Did you know that you have more than one brain? Your gastrointestinal tract, also known as the gut, contains 500 million neurons that can receive and send messages with the cranial brain. Pretty cool huh?! The "brain" in your gut is formerly known as the enteric nervous system (ENS). Think of the gut-brain pathway as a busy highway on a Friday afternoon (I-285 for my Atlanta folks). All these messages being delivered back and forth can affect the breakdown of food, nutrient absorption, food choices, mood, immunity, and stress. These two body parts are tighter than Romeo & Juliet, Fred & Wilma, and Rachel & Ross combined---okay colon us crazy, but we're still holding out hope for those last two. May is National Digestive Diseases Awareness Month, so let's gut to the bottom of how to best support digestive health with probiotics and prebiotics.
If you're having bloating, nausea, reflux, and abdominal pain…and you need someone to banish away all the bacteria. Who you gonna call? Gut Busters? But wait!!!
Did you know there are good bacteria that can improve gut health function? An imbalance of good along with bad bacteria could cause:
Collectively, there are 100 trillion good and bad bacteria that make up our gut microbiota. Sound a little scary? Well stomach your fears, because research supports incorporating probiotic and prebiotics regularly can increase and maintain the good bacteria.
Probiotics are live microorganisms (bacteria and yeast). They may be found naturally in food but can also be created into a dietary supplement. The power of probiotics was first discovered by Elie Metchnikoff, a Russian biologist, in the early 1900s. He concluded that individuals in Bulgaria were living longer and healthier lives because of their regular consumption of yogurt, a probiotic-rich food. We now know that yogurt containing the following live and active cultures (LAC) will provide the most benefit:
Yogurt with LAC will often have a seal from the National Yogurt Association (NYA). The process of being certified by the NYA is voluntary, so there may be products that contain LAC without an official seal.
Other probiotic-rich foods include:
Fermentation is the process in which bacteria or yeast are used to transform carbohydrates into acid or alcohol. Fermented and probiotic-rich foods are both supportive of gut health, but they are not always one in the same. If you heat foods packed with fermenty goodness past high temperatures (above 80 degrees Celsius, 176 degrees Fahrenheit), you might bid adieu to those friendly probiotics. Click here for more information on how to safely ferment foods at home.
*If you are immunocompromised, please avoid consuming any raw or unpasteurized foods.
Now that the promise of probiotics is well-digested, let’s move on to its trusty side kick—prebiotics.
Simply put…prebiotics are the food that serve as a fancy feast for our friendly bacteria! Foods rich in this compound aren’t digested by our body, so they can ease on down the road to our lower digestive tract and arrive on our good bacteria’s dinner plate.
Prebiotic compounds include:
Food Sources of Prebiotics include:
Belch you’ll be excited to know that you can find probiotic and prebiotic-rich foods in our Good Measure Meals! Here a few of our favorites:
Until next time, take care, “find your own healthy”, and remember to look at the gut half full and not half empty!
Welcome back to the Nutrition Around the World series! We just wrapped up is Hispanic Heritage Month, but it's never too late to celebrate this rich cuisine! Today, we're exploring the cuisine of Puerto Rico-- a Caribbean island known for warm weather and even warmer people.
American Heart Month is here, and love is in the air! The American Heart Association lists nutrition as being one of the most important modifiable factors in reducing our risk for heart disease. Roses are red, violets are blue...use these three strategies to nourish the organ that does so much for you!
