My last two blogs have been about probiotics. Why they are good, and why you might not have a healthy probiotics culture.
This post is about taking action. Here are some steps you can take to get more probiotics.
If you are limited on time and are having difficulty getting your hands on good quality fermented foods, taking a probiotic supplement will be beneficial.
There are plenty of probiotics on the market. Good supplements indicate the number of live colonies in each capsule before its expiry date. Shoot for a brand that has several different types of bacteria with a minimum 10 billion per capsule. Take the supplement daily. For children, I recommend buying probiotic powder that can be mixed into pureed foods or sauces.
One good product is VSL #3. This supplement comes in a powder and has 450 billion live cultures per package. There is significant research behind this product that you can read HERE, HERE and HERE.
A better way to improve your gut culture is to eat probiotic foods. We only recommend supplements because people do not eat enough fermented foods.
It is always best to get nutrients from real food. This is always our first recommendation. The components in the foods that are fermented support the growth of the microbes and there is a wider variety and greater number of bacteria in a small amount of food than you will ever receive in a supplement.
The vast majority of foods that you can buy at the grocery store are pasteurized or contain preservatives that kill all of the bacteria that would be in the foods. For this reason, I do not recommend that you purchase pickles or sauerkraut unless they are a brand you know to be unpasteurized and preservative free. One great brand of pickles and sauerkraut is Bubbies. I have seen this brand at several health food stores located in the fridge section.
Good real food options for probiotics foods include:
Sauerkraut (unpasteurized and preservative free): This is pickled cabbage that can be put on bun-less burgers or eaten as a side dish.
Pickles (unpasteurized and preservative free): Whether you like them sweet or dill, pickles contain a good amount of probiotics for your system.
Kimchi: Kimchi is a popular Korean dish that is made of fermented and pickled cabbage. It can be very spicy.
Olives (in brine, preservative free): Olives in brine have large amounts of probiotics because the brine allows the probiotic cultures to thrive.
Yogurt: I rarely recommend that people eat yogurt. Most yogurts are filled with sugars and syrups. The milk is pasteurized and then probiotics are added back into it. If you are going to eat yogurt, look for high fat varieties that have natural ingredients and say “live and active cultures.”
You can ferment pretty much any combination of fruits or vegetables at home. Click HERE for more information and recipes.
Lastly, my favorite source of probiotics...
Kombucha tea (fermented tea): Kombucha is a fermented tea that contains probiotics. The production involves making sweetened tea, adding a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), and letting the SCOBY breakdown the sugar to produce a drink full of B vitamins, amino acids, organic acids, enzymes and probiotics.
The SCOBY looks like a jellyfish or a mushroom. It sounds kind of gross, but it is worth it. Click HERE for instructions on how to make your own.
You can also buy bottled kombucha at many grocery and health food stores. Make sure you check the labels, some kombucha teas are loaded with sugar.
One last note, when you are introducing fermented foods, do it slowly. Give your body time to adjust.
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