its true, there are healthy and unhealthy bacteria living in your gut.
You may have heard about probiotics, the popular supplement used to promote live bacteria in your gut to help fight disease, combat gastrointestinal issues, and therefore help your body generate energy, by fueling your metabolism.
BUT… have you heard of prebiotics? (No, that isn’t a typo)
Like any living thing, the healthy bacteria in your gut need food to stay alive. Prebiotics are essentially food for probiotics. When you consume enough prebiotic foods, your healthy bacteria can thrive. So how do you achieve this metabolic and gastrointestinal utopia? The goal is to feed the good bacteria in your gut and starve the bad bacteria. Bad bacteria thrive on sugar and fat found in processed foods, and they wreak havoc on your health by releasing toxins in your body.
Prebiotics are found in foods with high amounts of fiber. We’ll break it down for you… all you need to know is that it is important to integrate prebiotic foods into your daily routine, as well as to avoid sugar, fat and processed foods. These steps help achieve the best environment for good bacteria to thrive.
So here are the top 10 prebiotic foods:
- raw chicory root (also known as inulin)
- Jerusalem artichokes
- dandelion greens
- garlic, raw is best but cooked does retain some prebiotic properties
- leeks
- asparagus
- raw or cooked onions
- green bananas
- raw jicama
- acacia gum
Pro tip: Cooking anything can decrease the amount of nutrients in the food. If you prefer to cook these foods, we recommend steaming, which is less destructive to the prebiotic element of the food, though prebiotics that are listed as “raw” above should remain uncooked to really unlock their prebiotic power!
References:
Gonzalez, Ochoa G. “Modulation of rotavirus severe gastroenteritis by the combination of probiotics and prebiotic.” PubMed.gov (2017): n. pag. Web. 23 June 2017.
Maguire, M. “The role of microbiota, and probiotics and prebiotics in skin health.” PubMed.gov (2017): n. pag. Web. 23 June 2017.
“The Basics of Probiotics.” NIH Medicine PLus 10.4 (2016): n. pag. Web. 23 June 2017.
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