What in the world are probiotics?
2019 Dec 6th
2019 Dec 6th
If you didn’t already know, and someone told you there are millions of tiny creatures living in your stomach and intestines, happily eating and multiplying, it might be cause for alarm.
That panic might escalate when you hear the word bacteria, in a world where most cleaning products tout the importance of all things antibacterial.
The simple truth is that your body contains good bacteria and bad bacteria. The good bacteria in your gut helps to break down the food you eat, absorb nutrients, and make digestion a consistent and smooth process.
When you eat certain foods, you can add good bacteria to your stomach. When good bacteria is added this way, they’re called probiotics. A typical North American diet doesn’t include significant amounts of probiotics, and so it’s common for gut health to be poor, digestion to become irregular, and overall health to falter.
The good news is that fermented foods are fermented foods are rich in probiotics. You can improve your gut flora simply by eating sauerkraut, kimchi, or pickled carrots, or by drinking water kefir or kombucha.
Water Kefir is a low-sugar sparkling drink rich in probiotics and a great option for replacing sugary soft drinks.
It’s fermented sugar water, flavoured with fruit juice or other natural flavourings. During fermentation, most of the sugar is consumed by the probiotics. What remains is a low-sugar and low-calorie beverage, rich in probiotics.
Not only are fermented foods a healthy choice, they also taste great. And, they’re easy to make at home when you have good ingredients in the proper proportions.
