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Improving gut health is a great starting point for addressing many common health conditions and symptoms and is an integral part of working to improve your overall health and wellbeing.

A functional medicine approach to treatment that considers the body as a whole can support your journey to optimum wellness. Making good nutritional choices, reducing stress and toxins and supporting healthy bacteria to flourish will help to support the gut and prevent many common digestive issues.

Ensuring a good intake of beneficial prebiotics and probiotics is vital to optimise gut health, which in turn exerts a huge influence on all aspects of the body’s systems including your immune system. An imbalance in the microbiome can contribute to health issues including raised cholesterol levels, increased blood sugar levels, and weight gain.

We always take an evidence-based approach and aim to provide you with actionable knowledge and tips to help you on your journey to optimal health; in this article we’ll take a closer look at prebiotics and probiotics to help you make informed choices about how to support your gut health naturally.

Benefits of prebiotics

Prebiotics are vital bacteria that are beneficial for many aspects of overall health, including the following:

  • Improving gut health – because prebiotics are non-digestible fibres, they promote the activity (and growth) of beneficial bacteria in the gut, which in turn helps to support a healthy microbiome d
  • Improving digestion – prebiotics help increase stool bulk and regulate bowel movements, reducing constipation
  • Enhancing nutrient absorption – minerals such as magnesium and calcium can better absorbed with the presence of prebiotics
  • Immune system support – some prebiotics can help maintain a balanced immune response through stimulation of the immune system

Prebiotic foods

You can ensure you have a good prebiotic intake by regularly eating the following foods:

  • Chicory root – used for centuries in cooking and traditional medicine, this is a rich source of prebiotics and can be consumed as a tea or added to coffee
  • Jerusalem artichoke – high in inulin, which is a type of prebiotic fibre
  • Garlic – this also contains the prebiotic compound, inulin
  • Onions – another great source of prebiotics, particularly FOS (fructooligosaccharides)
  • Bananas – as well as being a useful source of beneficial potassium, unripe bananas contain resistant starch, which is a prebiotic supportive of gut health

Benefits of probiotics

Probiotics, also known as ‘friendly’ bacteria, are bacteria that line your digestive tract and support your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and fight infection. They are live microorganisms, found in fermented foods.
A good intake of probiotics supports the body in a number of ways including:

  • Restoring the natural balance of gut bacteria – by crowding out bad bacteria, yeast and fungi. Probiotics can also have benefits, by maintaining gut health balance, for bowel disorders such as IBS and ulcerative colitis
  • Preventing and treating diarrhoea – one study showed taking probiotics reduced C. difficile infection (CDAD) by 60% and many studies have shown taking probiotics to be associated with a reduced risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea
  • Improving mental health conditions – one review found that probiotic supplementation (with Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus) over 2 months can improve anxiety, depression, autism, memory and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Protecting heart health – probiotics are thought to support the heart through lowering ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels and blood pressure
  • Boosting the immune system – some research suggests that probiotics can help reduce the severity and length of respiratory infections and urinary tract infections through modulating the immune system, but more research is needed

Probiotic foods

You can ensure you have a good probiotic intake by regularly eating the following foods:

  • Yoghurt – make sure you choose yoghurt that is unsweetened and containing live or active cultures
  • Sauerkraut – shredded cabbage fermented by lactic acid bacteria
  • Kefir – a fermented probiotic milk drink containing kefir grains – cultures of lactic acid bacteria and yeast
  • Miso – a Japanese seasoning made from fermented soy bean traditionally mixed with salt and koi, a type of fungus, or mixed with rice, barley or rye
  • Tempeh – an Indonesian fermented soy bean product that is a high protein meat replacement
  • Kimchi – a fermented, spicy Korean food usually based on cabbage and containing various varieties of lactic acid bacteria, flavoured with a variety of seasonings such as chilli flakes or garlic
  • Kombucha – a green or black tea drink fermented with yeast and bacteria

Supplements

Supplements can be a beneficial way of boosting your prebiotic and probiotic intake. Prebiotic supplements will typically include fibres such as inulin, fructooligosaccharides (FOR) or resistant starch. There are many types of probiotic supplements available, and it is important to look at the specific strains included – most of the studies showing benefits used dosages of 1 billion to 100 billion live organisms or colony-forming units (CFU) per day.

It is also important to consider any specific health concerns of conditions you have before taking any form of supplementation, so seek the advice of a healthcare professional to ensure you are choosing a supplement that will be most supportive of and beneficial to your individual health circumstances.

Takeaway

At Amchara, we always aim to guide you through evidence and scientific research. Come to our nurturing environment at Amchara, where our experienced Personalised Health practitioners can work with you to explore positive lifestyle choices to help you achieve your health goals, with a tailored approach taking into account your individual circumstances.

We know that sharing knowledge and experiences can be an important part of achieving optimal health, we’d love to know if you have found taking prebiotics and probiotics has helped boost your gut health and any other strategies that have worked for you.

This article is based on scientific evidence, written by experts, and fact-checked by experts. Our team of licensed nutritionists and dietitians strive to be objective, unbiased, and honest and to present both sides of the argument.

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