Prebiotics, Probiotics, and your Gut Health
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem of bacteria that live in yourdigestive tract. It’s essential for yourdigestion, immune function, and even your mental health. But what if it’s out of balance? What can you do about it? Join me for this group visit and find out!
Watch the video and learn more about gut health.
Imagine being able to eat foods that will help heal your body from the inside out. Food is the quickest way to modify the gut microbiota, and by the end of this group visit, you’ll have a list of 5 prebiotic and 5 probiotic foods designed to do just that! If you’re ready to understand what foods will nourish your gut microbiome, reduce inflammation, and give you more energy than ever before, you don’t want to miss this!
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in gut health and its impact on overall well-being. The gut microbiome, a diverse community of microorganisms residing in our intestines, plays a crucial role in maintaining digestive health and immune function. Prebiotics and probiotics are two essential components that contribute to a balanced and thriving microbiome. In this blog post, we will delve into the significance of these substances and how incorporating them into your diet can enhance your gut health.
The Importance of a Balanced Microbiome
Before we delve into prebiotics and probiotics, let’s first understand why having a balanced microbiome is crucial for optimal health. A well-balanced microbiome supports efficient digestion, nutrient absorption, and helps regulate the immune system. It also plays a role in reducing inflammation, improving mental health, and even aiding in weight management.
The Role of Prebiotics in Gut Health
Prebiotics are non-digestible fibers found in certain foods that act as food for the beneficial bacteria in your gut. They promote the growth of these friendly microbes, allowing them to thrive and perform their functions effectively. Foods rich in prebiotics include garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, bananas, and whole grains.
Consuming prebiotic-rich foods can have several benefits for your gut health. They help increase bacteria diversity, improve bone health, regulate blood sugars, enhance bowel movements, and protect against colon cancer. Additionally, prebiotics support the synthesis of essential vitamins like B vitamins and folate.
The Power of Probiotics
Probiotics, on the other hand, are live bacteria that provide numerous health benefits when consumed. They can be found in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi, as well as certain supplements. Probiotics aid in the breakdown of proteins and convert flavonoids into usable forms. They also support mineral absorption, minimize lactose intolerance, and synthesize vitamins like K and some B vitamins.
Balancing Your Microbiome with Prebiotics and Probiotics
To achieve a balanced microbiome, it’s essential to incorporate both prebiotics and probiotics into your diet. Prebiotic-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, provide the necessary nourishment for beneficial gut bacteria. On the other hand, fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut are excellent sources of live probiotics.
When starting to include prebiotics and probiotics in your diet, it’s best to begin slowly and gradually increase your intake. This allows your gut to adapt to the changes and ensures a smooth transition. You can add prebiotics to your diet through salads, smoothies, and breakfast skillets. As for probiotics, they can be consumed through fermented foods, yogurt with fruits as snacks, and even in salad dressings.
The Impact of Fasting on Your Microbiome
Fasting can have varying effects on your gut microbiome, depending on the duration and type of fasting. After a fast, it is essential to reintroduce foods that are gentle on the stomach and support gut health. Foods with prebiotics and probiotics, such as smoothies, yogurt, and kefir, can aid in rebuilding and nourishing your microbiome after fasting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, maintaining a balanced and healthy gut microbiome is vital for overall well-being. Prebiotics and probiotics play significant roles in supporting gut health, reducing inflammation, and promoting overall digestive wellness. By incorporating prebiotic-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, along with probiotics from fermented foods, you can create an optimal environment for your gut microbiome to thrive.
Remember that everyone’s gut microbiome is unique, so it’s essential to pay attention to your body’s response to these dietary changes. Always consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian to ensure that you are making the best choices for your specific health needs. With the right balance of prebiotics and probiotics, you can take control of your gut health and enjoy the benefits of a thriving microbiome.
Are you ready to take charge of your health? Schedule your free 20-minute discovery call with our New Patient Coordinator to see how you can become a patient at MaxWell Clinic and start your healing journey today.
my name is allison molinares i am a
registered dietitian here at the maxwell clinic um the human and the gut microbiome this
is a hot topic and it has been for the last few years for a very good reason there’s so so much research much needed
research on this area there’s still so much we don’t know about it but there is
um quite a bit that we do know and it’s very exciting because there are things that we can do
to improve it that we didn’t know a few years back so we always hear about microbiomes and
more related to the gut microbiota and so i wanted to start with kind of a review of what that is so a microbiome
is a reach uh rich ecosystem that serves a purpose and so most people think of the gut
microbiome like i said however there are microbiomes everywhere there’s microbiomes in the oceans um in the
soils there are microlines even in the atmosphere we’re talking about the human
microbiome more specifically we’re talking about an aggregate of um all the
microbes in the human body so not just your gut but everywhere else yes meaning there is microbiomes in
other parts of the body in fact there are microbiomes in different tissues of your body so
uh research is showing that there are microbiomes that are different in your brain than they are in your kidneys or even in your blood
which is great a little fun fact each tissue um
in in the microbiome in your left hand is 30 different than your right hand that’s just based on
function the top of your arms and the bottom of your arms have different types of bacteria again because of what they
do and where they are throughout the day um so these microbes are everywhere and they
do vary just from left side to right side which is amazing when we are talking more specifically
about the gut microbiota we are talking about the organisms that live in your intestine in your gut um
and so we are talking about as you see in the picture here those little guys that are all in your small intestine
there um and they are um
hundreds of trillions of them in there and like i said that’s a rich ecosystem that has a purpose and we’re gonna talk
about that purpose um today so the three types of microbes that we
refer to usually and most often is commensals which um
we’ll talk about a commensal relationship maybe a little later on even though i would think it’s more of a mutualistic relationship
but they provide the host with essential nutrients and enhance the digestion of those
probiotics or symbiotic bacteria i’m sure you’ve heard a lot more from them and they benefit the host by making
vitamins and regulating the immune system which is amazing now pathogens we’ve all
heard about pathogens ever since we were younger and so their disease causing microbes and that could be fungi like
viruses that could be parasites um and so on i want to point out that current research suggests that diversity is key
to optimal health and so it’s not just about having um you know more of the commensals of
symbiotic and none at all the pathogenic or more of the commensals or more of the probiotics um and none of the commensals
we need that diversity in order to keep us healthy and for um this ecosystem to work okay
so everyone kind of wonders well where did they come from to begin with
what’s going on with them and if you watch dr barris’s group visit on um gut health you may know this um so i’m gonna
breeze through this but i do wanna kind of cover the basics for those of you who have not heard that group visit i do
encourage you to go watch it because it is great um so where do the microbes come from so we used to believe that
babies were born completely sterile there was no microbes on them at all but we now know that we are uh getting our
microbes transferred out to us through the placenta some newborns are already getting microbes to the placenta and
then they’re colonizing that those microbes are colonizing um the gut of the baby the first um two years of life
meaning in those first few years of life they’re even uh being bottle-fed or breast fed um they also start playing on
the floor with their hands and feet and and all the bacteria start colonizing
now what affects them and there’s many many things that do one of those like we mentioned is what they’re eating and so
there is a difference in the gut microbiome of a newborn that
takes in breast milk versus formula um genetics play a pretty big role and i
like to say that each individual kind of chooses what um guts
gut microbiome they get because we produce some signals that control the structure
of the surfaces that are being colonized by the microbiota so genetics do play a role
into what our gut ecosystem looks like delivery method newborns born delivered
vaginally versus versus through a c-section um have different um microbes than
um than the other way around so it’s interesting that so many babies are being worn out through c-section versus
vaginally and we have noticed that there is a difference when this happens environment environment plays a huge
role in not just um stress and lifestyle those are key but also what part of the world you were
born in um most of us you know in the us but even if you were born uh in india i
personally listen in south america and that makes a difference in our microbes um climate plays a huge role where you
are getting your food from what kind of soil so environment plays a huge huge role as to
what microbes we have in our body medications are another key uh component of this so
many of us know that antibiotics play a huge role but protein pump inhibitors also play a really really big role
in microbes as well as laxatives and medications like metformin also clear
roles not just antibiotics although they do play a huge huge role um and then the foods we eat
food is key in defining um the shape the structure
and the diversity of your gut um it starts as a baby when whether you are
breast breastfed or bottle fed and it continues as we age and we get older it is
food is huge on this and we will talk definitely more about foods that are helpful versus
foods that are not um but i do want to take a second to emphasize that
although sometimes it feels like genetics play a huge role in many many things that for this we we have the
power to change our gut microbiota we have the power to choose well not necessarily choose but to affect what
microbes and and what our gut microbiome looks like food is um the quickest way to modulate that
so when we are talking about um they got microwine we’re wondering well so special what does it do okay so here’s a
few um key things that the microbiome does um we’ll dive a little deeper into
more specifics a little bit later but some big takeaways here they help us digest and metabolize our food
they are protecting us from those pathogenic microbes as you see down there that ugly red monster those are
the pathogenic microbes and our healthy gut microbiota helps us fight off from
them that disease causing bacteria they also helps us synthesize vitamins so we will
hear about this a little bit fun to help us absorb nutrients from the
food that we eat there’s some things that we don’t necessarily do on our own and we require their help
they help us produce anti-inflammatory compounds and they do play a role in the production
of neurotransmitters so bacteria or gut bacteria
ferment those fibers that we eat and trans um change them into short chain fatty acids
which provide our colon with so many benefits um to give you an example one of the
short chain fatty acids sputic acid um 70 of the energy um
for the cells in your intestine come from that so it is huge what what they do for us
and changing you know those fibers into the short chain fatty acids um is something that when
we started figuring all this out we started noticing how important they were
so let’s talk a little bit about inflammation in um
gut uh we hear this often um i’m sure if you are a patient here maxwell um you have heard
this term before um and and maybe some of you have not personally for you but for maybe for
family member um but we hear this term and we hear inflammation all the time
there’s tons of anti-inflammatory diets and a lot of articles and anti-inflammatory
foods and just the topic of inflammation comes up quite often for a good reason um so i want to talk to you guys and
again this is a broad overview of this um but i wanted to talk to you about what could be causing that inflammation
in your gut what why is it happening and i wanted to give you kind of a few reasons and like i
said this is broad but dysbiosis is also a term that gets used quite often um and dysbiosis means not
living together in in harmony it means that there is a imbalance between those uh good
commensals and probiotics and those in those pathogens um and again dysbiosis
doesn’t just is not a term just used for your gut microbiome but now um
it can mean for for other microbiomes in in your body um in general dysbiosis
just means not living together that rich ecosystem is no longer living together in harmony something is
overtaking it the balance is kind of out of whack okay um we are talking about gut dysbiosis that’s where i mean there
is a disbalance between the probiotic the commensals being overwhelmed by the disease
microbes mean there is more there’s a parasite maybe there’s yeast maybe there is um
bacterial infection whatever it may be it causes that um that ecosystem to be
out of balance and not in harmony anymore um there are many reasons for for dysbiosis a lot of them include stress a
lot of them um another reason would be medications like antibiotics that could
can cause some dysbiosis in your in your gut um because you are stripping away all of
them and then what you rebuild back really matters um or food choices that’s also gonna
affect affect whether you’re gonna have gut dysbiosis or not um chronic constipation gastric surgeries there are
many many reasons why there may be gut dysbiosis
now there are many symptoms that are associated with many diseases associated
with dysbiosis some of them include irritable bowel syndrome inflammatory bowel disease migraines
like some autoimmune diseases bloating constipation
acne food allergies and so so many more are correlated with just there being a dysbiosis in your in your gut um you got
microbiota leaky gut um this is um also known as like increasing
intestinal permeability and although it is not necessarily um i i
think consider right now a disease or an illness but it is a symptom of of inflammation it is a sign of
inflammation and imbalance um for those of you who may not know leaky gut and
intestinal permeability is when those enterocytes which are the cells in your intestines um they’re joined together
but what is called a tight junction when those tight junctions are then inflamed
um they loosen up they open up meaning that they’re large particles that are
exiting and entering into the bloodstream so they’re leaving your gut entering the
bloodstream because the site junctions are nice and loose and so they can um come out of there and that’s not a good
thing to have particles larger particles in your bloodstream and your body of course responds to it um and stimulates
an antibody reaction um your body responds to it as a foreign object and so it reacts and therefore um
we go through um more antibody reactions that we need
to and it makes things worse again could increase more of that of that information
now like we’ve said genetics does play a role as well there are many diseases associated with dysbiosis
that have a genetic component to them i’m sure most of you guys know celiac has the genetic component as does um
irritable inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis even so genetics does play a role now we
don’t know exactly how just yet or it goes on a case by case but it does
play a role in that um and then of course your diet is very very very
important um and like we talked about a poor food choices is and can lead to a
dysbiosis in your gut um a western diet low in fiber and high and lots of
processed foods is a is going to lead and cause some inflammation um which
leads me to this what foods disrupt the microbiome so
when we are thinking about okay well i can affect it with what i eat versus what i don’t eat
um we know that foods that are processed and refined carbohydrates um
are going to be disruptive to to your microbiome um foods um there’s been
studies and fast food has been repeatedly shown to increase uh dysbiosis so
culprits would be futine saturated fats all those fried foods artificial sweeteners
and most of us tend to forget or maybe ignore it a little bit but alcohol can
also disrupt the microbiome and we are trying to decrease that inflammation
overall in your body your gut in general alcohol plays a huge role in that and so
i always point out that most of us are really really good especially maxwell clinic patients they’re really good at knowing like you don’t want all those
refined cookies and cereals and pastries um but then we sneak in a few drinks
here or there um so i i know it’s a little convicting but i think it is a
good reminder that that does disrupt our gut microbiome and it’s important that when
we are trying to decrease that inflammation that we stay away from it as well
okay so we talked about all that dysbiosis so it
is kind of out of whack things are not going right um there may be some leaky gut there is you know good for uh um not
good food choices um and and so on and so we have inflammation in the gut we
have dysbiosis what now how do we get it back to normal how do we balance that um
therapeutic diets and if you are patient at the maximum clinic i think that you are probably familiar with the
elimination diet or maybe the renew food plan and these are therapeutic diets not
intended for long term but main goal for them is to reduce inflammation um they
also they’re both different of course and they serve different purposes but um
our goal is to get away from those triggers that may be causing some of that
inflammation that may be causing some of those reactions in your body those antibody reactions
and so that is one way that i clinician may want to be rebalancing your microbiome in fact it’s kind of a go-to
but i always say just as it’s important to take out those food triggers and take out the foods that disrupt the microbiome i think it’s just not more
important to add in foods that are going to help you heal your gut microbiome as well
so we move on to then um anti-inflammatory foods when we’re talking about anti-inflammatory foods we
are talking about spices so turmeric or cure cumin berries are great for this red and blue
fruits and vegetables are blueberries they tend to be really high in antioxidants and help lower that
inflammation omega-3s um that fatty fish that raises those good omega-3s can also
help lower inflammation green teas and herbal teas and then leafy greens are all great
anti-inflammatory foods that we need to be adding in and not just i want you to be more intentional about
adding in especially when we’re trying to balance that microbiome and reduce that inflammation being intentional about having those
around and making sure we’re increasing them while you’re doing a therapeutic diet or
maybe not depending on what your clinician is wanting you to do um in general for overall health i want
you having those anti-inflammatory foods so look at your food plan right now and see if you are having them
polyphenols are naturally occurring antioxidant compounds and they’re
actually correlated with increased um bacteria diversity and all the phenols
are actually kind of activated once that bacteria munch munches on them a little bit and they help you heal soothe and and
protect your gut they’re the ones that give your fruits and vegetables those colors and
that’s why you hear us many many times say eat the rainbow choose fruits and vegetables from different categories
from different colors because you are getting in polyphenols um through there and they all have um
they’ll help to help us with different things now prebiotics and probiotics that’s what
we’re here for um so prebiotics and probiotics help us reduce inflammation
and promote healing that’s exactly what we want when our microbiome is out of balance and there’s dysbiosis or leaky
gut inflammation they inhibit those inflammatory cytokine responses and so they are going to be
great for you but like i said the quickest way to modulate your gut microbiota is through
food it is possible to modulate it to change it so
i want you to know that you can actually change the microbiome within 24 hours just by changing what you eat
you do not have to think that it’s going to take months and years of course the longer you do it the more
it’s going to improve but within 24 hours research research has shown that there started to be some change in what your
gut microbiome looks like so i definitely want to encourage you to think about this and those
anti-inflammatory foods polyphenols prebiotics and probiotics and adding them in so that you know that you are
healing and balancing that microbiome okay
so we move on to prebiotics i know most of you have heard of probiotics and uh
i’ve gotten lots of questions like what is the prebiotic um a lot of us are not maybe as sure as to what a probiotic is
it doesn’t get the hype that it deserves it is not talked about enough um probiotics are food for your
microbiome they feed your microbes they nourish and
stimulate the growth of the gut microbiota so just as you need food they need food and
that’s what prebiotics are probiotics that are substrates in food
that the microbiome the microbes use um for the for them to you know grow and do
their function that’s their food and their nourishment as humans we cannot digest and utilize
prebiotics but they can and they give us the benefits from that and that’s why i was mentioning that it’s more like a
mutualistic relationship they get fed and they do their thing which then benefits us
now prebiotics were thought to be just soluble fibers meaning you know your oatmeal your beans
but the definition has expanded quite a bit and so now it adds on the plant polyphenols
the polyunsaturated fats conjugated linoleic acid and the human
milk oligosaccharides meaning breast milk is considered now prebiotic as it should
be because like we said babies are not more sterile and they do have like microbiome
as as newborns and when they’re being breastfed their gut bacteria does need that fuel and
human breast milk is considered a prebiotic which is great it kind of expands on the definition of what those
little microbes can can munch on now i want to point out how i started
with prebiotics not probiotics and there is a reason for that you need a rich ecosystem a good environment for your
microbes to thrive on so if you’re taking or eating a lot of probiotics but you are forgetting about
your prebiotics uh it won’t be very helpful robotics need to come first you have to fuel them you have to feed the
um the microbes and so if you’re just focusing on lots and lots of probiotics but you forget to feed them and they’re
not doing their job all that well because they’re kind of they’re starving they’re hungry um so really really focus
that if you are going to be taking probiotics or trying to increase more of those probiotics that you have that rich
environment for them to eat on um so
here are some benefits of prebiotics there’s quite a bit it’s extensive they promote the growth of beneficial
bacteria like we said because they feed um the microbes and and your
bacteria in your gut they enhance the bone health and increase that absorption they increase satiety
regulate your blood sugars and insulin improve motility and prevent constipation that’s a big one for a lot
of you out there i know they stimulate production of neurochemicals
improve that vehicle nerve function protect against colon cancer help normalize triglycerides help decrease
blood pressure um can help with cholesterol there’s many many benefits of prebiotics
and when we talk about what prebiotics are what foods you need to eat to get those
prebiotics you won’t be surprised that these are the benefits from them so if you look at all these benefits and
you’re wondering well what is it this is amazing like what how do i get this robotics and um
this is what prebiotics are your fruits your vegetables your legumes
your whole grains whole food things that i know all clinicians at the maxwell clinic talk about and this is why we
talk about them so much because they’re the ones that are feeding your microbes and they’re the ones that
are giving us all the short chain fatty acids and all the good things um the list of benefits is extensive and we
know that because you know fruits and vegetables and those polyphenols that come from them the anti-inflammatory properties from
them are great for us so take notes i want you to know fruits
vegetables legumes whole grains now i know some of you for many reasons may not have
one or the other and that is okay but i know most of you if not all
in fact all of you need to be having non-starchy um vegetables so when we are
talking about avocados and eggplant tomatoes um you know all all the
vegetables legumes are great most people necessarily have them very often but
these are prebiotic rich foods this is what i’m referring and this is what has all the benefits
now probiotics i know that you guys have heard about this they are the good bacteria um
they are the microbes that do all all those things for us so prebiotics feeds
them probiotics is the actual bacteria that we are adding into to your gut microbiome um
so they like i said they’re good bacteria and probiotics actually started as a way
to preserve shelf life of food so they really really helped improve food security and reduce hunger um
that was the initial um how they initially started because they were preserved for a lot longer without
needing to be um refrigerated now of course you can and that helps and we’ll talk about that a
little bit later but um they were intended to send shelf life and that has
really helped with food security you know probiotic and fermented foods are
eaten all over the world and that’s how they started and so um some of the benefits include eating
in protein digestion they kind of munch on that and get those amino acids out
they convert flavonoids to to usable forms they increase absorption of
minerals including calcium uh copper iron magnesium um and even manganese so
they’re great for that they help us minimize or eliminate lactose intolerance which is great but they also
help us synthesize vitamins vitamin b vitamins folate and vitamin k
are some just to name a few they help us improve their salsas and improve transit time that means
bowel movements they really help with that as well and they do help us metabolize foreign substances like pesticides and
probiotics help us with tons and tons of things again these are the microbes in the gut
that we want along with those commensals um to do all their all their functions
so we uh talked about provided foods and now let’s talk about probiotic rich foods and fermented foods which we’ll get into
in a second um give us are the ones that have that life
bacteria in them so they’re fermented vegetables including sauerkraut and kimchi
sauerkraut is a fermented cabbage and kimchi is a traditional korean condiment
made from not by cabbage but it could also be made from korean radishes as well
there are fermented pickles and beets and carrots and a lot of times we don’t think about pickles as being fermented but more so
just pickled and we see pickle vegetables um but they can definitely be fermented and
then there are going to contain some of this good probiotics um fermented fruits
are also robotic rich so chutneys and jams pickle jeffree jackfruit to name a few
and the more common ones include yogurts kefir sour cream plain buttermilk
and kombucha as well are very well known with those my my biggest tip when i’m speaking to
patients about them is to make sure that you are reading on that label that it says live um inactive cultures we want to make
sure that there are live bacteria in there um and also just checking on the sugar content
a lot of times i’ve seen kefir with you know 20 plus grams of sugar in it and we definitely want to get
unsweetened as much as possible kombucha can also be um pretty high in sugar and they do that because fermented foods
tend to have a sour taste to them so they add more sugar than we would ideally want so just choosing
some that are on the lower end of sugar now you don’t also have to drink an entire kombucha bottle in one day
but you can just add some um throughout the throughout a week and not finish it off all at once if you
don’t want to drink all that sugar as well some other maybe not so well known but
coconut milk kefir or cashew or coconut yogurt can also have those live active bacteria and be probiotic rich again
just make sure you’re reading the labels for low sugar and to make sure that they do have that life active bacteria in
them as well now naru miso tempeh tamari sauce are all
soybean based and i’m sure a lot of us are familiar with miso
and i do like to point out that when you add the miso paste to whatever broth
you’re using and it is still boiling it’s going to kill all of the probiotics in it so make sure that when you’re
making it you wait till it cools off a little bit and then add it in so then you get all the benefits um otherwise
the benefits are all going to get mixed when you add it to boiling water essentially
now let’s get into pickled and fermented this is a question i get often um so i really want to touch on this because
um just because something is spickled does not mean that it is fermented um however
it does go the other way around fermented foods are by definition pickle because there is a form of acid in there
um so pickling involves soaking the food in an acidic acidic liquid so a vinegar
um type of liquid you immerse it in an acidic solution like the vinegar but it also oftentimes involves heat which
kills off and destroys all of the good bacteria now fermentation does not
involve a vinegar-like solution
but during fermentation there are natural sugars found in those um fruits and vegetables and they convert those
carbs and sugars um in into an acid-like form and that’s why
they also have that sour taste to them and it’s an ideal environment for
preserving your foods so basically when you are taking out all the air all that
carbs and sugars are transformed and that’s how you get fermented foods um
there is no added acid required like i said so if something is fermented is by definition
pickled but not the other way around to pay attention when you see pickled vegetables that they are fermented something that i like to tell my
patients is that usually i like to shop for fermented foods in the refrigerated section versus
in the aisles so you’re going to find pickled and fermented either in the aisles or in in the cold refrigerated section
i’m sure many of you have seen kimchi or sauerkraut it’s usually always the refrigerated section but you have seen
that there is maybe pickled vegetables in in the aisles and so if they’re being
they’re live fermented foods they are stored in the fridge because they’re still fermenting how the fridge and the
temperature slows down that fermentation process to like snail speed so that they’re not extremely sour by the time
that you get to them but there’s always the good bacteria when you are getting
them from from the refrigerated section like i said always read labels that’s always important just to make sure that you are
getting the right the right thing now how do you incorporate those into
your daily uh routine now prebiotics should be an easy one i always tell my patients
you need lots and lots of those vegetables or grains legumes whole foods so i know
most of you are getting those prebiotics in and if you are not i encourage you to really focus on making sure that every
meal you have some form of probiotic food whether it’s a fruit or it’s a vegetable legumes or your whole grains um now probiotics
can be a little more tricky to add in and i find that people struggle a little more to add them in maybe because of the taste maybe because they’re doing a
specific therapeutic diet or wherever it may be so i just want to give you guys some um
some good ideas um salads are the best place for me personally to add in some fermented foods i love fermented
beets that’s kind of a go-to for me um but salads lots of vegetables and you know when you’re adding a balsamic
vinegar already to your salad the the sour taste is not gonna affect it or taste weird um in your
salad so that would be an easy way i know a lot of you eat salad so giving it a try getting some fermented veggies
and seeing if you like it now stir fry with kimchi or sauerkraut is also great it goes kind of hand in hand if you’re
using those coconut aminos or even if you’re using soy sauce whatever it may be those flavors kind of
blend very well together i have many patients who like sauerkraut but not kimchi so i would give a few a try
before you kind of decide that you do not like them okay miso soup like i said um traditional
in the japanese cuisine and i would encourage you for to buy the ingredients and try to make
it at home as well because that would be nice easy broth to have before your meals or with your meals
smoothies that’s a easy easy way to add in some of those pre and probiotics so
adding lots of vegetables and adding fruits to your smoothies you get your prebiotics and then getting some
kombucha maybe the kefir the coconut or just um if you’re from
cow’s milk yogurt coconut or cashew yogurt with those live active cultures is an easy way to get probiotics every
morning um in your smoothies coconut water kefir is also um becoming
very popular and an easy way that it’s basically coconut water with probiotics
and that is an easy way to add into salad dressings to your smoothies um
to maybe marinades and things like that i will give you a recipe on that one in just a second
fermented vegetables in a breakfast skillet now hear me out i know this sounds very very odd however in the
japanese cuisine that is very common and that’s how they use natto before for um for a lot of these
so giving it a try and then yogurt with fruits as a snack that’s an easy snack that a lot of you
do whether it’s you know your coconut yogurt or regular um cow’s milk yogurt having those live
active cultures as a snack on a daily basis is great and like i said here is this balsamic
vinaigrette that uses a probiotic coconut water um now this is specific
from a brand i was kind of searching different brands and i found um this recipe and i thought it was um
definitely great for this it’s that you’ve got this uh balsamic vinaigrette so i know a lot of
you go to vinaigrettes for your salad dressings um easy recipe with olive or avocado oil um but it does add the two
ounces of the probiotic coconut water um this is something that you’re gonna keep in the fridge and use throughout you know a few days for your
meals and so it’s a great way to add some probiotics to your everyday
any questions from anyone
so i’m seeing a question here and i
okay so is there such a thing as too many um
probiotics and i i will say that if you start out with um a ton of them
it won’t be um ideal um
we want to start out slowly is what i’m saying because it can be a little too much um all too all too soon
so um i just want to make sure that you start out slowly you don’t have to add kefir to everything or you know add it
to your salad dressing into your smoothie and also have a yogurt if you feel like you haven’t added any of these um
in a while or if you haven’t been eating them regularly i would start off slowly try um you know one of the uh one of the
recipes all right let me see what happens
thank you guys all so much for the sweet comments i’m glad that you guys found this helpful and informative i’m so glad
that you guys have joined today well if there are not any more questions
um let me see i just got another question let’s see
after fasting what is the best way
to build up your um i’m not sure that i’m understanding this
question correctly let me see build up your all right okay so i i think they’re
asking after fasting what is the best way to to build up your microbiome and so um after fasting depending on what
how long you’ve been fasting for um i always say go for foods that you know that are soothing to the stomach a
balanced meal with your protein with lots of the non-starchy vegetables um
and and if you are eating you know whole grains some whole grains and you’re definitely getting your prebiotics um
smoothies are also a great way to do this because smoothies you can make to to be a balanced meal
and like i said a yogurt would be good here um if you do a salad just to break off your fast and you know have your
first meal be your lunch and be a salad um you can definitely do that dressing that i suggested with some of that
prebiotic um or probiotic coconut water um and or you know just having a few sips
of kefir with um a kombucha with your lunch would also be a a good option as well
any other questions okay so i think we’ve covered everything
it has been a pleasure you guys i’m so glad that i got to do this today i hope that this was very helpful and
informative um and i’m sure i’ll be working with a lot of you guys soon
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