studies it has shown to cure some cases of IBS

__________________
"The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

You need prebiotics in order to feed the probiotics. Otherwise, how will they survive? You would have to constantly supplement with probiotics.

https://www.suite101.com/content/preb...-foods-a170372

Foods containing probiotics:

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- Jim
https://www.natmedtalk.com/blogs/jfh

Thanks for the list of probiotic foods. I've heard that probiotic supplements can sometimes be harmful. Whenever possible, it's best to get nutrients from whole natural food sources rather than supplements.

But why should that be?
Surely there is little difference between consuming live bacteria in a living yoghurt and consuming the same bacteria from a supplement.
In your gut you have more bacteria DNA than your body contains human DNA.
All we are trying to do is to promote the numbers of "GOOD" bacteria and reduce the numbers of "Pathogenic BAD" bacteria. Most often people will resort to supplemental sources after or during a course of antibiotics. While this will to some extent help it's as well to be aware that those bacteria that survive a course of antibiotics may have developed antibiotic resistance and it could be 2 yrs before those antibiotic resistant bacteria will be less detectable. If it takes that long to get rid of the bacteria you don't want it may well take as long to introduce new friendly species.

Well it's probably cheaper and there are More suggestions for improving gut flora in this thread at Cooling Inflammation however there is nothing wrong with using a good probiotic brand such as Biokult.

There are very good reasons for thinking that by introducing friendly bacteria such as Lactobacillus Paracasei we can not only reduce the number of calories extracted from the food we consume but also improve body weight regulation and reduce fat storage.
Reducing the inflammatory status in the gut by increasing omega 3, magnesium, vitamin D status and maybe also curcumin inhibits the survival of pathogenic bacteria and encourages the survival/proliferation of lean type gut flora. Certainly ensuring you have a regular supply of the prebiotic fruit/veggies mentioned in the article can only help.

I think Kefir is suspose to be a great probiotic food.

Garlic is a prebiotic. With it being natures penicilin I'm suprised it doesn't kill the good bacteria but I'm glad it doesn't. Does coconut oil kill the good bacteria? When I cook I think about avoiding cinnamon and coconut oil during meals with saurkraut and yogurt but maybe that's silly. I'm trying to get rid of the bad and increase the good.

Just think about the populations that use Coconut as a dietary staple. If the antimicrobial properties of Coconut killed the good bacteria those societies would not have flourished and would not exist still today.
What brought disease and death to these primitive cultures was the western diet. That's when the tooth decay, cancer, diabetes, obesity sets in as soon as they are obliged to eat wheat flour, refined sugar and omega 6 vegetable/seed oils. If they had stuck to their natural traditional foods prepared according to their ancient history they would be healthy still.
In practice by reducing inflammation CO acts as an omega 3 sparing agent, so omega 3 levels actually increase (though there is no omega 3 in CO) Omega 3 is used to resolve inflammation so less inflammation means less omega 3 is used up so more remains. Because the gut is now less inflammatory those good bacteria can thrive flourish and mutliply and the pathogenic bacteria that actually increase calorie absorption and fat storage and generally increase inflammation so make you ill, are inhibited.

With these changes you get a sort of spiral of effect, because the gut is less inflammatory the bifidobacteria that prefer lower inflammatory situations also enable an increased conversion of ALA (that's the plant omega 3 in flax) into EPA. So you end up with good promoting more good.

Cooling Inflammation Art Ayers blog For anyone wanting to learn about gut bacteria and how to establish the Good variety do please study this blog and the comments Dr Ayers makes.
We really do understand it's a long process to ensure the healthy bacteria are established and in order to avoid the use of anti biotics we have to make sure we keep Vitamin D levels sufficiently high to ensure a functional immune system.

Do these probiotics need to be refregerated, or can they be ordered through the net?

Do you think this is a good probiotic to take for maintenance, or only for extreme cases where you need some hefty repopulation?

Jofus, check with your local drug store for the VSL#3. I don't know if you are in the USA, but my local CVS carries it.

Ted, that Ayers blog site is excellent. I don't know where you come up with these things, but keep them coming.