Probiotics Need Food, Too

by Carolyn Pierini, CLS (ASCP), CNC

More and more studies are revealing just how important it is to have the proper balance of beneficial bacteria or probiotics in our gastrointestinal tract. While probiotics are the healthy bacteria, prebiotics are the foods that feed them. Many supplements on the market contain both and have been recently termed “Synbiotics.”

Our diet profoundly affects the probiotic flora just as it affects the rest of our health, but while sugar and excess starches such as flour-containing foods limit probiotics’ growth, it is the vast array of plants we eat that encourages the growth of healthy intestinal flora. In grateful exchange for feeding them properly, they release vital short-chain fatty acids such as butyric acid (butyrate) that improve gut function and have anti-inflammatory effects along the intestinal tract. Short chain fatty acids are the favorite fuel for the epithelial cells that line the gut, nurturing them toward ideal health and function.

In addition to eating more vegetables and fruits, a tasteless, plant-derived powder called Larch arabinogalactan can be added daily to nearly any food and beverage as an ideal prebiotic food for the probiotics, encouraging them to make more of the beneficial short-chain fatty acids that keep our GI tract well-functioning, protected and balanced.