HAVE YOU HAD YOUR PREBIOTICS TODAY?

You’ve heard myself and every other person talking about probiotics and the benefits that they have in regards to gut health. You may have more recently have started to hear about prebiotics.

Prebiotic's are the less flashy cousin of probiotics. Even though they may not be as exciting as the living organisms that live in our gut known as probiotics they are just as important, if not more so than prebiotics when it comes to gut health.

And you know what…you are probably consuming plenty of prebiotcis without even realising it!

Prebiotics are indigestible compounds found in many common foods. They often come in the form of fibre sources but can also be in things which you would necessarily associate with gut health. These indigestible compounds actually feed the probiotics which is why it is so important to make sure that they are consumed alongside on another. The prebiotics will help to fuel the probiotics and maintain the ecosystem within the digestive tract.

Originally it was thought that once probiotics were put into the gut, in probiotics capsules, then this beneficial bacteria stayed in the gut until something occurred that causes them to be cleared out, ie gastroenteritis or the use of antibiotics.

More recent studies have found that probiotics are more transient, meaning that once they have been put into the body, they only tend to stay in the gut between 1-2 weeks. For this reason, it is so important to get the diet right and include plenty of prebiotics to help maintain the good work done by the probiotics.

Prebiotic foods:

Vegetables

Jerusalem artichokes, chicory, garlic, onion, leek, shallots, spring onion, asparagus, beetroot, fennel bulb, green peas, snow peas, sweetcorn, savoy cabbage

Legumes

Chickpeas, lentils, red kidney beans, baked beans, soybeans

Fruit

Custard apples, nectarines, white peaches, persimmon, watermelon, rambutan, grapefruit, pomegranate. Dried fruit (eg. dates, figs)

Bread / cereals / snacks

Barley, rye bread, rye crackers, pasta, gnocchi, couscous, wheat bran, wheat bread, oats

Nuts and seeds

Cashews, pistachio nuts

Other

Human breast milk

(http://www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/gastro/prebiotic/faq/)