Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live in the gut and improve the overall health of the body, providing benefits such as facilitating digestion and absorption of nutrients and strengthening the immune system.
When the intestinal flora is unbalanced, which occurs after the use of antibiotics or when there is no healthy and balanced diet, the intestine is populated with bad bacteria, which do not help the immune system and leave the body vulnerable to disease.
The main benefits of probiotics include
A healthy gut flora rich in probiotics begins to form at birth, especially when the baby is born at the normal time and is breastfed exclusively at the beginning of life.
There are two main ways to ingest probiotics: the first is to increase consumption of foods that contain natural probiotics, such as yogurt or kefir, for example, and the other is to use probiotic supplements.
Some foods are rich in natural probiotics. Examples of these foods include:
In addition to these foods, some cheeses may also have live cultures of microorganisms with probiotic properties, it is important to read the nutritional label to confirm the presence of the bacteria.
To keep the flora healthy, it is advisable to consume at least 1 food source of probiotics a day, especially during and after antibiotic use, which also end up destroying healthy gut flora.
Learn more about probiotic foods in the video below
In addition to foods, probiotics can also be consumed as supplements in capsules, liquids or sachets, which must be diluted in water or natural juices for consumption. Examples include PB8, Simfort, Simcaps, Royal Kefir and Floratil, and can be found in pharmacies and grocery stores.
There are several types of supplements, including between 1 and 10 different types of probiotics. The most important are usually:
The greater the diversity of probiotics, as well as the amount of bacteria in each tablet, the better the supplement will be, as it will facilitate the faster development of a healthy gut flora.
How to consume: It is recommended that the supplement contain between 2 and 10 billion active bacteria, it is important to read the nutritional label of the product, which should indicate the amount of microorganism per dose and what bacteria, because it is important to choose the one that is best depending on the situation to be resolved.
It is recommended to use the supplement for 4 weeks and if there is no improvement during this period, it is ideal to try another supplement. Probiotics should be taken before or just after a meal, so that food helps bacteria survive stomach acid and reach the gut, where they can multiply more easily.
It is important to remember that when consuming probiotics in the form of supplements or foods rich in these bacteria, it is also important to maintain a healthy and high-fiber diet, as fiber is the main foods of probiotics, favoring their survival in the gut.
While probiotics are healthy bacteria that populate the gut, prebiotics are fibers that serve as food for probiotics and promote their survival and proliferation in the gut.
Examples of natural prebiotics include oats, onions, garlic, green bananas and green banana biomass, for example.